Wish Upon a Star

by watstha

Rating: mature
Tags: Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure, Tragedy, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Sad, Main 6, Tirek, Princess Luna, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 77047

The indominable beast's escape ended with unexpected results. How will this land react to the ruthless monster? As he makes his way through the kingdom of Equestria, Nemesis will find the one thing to completely regain his humanity.

After being induced into the Weapon X Program, the monster known as Nemesis, finds out his new powers regained his consciousness and free will.

An unsuccessful attempt to escape ends with unexpected results, as he lands on a strange place. Unknown to him, Umbrella is not far behind...

Nemesis is a monster from Resident Evil, and is property of Capcom.

Marvel characters appearing in this story are also property of Marvel.

I own nothing.

Cover picture made by: wizyakuza

Published 2014-11-15 16:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-05 04:20:09 UTC

The Last Order

Experiments... some remembered, others forgotten; some begin a chain of new wonders, and succeed in being used as products to facilitate lives, but, there are always two sides of a coin.

In the heat of battle, experiments are used as tools of war, seeds of rage and hatred; tools for the only animal that is capable of destroying itself.

Ranging from new and improved arsenals of destruction, advanced technology, online viruses or biological weapons.

But, it doesn't matter how different they are from each other, as these tools share something in common, they always turn against their wielders, and some experiments... cannot be stopped.

At dawn of October 1st, 1998, a certain city was silenced from its unnatural screams. Raccoon City was obliterated by a non-nuclear missile, in hopes of ending the T-virus infection. Many of the reports regarding 'T' or 'G' were secured by Umbrella to erase all traces of knowledge regarding its involvement in the outbreak, but the snowball had already began to roll.

An anonymous informant shared all the data to the U.S. government, which contained information about the companie's involvement with the outbreaks, then, between 2003 and 2004, Umbrella was found guilty for past and rescent 'incidents'. The company was finally defeated, as it was betrayed by one of its most promising researchers... Albert Wesker, former S.T.A.R.S captain.

But Umbrella had not yet dissapeared from the world. Wesker stole all data about the company from the Red Queen, in hopes of creating his own version of Umbrella. Some time later, Albert began a contract with TRICELL (another pharmaceutical company), giving them a vast array of welth in information, regarding the fallen company, but they were Wesker's pawns as well.

Secret independent activities were started, and Albert began to build his own personal empire, by selling samples of Umbrella's viruses to the company's rival corporations.

One day, while going inside a list of Umbrella's earliest bio-weapons, Wesker found a very interesting experiment. Albert opened the file while preparing his curious eyes for the new array of information, as he clicked on a folder called: Nemesis-T Type.

The data inside gave specific details about the fallen experiment, with one standing above all... his body had been recovered, or at least what was left of it. Some time after the destruction of Raccoon City, a group of scientists were sent by Umbrella to take notes about the aftermath, and a heads-up about the strength of the T-Virus.

To their surprise, a few 'T' organisms were still functional and even a little untouched by the blast, including Nemesis. Most of its body had dissolved into nothingness, with the exception of the brain.

The creature was one of Umbrella's most successful advancements, and could still have uses for him, as such, they began reconstruction of the subject.

With a thin smile appearing on his face, Wesker remembered about some of the crates he brought from the last Umbrella facility he visited. Standing up from his chair, Albert began walking towards the exit door from his little hideout, behind it, was a huge warehouse.

The dark coated figure made his way amongst multiple Umbrella's crates, it was a wonder how he could keep all of it a secret from TRICELL, although, they were suspicious about him.

Between two large white containment crates, laid the Nemesis' resting place. The Umbrella logo was completely visible on the huge brown tomb. The rusted metal was a result of the countless years of inactivity.

The sight would send chills down anyone's spine, with the exception of Wesker, who instead had a huge grin on his face.

Once he got close to the crate, he noticed a small window. Albert took a look inside, as he was being greeted by the reconstructed creature, who still was on a deep slumber after so many years.

Nemesis had been rediscovered.

Some time later an invasion began; portals from another dimension were opened, allowing multiple unknown organisms to enter both worlds. Wesker was once again behind this.

Albert formed an alliance with Dr. Doom in hopes of taking control of both worlds, but the dark coated man had an agenda of his own. Wesker took interest on his ally's world and its superheroes, he knew they would make excellent test subjects for his new virus. He would need help to achieve this, and so the Nemesis was once again awoken.

The creature had several victories, proving to be an useful asset inside Albert's organisation, but he also had a few loses, especially with a certain female mutant and an angry green monster.

This course of action from the two masterminds angered the cosmic being known as Galactus, who threatened to devour both worlds.

Nemesis was one of the multiple combatants who fought against the devourer of worlds, and even though, he wasn't the one who delivered the final blow, the creature had managed to survive, once again proving to be a valuable experiment.

While Wesker was busy trying to recollect the heroes (without success), the knocked out Nemesis was taken by the one being who controls Albert: Ozwell E. Spencer.

Spencer had a secret partnership with Director Colcord and agreed on upgrading the creature.

Nemesis was induced into the weapon X program.

The creature was upgraded with wolverine's attributes, including the admantium skeleton and healing factor, the claws were an extra treat. Unlike Logan, who was brainwashed, Nemesis was already controlled, making the process unnecessary.

Once the procedure was done, Colcord met with Spencer to watch the final results. The newly upgraded Nemesis laid within a tank, his healing factor had secretly began to heal his brain, his intelligence matching that of the Hulk in his dumbest day.

"I must commend you, Director Colcord. You and your weapon X program have done some remarkable work here." Spencer said, as he admired the creature.

"Commend yourself Mr. Spencer, the remarkable work was there already... we only made some minor improvements." Colcord answered with a small grin on his face.

"How long will it take before the Nemesis is deployed on the field?" Ozwell asked.

"Not long, the healing factor seems to be adjusting just well with the T-Virus." Colcord replied, then, turned to face Spencer. "It's a good thing we don't have to control him, the creature doesn't have free will. Now, I would like to introduce you with some colleges of mine, I'm sure they'll find your work, rather... interesting."

With that, Spencer and Colcord headed out of the underground laboratory, leaving the recently upgraded Nemesis inside his tank.

'The creature doesn't have free will'

'The creature doesn't have free will'

'The creature doesn't have free will'

These were the words resonating inside the monster, the healing factor had already finished repairing his brain, causing him to react to the phrase. His left hand twitched, his muscles began to tense, his eye was flinching, and his body tried to move uncontrollably. Memories about his deployment on Raccoon City began to flash, filling Nemesis with desperation.

A few second had passed before his body relaxed, then his eye began to open.

A rusted looking laboratory was seen behind a wall of green liquid, the tank he found himself in, was full of it. Nemesis moved his head to stare at his hands, as if it was the first time he saw them. After he admired them for a few seconds, Nemesis went to touch the crystal with his right hand.

CRACK!

Normally, he could control his strength, but after the weapon X program, he became like a newborn baby.

Between the cracks on the tank's glass, the creature could take a look at his reflection, getting surprised at it for the first time, but not bothering him in the slightest.

Memories from his past began to flash again, this time, they were about the time he was reconstructed. The NE-a parasite, which was still attached to its brain, was recovered from Raccoon City.

One of the last Tyrants (T-103 model) was used as a host for the parasite. The Tyrant's brain was replaced with the Nemesis' one, as it already had previous experience in the field. The NE-a began to change the Tyrant's physical appearance, resembling its last body.

Then... he saw it, the procedures used on him to take control over his body, the creature felt for the first time, anger.

Nemesis closed his right fist and punched the glass, breaking it entirely.

Not wasting any moment, he detached the tubes connecting to his body and went out of the chamber. he took a quick look around him, then, the alarm went on.

Nemesis rushed through the laboratory he was in, taking a quick look on the other experiments sharing room with him. Glass tank after glass tank contained abominations, monsters on their own merits, both successful and failed experiments.

The creature's new abilities, allowed him to run faster than before, and soon he reached the exit metal door.

Placing both hands between the two enormous metal doors, Nemesis easily tore both of them apart, while releasing a small roar. The beast stepped in, with the place he was now inside looking like a medical room; the yellow walls covered with blood, greeted him. At the middle laid a big metal bed, with a small table resting on it right side.

The lights were flickering, giving small light to the various things inside. In the wall to the left, an opened locker caught Nemesis' eye, getting close to it, the creature released a moan as he spotted his long, black, coat.

The monster wasted little time on putting his clothes on and proceeded to search for the rest of his equipment, sadly his weapons weren't there. Nemesis' thoughts were cut short by the sounds of feet (which were coming from the other side of the room) approaching his position. Normally, someone would run if a huge threat was approaching, but in this case, Nemesis was the threat.

Kicking the door with his right foot, the monster found himself surrounded by a group of soldiers, behind them laid an elevator, Nemesis immediately knew what to do.

As soon as the guards opened fire, the creature rushed against them, the bullets doing nothing against his thick skin. He tackled two guards in front, then turned to his right and slammed his foot against another soldier's head. Not wasting any moment, Nemesis turned around, and gave an uppercut against a soldier behind him. Two more were shooting to his left, causing the creature to launch a fatal blow to the guard's chest, breaking all of its bones in the process, and leaving only one soldier left.

The last man standing dropped his rifle and fell to the floor, before trying to crawl away from the monster. Nemesis walked slowly towards the terrified soldier. Once in front of him, the creature grabbed him by the head and lifted him to eye level. His hand began to crush the soldier's head, savoring each second as it happened. The man's screams of pain were soon silenced, as the rest of his body fell from Nemesis' bloodied hands. The path was now free of annoyances.

Nemesis entered the elevator and stared at the buttons for several seconds, while scratching the back of his head with his finger, not exactly knowing what to do. He did his best to push the them, but they were all crushed under his fingers. Nemesis let out an annoyed moan, before an idea crossed his mind.

At the top, two guards were guarding the elevator the group went in.

"Hey Duckie! So... any otherworldly chick you got your eye on?" The guard asked his partner.

"Actually yeah! Remember that redhead milf? The one with the tight black suit. I heard Nick offered her a job." Duckie answered.

"Nah! I was thinking more about that kimono girl. You know, the one with the blue skin?" His words made Duckie release a worried look on his face, before turning to face his partner.

"Bill... she's an undead." Duckie replied, but his words only seemed to confuse Bill further.

"...So?"

After thinking for a few seconds about what he heard, Duckie simply said. "... You're sick, man."

"Hey, I'm not the one who has a VIP account on 'Hairy old milfs.com' you know?" Bill backfired, causing his friend to react almost immediately.

"I told you, someone played a joke on me!"

"Yeah, sure." Bill resumed his position for a few seconds, before turning to face Duckie, again "... can you lend me your account?"

Before Duckie could answer, a big noise came from behind the elevators doors, catching the attention of the pair, who had their eyes wide open in fear. A pair of hands appeared at the middle of the metal doors, which, then, were opened with little effort by a pissed Nemesis.

"Um.. Duckie? What is your mom doing here?" A terrified Bill asked, instantly getting a look from his friend.

"Seriously? Now?"

"ROAAAAAR!"

The loud roar caused the pair to run for their lives, meanwhile Nemesis stepped inside the room, and looked back at the entrance of the elevator's door. Several markings were visible on the walls, indicating the monster had destroyed the elevator's ceiling, before he climbed on the walls.

Turning around once again, Nemesis spotted a map. Taking a good look on the layout, the creature realized how close he was to the exit, which was just behind the 'portal room'. After letting out a small moan, Nemesis continued his march.

He was so close to escape, so close to freedom.

"Director! We had a security breach inside the underground facility!" A guard said, as he entered Colcord's office, while handling him the ipad with live footage from the security cameras.

"I thought you said this facility was safe." Spencer exclaimed.

"And I thought you said that creature was under control!" Colcord replied with a huge frown on his face.

"What!?" As soon as the words left his mouth, the director handed him the ipad. "Impressive!"

The old man took out a small panel from his wheelchair, instantly checking Nemesis' status.

"It seems your Weapon X program regained the creature's capacity to think by itself." Spencer explained, motioning for Colcord to look on the panel. The director wide opened his eyes, as soon as he processed Ozwell's words.

"The healing factor..."

"Sir? What do we..." The guard never finished the sentence, as he was interrupted by Colcord.

"Close all exits! Call every soldier available!" The director replied, before turning to face Ozwell. "Mr. Spencer, is there any problem if we use some of your Tyrants? I would like to see them in action."

Spencer nodded, then he used his panel to activate three crates, containing the T-103s.

Nemesis was making his way through another lab, literally butchering anyone crossing in his path. The door to the 'Portal Room' was a few feet away from him and behind the place, laid the exit.

The creature wasn't used to open doors gently, so he simply broke the metal entrance. This room was huge, with a circle on its center. Numerous panels were lined to the right and at Nemesis' opposite side, was the exit of the facility.

The monster gave one step ahead, when suddenly, a massive creature tackled him. Reacting quickly, Nemesis got up from the hole on the wall caused by the impact and spotted three Tyrants in front of him. The light entering through the huge dome illuminated their white faces, their eyes were equally white. Their bodies were covered by a long green coat and their expressions held a permanent frown.

The silence prevailed for a few seconds, before Nemesis roared against the Tyrants. The fight began with one of them grabbing Nemesis' arm and launching him against another Tyrant, who had his fist crash against the creature's face. Responding quickly, Nemesis grabbed the Tyrant's foot and made him fall to the floor, not wasting any moment, the monster got on top of him and brought his fist to the Tyrant's face, but before he could deliver another blow, the other T-103 tackled him.

The two golems rolled on the floor, before Nemesis used his foot to send the Tyrant flying away. Getting up quickly, the creature noticed in time another T-103 rushing towards him, who seconds later was received by a fist to the face. Not too long passed before another Tyrant grabbed the monster's arm, this time Nemesis reacted quickly, as he got hold of the T-103 and proceeded to throw him against the panels in the room, opening a huge blue light at the center, which began to flash numerous images, seemingly a malfunction after the T-103 crashed against the panel.

A Tyrant came rushing from his left side and Nemesis launched an uppercut to the T-103's jaw, but something happened; as soon as his fist touched the Tyrant, three claws went out of it, making a clean cut through the T-103's skull. Nemesis dropped the body to the floor and went to look his newly discovered weapon. His thoughts were cut short after one of the two remaining Tyrants, launched him towards the center of the room and close to the portal.

"Stop him before he escapes through the portal!" A voice said through the speakers.

The two remaining Tyrants began to circle Nemesis, who waited for them to make a move, but then an explosion came out from the panels; the ground began to shake, as the portal started sucking everything close to it.

The Tyrants went away from it in time, but Nemesis was not so lucky, he tried to use his claws to avoid getting absorbed, but the portal was strong, soon, he found himself surrounded by a bright blue light, before he disappeared, leaving two confused T-103s.

"Damn! Where did he go?" Colcord asked some of the scientists with him inside the room, making them search for the creature on their computers.

"Any idea where he went?" Spencer asked.

"No sir, the system shows nothing." One of the scientists answered.

"He must have gone to another dimension, not yet discovered. Keep searching for any signal on the Nemesis!" The scientists nodded in response as they continued their search for the creature, then, Colcord turned to face Ozwell. "Sorry for the inconveniences, Mr. Spencer, I assure we will find the creature, but right now I would like to discuss some terms. I've seen what your creations are capable of, and I'm impressed. Maybe the merging would be beneficial for the both of us, if what you say about Umbrella is true, then I see no problem in sharing resources."

"What about my company's creations?" Ozwell asked.

"As soon as the merging is done, they will pass to form part of the Weapon X program, but the healing factor, will not be part of it." Colcord replied.

"It won't be necessary, Tyrants are more ruthless than what they appear to be." With that, the two men went out of the room.

Unknown to the events happening inside the facility, a certain man was busy, searching for Nemesis. His eyes glowed red, under the black glasses, as he was pissed for having lost such an useful experiment.

"Mm... where have you gone?" Wesker asked himself as he tried to search for the missing creature, his face formed a frown when no information appeared. "It must have fallen in the battle against Galactus, but not even his body was..."

Albert's thought were cut short, when a weak signal appeared on the screen for a few seconds, before disappearing completely.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Wesker's eyes narrowed once he recognized the signal, then, he got up from his chair before muttering. "I should pay them a visit."

The room went dark as soon as Albert left it, he had been enough time in this world to recognize the place where they took Nemesis, and he wasn't going to let them keep his things.

Contrary to what Albert or even Spencer seemed to know, Nemesis' fate was quite different.

Location Unknown

Madness surrounded the creature, as the seemingly non-ending blue vortex delivered him to his destination.

After a few seconds of traveling inside the tunnel, Nemesis could spot what looked like a forest, then the portal let go of him and dropped the creature into the ground.

Nemesis never noticed when the portal disappeared, as he was busy crashing into a tree, which was completely destroyed under the creature's weight as he landed. The monster rolled on the floor for a few seconds until a huge rock stopped his movement. Birds went flying away from the trees, reacting to the loud noise Nemesis made upon landing.

His normal attributes helped him in these kind of situations, saving him from getting fatal injuries and now with his newly acquired powers, this landing was nothing.

Nemesis began to raise to his full height, curiously watching his surroundings. In all his years, the creature was used to watch the insides of laboratories, or the dark streets of a city (only when he was deployed), making this forest a completely new experience.

Not long had passed before he gave his first step forward and headed further into the forest. Every animal around fled upon getting sight on the creature, Nemesis paid them no mind.

He had no clear idea of where he was, or where he should go, and literally walked aimlessly. Many of the the forest's predators cowered in fear under the monster's look, his physical appearance working as a warning signal, at least he didn't have to worry about having to fight his way.

Half an hour had passed before he stopped completely, the path Nemesis chose wasn't getting him anywhere and began to change course, when suddenly a noise was heard behind the numerous trees.

Letting out a small moan, the creature began to march towards the source, not knowing what he would find, but he was completely sure blood was going to fall if he was attacked.

The closer he went, the clearer the noises where. Loud screams of anger where contrasting with unknown roars, someone was having a fight. Nemesis sped up his walk and ripped apart any branch blocking his way. After a few seconds the creature was standing in front of the source of the noise. He was about to get close when he discovered what it was.

Two lion-like creatures, with bat ears and bat wings. Their tails matched that of a scorpion. The two beasts fought ruthlessly against a... pegasus? The small creature in front had a golden armor, his coat was orange and his mane blue; on his flank, he had the image of a blue shield, behind a yellow lighting bolt.

Nemesis was found dumbfounded at the sight, even though the creature was a pony, he was holding off quite well against the two beasts.

One of the two animals launched himself against the orange pegasus, who dodged out of the way with ease and delivered a blow into the beast's head, knocking it out in the process. The pony reacted in time to see the other monster rushing against him.

"Only one beast left and princess Twilight's castle will be safe!" The pegasus muttered with a thin smile, as he jumped out of the way of the animal, who crashed against the trees behind him. "Can't wait to inform her about my success, and also can't wait to see her beautiful eyes again."

The pony's thoughts were cut short, when he noticed something unusual, the beast wasn't attacking. Turning around to face the place it went, the pony was greeted with only silence. After a few seconds he spotted movement and prepared to fight, but what came out of the darkness of the forest wasn't the manticore, but something else, something hideous.

Flash found himself speechless, while seeing the creature in front of him. The tall monster with the black coat and butchered face was simply standing, staring at him with his white eye.

"I've never seen anything like this before, but if it is to keep princess Twilight safe, then I'll fight it." Flash launched to attack the new threat. Leaping in the air, the pegasus kicked Nemesis' face, and to his surprise it didn't even flinch. The fate of the stallion had been sealed.

Even though, he had recovered his brain and free will, the creature still was an animal and like all animals who get attacked, Nemesis reacted in the only logical way, he fought back.

Flash could only watch in horror as the monster brought a fist against him, thankfully he evaded the attack and punched the monster's head, same as last time, the creature didn't move.

Nemesis let out an annoyed roar before he grabbed a tree and threw it against the pegasus, who dodged in time.

Nemesis threw punch after punch, but the pegasus evaded all of them with ease. He was getting angry.

After a few minutes of the same routine, Nemesis found an opening and delivered a fatal blow against Flash's side, braking his bones in the process.

The hurt pegasus tried to crawl away from the tall creature, who was approaching slowly. Nemesis grabbed him by the throat, and raised him to eye level, the monster's hand began to twitch, as a small tentacle went out from it.

Flash wide opened his eyes in fear, as he began to talk.

"What are..."

SQUISH!

The tentacle went inside the pegasus' mouth, tearing a hole in his neck. After a few seconds, Nemesis dropped the body to the floor, and stared at it for a moment. When he saw no movement, the creature resumed his walk.

Flash was dead, and a new creature was approaching town.

Outskirts of Ponyville

A newly erected castle was the point of admiration, for the first weeks at least. Inside it, six friends enjoyed the view, from both the inside and the outside.

"These thrones are so fun!" Pinkie said, as she hopped up and down, making a trampoline effect.

"Pinkie, could you stop defying the laws of physics for a few seconds? I can't concentrate on admiring my awesome throne." Rainbow Dash replied, while rolling her eyes.

"I could make this castle look more beautiful, if someponies let me decor it!" Rarity exclaimed, a huge frown was painted on her face. Fluttershy was the first to reply.

"I kind of like it the way it is."

"Ah have to agree with her, Rarity, if it ain't broken, don't fix it." AppleJack said, a small chuckle came out from her mouth, when she watched Rarity's reaction.

As much fun as the group had, one of them wasn't. Twilight was staring at the window, completely lost in her thoughts, a worried look was starting to look on her face, as she stared into the forest behind the castle. AppleJack was the first to notice her behavior, and went to talk with her.

"Anything bothering you, sugarcube?"

"It's just... he went out hours ago, and I'm starting to get worried." Unknown to the alicorn, AppleJack released a small chuckle. "I knew I shouldn't have sent him."

"You really worry about him, don't ya? Don't worry Twilight, Ah'm sure he'll be fine."

"I know, but I have the sensation something else is out there, something... hideous." Twilight exclaimed.

"The only hideous thing I see around here, is Rarity complaining about the castle's decoration." AppleJack replied, getting an angry look from the white unicorn.

AppleJack's words comforted Twilight to an extent, who, after releasing a small grin, turned to face the orange pony.

"You're right, go have fun, I'll be there in a minute."

Once AppleJack returned with the group, Twilight faced once again the forest behind the castle, the gentle breeze blew her hair, as she waited for something to come out, unknown to her, a mystery was about to arrive.

Strange Feeling

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.

He Who Roars

Ponyville

"Why did you grab my books, without even asking me?" Asked an angered Twilight.

The CMC had forgotten about returning the books, thanks to a certain creature they met. When the fillies realized that, it was a little too late. The next morning, Twilight came to pick them up at their school; Applejack and Rarity accompanied her.

"Twilight asked you a question, girls!" Applejack said. The first to react was Apple Bloom.

"We're sorry, it's just that..."

"You took my books to attempt something ridiculously dangerous, just to get your cutie marks, am I right?" Twilight finished for her, while sighing. "Girls, you can't keep doing this! You're going to get hurt or worse one of these days, just because you want to play stupid!"

"Wow! Easy there Twilight! She still is my sister!" Applejack replied with a frown on her face.

The alicorn was about to say something in return, when Twilight noticed how she had acted, even Rarity had her eyes wide open at the alicorn's sudden burst of anger. Twilight sighed, before facing Applejack.

"I'm sorry girls, and Applejack, it's just that..."

"I get it sugarcube, you're worried about him, don't you?" Applejack interrupted.

"One day has already passed, and he hasn't returned yet." Twilight looked at the floor, with a worried look on her face.

"Those manticore attacks were starting to be a real problem, it's not easy to get rid of them... especially when Fluttershy chains herself to one of them, so they don't get hurt." Rarity said, as she rolled her eyes.

"The other guards I sent, have already returned." Twilight added.

"Maybe he found more of them, and needed more time. He tries to do anything just to impress you." Applejack said, causing Twilight to release a small grin, but her face still had a grim expression.

"I'll give him one more day, if he doesn't return, I'll send some guards in the morning." Twilight exclaimed, as she turned around and grabbed her books, before leaving the school. Apple Bloom reacted quickly, and tried to reach her, but was stopped by Applejack.

"Where do you think you're going, young filly? We still haven't talked about your punishment!"

"But... but there´s something m..." Apple Bloom tried to speak, but was interrupted by Applejack.

"No buts, you're grounded for this day."

Sweetie and Scootaloo tried to intervene, and talk about Nemesis, but they were stopped as well.

"You too young fillies. Scootaloo, you will help Sweetie organize my materials, and clean the Boutique."

"Wow! Clean your Boutique? Aren't you going a little over the board, Rarity? These are fillies, not criminals." Applejack mocked, receiving a stare from Rarity, but the orange pony simply laughed. "Okay Apple Bloom, lets go, you have shores to do."

Apple Bloom gave a sad look, before saying goodbye to her friends, who, left behind Rarity. Along the way, Scootaloo remembered about a certain monster in the forest, and turned to face Sweetie.

"psst, psst! Sweetie!" Scootaloo whispered, catching the attention of the white filly.

"What?"

"Aren't we forgetting about something?" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh yeah! You never returned Diamond Tiara part of the mane you ripped from her head." Sweetie answered with a smile.

"No, not that, I'm talking about Nem..."

"Shush you two! You aren't here to talk." Rarity interrupted, instantly shutting up both fillies.

After a few minutes of walking, the trio had finally arrived at the Carousel Boutique. Upon entering, Rarity went over a closet, and took out two brooms, along with some cleaning tools, which were handed to the two fillies.

"Now get to work, I must do something of utmost importance, if you excuse me..." Rarity exclaimed as she took out a white bathrobe and a pair of cucumbers for her eyes, then, proceeded to head upstairs, before she stopped midway. "Do not even think about escaping or doing something unrelated to your punishment, or I will find out."

With that, Rarity entered her room and prepared for her beauty sleep, leaving the two fillies to take care of the Boutique. A few minuted had passed, before they heard Rarity snoring, then, Scootaloo began to talk.

"Hey Sweetie, what do we do about Nemesis?"

"Hug him?" The response from the white filly, made Scootaloo facehoof, before she talked again.

"I wasn't talking about that. I mean, weren't we going to tell Twilight?"

"Yeah, but remember she left all of a sudden." Sweetie answered.

"What do we do now?" Scootaloo asked, but only got a shrug from her friend. "Let's hurry and see if we have at least, little time to check on him."

Not wanting to disobey, the two fillies continued with their punishment.

Even though, the streets of Ponyville were full of life, Twilight felt like she was currently alone. Her duties as a princess were eating most of her time, not even her countless years of hard work could compare to the heavy weight she now had on her shoulders, and now, one of his closest 'friends' was missing.

Several manticores had gone out of the forest, attacking innocent ponies in the process, because of this, a small battalion of guards were sent to end the threat, but Flash Sentry wasn't originally chosen to go towards the Everfree Forest. The pegasus had insisted in proving his worth, even though it wasn't needed.

Could it be true? Did he went just to impress her? As much curiosity as she had in knowing the answer, Twilight knew there were more important questions, what happened to him? Was he okay? Or was he... dead?

Her thoughts were soon cut short as she arrived at her castle, every guard in her sight vowed as soon as they spotted her. Twilight was known to be friendly, but this day, she felt angry.

A pair of guards opened the door, the alicorn wasted no time in entering, she needed time to concentrate.

Leaving the books on their place, Twilight sat on her throne, staring into nothingness, but then, a certain dragon interrupted her thoughts.

"Hey Twilight! Good thing you arrived, princess Celestia sent a letter."

"Can't it just wait a little? I'm not feeling too good?" Twilight sighed.

"Something wrong?" Spike asked, as he got closer to his friend. Seconds after he watched her face, the dragon immediately deduced what was the problem. "He hasn't returned yet, has he?"

Twilight shook her head in a negative, while looking at the floor. Spike sighed.

"Then maybe I shouldn't read you the letter." His words got Twilight's attention immediately.

"What do you mean by that?" Her face had a frown.

"Nothing, it's just a thought from the princess and..." Spike never finished his sentence, as he was interrupted by Twilight.

"Show me!" The alicorn replied as she took the letter from Spike's hands, then started reading it.

Dear princess Twilight Sparkle

First of all, I apologize for any interruption towards your duties, but I think it's important to notify you about a strange disturbance.

Yesterday, a few hours after sunrise, I felt a curious wave of energy, somewhere inside the Everfree Forest.

My sister insist that it's nothing, but I fear something more may have happened, please, be on your guard, and notify if something unusual happens.

princess Celestia

If Twilight felt bad before, now she felt way worse, the letter did nothing to relieve her, and now she was full of anxiety. Spike took notice of this, and tried to calm her.

"Even though, I don't like the guy, I know he's tough." Spike began, then turned to watch at the floor, and whispered low, in order to avoid Twilight from listening. "Tough? Yeah right."

"Spike, you don't understand, I sent him towards the Everfree Forest, just because he insisted." Twilight roared in anger, before she continued talking. "I knew I shouldn't have let him go, I should have stopped him, and now because I didn't listen to my senses, he could be injured or worse!"

Spike got closer to her, and warped his arms around the crying alicorn, trying to comfort her.

"Spike, I know you want to make me feel better, but, can I stay alone for a few minutes?" Twilight asked, Spike immediately replied.

"Twilight I don't..."

"Please Spike, I just need a few minutes." Spike didn't really want to leave her alone, but he nodded nevertheless.

Soon the dragon left the room, leaving Twilight on her thoughts, she was afraid of what would come, she knew that if something had indeed happened, her rage wouldn't be stopped by anypony, less for whatever or whoever harmed him.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had finished their punishment, and only a few hours before the moon went up high in the sky. They were rushing towards the streets, excited to see their new friend.

Apple Bloom was waiting for their arrival, at their clubhouse. She didn't have to wait long though, as soon enough, the two fillies appeared.

"Wow! You look like Nemesis gave you a beating." Scootaloo mocked the look Apple Bloom had, she had been working on the farm almost all day without rest, but the excitement won over her tiredness.

"Hah, hah, very funny! Can we go now?"

Soon, the three fillies found themselves entering the forest, and began to walk for five minutes, until Sweetie realized something.

"Umm... girls? Where were we supposed to meet him?"

The other two stopped on their tracks, scratching their manes at the question. Thankfully, they wouldn't have to think about it, as a familiar roar was heard from the deepness of the forest.

Not wasting any moment, the trio went towards the source of the sound, soon realizing what was happening.

A huge, imposing, totally terrifying and powerful Hydra was getting a serious beating by a more ruthless creature.

Nemesis was giving punches against the Hydra's stomach, before jumping in the air. The fillies gasped in amazement, upon seeing Nemesis jump with such a force, that he ended a few feet above the Hydra, then, the creature brought his arms around the Hydra's neck, forcing it to the floor.

The other two heads, directed their attack against the monster, who was busy punching the middle head, leaving bloody marks on its head. The left head came to a stop as Nemesis threw a punch against it, instantly making it back away.

The right head grabbed Nemesis within its jaws, but the creature managed to free himself, and brought it to the ground, once there, Nemesis used his two hands to open the Hydra's mouth. The fillies closed their eyes at the next scene, as Nemesis separated the lower jaw from the rest of the head, then, planted his fists against the skull of the Hydra, smashing it completely.

The middle and left head had recovered, and resumed their fight, Nemesis jumped once again towards the left one, and made it crash against a tree, then, inserted his hands inside its throat, and began to pull it apart into two pieces. Huge amounts of blood came out from the fatal injury, as the left head released its last breath.

Nemesis then waited for the middle head to launch an attack, but it didn't came. Realizing something was wrong, he turned around to see were it was. His blood began to boil as he spotted the Hydra going towards the three fillies, then, something none of them expected, happened. Nemesis roared as three silver claws came out from each of his two hands, immediately launching himself against the remaining head of the Hydra.

Seconds before the animal could reach the ponies, six claws were brought inside its skull, Nemesis then forced it into the ground and began to tear the meat from its bones. The Hydra could only cry in pain, as Nemesis brought his claws with fury against the animal's skull.

The Hydra was dead, and for a few seconds, Nemesis continued slashing, completely lost in a blood lust. Once he finished, Nemesis turned around towards the shocked fillies, who were trembling in fear.

The creature looked at them, then lowered his head towards his bloody claws. Getting them inside as he clenched his fist, Nemesis looked once more at the ponies, and began to walk towards them. They backed away a little, not knowing if Nemesis would do something to them.

The creature realized this, and walked slower, then, in front of them, he knelt down, never taking his eye off them.

After a few tense seconds, Sweetie was the first to get close to him. Even though, they had discovered he was a wild animal, Nemesis had still saved them, then, Sweetie did something none of them expected, she warped her arms around the monster's arm.

Nemesis didn't know how to react, and simply stood still. The other two fillies let go of their fear and went to hug the monster's arm as well.

Not more than two seconds had passed until they let go of the creature, who immediately stood up.

The resent events prevented all of them from talking, until Nemesis broke the silence.

"ROAAAR!"

He roared, while crossing his arms, the fillies immediately recognized this as an accusation, and replied.

"Hey, we only wanted to come and see you!" Apple Bloom was the first, followed by Sweetie.

"Yeah! How could we know there was a Hydra getting a beating from you!"

"It's not like this never happened to us before!" Scootaloo was the last.

Nemesis reacted by pointing with his fingers towards town, and released another roar, the fillies deduced what he was trying to say.

"We couldn't have just left you, what if something happened to you!" Apple Bloom said.

Nemesis once again crossed his arms, as he released a small moan.

After a few minutes, the fillies softened up, and faced Nemesis, then, the three spoke in unison.

"Thank you for saving us."

Nemesis launched a small groan, before he lifted his head to look towards the sky. Noticing it was almost night, he motioned for the fillies to follow him towards town.

On their way there, the three got curious and asked.

"Did that Hydra bothered you? Or you just wanted to beat something up?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and received a roar in response. "Ups! I keep forgetting I have to ask 'yes' and 'no' only questions."

"Ah've never seen claws like that before, are they part of your body?" Apple Bloom asked, getting a nod in response.

"Are they made from metal?" Sweetie was the next, but this time, Nemesis shrugged, he wasn't sure what kind of material they were made of.

Finally, they were arriving at Ponyville. The three fillies gave their goodbyes as they headed towards their homes, but Sweetie stopped on her tracks, and returned with Nemesis, hugging his leg.

"I hope we can finally have fun tomorrow, without you tearing things apart of course." The little filly once again went running towards her house, waving at Nemesis as she ran.

Now that he was alone, the creature once again looked down at his hands, seconds later he took out his claws, and watched them for a few moments.

Nemesis got them back inside as he clenched his fist and closed his eye, he could feel his new powers cursing through him. His stronger healing factor (even better than Wolverine's or Deapool's), his superior physical strength, coming close to that of the Hulk (although, definitely not on the same level), his extra reflexes, the enhanced durability, and faster movement.

The weapon X program didn't only make some additional improvements, it had made the already unstoppable monster, even more unstoppable, but he still tried to convince himself, that he wasn't the same monster as before, even though, his blood lust said otherwise.

Nemesis had come to realize, he could never bring himself to slaughter the fillies, even if they attacked him; but everyone else that could dare stand in his way, would not be so lucky.

With this thoughts, the creature turned around and returned to the forest.

Unknown to everypony, at the outskirts of the forest, two silhouettes stared at the soon hopeless town. Behind them, hundreds of black creatures awaited for their leader to start the march.

One of the two silhouettes began to speak, as it gazed a hateful watch upon the land.

"My, my, it's even more beautiful than I imagined... disgusting!" The black pony exclaimed, before looking at his companion. "Don't you think so?"

"Indeed, it's not as hideous as you, Chrisy." The other silhouette replied, his green eyes looked back at her, making the purple mist around them, grow larger, as he felt his rage growing.

"Watch your tongue, Sombra, you're lucky we found you, if it weren't for me, you would be rotting right now." Chrysalis replied.

"I swear, Chrysalis, if I had my horn right now, I would..." Before Sombra could even finish, Chrysalis interrupted.

"You would what?"

"I would make you wish you were dead!" Chrysalis laughed at his words, then, grabbed his cheeks with her hooves and talked.

"Aren't you adorable, but don't worry, fallen king, if you work well, you'll get your horn back." Once she finished, Chrysalis turned to face towards the forest, spotting once again Ponyville in the distance, then continued talking. "Besides, look at bright side, once we get rid of those ponies, the contents of that box, will be ours. Of course, Canterlot will be mine. You can keep the Crystal empire if you want."

"How do I know you will keep your end of the bargain?" Sombra asked.

"Would I ever lie to you?" Chrysalis smirked, then went to laugh out loud. She never noticed that Sombra was releasing a small grin of his own, the fallen king already had his plans.

The two monsters began their march towards the forest, but unknown to them, a bigger monster awaited at Ponyville, ready to slaughter anything standing in his way.

More Than Meets the Eye Part: 1

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.

More Than Meets the Eye Part: 2

Canterlot

"So, what should I use for the upcoming Nightmare Night?" Luna, princess of the moon, said. "Giant spiders? Creepy mixes between a Manticore and a Timberwolf? Mummies again? Or I could be a little more original and use Zomb..."

"Sister please, I know you are exited about your night, but this could be important." Celestia, princess of the sun, replied with a sigh. "We can´t let a magical interference slip by like it´s nothing, doing this, would bring severe consequences for the kingdom."

Even though, nothing had happened, Celestia couldn´t stop worrying about the implications of this event, her mind circled around distant memories where she had learnt, that not paying attention to this, could bring consequences. The Elements of Harmony seemed more than capable of defending the kingdom, but she and Luna were still the princesses of the kingdom, letting their nation unprotected would be a major mistake on their part. The train of thoughts was soon interrupted by a sighing Luna.

"Come on! Something bad would have already happened by now, and this is the only month of the year where I can completely let out and enjoy. It´s my night."

"You know how much I enjoy your happiness, but things could always get worse, besides, Nightmare Night is only a month away." Celestia noticed the sad look on her sister, but struggled to stay strong. "I promise you will have your big night."

"Last Nightmare Night you said the same, and I ended up signing papers all night inside the castle. This year I wanted to prepare my biggest comeback yet." Luna said, trying one last time, but only got an apologetic expression from Celestia.

"I´m sorry Luna."

The princess of the night, turned to leave her sister´s private room, but an idea crossed her mind. Without turning around to face Celestia, she said. "You know, sis? When I was on the moon, I used to dream about having the best Nightmare Night of my life, and even though, I´ve had a couple, trouble always seemed to get in my way of enjoying it, looks like this year will be the same."

Far from a sad look, Luna waited with a malicious smile for the effects of her words, and as she had expected, Celestia sighed in guilt before speaking.

"... Erm, Luna, you know? If you want, you can leave this problem to me." Luna´s smile got bigger as her sister finished speaking. "Go and make preparations for your night, if something happens, I will go to Ponyville."

Luna couldn´t help but to burst out from happiness, but decided to control herself. Going towards her sister, Luna planted a kiss on Celestia´s cheek.

"Thank you, sister! You are the best!"

Celestia realized what had happened, and sighed in response, just before Luna left the room.

"Ugh! I hate it when you do that!"

"I know." Luna smiled, then left Celestia alone. The princess of the night would need all the time and concentration to make her night, the best one yet, and nothing would change that.

Everfree Forest

Most of the day (and night), all that could be heard coming from this place, were roars and unnatural sounds, but not this day. Today, the screams of joy from three fillies, filled the sinister air. But there was something unusual, the casual roar from annoyance could be heard several feet behind the little ones.

Nemesis found himself running as fast as he could, trying to catch up with the fillies, who, for the creature´s dismay, were mounting a Manticore. The animal, agile as it is, dodged every obstacle, whereas Nemesis opted to destroy everything in his path. Trees and rocks were equally destroyed under the monster´s might, as he tried to reach the ponies.

He never noticed when the fillies, secretly decided to get their ´Manticore Rider´ cutie mark, and slipped away when Nemesis went to reach a fruit from a tree, which was the one Sweetie asked for.

Nemesis could barely hear the ´weeeeee!´ from the crazy ponies, and soon, he lost them amongst the nature of the forest. With no other choice, Nemesis jumped as high as he could, trying to get a glimpse of the fillies. It only took him two tries before he spotted them, a smile of relief would have been drawn on his face if he had lips. Wasting no time, he went running towards their direction.

It was ironic, Nemesis was a big powerhouse, yet, somehow he managed to move pretty fast. He wasn´t lacking agility either, and this proved useful to help him achieve his current objective: Catch the crazy fillies.

A minute had passed before he finally caught up with the little ones, he would need to find a way to retrieve the fillies without getting them hurt. The race continued for a few seconds, before an idea crossed his mind. Nemesis used his whip to catch them, successfully grabbing one, and placing her on his back. Apple Bloom and Sweetie were left.

"Hey! I wan´t to mount the Manticore again!" Scootaloo replied, but received no response from the running Nemesis.

The Manticore was still a few feet away from him, and the trees were making it difficult for him to grab the other ones. He tried once, but his tentacle only succeeded in slapping a tree. It was no use, he had to wait for an opening, thankfully, his stamina was above any level, he could continue running for the next two days without stopping.

Suddenly, an idea crossed Scootaloo´s mind. "Maybe I can get my ´crashing into a tree, while at full speed´ cutie mark." Nemesis reacted quickly at her words, and roared in response, making the filly sigh. "It was only a joke... or was it?"

Nemesis roared once more, but Scootaloo simply chuckled. Finally, after two more minutes of running, the creature found an opening. The clear space of the forest provided Nemesis with the perfect opportunity, he stretched his arms and released his tentacles, but he would need to get closer. Suddenly, Nemesis used the strength of his legs to jump forward, grabbing the two fillies from the back of the Manticore, who kept running forward. At least he wouldn´t have to worry about scarring the little ones by butchering a manticore.

While in the air, Nemesis used his left arm to grab Scootaloo from his back, placing her on his arms with the rest of her friends, and landed on the floor face up, crashing against a tree in the process.

"Weeeeeeeee!" The three screamed in excitement, none of them noticed as the tall tree falling on top of them, thankfully, Nemesis had, and moved out of the way seconds before the tree crashed into the floor. Gently dropping the three of them to the ground, the creature waited for the fillies to face him.

Nemesis was pissed, and the little ones would listen to him... even if all he could do was roar. Said and done.

"ROAAAAAAAAAR!"

"Sheesh! You´re starting to sound like my sister!" Sweetie Belle said, getting a ´seriously?´ stare from the two fillies, and Nemesis. Sweetie Belle let out a sheepishly smile in return.

The conversation was starting to get off topic, causing the creature to roar once more.

"We just wanted to get our ´Manticore riding´cutie mark." Apple Bloom said, Scootaloo followed.

"Yeah! We never knew he would take us across the entirety of the forest!"

"Also, we knew you would be here to save us if something happened!" Sweetie Belle was the last.

Nemesis face palmed, sighing in the process, he couldn´t believe in just how much trouble the three could get into, not that he was a role model either. His thought were diverted for a few seconds, as he touched his butchered face, it certainly hit him, but there were more important things at the moment.

"Roaaar!" It was more calmed, but it still sounded pissed.

The fillies understood that roar, but decided to play along.

"We didn´t understand that one." Scootaloo said, as the three gave a sheepishly smile, but Nemesis saw through this and crossed his arms. "Okay! We´re sorry for having mounted a Manticore without telling you." The three said in unison, making Nemesis release a groan.

Without them noticing, Sweetie had turned around to see their surroundings, noticing they could be a little far away from town, the thought made her release a worried look.

"Girls? I have the feeling we could be a little far away from home."

The fillies gave a sheepishly smile, while stretching their hooves in front of them, asking for Nemesis to carry them. The creature didn´t want to be assaulted by the power of the puppy eyes, and simply sighed. The fillies´smiles grew wider as they climbed the monster´s enormous arm, Nemesis took care they wouldn´t slip. Once all settled, the track back home began

The travel had been quite silent for the next thirty minutes, the fillies seemed to be tired, which was obvious, considering the fact that the had been playing for six hours straight, and it was quite late. Night was soon to approach.

Another fifteen minutes passed, and Sweetie had fallen asleep.

"It must be pretty cool to be you... well not more than Rainbow, but still." Scootaloo broke the silence, surprising Nemesis greatly in the process. Was she being serious? Nemesis wasn´t really loved by anyone before (at least not by the ones who didn´t die after meeting him). Others would simply mock him with calling him ugly, not that he was bothered about that, much less considering the fact that he was never in control, until this moment.

Then, it stroke him, it was the first time in his life someone admired him, it was heartwarming and bizarre at the same time, almost being ironic as well. As Nemesis wasn´t used to this kind of treatment, he didn´t reply her comment, then, she continued.

"I mean, you eat Timberwolves for breakfast, and Manticores for dinner, with Hydras being your lunch!"

"Yeah! And who would have thought you were so friendly and awesome, considering..." Apple Bloom cleared her throat. "How you look."

Far from angering Nemesis, the creature found himself quite pleased with their words, it was nice to have some people... ponies, look at him in this way. Nemesis turned his face towards Sweetie, who was sleeping on his arms, and wondered what she would think about him.

"Maybe tomorrow we can finally talk with Twilight, and she will just know how amazing you are!" Scootaloo replied, placing herself on Nemesis´ head. "I can´t wait for Rainbow Dash to meet you!"

"Everything´s going to be so good, you will stay with us! Pinkie Pie will throw you a party, Twilight will probably try to study you, mah´sister´s gonna ask you to help at the farm, and oh! There´s Nightmare Night coming, thankfully you don´t need a disguise!" Apple Bloom placed herself on top of Nemesis´head, pushing Scootaloo away, so she could have eye contact with the creature. "And since you´re our friend, and you don´t have a cutie mark, that makes you a crusader!"

Nemesis had gone through a painful moment before, the fillies had explained what was a cutie mark, and asked if he had one. Nemesis replied the obvious, never expecting that would be his greatest mistake. But right then, he was regretting nothing. Nemesis never roared, and simply listened to them, enjoying the moment.

"Actually, we could change our names to ´Nemesis of the Cutie Mark Crusaders´" Scootaloo implied.

"Wouldn´t that mean we´re enemies of ourselves?" Apple Bloom explained, making Scootaloo give a sheepishly smile in return.

"Ups! I guess you´re right!"

The irony of the situation couldn´t be higher, Nemesis, now one of the biggest predators inside the Everfree Forest, was carrying with him three fillies, not to eat them, but to protect them.

The group had finally reached the border of the forest, but there was a slight problem, Sweetie was sleeping, waking her up would be the most reliable answer, but Nemesis had another idea. Not wanting to disrupt her sleep, the creature ripped apart a big piece of tree bark, and placed multiple leaves before resting Sweetie there, then, ripped one of his trench coat´s belts, and made a small hole in the tree bark, Nemesis inserted the belt, so it wouldn´t be difficult for the fillies to carry Sweetie towards her home.

His large, black trench coat wasn´t only an aesthetic accessory, it was a power limiter, and ripping it off would bring serious consequences, but the Weapon X program had changed that, it had fixed his body. Mutating into something horrible was now out of the question, he was free to even go around without it, but it still had a nostalgic effect on Nemesis.

Once all set, the ponies prepared to head back home, but not before saying their good byes. It was a miracle Nemesis hadn´t butchered something this day, and they were now seeing Nemesis as something more. In return, the creature had found joy in the company of those three.

Nemesis observed as the three walked on the horizon, seconds later disappearing far from his sight, they were home.

Once alone, the creature began to march back to the Everfree Forest, but avoided going too far, just in case the fillies needed him, little did he know, that would be the case, as not so far away, a certain queen was beginning her march towards Ponyville. This was going to be a night nopony would ever forget.

Entrance

Everfree Forest

Chrysalis had disguised herself as one of the soldiers, alongside her Changelings. The remaining guards had already been dispatched, leaving Chrysalis with one last thing to do: march towards Ponyville. She would need a distraction though.

Turning to face the rest of her small army, she pointed with her hoof towards a Changeling, motioning for him to get closer. Once this particular Changeling was centimeters away from the queen, he could see Chrysalis getting closer to his ear, then shivers began to overwhelm his body as the queen began to whisper in an almost sensual fashion.

"Do you love your queen?" She asked, getting her hoof on his shoulder.

The Changeling hissed with a smile on his face as an answer.

"What if I gave you a little upgrade, so you can serve me more, you would have your bonuses." The Changeling excitedly hissed, making Chrysalis release a smirk, as she circled him.

Chrysalis smirked, as she stepped away from him, then proceeded to charge her horn and pointed it towards the Changling, covering him with green light. Surprisingly, his body mass grew, as well as his strength and power in magic. The Changeling could feel all of his bones expanding, it hurt, but he did not care. His wings grew as well as his horn, which was covered by numerous spikes. Soon, he found himself comfortable with his new titanic body, a perfect match for his name: Boulder.

The newly transformed pony was even larger than the Queen, his muscles so big that he could even cover five Changelings behind him. Asking for a test of strength, Boulder proceeded to use his hooves, to literally rip a tree from the floor, which was then thrown away with little effort. Wanting to test his skills yet again, Boulder shot a blast of magic, destroying several trees in the process, Chrysalis was pleased.

"So, you made super Changeling, so what?" Sombra asked, making the queen frown as a response, before facing the fallen king.

"Call it my ´escape plan´in case something happens."

"Not much faith in yourself, do you Chrisy?" Chrysalis, tired with the fallen king´s annoyances, fired a powerful blast against him. Sombra dodged out of the way in time, before facing the queen again. "Sheesh! Take it easy, I was only joking."

"That was a warning shot, keep that in mind!" Chrysalis continued her march towards town, completely ignoring Sombra the rest of the way.

The heavy hooves of Bloulder made the ground shake, as he marched with a cocky grin behind his disguised queen, while making an effort to avoid glaring at her flank, awkward travel. After a few minutes, the disguised Changelings had finally arrived Ponyville, the castle was just ahead. Turning to face Sombra, Chrysalis told him to stay behind, and wait for her return.

"As you wish, Chrisy, by the way your disguise looks more beautiful than your normal self, and that´s saying something." Sombra mocked, making Chrysalis hiss at him, meanwhile Boulder launched a loud roar against the fallen king. "And tell your pet to seize this, or he´s going to regret it!"

Chrysalis smiled at his comment. With a deep sigh, the queen laid her eyes towards the castle, it was going to be a long night.

Castle of Friendship

Twilight was impatiently waiting for the return of her royal guards, biting her lip as she watched through the window. Her friends were initially there for Twilight, holding her back every time she seemed to fall into depression, but being inside the castle all day proved to be very boring, especially for Rainbow and Pinkie. They were certainly tired, not even the beautiful insides of the castle helped their situation. The pretty thrones were starting to get uncomfortable, loosing their charm in the process.

Applejack had been staring at the wall for at least thirty minutes, bags clearly notable under her green eyes. Rarity had been struggling to look at her mane on the crystals around her respective throne, without success. Fluttershy seemed to be the least affected of them, whereas Pinkie and Rainbow were almost ripping off their manes. The wait was a nightmare, and they were not sure whether they wanted to kill Flash for getting lost, or simply welcome him for Twilight.

"Arg! I´m bored! When are they going to arrive, we´ve been here for five hours! FIVE HOURS!" Rainbow whined, awkwardly lying back on her throne.

"Calm down Rainbow! We´re here for Twilight, and as soon as that pony arrives, we can all get home." Applejack replied, then faced to the floor before muttering under her breath. "... Ah´m gonna hurt that pony."

"I´ll have to side with Rainbow on this, I´ve already missed my 3:00 p.m. beauty sleep! And this perfect, and beautiful mane doesn´t get prettier by itself." Rarity replied, making Applejack roll her eyes.

"See!? Even the drama queen here agrees with me!" Rainbow said, getting a stare form Rarity, which wasn´t even noticed by the pegasus. "Heck! Even Pinkie is so bored that she´s counting rocks!"

"I´m sorry Rainbow!" Twilight entered the conversation, catching everypony´s attention. "I swear, if it wasn´t important, I would happily wait all by myself, and I don´t expect that you understand just how guilty I feel! So leave if you want! I can handle myself pretty well!"

Twilight was indeed in bad shape, she had been staring through the window for at least an hour now. Her words pierced the pegasus´ heart, who felt guilt overwhelm her. "Um... Look, Twi. I´m sorry, I was just bored, you know how I get when that happens, I didn´t want to make you think I didn´t care. We´ll stay here with you, okay?"

"Thank you." That was everything Twilight said, before she returned to the window, but her grim expression would instantly reveal a glimpse of hope, as she spotted her guards coming back to the castle.

Soon enough, the guards had arrived at the throne room, where an impatient Twilight awaited her opportunity to ask.

"So?"

The guard shook his head in negative, making Twilight have her grim expression on her face again. The sad alicorn turned around, ready to sunk into depression once more, but something caught her attention.

"I´m sorry your highness, it seems you´re suspicions were incorrect, we spotted no Changelings."

Twilight was surrounded by the hooves of her friends, until she heard that sentence. Turning around, she approached the guard.

"What did you say?"

"That we couldn´t find any kind of Changeling activity." The guard answered.

"But I sent you to find Flash!" Twilight replied. The guard was getting nervous, sweat running down his cheeks. Why would they search for Changelings when Twilight clearly ordered something completely different... that´s when she pieced the puzzle together. Before anypony present at the throne room could react, Twilight blasted the disguised guard, revealing Chrysalis in the process. The rest of the Elements gasped when they realized the identity of the fake guard.

"Wow! What is she doing here!?" Rainbow was the first to talk, instantly getting into battle position.

Chrysalis was dumbfounded at the scene, she never expected this outcome, thankfully she already had a plan B.

"Boulder!"

In the blink of an eye, a huge Changeling appeared inside the throne room, the floor cracked under his weight. Chrysalis didn´t waste anytime and placed herself behind the hulking Changeling. Five more of the guards had already transformed back into their original form, and placed themselves alongside their princess.

"What are you doing here Chrysalis?" Twilight asked, readying her horn.

"I´m only here for a little souvenir, a little special box."

Rainbow, infuriated walked closer to the pair. "And what makes you think we´re simply going to let you take it?"

Chrysalis released a small laugh before answering. "I´ll let Boulder answer that for me, farewell!" With that, the queen disappeared along with her five Changelings, and leaving Boulder to deal with the Elements

Soon enough, the queen found herself one level below, instantly being greeted by several guards who had previously heard the battle. The stallions surrounded the queen, who was standng at the middle of the room, exactly where she needed to be. Chrysalis´ Changelings covered their queen, readying their horn to attack the royal guard. Chrysalis began inspecting the floor, trying to find a suitable position to begin her search, as the battle began. The royal guards blasted against the Changelings, who erected a protective barrier, covering their queen and giving her time to excavate.

Chrysalis charged her horn and pointed it against the floor, eventually releasing a powerful blast. She finally found what she had been searching for. Beneath a meter of the castle, laid the box. Satisfied with this, Chrysalis sent another blast into the sky, piercing the roof and interrupting the Element´s battle with Boulder. As soon as she finished the spell, the Changelings surrounding her lowered down their shield and blasted against the guards inside the room.

An immense green light filled the entire sky. Several Changelings took notice of this, and headed towards Ponyville, but what the queen never noticed, is that it also alerted a certain monster in the forest.

Meanwhile, on the upper level of the castle, Twilight and her friends were struggling to keep up against Boulder. His attacks were so strong that even Twilight´s barries perished under its weight. Once ore twice, both Applejack and Rainbow had managed to hit the Changeling, who took little to no damage, for the two mare however, it was like punching metal.

Pinkie tried to use her party cannon, but it only managed to angry the beast further. Fluttershy was the only one avoiding the fight, usually assisting with catching the Changeling´s attention so her friend could strike against him.

The battle lasted a few minutes, before they successfully incapacitated the hulking Changeling. Wasting no time in celebrating the small victory, the Elements went downstairs to confront Chrysalis, who was still lost admiring the box, and as a result her Changelings were starting to get quite nervous, they really wanted to avoid a fight against the Elements.

Seconds later, Chrysalis was greeted by the ponies, who got themselves into battle position almost instantly, ready to fight against the queen. The Elements could spot many guards lying down on the floor, clearly having lost against the intruders.

Not wasting any moment, the Elements began their attack against the Changelings, leaving Twilight to deal with the queen herself.

Chrysalis was totally lost on her small victory to notice the upcoming spell, the box was sent flying away in the distance, as a result.

Chrysalis reacted instantly and turned to face Twilight, before sending a powerful blast against her, but received a punch in the head from Rainbow, who had managed to defeat a few Changelings. Taking this opportunity, Twilight blasted against her and sent the queen flying out of the castle.

The princess was about to head out of the place and follow Chrysalis, but instead focused her attention on a small group of guards who had recently entered the castle. Twilight rushed towards them, getting a small reverence in return. A big battle was about to begin in Ponyville, and she could not waste any more time. Twilight cleared her throat and began to speak.

"Guards! Changelings are invading Ponyville, send all your soldiers into battle, and a small squadron to apprehend the Changeling upstairs!" The soldiers nodded in agreement, and proceeded to head out, at least until Applejack and Rarity intercepted them.

"We´ll also need two of you get our sisters and Scootaloo from Rarity´s." Applejack said. It was quite fortunate that the three fillies had decided to stay the night at the Carousel Boutique, although it was quite strange they didn´t want to talk about their day´s adventure.

Going after three fillies at the middle of a Changeling invasion, and especially the CMC was quite a dangerous task. The guards would have to pick them up and bring them to the castle where they would be safer. They had valid reasons to dislike this kind of task.

At least the rest of the Apple family was safe at their barn house, it was a relief for Applejack, and she certainly could feel a sigh of relief involuntarily going out of her.

With a nod from their heads, two guards headed out of the castle to pick the fillies up, several squadrons went to battle the Changlings, and a small battalion went upstairs to apprehend Boulder. Once everything was set to resist the invasion, the Elements finally prepared for battle, but were interrupted by a certain dragon.

"Twilight! What´s happening!" Spike came rushing to her friend, who was preparing to leave the place. Twilight stopped on her tracks, and turned to face the little dragon, then cleared her throat to start talking.

"Spike, get to the safe room and stay there! We have a Changeling invasion!"

"A Changeling invasion? Why is it that this town always gets invaded by something?" Spike answered while he scratched his head.

"Spike, there is no time, go get yourself to safety!" Twilight replied. The dragon was obviously worried about her, more importantly shown by the look on his face, which carried a worried expression. Seeing no other choice, he asked.

"But what about you?"

"Spike, I´ll be okay, get inside the safe room now!" Even though, Spike wanted to argue, he nodded, and marched towards the safe zone. Before Twilight could sigh in relief, Spike stopped on his tracks and faced the alicorn.

"Promise you´ll be okay."

"I promise." Twilight replied, trying as hard as she could to release a convincing smile, just to keep the dragon from worrying. Twilight waited for a few seconds after Spike left the room, then prepared herself along the rest of the group. All had fiery expression on their faces, with the exception of Fluttershy, who was currently hiding behind her mane. Rainbow took notice of this and turned to face the yellow pegasus.

"Where´s Discord when we need him?" Her commentary released a frown on Flittershy´s face.

"It´s not his fault if he doesn´t know what is happening here, nor if he can´t come." Her voice and personality returned to her usual self after this words. "Poor thing was tired of all the work, and he wanted a vacation."

"Where did he go by the way?" Rainbow asked.

"He told me he was going to be with some Deadpool pony, trying to help him finish something called ´Resident evil 3´."

"Discord´s crazier than Ah´thought." Applejack said, once again making Fluttershy frown.

"I hear ya!" Rainbow added, then chuckled after seeing Fluttershy´s reaction.

"Okay girls! Let´s go, we have a town to save and a queen to catch." Twilight interrupted any further discussion. Her words immediately made everypony react, immediately going going out of the castle.

Twilight could feel something strange about this particular day, as if she knew something else was going to happen. It was a strange sensation, cursing through her entire body in the form of a chill, telling her something dangerous was approaching. Nothing would prepare them for what would come that night.

Nopony in ponyville would have ever expected a Changeling invasion, at least not after the wedding fiasco. Even though, the forces were rather slim (a result of their defeat at the Crystal Kingdom), they still packed quite a punch.

Many of the citizens opted to stay inside their homes, others ran out of town, usually avoiding the Everfree Forest. Soon, the streets were swarming with Changelings, homes and establishments were burning. Peace never lasted in Equestria, thankfully, Twilight´s royal guard didn´t took long to show up.

Every pony in the street, struggled to get out out the war zone, but everywhere they went, several Changelings were waiting. Some neighbors offered refugee to other ponies, others tried to get the invader´s attention so the other could flee, it was in times like these, were ponies showed their loyalty to their kind. However, the situation was starting to look grim for the town, as the continuing battle managed to destroy several buildings across town.

Amidst the chaos, the two guards sent by Applejack and Rarity were making their way through the infested war zone, while trying to avoid any kind of fight. The two needed to be in their best condition to assist the fillies.

The sky sometimes turned dark as the numerous Changelings passed above their heads. The two guards sighed in relief once they noticed, none of the invaders became aware of their presence, their task was going pretty well.

Minutes after, they spotted the Carousel Boutique in a not so long distance, they would have to act quickly. The guard´s sighs of relief soon turned into desperation, as they saw the place surrounded by a group of Changelings. The entrance seemed to be locked firmly, sadly it wouldn´t stop the dark ponies from entering, the guards would have to move fast.

Launching a powerful blast against one of them, the Changelings took notice of the threat and turned to face the royal guards. The battle ensued for a few minutes before the Changelings were done for, Twilight´s soldiers, even though, they hadn´t been in a battle for quite some time, they still had their moves.

The doors of the Carousel Boutique were blasted off, giving way for two royal guards, who immediately started looking for the fillies.

"Take this!" That´s all they could hear, as Apple Bloom launched herself against the guard on the right, while Scootaloo attacked the one on the left.

The battle was followed by ´Yes! get him! Nemesis style!´and ´In the head! In the head!´ from Sweetie Belle.

One of the guards succeeded after a few minutes, escape from Apple Blooms grasp before he requested to stop their assault. Once Scootaloo and Apple Bloom realized who were the ones they were attacking, a blush appeared on their faces, followed by sheepishly smiles. The guards had their faces slightly covered by bruises, and not exactly caused by the Changelings, the fillies sure packed quite a punch.

"Ladies! The Element of Honesty and the Element of Generosity sent us to pick you up! We´re heading towards the castle, were you´ll be safer." One of the guards said.

With a nod from their head, the group headed outside, being careful not to be caught in the way of a Changeling, as they made their way towards the castle. The flames around the city and the destroyed structures greeted the fillies and the guards. It would seem the town itself was preparing to receive an unexpected visit.

Back inside the castle, a group of royal guards took upon the task of carrying Boulder to his respective cell, it all seemed to be rather easy, as all they seemingly had to do was carry the muscular Changeling... how wrong they were.

Without any of them noticing, Boulder opened his eyes and got up, easily breaking the magical shield the guards had erected around his body. Immediately in combat position, the guards began their attacks against the Changeling, who seemed to receive little to no damage from the blast. After a few seconds, the attack had stopped, payback time for Boulder.

The hulking Changeling launched himself against to royal guards, using his hooves to break them, then turned to face other two, easily defeating them with a powerful blast. Some of the pegasus inside the room, tried to punch the creature, but had some of their bones broken as a result. The path was free for Boulder to walk, the Elements were lucky last time, not this time.

Outside the castle, royal guards were doing all they could to fend off the attack, but every effort seemed to be in vain, as the attacking Changelings looked endless. Fire began to surround many houses in Ponyville, making the sight Heckish. Ponies needed help, and unknown to them, it would come in the most unexpected way.

The war sounds managed to cover the arrival of a beast, who was just entering town. Nemesis had just left the Everfree Forest when he spotted a very peculiar house to his left, resting on a small cliff. The roof seemed to be covered in grass, the rest of the house was made of wood, with several windows of different shapes. The door was small, the material also wood. In front of it laid a small bridge. Nemesis could notice several animals run away from him as he passed by.

Leaving the house behind, Ponyville greeted the creature´s eye, a Heckish version of it. Fires could be seen rising from a mile away, it clearly was a battle zone. Nemesis steps usually gave away loud noises, but that night was not the case, as the sounds of war silenced them. This was his, Nemesis´environment, the one he was used to, and he would gladly take part in the battle.

Animals all around Fluttershy´s cottage, could see the monster walking towards Ponyville, his presence striking fear in their hearts, which suddenly began to beat faster. The creature´s arrival sent chills down the spines of every animal in the house, as they struggled to hide from him, trying to remain out of the sight of the monster. Suddenly the air got heavier, fate filled Ponyville with dread. Nemesis´was about to make his entrance.

Discovery

Outskirts of Ponyville

A pair of footprints left their mark on the ground, coming from the obscurity of the Everfree Forest, to the recently attacked town. The owner of these footprints, a monster. It seemed Nemesis´ thought were correct, there was something bad happening inside Ponyville, and the three fillies could be in danger. His objective? Locate the little ponies and get them to safety, then turn the tie in the attack and slaughter anything standing in his way.

Nemesis´ was almost sure his presence would make ponies think he was a threat, but he certainly didn´t care.

The creature figured he would find the fillies inside their clubhouse, which was between Ponyville, and Sweet Apple Acres. He would start his search there.

Nemesis lifted his head to watch the sky above town, almost instantly noticing it slowly being turned from blue to red, it had been quite some time since he saw this kind of effect in a war zone, though thankfully, this wasn´t a zombie war zone.

The walk was certainly devoid of any soul, with the only sounds heard, being the ones from battle. Black smoke could be seen in the distance, as Nemesis kept walking, but it didn´t distract him long from his objective.

After a few minutes of walking, the monster arrived at a small bridge, in front of it he could spot a fountain. Nemesis was getting closer to the clubhouse. The bridge was indeed very small compared to his huge size, so he jumped to the other side instead, even though the distance between both ends wasn´t too far from each other.

Nemesis turned his head towards Ponyville once more, this time noticing several dark shapes moving in the sky, he figured they were the ones attacking town. At least he knew what to kill. With that thought, Nemesis resumed his walk.

By the looks of these shapes, he figured they wouldn´t be...

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Nemesis stopped in his tracks, the loud screams coming from Ponyville stroke him with recognition, and instantly made him run towards the source.

Ponyville - five minutes earlier

Boulder had been searching Chrysalis through a small section of town, not to far away from the castle. His search occasionally interrupted by an annoying guard trying to take him out.

Boulder figured he had to go directly towards the town hall at the center of Ponyville, so he could have a better idea of where his queen had gone. The Changeling began his march as three pegasus guards came from the sky to confront him. Boulder merely smirked at this attempt as he charged against them, with only two escaping the attack. Instantly stopping in his tracks, the Changeling teleported behind one of the pegasus and blasted against him, only one left. The remaining guard launched himself against Boulder´s head, trying to knock him out, but the Changeling grabbed his front hoof with his mouth and splattered him on the ground.

Almost instantly another small battalion appeared in front of him, this time with a mix of unicorns and pegasus, Boulder smirked once again.

As the soldiers prepared their attack, the Changeling launched himself to the sky, before blasting against the floor, and taking out the majority of the guards in the process. Only four unicorns and two pegasus remained.

The soldiers blasted against the Changeling, who created a shield in front of him, before teleporting once again into the floor, and wasted no time in blasting one of the four unicorns, only three remained.

Boulder could spot in time as the two pegasus tried to ram against him, he instantly took a defensive position and brought his right hoof to the front, in an attempt to intercept one of them, and successfully breaking several of the guard´s teeth. Reacting almost instantly, Boulder launched himself to the sky, and wrapped his hooves around the other pegasus, bringing him to the ground. The guard tried to escape the Changeling´s grasp, but was received by a hoof to the skull, ending him almost immediately.

Focusing his attention back on the three remaining unicorns, who had been blasting him since the beginning of the assault, Boulder began charging his horn with magic as he approached them slowly. The guards began to sweat uncontrollably as they noticed none of their attacks worked, and began to slowly step back from the approaching juggernaut.

Once in front of them, both the guards and Boulder stopped walking and stared at each other. The soldiers with a scared expression and the Changeling with a diabolic smile. After a few tense seconds of suspense, Boulder disappeared.

The guards had expected to find him behind them, and turned around... there wasn´t anypony. One of them brought a hoof to his forehead in order to wipe the sweat, meanwhile the other did his best to sigh in relief. None of them would know what happened next.

Boulder came crashing from the sky, landing on top of the guards and crushing their bodies in the process.

Once they were done for, Boulder cleaned the guards´ remainings from his hooves before continuing his search for the queen. He wouldn´t be able to even give five steps before he spotted another two guards approaching the castle, but there was something different about these. The had three fillies with them.

Boulder was about to ignore these group, but he spotted something else. The little ones seemed rather familiar to a couple of the Elements. His face released a wide grin onc an idea crossed his mind.

The Changeling approached the group, as the two guards took notice of his presence.

"Run!" One of them screamed before being blasted by a bolt of magic, instantly ending him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The three screamed in unison at the sight of the Changeling. His enormous physical appearance, coupled with his black coat made him a terrifying sight for anypony.

Wasting no time, the remaining guard instructed the fillies to run and hide. The little ones nodded with their head before running towards the castle.

"What the hay is that!" Apple Bloom asked, doing her best to reach Twilight´s place.

"How the Heck am I supposed to know?" Answered scootaloo.

Sweetie tried to look behind to see what had happened to the guards, but her question was almost immediately answered by a loud scream. Their current guardian was gone, all that was left, was run and hide.

The fillies hearts were beating faster as they got closer to the castle. None of them wanted to look around and find themselves with the Changeling.

Finally, the castle was up ahead, and a smile began to appear on their faces, but to their dismay, Boulder landed in front of them, almost making the fillies spill their hearts out.

The Changeling released a smirk as he stared directly into the little one´s eyes, slowly walking towards them. The fillies were too terrified to think about any escape, so they simply backed away from him. Boulder was tasting every step he gave, releasing small hisses at the little ponies.

Soon enough, the fillies found themselves at a dead end, the prefect spot for the Changeling to finish them.

Boulder charged his horn with magic, his blue eyes focused on the three fillies, who could only watch in terror as the black figure slowly approached them. His head moved down, so he could be able to have eye contact with the fillies. Smiling, the Changeling´s magic began to grow stronger, ready to strike against the helpless ponies, but something caught his attention.

In the eyes of Scootaloo, an image was reflected. Amongst the flames and destroyed buildings, a bulking, dark silhouette could be seen. The changeling narrowed his sight, trying to identify the shadow, but a shocked look appeared on his face, as he saw the creature opening his small, white eye.

Before anypony could react, the Changeling was tackled by a major force. The floor trembled as the Boulder crashed against the side of a house. Wasting no time, the Changeling moved rocks out of his body and tried to stand up, but a huge fist crashed on his face.

The changeling was sent flying away, destroying part of the house´s interiors. The one who had sent him sailing across a house, revealed himself to the terrified fillies, who slowly released small smiles on their faces. They had been saved by a stronger monster, by Nemesis. The creature took a few seconds to stare at the fillies before he began to run towards the Changeling.

Once Nemesis arrived, the air around the little ones began to lighten up, and even though, the creature had went for Boulder, they could feel safety. Apple Bloom was the first to snap back to reality, and looked towards the castle, realizing how close they were from it.

"Come on girls!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, trying to push her friends away from the place, but Scootaloo crossed her hooves and replied.

"We can´t leave him here, what if something happens to him?"

"She´s right! We we don´t leave our friends alone!" Sweetie added, a frown appearing on her face.

Apple Bloom couldn´t help but to sigh in annoyance, before putting a hoof on her chin. Spotting a safe place inside a house, her face released a wide smile, then, pointed with her hoof towards the place. "There, we´ll be safe, and we´ll be able to keep an eye on Nemesis! Come on!"

Without any other word, the three headed towards the safe place. The big house was in ruins, but there was no sight of the Changelings, it would be a perfect place to take cover, while making sure their friend was alright. Hiding behind a window frame, the fillies witnessed the battle ensuing, not even a hint of a worried look appeared on their faces.

On their end, the huge Changeling was doing his best to evade and block the golem´s punches. Magic barrier after magic barrier was shattered under the monster´s strength. If it weren´t for his shields, the Changeling´s bones would have probably been destroyed by then.

Nemesis launched his right fist, which Boulder evaded by ducking. The monster launched an uppercut, which was stopped by another shield. Seeing an opening, the Changeling blasted against Nemesis´head, before backing away with a jump, from him. Once a few feet away, the pony blasted again, but Nemesis jumped over it and landed with his right fist crashing against the ground, the Changeling moved out of the way in time, but Nemesis tackled the pony and brought him to the ground. Boulder blasted once again, against the creature´s chest, before he could bring his feet against his face. Dodging out of the way, the dark pony charged his horn, before teleporting behind Nemesis, then, launched a powerful blast against his back.

The situation was proving to be exasperating for the pony, as it seemed, none of his blasts scratched the monster. Nemesis turned around slowly, facing the Changeling again, who had his eyes wide open.
Seeing none of his magic attacks seemed to work, Boulder tried the brute strength approach. Launching himself against the creature, the Changeling sent his right foot against Nemesis´ face. To his horror, the monster didn´t flinch.

Nemesis took the opportunity, and tried to punch the pony with his right fist, but it was dodged, using the momentum, Boulder teleported at the top of a house.

Nemesis spotted the dark pony seconds later, and jumped towards the rooftop, while bringing his arm down ready to strike against him, but the Changeling moved out of the way, causing Nemesis to break part of the roof and land inside the house.

The Changeling sighed in relief, but the sound of cracking alerted him again. Seconds later, the huge monster came from the inside of the house, destroying the rest of the roof, and grabbing the Changeling with his arms in the process. Once in the air, Nemesis brought his fist against the pony´s chest, and even though, it was intercepted by his shield, the punch was strong enough to bring the Changeling to the ground. The force of impact shook most part of the town.

Not so far away from the battle, Chrysalis had finally found the box, and went to grab it, after that she was ready to teleport away. The Changeling Queen prepared her teleportation spell, but she was intercepted by a blast, that caused the box to slip away from her again.

Chrysalis turned her eyes to spot Twilight and her friends getting closer to her.

"You´ve got nowhere to run Chrysalis, give us back the box!" Twilight said, threat in her voice. The young princess had her horn pointed against the Queen, magic flowing from it. It had been quite some time after her brother´s wedding, and by then she was more than capable of taking care of Chrysalis. The looks of rage in everypony´s eyes didn´t went unnoticed by the Queen.

After a few tense seconds of silence, screams of several ponies caused Chrysalis to release a wide grin, as she assumed the cause of this was Boulder finishing off anypony crossing on his path. She instantly took the opportunity as a way out. "Look like we´re at an impasse here! The only solution I see is that you let me go with the box."

"And why would we do that?" Asked Twilight, preparing to strike.

"Because if you don´t, Boulder´s going to take care of everypony in this town!" Chrysalis backfired, her words shutting Twilight´s horn off in the process, she had begun to weight her chances. Not long had passed before Applejack asked.

"That big guy from before?" Her question was immediately answered, as a loud cracking sound greeted all of them just a few feet behind. Boulder came crashing into the ground, destroying part of a wall from a house, it was clear somepony was overpowering the Changeling.

"Hah! Guy´s getting his buck handed Chrysalis!" Rainbow mocked the queen. "I bet it´s the coltfriend of Twilight here! You know why? Because he´s a pegasus, and pegasus are..."

As Rainbow kept showing off, Twilight was slightly blushing, and for a moment she forgot about the upcoming battle. The alicorn filled her horn with magic, and prepared to strike against the queen, but she noticed something. Chrysalis was staring blankly past them, as if something had caught her attention. It must have been something terrifying, as her eyes demonstrated fear. The rest of the group (with the exception of Rainbow) took notice of this as well, and turned their heads behind them, with the intention of knowing what was the thing Chrysalis was watching. The Element´s eyes wide opened as soon as they witnessed what was happening.

"...and that´s why we´re gonna kick your b..." Rainbow felt somepony gently hitting her side. "Can´t you just wait Applejack? I´m almost finishing my epic dis..." Applejack grabbed the pegasus´head with her hooves, and forced her to look behind her, her eyes wide opened in shock as well. "...Wow!"

Not too far from them, Boulder was struggling to survive the attacks of something more sinister. A larger, scarier creature in a long black trench coat, was launching lefts and rights against the Changeling. His face was the thing that shocked the whole group (even Chrysalis), he appeared to have one eye only, his face seemed to be devoid of any lips, causing the creature to freely show his teeth and gums.

The fearsome enemies found themselves in a loss for words. One moment they were preparing the fight, and now they were witnessing a third party, even though the creature was attacking Boulder, there was no way to tell whether he would go for them next, or not.

Nemesis never noticed the group staring at him, as he was concentrated in butchering the Changeling. Boulder fired against Nemesis one more time, but same as before, the creature never flinched nor did he moved, this time however, Nemesis grabbed one of Boulder´s wings. The changeling let out a scream of pain as his wing was suddenly ripped apart from his body, it was a major injury, but he could live without it.

The Changeling jumped into the air, trying to get away from the monster, but was intercepted by Nemesis. Boulder felt a huge fist on his belly, before he was sent towards the ground and between Chrysalis and the Elements.

The entire group let out a small scream, as soon as they watched Boulder crashing into the floor, followed by Nemesis. The Changeling got on his hooves and lifted a magic shield, protecting him from Nemesis´ punch, but the creature attacked again, this time sending Boulder back. The Changeling took the opportunity to launch another blast, and this time he didn´t stop the attack.

The ponies could barely see a smile coming from Boulder, but it wouldn´t last. A loud roar came from the beam, followed by a huge fist. The Changeling could only blink once, before he was sent flying towards a house.

The ponies followed Boulder with their sight, and once he was lost between the debris, they turned to face Nemesis, who was roaring against the house Boulder crashed.

Several sighs of relief could be heard from the shocked ponies, as Nemesis went running towards the house. Chrysalis took the opportunity to blast against the Elements, then in the blink of an eye, she disappeared from sight.

"No!" Twilight screamed as she got up from the floor, realizing what had just happened... the box was gone.

The day Twilight´s castle was erected, the box that helped them defeat Tirek, was buried beneath it. It soon became the foundation of everything the new castle stood for, the magic of friendship. The Elements and the new royal guard would dedicated their lives to protect the landmark, as it held Equestria´s most powerful deterrent, and know it´s core was gone. Twilight blinked twice before she snapped back to reality.

"There´s no time!" She began, facing her friends, who had worried looks on their faces. "Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie try to save as many ponies as you can, and tend the wounded!" The three mares nodded, before doing their task. "Applejack, Rainbow, head back to the castle and tell Spike to send a letter to princess Celestia, inform her what is happening!"

"Wait! Why didn´t you ask Spike to send her a letter before?" Rainbow asked, making Twilight to groan in frustration before answering.

"Because I´m a princess now, I can´t rely in princess Celestia to come save us every time there´s an attack! I have to learn how to control these kind of situations!"

"Aren´t we the ones who take care of almost every problem around Equestria?" Rainbow asked with a deadpan expression.

"Rainbow, there is not time for this! Go tell spike to send a letter, things are quite out of control."

"Come on sugarcube, let´s go!" Applejack intervened before the pegasus could argue, and the two proceeded to approach the castle, leaving Twilight to deal with the rest.

Everfree Forest

Hiding between the shadows of the Everfree Forest, Sombra casted a spell which would show him what was happening in Ponyville.

Even though, he lacked a horn, Sombra was quite good at dark magic which involved the use of magical words. The fallen king had been observing the whole battle from a magical mist, he was more than impressed at what was happening. Twilight had really grown up, she had become more experienced, she and her friends, but that wasn´t the thing that caught his eye. Sombra looked with amazement in his eyes at the new creature.

Boulder was surely powerful, but he was being overpowered by the monster. The looks on this creature seemed to hold many secrets, secrets that he would be more than glad to uncover. Breaking his thoughts, Chrysalis appeared alongside him, even though she was still shocked, her face held a victorious grin, the box was hers.

"Did you see that?" The queen asked.

"Indeed I have, what is that?" Sombra replied, as he shot off the spell.

"I don´t know, but at least we have the box, whatever that monster was, I hope it takes care of them." Chrysalis chuckled at the thought, causing Sombra to shake his head.

"What about you think bigger for once, Chrisy." His words made Chrysalis frown, but she stopped there, as she was more than happy for her recent victory. "Don´t you think we could use something like that? He doesn´t seem to be on any side. This new creature surely is magnificent, ruthless!"

"Why should we care, we have what we came for!"

Sombra opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out, he was tired of dealing with her stubbornness, and opted to simply follow her. Chrysalis turned to face the rest of the Changelings, and motioned for them to part towards their home, it was indeed a very good night.

Sombra had secretly opened his mirror spell, and proceeded to watch the battle between Boulder and Nemesis.

Boulder had been running from Nemesis for several minutes. After the last time he blasted against the monster, he simply disappeared from sight, not wanting to be served on a silver plate, the Changeling searched for refugee inside the town hall.

The large hallways of the place were obscured by the darkness of the night. Almost everypony had already been evacuated from Ponyville, making the town hall a very silent place. The fires across the city were the only sounds heard, it was unsettling.

Boulder was walking slowly, and not only because he was hurt, but he was trying to make as less noise as he could, in case certain creature found him. The Changeling wasn´t following his orders anymore, he wanted to escape his fate, he wanted to get out of Ponyville. Once he was sure the creature wasn´t following, the Changeling would make his escape.

Boulder got close to a brown door, and proceeded to open it slowly, the darkness of the following hall way greeted the Changeling as he got inside. There were seven doors to the left, and numerous windows to the right, Boulder would have to walk carefully. The white floor contrasted with the yellow walls, the night obscured the brown ceiling, it was a scary place by night.

Boulder´s destination was at the opposite side of the hall way, and he had only reached the second door, five more to go. Suddenly, a loud crack was heard behind him, turning around, Boulder got into combat position. Ready to fight the monster, the Changeling turned around... it was nothing, a loose beam had fallen just outside the place. He sighed in relief before continuing his march.

After several tense seconds, Boulder had finally reached the door at the other end. He used his magic to open the door slowly, but stopped when he heard another crack behind it. Charging his horn, the Changeling breathed a few moments before he opened the door, ready to strike, but there was nothing at the other site. This situation was starting to get in Boulder´s nerves.

The Changeling proceeded to enter the room, when suddenly...

CRACK!

The large window behind him was destroyed, along with part of the wall, giving way for the monster to enter the hallway. Nemesis began to walk towards the terrified Changeling, who opted to fire a few blasts against the creature. Angered, Nemesis released a roar to the sky before he went running against Boulder, and seconds before the monster´s right arm could hit him, Boulder ducked under. Getting a few feet away from Nemesis, the Changeling blasted not only the creature, but the ceiling as well, causing it to fall on top of Nemesis. Boulder took this opportunity and exited the building.

Fate was doing it´s worst with him, as a purple blast hit Boulder on his side. The Changeling was certainly tough, but his fight against Nemesis had left him a total wreck, he was no match for the alicorn´s blast.

Twilight got closer to the Changeling, her horn glowing, meanwhile Boulder got up from the floor, a look of fury was drown in his face, that was it!

Boulder screamed in anger as he returned the attack, Twilight had only a second to react before she pulled a protective shield, taking the momentum, the alicorn transported behind the Changeling and blasted against him. Boulder was not fool, he lifted shield of his own, just in time for him to avoid being further damaged.

Twilight screamed in pain as a magical blast hit her in the chest, sending her flying away, Boulder followed behind. Before the princess could crash, Twilight used her wings to land without another hit. Boulder launched another spell, which was dodged by the alicorn, who blasted against the Changeling in return. Boulder used another protective shield.

Twilight transported once again, and tried to attack the Changeling, who attacked back in return. The two ponies were struggling to keep their blast steady, as the two magical forces collided against each other. Boulder put on more weight to his blast, causing Twilight to step back a little. The alicorn could barely see how the attack almost reached her, and augmented her magic. A big ball of magic was placed between the two different spells, the green furiously contrasted with purple, as the two ponies did their best to overcome the others magic.

Finally, Boulder reached his critical point and screamed as his attack overwhelmed Twilight, sending her crashing into a building.

Twilight struggled to get up, getting some of the debris off in the process. She had a really tough landing, but it was nothing compared to what she had went through. The debris was easily removed with her magic, and went to get up, but the huge Changeling appeared in front of her, causing the alicorn to fall to the ground again.

She was pretty damaged, her body full of bruises, and she had almost no energy to combat the Changeling in front of her, still, she placed herself in combat position. The enhanced creature in front of her wasn´t in good shape either, even looking worse than the alicorn.

The Changeling was bleeding on several parts of his body, his left hoof was flinching (probably because of a broken bone), and his head was full of severe cuts, his left wing also appeared to be crudely torn apart by a major force.

The seconds passed pretty slowly, as the Changeling prepared himself to attack. Twilight tried to do the same, but her body was more sensible to damage. Finally, the Changeling had begun the charge his horn, ready to strike against the alicorn, while a look of hatred was painted on his face.

Twilight prepared herself for the strike, but then...

CRASH!

The wall behind the Changeling was completely destroyed, giving way to the creature from before, who grabbed the dark pony´s hooves with both of his hands. Rising the Changeling to the air, Nemesis began to pull apart his limbs, making the dark pony to release a horrible scream, the Changeling had never experienced pain as he did in that moment.

The screams seemed to last forever, and Twilight did her best to look away from the disturbing scene. A live being, being enemy or not, was simply being torn apart without remorse. Green blood was splattered throughout the wrecked home, even falling on Twilight´s coat. The alicorn suddenly began to wish none of this had happened, she had never seen such cruelty, and such a monstrous act before.

Thankfully, the screams stopped, followed by the worst silent moment in her life. Twilight had her eyes closed the entire time, not wanting to see what was standing in front of her, and hoping he would just go away, sadly, it was not to be. The sound of something heavy being dropped to the floor, made her realize she was next, the fear of the moment wouldn´t let her move at all, and to make matters worst, the sounds of feet were heard going towards her.

Twilight began to tremble badly, as she heard the sounds of steps finally stop, then simply waited for the inevitable. Two seconds passed, then four, then ten, it was as if the creature was simply playing with her, enjoying the moment; then, something completely unexpected happened.

The gates of Tartarus had been opened, and from the inside, all the evils and horrible beings were suddenly joining in one word, this word would strike hard against her, as it was the voice of death.

"STAAAARS!"

What is That?

Ponyville

The sounds of breaking bones and flesh being torn apart were the only thing Twilight could listen for a few moments. It took Nemesis a couple of seconds to finally finish tearing Boulder apart, and proceeded to drop what was left of his body to the floor.

Staring at the remnants of the dead Changeling, Nemesis could spot small movement on the corner of his eye. The creature lifted his head to spot another figure inside the house. It was another pony, but different from the others. Her coat was purple and had both wings and a horn, he began to get closer, each step causing Twilight to back away while on the floor.

Nemesis continued his approach while eyeing the small alicorn, until he noticed something. The creature stopped in his tracks, and proceeded to put a hand on his head, which had just began to hurt. Memories of his past began to flash again, showing him images of Raccoon City.

After a few seconds of struggling with the memories, Nemesis took once again notice of Twilight, or what was on her side.

"STAAAARS!"

On the alicorn´s flank, was the image of a star, her cutie mark. The creature could feel something strange with the terrified alicorn in front of him, something different. He had no way of describing it.

Nemesis´ sudden word made Twilight release a loud squeak, as the voice that spoke it was clearly screaming ´danger´. It wasn´t a pleasant thought, considering she was at the monster´s mercy, and the fact that her heart was racing, didn´t help either. This could be it.

The suspense was getting unbearable as each second passed, Twilight had attempted to cast a spell many times but found herself too terrified to make a move, that´s when it hit her, Nemesis wasn´t going to attack.

The tense atmosphere began to lighten up, as her fear was slowly being replaced with curiosity, and at last, she decided to face the creature. Gulping, she lifted her face, sweat running down her face as she got sight of him.

Twilight found herself watching his face, first hand. The lipless mouth, the several tentacles going out of his shoulders. It was as if a monster from the gates of tartarus had escaped.

On his side, Nemesis was doing the same, and got a good look at the alicorn.

Twilight eyed the creature from feet to head, when suddenly a chill went through all her body, paralyzing the alicorn in the process. Her sight had direct contact with the creature´s tiny white eye. Twiligth was pierced by a number of feelings; her hooves felt numb, giving her the sensation she was flying.

Looking at Nemesis´ eye was like staring directly into the Tartarus. She could witness hatred, anger, violence and madness, all those feelings penetrated her heart like a sharpen blade, but there was something else as well, although she wasn´t sure what it was.

The creature seemed to be nothing more than a simple beast, but his eye said something else.

Twilight slowly got up, her sight never leaving Nemesis´ eye, and began to approach him.

The young alicorn had been around many mysteries across her life, but right then she found herself at the biggest one yet. A strange feeling engulfed Twilight, and strangely, the only word that came to her mind was... fate. What did that mean?

After a few more seconds of staring, Twilight cleared her throat, trying to start a conversation. The sweat had already stopped, but her heart was still racing. She opened her mouth, her words doing their best to come out.

"W-who are..."

Out of nowhere, Nemesis was stroke by a white blast, which caused the creature to be sent sailing across the destroyed house, breaking the rest of the walls in the process. Twilight couldn´help but to squeak at the sudden attack, she had no idea what was happening anymore.

The alicorn decided to step outside, a dumbfounded expression, mixed with exasperation on her face, a result of being completely clueless about her current situation. Soon, her questions were answered, as the source of the blast revealed herself as Celestia with Luna at her side, who were descending at the spot Twilight was.

"Twilight, what has happened here!?" Celestia asked, rushing towards her apprentice. A worried expression could be seen on both her face and Luna´s, who was walking behind her sister, while looking at the destruction.

"I... you... Chrysalis... monster... what?" Twilight was scratching her head, trying to comprehend what had just happened. What was that creature? Where did it come from? Why did it killed the Changeling?

Celestia could notice the desperation Twilight was going trough. Luna approached shortly after.

"You mentioned Chrysalis, was she the one who did this?"

"Yes princess, she came disguised as one of my guards. Chrysalis must have thought I sent them to apprehend her. She never expected what came next." Twilight answered.

"I take you succeeded and no more harm was done." Celestia deduced, but much to her dismay, a grim look formed on Twilight´s face.

"I´m sorry princess, but she fled... with the box." Celestia wide opened her eyes as soon as Twilight finished her sentence.

"You mean, she took the tree of harmony´s box? The one you used to defeat Tirek?"

"Yes princess..." Twilight´s head turned to face the floor, a sad expression on her face was clearly seen. She had failed in protecting the box, and she knew it would be bad for everypony. "I´m sorry princess, I should have fought more, it´s my fault we lost it! I don´t deserve to be a princess!"

Celestia could spot the beginnings of tears forming inside Twilight´s eyes. Yes, it had been a colossal failure, but nothing that couldn´t be fixed. Celestia wrapped a wing around her and cleared her throat to start talking.

"It was indeed a setback, but the probability of her opening the box and retrieve it´s power is dim. Chrysalis does not posses the knowledge or heart to be deemed worthy of it´s contents." Twilight faced the princess, the beginnings of a smile forming on her mouth, as Celestia released her form her grasp. "I will send my guards to search Chrysalis, don´t worry about that. We will reclaim the box again, but for now we should worry about the state of Ponyville. Today´s was a hard battle and I wish for you to relax."

"I don´t know if I´ll be able to relax, princess." Twilight said, receiving a warm stare from Celestia.

Before the princess could talk, Twilight´s friends showed up.

"Twilight! Are you okay?" Applejack asked, rushing towards the purple alicorn.

"Yeah! We thought those big guys were going to get you!" Rainbow said, her words making Celestia realize something.

"Talking about that, what was th..."

"ROAAAAAAR!"

Faster than the eye could see, Celestia was tackled to the floor by a giant creature. Everypony around backed away from the sudden surprise and gasped after seeing what was happening.

Nemesis had the princess pinned to the ground, and proceeded to raise his foot, ready to slam her head. Moments before his foot touched the ground, Celestia disappeared, shortly reappearing behind the monster. Wasting no time, she blasted against him, then backed away from the explosion.

"What was that vile creature?" Luna asked.

"Nopony knows, it just appeared out of nowhere and..."

"ROAAAAAR!"

Nemesis was again in full charge against the princess, but this time, Luna had joined the battle, and blasted against the side of the creature. The princess of the night gasped in horror once she noticed the creature didn´t even flinch. Nemesis´head turned around slowly to face Luna, who was ready in combat position.

Nemesis charged against the princess of the night, but got another blast from Celestia. The situation was proving to be exasperating for the monster, who couldn´t decide which one of the two he would attack first.

Twilight, alongside her friends, tried to help the princesses, but Celestia placed a hoof in front of them, motioning for the Elements to stay behind. Twilight clearly didn´t like the idea, as she felt a strange feeling about the encounter, nonetheless she obeyed.

The two princesses stared at each other, nodding in confirmation before resuming their attack. Celestia shot once again, gaining the creature´s attention. Nemesis launched himself to tackle her once again, but Celestia teleported behind the creature, and fired at his back. Before the creature could react, Luna shot his right side, sending him flying a few feet away. Nemesis was getting pissed.

Roaring in anger, the monster proceeded with his attack against the closest foe, in this case Celestia. Using all of his speed, Nemesis rushed against the princess, finally reaching her. The creature was about to start the beating when he noticed something, it was an illusion, he had no time to turn around, as the monster felt a burning sensation underneath him.

Nemesis could notice in time how part of the floor he was standing, began to change color to a glowing orange. The creature jumped out of the way as a tower of lava raised from the ground. He dodged once more another lava spell, as he stepped to his left, but was received by yet another tower. Nemesis was sent to the sky, lava surrounding his body, but it would not kill him.

While in the air, Nemesis took notice of the princess and did his best to avoid another spell coming from under him. The creature was making his way towards the ground, when Luna blasted against him. Nemesis was sent to the ground with enough impact to create a small crater.

Not wasting any moment, the two princesses placed themselves on top of the creature, floating just a meter above him, then blasted against Nemesis continuously. Roarings of pain could be heard coming from the beast, as his body was surrounded by the princesses´ most powerful spells.

It was a relief Nemesis wasn´t the brightest mind around, as he was easily fooled. The attack continued for a few more seconds until...

"STOP!" The voices of three small fillies were heard coming from behind the creature, their faces covered in sweat as they made their way towards Nemesis. For a moment, the princesses considered simply continuing their attack, but the fillies won them over. Celestia and Luna stopped blasting, leaving a heavily charred Nemesis on the ground.

"Girls what are you doing, that thing attacked the princesses!" Twilight said, rushing towards the little ones with Applejack and Rarity on her side.

The fillies made her way through the small crater, wrapping their hooves around the damaged creature. "You can´t hurt Nemesis! He isn´t bad!" Apple Bloom replied.

"Not bad? That monster was about to butcher Celestia and Luna!" Applejack exclaimed.

"Not mentioning his looks! That thing clearly is an animal!" Rarity added.

Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy (who found Rarity´s words interesting) placed themselves alongside Twilight, who was trying to get closer to the fillies.

"Twilight is right little ones, that creature could kill everypony if we don´t stop it." Celestia replied, joining the group moments later.

"But he hasn´t, he was only trying to help!" Sweetie added.

"Trying to help? How is attacking us ´trying to help´! Luna said, a frown clearly visible on her face.

"Maybe he did because you attacked him first!" Scootaloo joined the conversation.

As the talk continued, Celestia noticed something shocking. Nemesis wounds were closing pretty fast, as part of his charred skin began to heal, it was both disturbing and interesting. Nemesis, on his part, was clenching his fists, the anger was starting to build up, and he would no longer be able to control himself.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had her eyes placed on the creature as well, but contrary to Celestia, a sad look was visible on her face, as she started to feel bad for his current state. There was no fear in the yellow pegasus, but compassion. Her love for animals was equal to even the most dangerous ones, and Nemesis was no exception.

"We can´t allow a monster like this roam freely, you and the rest of the ponies could be in great danger." Luna continued the debate. "Please, apart yourselves from the monster, and let us take care of it."

"We won´t!" Apple Bloom said. "If Nemesis ´ere was bad, he wouldn´t have saved us from those Timberwolves, or that Hydra... or stopped us from riding a Manticore."

"You did what?!" Applejack exclaimed, her eyes wide opening in surprise. "You mean you´ve been hanging out with that thing?"

Before the filly could answer, Celestia spoke. "We understand how you feel, but you must understand it could have been acting on instinct, the creature doesn´t have free will."

'The creature doesn't have free will'

'The creature doesn't have free will'

'The creature doesn't have free will'

That was it! The words broke Nemesis completely as he lost all control.

"ROAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

Everypony felt their hearts leaving their chests at the monsters´ sudden outburst of rage, and in a sudden movement, Nemesis launched his fist against the face of the princess, who place a shield in front of her. Nemesis had been a puppet for many years, people who stripped him of his memories and past, claiming free will was no longer his. He would not be able to be said he had no freedom ever again.

The shield Celestia placed on herself was easily shattered, and the impact of the punch sent her flying away. A small thing dropped to the floor after the princess of the sun was sent sailing across the sky. Luna´s rage was escalating quickly as soon as she realized what was the thing that fell to the floor, it was Celestia´s tooth.

As the princess of the night began to charge her horn, Nemesis approached her slowly, soon after Luna blasted against him, completely lost in rage, but to her dismay, Nemesis was too lost to even stop his advancement.

The spell Luna had casted was furiously colliding against Nemesis, who was still walking against it, the pain not bothering him in the slightest.
The bright light between the two forces was shortening as the creature got closer to her. Soon enough the monster grabbed Luna by her horn, and raised her over his head before bringing her down to the floor.

The princess of the night had a few seconds to react and raised her shield, as Nemesis kicked her while on the ground, sending her away in the process, thankfully, Celestia grabbed her with her magic and gently dropped her to the ground.

Luna could see a fearful look on her sister´s bloodied face, a look soon shared by the princess of the night. There was no need to ask how Celestia felt, as it was clear by the look on her face, her pride, her peacefulness, her perfect smile was shattered by an unstoppable force, but there was no time for consolations, as Nemesis was once again in full charge against the sisters.

Just before the monster tackled them, the princesses separated, causing Nemesis to crash against a building, but that didn´t stop the raging monster, who soon got out of the debris and grabbed Celestia with his arms, then send an uppercut to her stomach, sending her to the sky.

Luna launched a spell, preventing the monster from ascending, and getting his attention. The princess of the night could only see in horror how Nemesis went out of the smoke the blast created, and with no visible scratch. Seconds later, a tentacle wrapped around her neck, as she felt her body being lifted into the air, before crashing once again on the floor.

The Elements along with the three fillies, witnessed the ensuing battle, their jaws almost hitting the floor. The monster was seemingly overpowering the two princesses. The fillies though, were trying to figure out a way to calm him, their thoughts being interrupted by Applejack.

"What in tarnation were you thinking!? befriending a thing like that!? That monster could have killed you!"

"No he wouldn´t, he has saved us many times, if he really wanted to, he would have done it by now! And stop calling him a thing, his name is Nemesis!" Apple Bloom replied at the already frowning cowpony.

"I don´t care what is his name! That monster is beating the princesses!"

"And we´ll have to intervene if things get out of hoof." Twilight added, placing herself alongside Applejack.

"Are you crazy Twilight?! That monster will most surely butcher us!" Rainbow said, also joining the conversation, along with Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity.

"Stop calling him monster!" Sweetie replied. "He is not one!"

"ROAAAAR!"

The sudden roar didn´t only interrupt the conversation, but had also surprised the group, as a badly beaten Luna was sent crashing into the floor.

"Princess! Are you okay?" Twilight asked, as she rushed to her side and offered her a hoof. "I can call for backup!"

"NO! That beast will kill them, let us handle this beast!" Luna answered, shakily getting on her hooves, and instantly realizing something as she turned to see around her. "Were is my sister?"

The answer came in the from of a crashing Celestia, who had formed a small crater on the ground from the impact. The princess of the night approached her sister.

"Tough one, huh?" Luna joked, making Celestia roll her eyes as she stood up, then gave her sister a deadpan expression.

"Now´s not the time, Luna."

CRASH!

A few feet away from the group, Nemesis landed, making the rest back away in fear as the beast got closer. The two princesses, however, stood defiantly. The monster began continued his walk towards the badly injured princesses, until...

"Nemesis, stop!" The fillies said in unison as they stepped in front of the sisters. The creature didn´t listen, and continued walking, forcing them to approach him.

"Fillies, what are you doing!" Celestia asked, trying to get the attention of the little ones.

"Apple Bloom! Stay away from that monster!" Applejack exclaimed, followed by Rarity.

"Sweetie come here at this instant."

The fillies, however, didn´t listen and got closer to Nemesis.

"Nemesis, please! Don´t hurt them!"

"You´re not bad!" Sweetie was next, succeeding in getting the monsters attention.

"Please, we promise they wont hurt you, stop attacking them!" Scootaloo finished.

Finally, Nemesis stopped his advance, letting his guard down. So far he had been attacked by the creatures in this world, but not by the fillies, with just a few days from having met them, Nemesis found out he could trust the little ones, he had formed an attachment to them, as such, he complied.

Taking the little opportunity, Celestia and Luna nodded at each other before acting against the creature.

"There we go, see? There´s nothing to worry abo..."

Before Sweetie could finish her sentence, Nemesis was covered by a yellowish and dark blue sphere. A shield summoned by the princesses was erected, hoping to keep Nemesis at bay, who was trying to break out.

Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow wasted no time in taking hold of the fillies, putting them away from the soon to rage monster, meanwhile Luna and Celestia prepared one final spell against Nemesis.

"No wait! Don´t hurt him!" Scootaloo screamed, trying to break free from Rainbow´s grasp.

"Leave him alone! Please!" Sweetie was next.

Suddenly, Celestia let go of her recently shattered pride and rage to listen the fillies, so far the monster had attacked them as self defense, maybe they could find out more about it, besides it seemed to cure himself from any injury inflicted upon him, and it was unclear whether if he could be destroyed or not, and if they couldn´t kill it, then they would incapacitated him. The princess had already crafted a plan.

"ROAAAAR!" Nemesis was getting angrier and angrier, his powerful blows shattering the sphere he was in, Celestia took notice of this and ordered Twilight and Rarity to join them and reinforce the shield.

"Luna! We´re not killing this creature, use your dream spell on him!"

"What? You serious, that thing will kill anything in it´s path!" Luna replied, doing her best to keep the sphere up.

"Put him to sleep! None of our attacks worked on him!" Luna was struggling to take her sister´s words seriously. "Luna! I have never seen anything like it, if he isn´t from here, then we have to find out where he is from! We don´t need two of them!" She didn´t want to admit it, yes, it was imperative to discover more about him, but the fillies´ words had pierced her heart, if the creature was as docile as they say, then there was no need to destroy it, if that was possible that is.

Finally agreeing with Celestia, Luna started to charge a dream spell, causing her to release her grasp on the creature and weakening the shield.

The fillies couldn´t help but to release a very low ´thank you´, which was audible by the princess, causing her to release a weak smile before focusing in the sphere.

Celestia, Twilight and Rarity were now struggling to keep the beast at bay, who was trying to break the shield with all his might.

Blow after blow, the sphere´s crack got bigger, and soon, the monster´s arm was free, it was only a matter of time before his body followed, time they didn´t have.

"Luna, hurry!" Yelled Celestia, sweating from all the effort.

"I´m on it!" Luna answered.

CRACK! The shield was almost shattered, and Nemesis had an angrier look on his face.

"Princess! He´s escaping, and I can´t hold on much longer!" Twilight said, doing her best to not fade from the effort.

"LUNA!" Celestia screamed one last time, as the shield finally gave in, giving way to a furious creature, thankfully, Luna had already charged the spell, and released it against him.

The monster´s will was certainly great, as he kept advancing despite the powerful spell engulfing his entire body, but soon enough it would prove stronger than him. The creature finally fell to the floor, and just a few feet away from Luna, who had released the breath she was holding. The monster was down, and the group wasted no time in trying to get a good look on him.

Celestia used her magic to turn the beast face up, so the others could look at him, meanwhile the three fillies surrounded with their hooves the monster´s torso.

"What in tarnation is that?" Applejack was the first to speak, followed by Pinkie.

"It looks like a zombie! Is it a zombie?"

"Did you watch him eating somepony? I don´t think this thing is a zombie." Rainbow replied.

"Whatever it is, it´s clearly not from here, I don´t recall watching something like it in a myth book." Twilight added.

"Stop calling him an ´it´, his name is Nemesis!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, a frown clearly visible.

To the surprise of everypony, Fluttershy got closer to him, touching his head with her hoof. "They are right girls, this poor thing most be lost."

"Poor thing?! Fluttershy, this thing was beating the princesses! I say we take care of it!" Rainbow replied, doing her best to look at his face. She wouldn´t admit it, but the creature terrified her, more than anything she had ever seen.

"Stop calling him thing!" Scootaloo screamed in anger, and Rainbow was about to answer when Celestia interrupted.

"Where did you find this Nemesis?"

"We were running from a pack of Timberwolves when we found him, he saved us!" Sweetie answered.

The princesses looked at each other and nodded, then Celestia turned to the group and started talking. "We shall take Nemesis to Canterlot for further studies, we will need the Elements for this."

With those words, the group instantly agreed. Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity had come to the conclusion to leave the fillies at Applejacks before heading towards Canterlot, and although they tried to talk against it, the little ones finally complied, under the promise they would keep Nemesis safe.

Celestia had called some guards to take care of the creature, and asked for a carriage to head towards the castle. The next day would be a long one.

"From now on, let me be the one who smiles at the cameras!" Luna mocked her sister´s now missing tooth, Celestia only gave a deadpan look.

The group had begun their march, leaving Twilight behind, who was investigating the place she met Nemesis, and noticed something interesting, and somewhat terrifying, the Changeling´s corpse was missing, Boulder was nowhere to be seen.

Captured

Umbrella facility, Europe

September 15th, 1998

"So, will the parasite keep the subject´s intelligence? We don´t want another Lisa." One of the two scientist in front of a operation table asked, never taking his eyes off the the gigantic creature resting motionless.

The other man turned to face his partner, while grabbing a few notes which rested on a table to his right. "It should, NE-α appears to have a better bonding with the T-103s"

There were only four men inside the room, two scientists and two guards, the later were personally brought by one of the scientists.

"yet, many of them died after having contact with the parasite. How are you going to avoid the problem Dr. Andy?" The other scientist replied, a frown clearly visible on his face. He simply hated the idea of having both resources and time wasted. The other T-103s before the one they were in front off, died due to the hosts not being compatible, clearly not something the man would like to see repeated.

"After many test subjects, we discovered the choosing cycle of the NE-α is completely random, and we cannot guaranty any kind of success with this one." Andy replied, doing his best to avoid his ´partner´s´ gaze.

"very well Andy." The scientist exclaimed, calling with his fingers for a couple of soldiers. "Tie the Tyrant, make sure he can´t move." The guards proceeded to cover the Tyrant with titanium straps, preventing his movement. The table he was in, made from the same material.

The sudden order made Andy scratch his head in confusion. There wasn´t any need for them to tie the T-103, as it wasn´t exactly awake. Finally his curiosity won over, and made him approach the scientist, who placed his hand on Andy´s chest to stop his advancement.

"Easy there Dr. Berman, I have an idea" the scientist released a thin grin. "I want to see how the Tyrant reacts to trauma, and observe if he is capable of controling itself after being injected with the parasite."

Before Andy could think on what he just said, the scientist spoke once again. "Wake him up."

That was a crazy idea, and dangerous, but Andy couldn´t bring himself to argue with the man, something about his persona sent chills down his spine, and his calmed way of talking was unsettling. It was a fact, the scientist terrified him, but he at least was certain the man knew what he was doing.

One of the two soldiers used a small panel, which was situated alongside the T-103´s operation table, to reanimate the goliath. Seconds later, The Tyrant woke up, immediately trying to move, but noticing that much to his dismay his body was completely trapped. The titanium straps prevented even his head from moving.

"Very well Dr. Berman, let´s start the procedure, bring the NE-α parasite." Andy did as the man said, and brought the specimen inside a small flask, the octopus like parasite inside was moving out of control, almost as if it knew, a new host was about to arrive.

Part of the host´s head had to be opened, so the parasite could enter, due to this, a small incision had to be made at the top of the Tyrant´s head. Andy turned to face the scientist, who nodded in confirmation. With this, Andy began the operation.

The Tyrant had surprisingly remained calmed, even after the incision was made, its eyes however, remained locked directly at the scientist.

Finally after a few tense seconds, the NE-α was introduced into the T-103´s brain, with it, bad things were about to start. The Tyrant´s eyes began to flinch as he felt the parasite making its way through his brain, changing and bonding with his head. The multiple tentacles began to travel across the T-103´s face, destroying part of the left side of his head, including the eye. The parasite seemed to be getting rid other parts of the face as well, as the Tyrant´s nose was completely ripped from the head, alongside his lips.

The body was not saved from the radical change, as his trademark white skin was starting to change, giving him a brown coloration. From the shoulders, multiple purple tentacles began to surface, leaving the left one unnaturally big.

While Andy was doing his best not to throw up, the scientist was watching the whole scene without any care in the world, the beginnings of a smile completely visible.

The Tyrant finally broke up, and roared at the top of his lungs. The failed attempts lasted for a few seconds, until the T-103 got sight of something just before he passed out, the scientist laid in front of him, staring at his fate and smiling the whole moment, after that, everything went dark, the NE-α finally took complete control of his brain and body.

Andy had finished emptying his stomach inside a trash can, when he turned to face the still smiling scientist, then got sight of the Tyrant.

The T-103 was a complete wreck. His body was deformed, with the face being the most noticeable part.

"We should probably patch him up." Andy suggested.

"Not if he´s dead. Is he alive Dr. Berman?" The scientist asked, his request making Andy give him a worried look, which was answered with a frown. The man seemed to be more terrifying than the creature.

"I can´t believe it!" Andy replied, his eyes wide opened as he turned to face the scientist. "The parasite finally found a suitable host, the Tyrant is in stable condition!"

The scientist face gave a small smirk at his success. "Good, now let´s start the programming, we need to get rid of the witnesses."

Andy could notice a wider smile on the man´s face, almost instantly making him realize what was he talking about. "You mean, the survivors of the mansion?" The scientist nodded in response.

"Indeed, continue with the plan settled by Umbrella."

"Very well." Andy replied, as he turned to attend the T-103, but was stopped once again.

"Remember Dr. Berman, I´m a dead man, and I´m sure we don´t want any unnecessary bloodshed, do we?" The scientist asked, getting a nervous nod from Andy, and with that, the man proceeded to head towards the exit, with the two soldiers following him. Just as he reached the door, he turned to see Andy. "You can start patching it up now Dr. Berman. Oh! And stop calling it Tyrant, name it after the parasite. Call him... Nemesis."

Nemesis opened his eye, his roar being the first thing to echo inside the cell blocks, waking up every pony inside in the process.

Normally, several laughs and voices could be heard throughout the day, but right now, no word was pronounced. The cell blocks were full of dense atmosphere, the reason for this, a giant scary monster locked with them.

Every inmate had passed the worse night of their lives, wondering if whether the monster would wake up and butcher them all. They had been assured they would be safe, but then again, nopony had ever seen a creature as Nemesis before.

The cell blocks were as cheerful as a cemetery, everypony was sweating, their bodies were shaking, and their hearts were racing, some of them couldn´t take the suspense well and passed out. It was a very tense morning and not only for the inmates, but for the guards as well.

Celestia was running out of soldiers to guard the cell blocks, and most of them either abandoned their post, or simply refused being down there with Nemesis, even if it costed them their jobs, finally a few brave guards took the job and headed to the cell blocks, only to have their bravery tested as the creature woke up.

"Oh no! It´s waking up!" One of the soldiers exclaimed, doing his best to simply talk. The other gave a nervous nod in response, before he talked.

"Don´t worry Fly Mark, the princess assured he was contained."

"And you believed it? Not even the princesses have seen anything like it before, how do they know what he´s capable of?" Fly Mark replied, before slightly facing behind him, staring at Nemesis´ cage. "I mean, look at him Wood Bark!"

Wood Bark did as his partner said, and proceeded to look at Nemesis, his eyes going blank, as his sweat began to run down his face, then in a nervous voice, he spoke. "J-just stay calm, okay? W-w-we´re going to be fine."

Flay Mark shacked his head. "I´m telling you man, we don´t stand a chance against that freak. I mean, he almost defeated The princesses, and shattered princess Celestia´s teeth!"

Wood Bark released a small nervous chuckle, however, before the talk could continue, the two soldiers heard a small growl behind them.

"Crap! Crap! He´s waking up!" Fly Mark exclaimed, holding tighter to the spear he was holding, Wood Bark didn´t answer, as he was doing his best to remain calm.

This was the beginning of a tense day.

Nemesis released a small growl before sitting on the floor. First thing he noticed was that he wasn´t in the forest, he was inside what looked like a prison cell, similar to the ones in Raccoon City, although a lot smaller. Next, he took a look at the two guards in front.

With that, he stood up, but just as he was about to reach his full height...

THUMP!

Nemesis´ head collided against the ceiling, shattering it in the process, the creature roared as he grabbed his head, however the two guards heard the whole thing without turning to watch at the scene, and instantly thought the monster was escaping.

"RUN FOR IT, FLY!" Wood Bark replied as he was the first to head out of the cell blocks, followed by his partner.

"DON´T LEAVE ME TO DIE!"

Meanwhile, Nemesis continued grabbing his head, making small groans of anger in the process. It took him at least five seconds to calm himself down, until a piece of the ceiling fell on the back of his head, as he was crouching due to the lack of space for him. The piece of debris which fell on him caused the creature´s anger to increase, and went to punch the ceiling with enough strength to make a full hole... at least he now had space to stand at his full height, although in only one small place.

Nemesis once more stood up, this time successfully stretching his limbs, although he noticed one thing once his head was inside the small crater. If Nemesis had lips... or sense of humor, he would most certainly chuckle at the fact that the small hole he made on the ceiling disabled his sight. That small hole was enough to cover his entire head, but at least he could stand now.

However, Nemesis couldn´t stand be still in one place, and soon enough he had to move, as much as he could at least. The creature crouched down, sitting on the floor, while thinking about his dream. Ever since he had his free will back, he began to have dreams, by now it was no strange for him, the weird part was the dream itself. Was it even his imagination? Or a memory? Whatever it was, he was sure it hurt, it angered him.

Nemesis remained still for a few seconds until he finally took notice of his predicament. Sure, he had already seen he was inside a cell, but that fact hadn´t hit him until now.

Nemesis noticed he was once again encased. This immediately brought him back memories of his escape, of his past while being stored, waiting to be released, to be used.

If the ponies around Nemesis´cage were terrified before, now they would all have a massive heart attack once they both heard and noticed how the beast locked with them began punching against his cage, roaring at the top of his lungs in the process.

The cage Nemesis was in, was surrounded by an almost invisible shield, and it was certainly strong.

The monster pounded again, and again against it, trying to shatter it, trying to be free oncemore, but it never gave in. The anger inside Nemesis began to grow with each punch that landed to the spell. Blow after blow, his desperation raised as well, and it wouldn´t be long before he would start pounding the ceiling, which was shaking from the impacts, and with it, several screams from the other prisoners began.

It was at least seven of the morning when Twilight felt something lay on her bed, while wrapping itself around her. The alicorn was still shaken up from the battle in Ponyville to assume it was danger, and the loud roars and pounds didn´t help either. Naturally she turned to see what was hugging her, then her face released a surprised expression, as from behind her, she saw the unexpected...

"RAINBOW! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!"

The rainbow maned pegasus was shaking badly, and used all of her courage to face Twilight, while releasing a sheepish smile, then gulped before talking.

"umm... I... well..." Her face suddenly tried to release a sincere smile, without success. "You know how much I appreciate you, right, Twi? And I thought it was a good idea to give you a bro hug in the morning!" Twilight deadpanned at this.

Suddenly, Rainbow was covered in a purple aura, as she was being levitated, then was released when she was above the ground and away from Twilight´s bed.

"Rainbow, I don´t know why you´re so afraid, that thing is locked!" Applejack exclaimed as she approached the duo. The Elements had decided to take one room for all, as none of them had the courage to sleep alone, and naturally the noises coming from the cell blocks, woke them all up.

Rainbow took only a second to regain composure, and did her best to stand defiantly. "Afraid? ME!? Ha! I fear nothing!" She exclaimed, confidence in her words... at least until another pound accompanied by another terrifying roar was enough to shatter all her bravery, causing her to once again wrap her hooves around Twilight, while shaking. Applejack shook her head.

Rainbow wasn´t at least, the only one terrified, everypony was pretty much doing their best not to panic, even Pinkie had a clearly uneasy smile. Indeed, everypony was afraid, all but one... Fluttershy seemed rather tranquilized, which was totally strange due to her personality. As a matter of fact, Rainbow´s reaction was also weird, normally she was able to hide the fact she was afraid, as much as she could of course. The complete display was completely ironic.

Eventually one pony would ask the reason for Fluttershy´s calmed reaction.

"No offence sugarcube, but... how can you be so calmed? Especially you?" Applejack asked, as she scratched her mane.

"Well... I..." The yellow pegasus began to speak, until she was interrupted.

"As a matter of fact, why weren´t you scared yesterday?" Rarity asked, her expression matching the rest of the ponies present.

"It´s because I..." Fluttershy tried again.

"Yeah! You even approached that monster!" Rainbow added, and Fluttershy once again tried to speak, her eyes watching the floor.

It´s just... that..."

"Fluttershy you can tell us, we are not interrupting..." It was Twilight´s turn to speak, until she was finally silenced.

"IT´S BECAUSE HE ISN´T BAD!" Fluttershy finally snapped, and screamed. It wasn´t long before she took notice of the outburst, and returned to her normal personality. "It´s because... he... he is not bad."

"NOT BAD?!" Rainbow replied. "Fluttershy, that thing was wiping the floor with the princesses, THE PRINCESSES! He even shattered Celestia´s teeth!"

"And not mentioning what he did to that Changeling." Twilight added, her voice trembling as she remembered the scene. The sound of flesh and bone being ripped apart, a memory she would try to forget for many years, suddenly another memory came to her mind, the memory of the Changeling disappearing. With a shake from her head, she snapped back to reality, and just in time to hear Fluttershy speak.

"The poor thing must have been scared, as most animals are when they are in a new place."

Applejack facehoofed at this. She was about to speak when suddenly...

CRASH!

The sound of cracking came from the cell blocks, followed by a very familiar roar, and in an instant, everypony went out of the room, getting ready for whatever would come next.

Three minutes earlier

It wasn´t a disturbing night only for the six, but for the whole castle as well, including the princesses. They had expected this, but not on the same scale, they had expected much less.

"Ugh!, It has begun!" Celestia groaned under her breath as she slowly sat on her bed. The princess had just returned from rising the sun, and prepared to sleep, but there was one small problem... a certain monster had just woken up, and it was clearly angry.

Last night had been tough; first Chrysalis attack on Ponyville, then the box, Nemesis and finally... her beautiful, beautiful smile was destroyed. The princess slowly stood up from her bed, instantly heading towards the mirror. Celestia gave a small sigh as she opened her mouth, revealing a hole between two of the frontal upper teeth. At least she had enough sense of humor to release a small chuckle at this.

Celestia was known for her infinite benevolence, strangely showing any kind of anger, this was the reason why she was loved by her subjects. ´At least I have my personality´She though, taking one last look at her now imperfect smile.

The seconds kept passing, and the pounds and roars seemed to be destined to continue till the end of days, meanwhile Celestia began to brush her hair, while sporting a deadpan look, this was shaping up to be a rather long day. Her thoughts were soon cut short as her door began to open, revealing an equally deadpan-expression Luna.

"So, how´s my favorite smile?"

"Very funny Luna..." Celestia answered sarcastically, not even bothering to face her sister.

"This... Nemesis is has already started to be a problem, I just saw the two guards we sent, running out of the castle." Luna said.

"At least he´s locked away, that spell will certainly hold." Celestia replied, still brushing her hair. "Star Swirl was certainly an accomplished magician." Indeed, the spell holding Nemesis was made by the legendary pony, and it was completely reliable, the princesses had nothing to worry about.

Soon enough, Luna continued talking. "So... what´s next? Shall we try to get some information out of him?"

"I don´t think this Nemesis is even capable of speech, or even capable of communicating at all, although..." Celestia suddenly remembered how the monster exploded in fury when they were fighting. "Did you take notice of his reaction?"

Luna deadpanned. "You mean when he was attacking in full fury? Tia, that creature seems to be always like that."

"No, no! He was especially mad when I said he had no free will, I recognize that type of fury." Celestia turned to face the mirror, thinking about her words. "If he understood that, then there´s a chance he could..."

"ROAAAAR!"

Without saying another word, the sisters immediately headed out of the room, and towards the cell blocks. That last pound certainly didn´t sound like a shattering shield.

Nemesis had made a serious hole on both the ceiling and the floor; his violence had stroke fear inside every pony in the cell blocks, each one of the inmates where doing their best to not collapse from fear. Some had their ears covered, so that they would not hear the roars, others where desperately trying to break the cell bars, it was a horrifying sight.

Soon enough the princesses appeared inside the chaotic place, and it only took Nemesis a few seconds to take notice of them.

If the was any kind of bravery left in the sisters, it was almost vanished once they took sight of at the creature. Nemesis suddenly stopped pounding the area, his eye making contact with the princesses. His rage began to escalate a he recognized them.

Both Celestia and Luna found Nemesis´reaction unsettling, as he was simply staring at them, sadly for them, it wouldn´t last. Nemesis let out a loud roar as he tried to tackle the shield with his body, the beast was on pure fury.

The roars went louder, as well a the creatures motions, it seemed as if a wild animal had been tortured during all of its life, then thrown into a cage. The movements, the violence, the roars... it was disturbing. Nemesis will go for the kill as soon as he gets the chance.

Celestia was completely blank, she felt her body unable to move, unlike her sister, who took all of her courage to approach the cell. Luna used her regal tone to try and keep the beast at bay. HALT! THOU WILL CEASE ALL ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO...

"ROAAAAAAAAAR!"

That was all Nemesis needed to stop her from talking, a loud roar and a powerful strike against the shield. Luna was immediately taken aback, she, the princess of the night, the mare on the moon, the alicorn who stroke fear in the hearts of ponies, was trembling before an even scarier foe, who wasn´t even scared of her.

Luna observed with her eyes wide open, as the monster simply ceased his attempts before retreating to the shadows, his white eye being the only thing visible. Nemesis had made a point, he was scarier than Luna, a fact that hit hard against the princess of the night.

Now the cell blocks were rather quiet, the only things audible being the monster´s low growls, but soon the silence was broken once again.

"Princess! Are you okay?" Twilight screamed as soon as she caught Celestia staring blankly at the cell, it took her a few seconds to answer.

"Yes, Twilight, everything´s fine, although fine is a little far stretched."

The rest of the group followed behind, making their way towards the princess of the night.

"What about you, princess Luna? You look shaken up." Applejack asked a wide open eyed Luna, who simply turned to face the exit.

"It is nothing, I just... I..." She didn´t say anything else as she prepared to head out of the cell blocks, ready to think about what had happened. As for the rest of the ponies present at the Goliath´s prison, the horror was about to begin, and Nemesis was about to tell his answers the best way he could, Celestia help anypony who enters that cell.

Know Fear

It was time, Luna had just left the room and only the Elements and Celestia remained inside the now dreaded prison. The room had gone almost silent, the only noises heard being the monster´s low growls and the ponies heavy breathing. The ambiance wasn´t nice, as it was filled with incertitude, the unknown of what was to come.

Nopony would even dare raise the question, but they were sure as Heck thinking the same thing ´Who would go inside first?´. From time to time the beginnings of bravery lit up inside their hearts, but it was the beast´s stare the made them doubt their courage.

It was all so surreal, not even the all mighty princess Celestia, or the fearless Pinkie Pie dared to even take a step. What was this beast?

Celestia had surely thought about the option of getting rid of the monster, but the fillies´ word won her over, they had explained Nemesis´ ability to remain peaceful and his good will... nopony of course would believe that, still, it had actually shown a bit of humanity.

The memory of the monster calling Twilight ´Stars´ would never leave the pony´s mind, and it would forever be the cause of her nightmares, but it was at least proof of rationality, that was the reason why they had decided to communicate with Nemesis.

Finally words were suddenly spoken, the owner of these being none other than the trembling princess, who had just taken a step forward, which was of course, noticed by Nemesis. "I will go first."

"Princess, I don´t think that´s a good idea, out of all of us, you seem to be the one that thing hates the most." Twilight stepped in front of Celestia, stopping her advance, as soon as she noticed the beast´s violent reaction.

She had a valid point, the Nemesis had seemed to take a special hatred on her, but... 'The creature doesn't have free will' How could a heartless monster react to such vague words? Maybe it was not as heartless as she believed, still, she would not be the one to go inside first.

"Pinkie..."

A collective gasp was the immediate answer to the princess´ sudden decision, while Pinkie simply placed a hoof on her chest saying a fearful and silent ´Me?´. Celestia nodded.

The party pony was shaking her head in a negative, praying for the princess to change her opinion; she had faced many things, laughed at the face of the most horrific things in existence and now, here she was wishing to be inside the belly of a Hydra instead of entering the cage of Tartarus.

"I am aware of you fear, but I am certain that even if you don´t succeed in communicating with this monster, you will at least calm him enough for the rest to enter safer, you are the Element of laughter after all." Celestia smiled warmly, trying to inflict confidence inside Pinkie.

"But princess," Said the pink pony, "you do know he has no lips, right?"

Celestia chuckled. "I know you will succeed, I promise you will be protected, I will not let him harm you and as soon as I notice something is wrong, you will be taken out. Are you up for the task? Who knows, you may even get a new friend."

Pinkie lowered her head, trying to control her lips from trembling, her mane was completely flat, and her eyes where doing their best not to look at the single white eye watching at her.

She weighted her options, the pros and cons, that´s when she felt several hooves wrapping around her.

"Don´t worry Pinkie, I´m sure you are up for the task, nopony would have your magic to make friends." Said Twilight, a smile formed on her face.

"Yeah, remember that bald donkey? He was sure hard but you nailed it!" Rainbow was next, followed by the collective nods from the rest of the group.

She had taken her decision, her mane had recovered her usual self as she placed the right hoof on her chest. "I will turn that big scary meanie into a friendly cutie in a yiffy!" The pink pony began to ready herself as she was being covered in a gold light by Celestia´s magic.

Cheers came from everypony inside the place as she disappeared from the place only to reappear inside the magical cage.

Pinkie had a big confident smile in her face, as she placed her gaze on what she believed was Nemesis´ face, but the growl wasn´t coming from there. The big grin was quickly erased as she began to lift her face, her eyes slowly making their way towards the real face.

Her heart began to pound faster, and only a few words were muttered by her. "This was a bad idea."

Suddenly, she realized were she was. The dark and scary cell of a caged monster.

Nemesis was already at full height, his eye staring at Pinkie; he was not moving, it would seem the beast was enjoying the scene as he prepared to gut his prey.

"Umm... Hi Nemie... I´m... uh, Pinkie Pie." The pony said, nervousness clearly noticeable in her voice. The monster did not move. "I... uh... brought you this."

Pinkie took a brain shaped cupcake out of nowhere, and extended her trembling hoof towards Nemesis, who was simply staring at her. She never noticed when the smile left her face and when it was replaced with wide open eyes and a downed expression, still she would have to try.

"I know you are not the...the monster everypony believes." No movement, and her hoof was getting tired. "Who... who knows, maybe you will turn out to be the friendliest pony... erm... in Equestria." Her face did its best to release a smile.

After a few silent seconds, she lowered her hoof, her heart pounding more relaxed than before. "I guess you don´t like cupcake, it´s okay, not everypony have to like the same things." Nemesis made no movement... it was really unsettling, but at least Pinkie felt more relaxed.

"Hey! Maybe if you could stop being so meanie you could come out and I could throw you a party!" Finally she got a response, which came in the form of a calmed groan, Pinkie sighed in relief at the sudden reaction. "You see, everything´s okay!"

Nemesis began to walk towards her only stopping when he was only two steps in front, this placed the group on their hooves and Celestia began to start the spell to bring her back outside, just in case Nemesis decided to attack... he did not.

Pinkie had in front of her a giant golem staring at her, she was certainly scared, but the beast had responded positively. The pink pony wasted no time in releasing a confident smile.

The group had taken notice of this, and instantly let go of their guards, as they began to release small grins. Not too long passed before they silently cheered at her.

"Congratulations on your first step to being friendly!" Pinkie exclaimed, placing her hoof on his knee, Nemesis moved his leg to get rid of the touch, Pinkie gave a small jump, but it did not take away her newly formed confidence. "One step at the time I guess."

It was a relieving sight for everypony. They all were more than sure that this would end badly, but Nemesis was responding quite well. ´Everything is going fine´though Twilight. ´What is worst thing that could happen?´

As good as it was all going, Pinkie had decided to try again with the cupcake, which she pulled it out of her mane once more. "Here, maybe you should take a bite on this!" With those words she began to walk towards the monster, her face holding a wide smile, signal of her success... At least until she tripped with a stone on the floor, sending the food flying right into Nemesis´ face.

SQUISH!

Now everypony had their eyes wide open, as they waited for the monster to make a move, Pinkie meanwhile was laughing nervously.

"He he, sorry..." A growl was heard. "I guess I got too excited..." Another louder growl. "At least you can still lick it from your face, right?" The groans were getting louder. "Right?"

"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

Pinkie screamed as the enormous figure launched himself for the kill, but before Nemesis made it to the scared pony, she disappeared from the cell.

Pinkie reappeared outside, trembling badly as she was sitting on the floor, silently muttering. "Never again..."

"Pinkie! You ´kay?" Asked applejack, placing her hoof on her shoulder, the party pony gave a silent nod, before she talked with watery eyes. "I was so close..."

Twilight turned her gaze to Celestia, who was shaking her head with a grim expression. How could they be surprised? It was the most obvious thing that would happen. They had all silently decided to let this go... until something unexpected happened.

Licking was heard coming inside the cell, making the group turn their gazes towards the small jail and in time to spot Nemesis licking the sweet from his fingers, after he had grabbed it from his face and he was actually enjoying it. However, everypony was simply staring at the scene, not knowing what to think of it, then Twilight spoke.

"Okay... Who´s next?"

Luna was sitting on the bed inside her room, watching herself in the mirror in front, thinking deeply. She had her balcony doors closed, a pair of dark blankets placed on them to stop the passing of the sunlight from entering her room, darkening it in the process. It had enough light to be able to see clearly, though.

She had not told this to her sister, but she was actually present inside Nemesis´ dream. She had felt curious about the monster´s memories, making her pull a spell inside the dream realm, forcing him to dream about his past.

Luna didn´t know how to take all of what she saw.

The giant thing strapped to the table, the scientist looking beings opening his skull, the two black armored soldiers.... the figure with the black shades.

Was Nemesis something else before? At least she now had an important answer, the monster was certainly not from their world.

With a shake from her head, she changed her thoughts, this time focusing on what happened just an hour ago, the humiliation. Luna had always thought of herself as the definition of darkness, the figure that stroke fear in the hearts of many, but Nemesis had just shown her, there were worse things outside.

This thought made her shudder, then an idea crossed her mind just in case they managed to befriend the monster... nightmare night was close, and she could have just found her ace for this year.

"OUT! I WANT OUT!" Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs, as she placed herself against one side of the cage.

She had tried to get the monster´s admiration and attention by performing a trick inside the cell. She did not hit Nemesis a single time, but he clearly didn´t take the pegasus´show off too good. She had done nothing to anger him, he just found her annoying... well, maybe just a few ´I bet your ugly face can´t do this!´ were said.

Nemesis wasn´t doing anything dangerous against her, he was just taking his adamantium claws out, one by one to mess with her. Applejack took notice of the beast´s intention and could not control her laughter, Rainbow´s face was just too gloriously funny.

Twilight and Celestia, however, were wondering if this was the first sign of sense of humor from Nemesis... a wicked, completely disturbing sense of humor.

"Stop laughing AJ, he also scared you to death, remember?" Rainbow scoffed, her face holding a frown, however Applejack chuckled once more.

"Yeah! But your face is funnier."

Rainbow grunted before she directed her face towards Twilight and the princess. "Look, could you just get me out of here?"

Twilight released a small sigh as she started her spell, meanwhile Celestia found herself deep in thought, she had noticed it ever since she arrived. Nemesis would not take his sight from her, even with distractions coming from Pinkie or Rainbow, the beast had his eye stuck on her.

He was taunting her, daring her to come inside with him, inside a cage he knew Celestia would never escape.

At least she had learned something else from him, Nemesis was very sensitive, this could be the result of past trauma... an interesting thought.

As much as her face was trying to hold composure against Nemesis taunting, deep inside she was scared to death of the monster. Her gaze quickly shifted from her tormentor and towards Rainbow, who had just been teleported outside. She was certainly shaken up, but she was safe nonetheless.

Celestia imagined what could happen if she was to set foot inside, she knew Nemesis had been holding back with the mane six, but it was a fact that he has just been waiting for her to take the dumb decision. Soon her train of thought was cut by a certain purple alicorn.

"Princess, I don´t think Fluttershy or Rarity should enter, not yet at least; maybe it is time form me to try."

Celestia hanged her head and released a deep sigh. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I do." Twilight answered, her face showing no fear and determination, Celestia couldn´t help but to release a small smile.

The sounds of hooves made their way to the cage, as the young alicorn princess prepared herself to enter the prison. Her forehead was sweating and her throat was having a hard time trying to swallow. Her mind was racing with the infinite possibilities, the infinite outcomes of her decision, but it had to be done.

Suddenly, after a loud ´PUFF!´Twilight disappeared and reappeared inside the place, Nemesis made no movement. The alicorn used all of her courage to look into the creature´s eyes, she could feel her heart accelerating as she waited for any kind of reaction, soon enough it came.

"Stars." Nemesis said calmly.

Twilight made no movement whatsoever, she was completely frozen. The voice of this creature was even more terrifying than anything she had ever heard and only one word came to her mind... dread.

Twilight had hoped no reaction would occur, but much to her dismay, Nemesis began to walk towards her, she, however did not see danger, but rather calmness.

The sounds of steps stopped once the monster was in front of Twilight, her face now confidently staring into his eye.

Finally, after a few moments, Twilight decided to speak. "Nemesis, is it?" The creature growled and the alicorn took this as an affirmation. Noticing the calm ambiance, she decided to push forward. "I have never seen anything like you, are you from any place outside Equestria?"

Nemesis kept still for a few seconds before he shrugged in response. He didn´t have short memory, but rather payed more attention to the most important things... at least important to him, as such, he really couldn´t care about his other worldly predicament other than the fact that he had seen a lot of weird things. Twilight found his answer interesting.

"You don´t know? Do you remember how you came here?" She asked, Nemesis nodded slowly. "Was it magic?" The beast nodded, he wasn´t even sure what was the thing that brought him here. Twilight thought about this for a moment, she remembered all the knowledge she had acquired about tribes, cultures and species across the planet Equis, but the creature in front did not resemble anything she had ever seen before, with this in mind, she came up with two theories: 1.He came from another world.

2.He was bio engineered, created inside a lab.

As much as she tried to keep the second option away from her mind, it would actually explain his appearance, but that didn´t let out the possibility of a different world out. It didn´t take her long to come up with a question he could answer.

"Were there beings like you from where you come from?" Nemesis nodded. "Then that would mean you have never seen anything like us?" The monster had seen unicorns before while on Asgard, during the battle against the other heroes, but he´d never seen, however a unicorn with wings, he shook his head in a negative.

Twilight lowered her head for a few moments, processing the newly arrived info, then after deep thought, she sighed. "Poor thing, you most be lost, away from your home." Her last word was accompanied by the young alicorn placing her hoof on Nemesis´ leg, surprisingly to everypony outside, the beast did not shove it away.

As the rest of the group stared expectantly at the scene, Twilight lost herself in thought, her eyes closed, as her head hung low, at least until Nemesis spoke again.

"Stars..." She lifted her head, her eyes staring again into his face, a look of infinite compassion drawn on her face, then she noticed it, the permanent frown in the monster´s face was almost vanished.

Now with this out of the way, she decided to ask the next question. "Nemesis..." She took her hoof off his leg, "was everypony in your world like you?"

He stared directly into her eyes, before letting out a grunt, as he turned his face away from her, Twilight took this as a no. Then the next question came.

"They did something to you, didn´t they?" Nemesis grunted a little louder, then turned around. The alicorn took this as a sign of silence, but she still tried. "Nemesis I need to know what happened to you." The beast growled, almost as if he was warning her to stop, Twilight did not listen. "What do you remember, a lab? Somepony twisting you? I need to know."

"Roaaaar!" Nemesis finally snapped, as he turned around to face Twilight once more, although this did not scare the little princess.

"I know you want to avoid it, but it is necessary for all of us to know about you!" Outside the room, Celestia could notice the face Nemesis was holding, his frown, his teeth grinding. It was more than obvious he did not like to talk about this.

"Twilight! I think it is enough!" The princess of the sun replied, only to be ignored by Twilight.

"Just tell me what happened! How did the place look like? What was the name of the scient..." The alicorn gasped as Nemesis collided his fists unto the ground and just a few centimeters away from Twilight, who was now freaked out.

Before anything else could happen, Celestia reacted and took Twilight out of the cell.

Without wasting any moment, Celestia took hold of the young alicorn, her face showing a frown. "What did you think you were doing, Twilight!?"

"I... I am sorry, I was just..." Her words were cut short by Celestia.

"Don´t you understand he could have hurt you?! Sometimes it is better to be prudent, the answers will always come in time!" As soon as she finished her words, the princess pulled Twilight into a warm embrace.

"I am sorry princess, I just got carried a little away." Twilight exclaimed, her eyes shot to hide the embarrassment.

Not too long passed before Celestia finished the hug and looked into Twilight´s eyes. "Just think more next time." After those words, she turned to face the rest of the group. "We are finished for today, our luck was greatly pushed and now we must persist, we shall continue as soon as this beast cools down."

"Roaaar!" Nemesis replied at the princess´ words, Celestia simply gave him a look (although, she soon regretted it.).

With this out of the way, everypony went out of the cell blocks, not a single word was spoken. Nemesis simply watched as they went out, his eye soon became lost in the darkness.

Outside the cell blocks, Twilight was deep in thought. She felt sorry for the beast, at least until something came to her... Flash Sentry.

The look of disgust and hatred began forming inside her face, as she remembered his death. Celestia took notice of this and leaned closer to her.

"Anything wrong?"

"I just remembered something, something that had just placed the life of that... monster in a thin line." Her face turned towards the entrance of the blocks, then turned her eyes towards the princess of the sun. "Princess, could you send a few guards to search for Flash Sentry?" Celestia´s face grimaced. "Princess, please, I need to know where he is!"

The princess of the sun sighed. "I will send a few guards to the Everfree forest, right now, just do me a favor and keep your mind away from this problem, Twilight."

"I... I will try." With that, Twilight advanced forward to meet with her friends, leaving Celestia behind.

Unknown to everypony, there was one interesting thing she didn´t inform the group. While Twilight was inside, the princess of the sun noticed how Nemesis´ eye was no longer focused on her, it seemed as if she had completely vanished from his existence.

The center of all his attention was suddenly... Twilight.

S.T.A.R.S

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.

Second Try

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."

The Worst Scenario

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.

Creating Bonds

The numerous Changeling battalions were having a little free time, before they continued their march. While they were resting, Chrysalis found an object that could help her open the damned box.

Taking the moment to relax, Boulder walked through the immense forest, admiring the beauty of the tall trees; being the beast that he is didn´t mean he couldn´t bask himself in the riches of nature. Boulder always considered himself very fond of this, usually using his free time to wander endlessly around the kingdom´s nature habitats, as long as no threat was found. Sure, he had already destroyed part of the Everfree forest before and while he did found this act rather troubling, for him power came first.

Right now he was still trying to get used to his limbs, although it was not a very difficult task for him, aside from the fact they felt very weird. It did bother him a little, but not enough to take away all of his attention.

His walk continued until he found himself in a large open area, the green grass extending as far as the eye could see; the mountains in the distance so big that they almost touched the gray sky. There was nothing more that Boulder loved than a rainy day; the wet smell of the leaves and the cool air that touched his body, these kind of days relaxed him and allowed him to think.

The quiet moment did well to his mind, as he began to wonder across the different events that had happened lately, until he noticed something. Changelings had different personalities, that was for sure, but they were also connected to some kind of uni-mind, allowing them to sometimes think as one, this was rather useful when some of them went lost or captured; but now, he did not feel that connection anymore.

His mind was something else entirely, it was powerful and single. He no longer formed part of the same category as his brothers, still he loved his race so much that he was willing to use his energy to fight for them, as they would do for him. Being part of a uni-mind was not the thing that got them together as one, it was their love for their beings; Changelings were a proud race... but Chrysalis?

So far her tactics had caused several losses and wasted time as well as energy. She was becoming a problem for her subjects. He figured that the box would not help them, but she was so blind that this went unnoticed by her.

He could not try to dethrone her, because she was still more powerful than him and her supporters were his brothers. Boulder would have to come up with something, a way to show them what she had become, but this opportunity would not come so easily. Patience was the answer at the moment.

Then there was Nemesis. Boulder certainly hadn´t forgotten about him, the way that monster destroyed his body without a second thought. Contrary to Chrysalis, he hated the beast.

"You noticed it as well, right?" Boulder´s thoughts were soon cut short by a deep voice. The Changeling shifted his face to spot Sombra standing besides him, his eyes set on the horizon. "I mean Chrysalis´ sudden change, she certainly isn´t the same brilliant and cunning Changeling I remember, not after her loss inside the kingdom."

Boulder grunted as a response and slowly nodded.

"But you... you seem different, more self aware and certainly more powerful." The Changeling stared at Sombra, his mind racing across his words. Sombra was right, Chrysalis had changed and it wasn´t good for the rest.

Suddenly a loud voice echoed through the nature of the forest, reaching the two ponies´ ears. "Very well, rest is over, we head towards the Raging desert!"

Boulder looked behind him and towards the small camp in the distance. Sombra stared at him, "Chrysalis will not take you or your brothers to victory and you know it, maybe it is time for a change."

The Changeling stared at him. "You seem like a more reasonable Changeling than her and you obviously want you race´s well being, maybe we could come up with something, but that would require that you do something." Realization suddenly hit Boulder. He knew where Sombra was going, what he wanted. He wanted Boulder to steal "...my horn."

Sombra was a deceiving pony and he was very aware that he could not trust him. In response, Boulder launched a threatening roar towards the former king, as he began to walk towards the camp. He was suddenly stopped by Sombra, who kept pushing.

"There is a saying, Boulder: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." The Changeling turned to face him. "You know you aren´t quite as powerful as her, but I am. If you wish to cease control of the kingdom and truly help your brothers, then you need my help. Just think about it."

The Changeling stared at him for a few seconds, his eyes shifting to his sides as he considered his request, then with a grunt he turned around once more and continued his walk. Even if he hated to admit it, Sombra was right, he wasn´t as strong as the Queen... yet.

As he watched Boulder go, Sombra couldn´t help but to smirk, his words had certainly hit the Changeling where he wanted and although it would not be fast, he had at least planted the seed.

The day would end up being more interesting than he originally thought, as a sudden silver light illuminated the sky from the far distance. Although a weird event, it went unnoticed by everypony.

It was time, this was the decisive moment where two colliding forces met an impasse with the decision of peace between them; one of them was ancient and highly intelligent, yet voracious when needed, the other was violent, aggressive, unstoppable, yet quite passive when not attacked.

These two forces saw each other with anger and none of them wanted to have any kind of contact between them, but the tension affected the rest around them and something had to be done about it, as such, Nemesis and Celestia found themselves inside the castle´s throne room, staring at each other, an unspoken promise of slaughter between them, the rest was quiet as well, quite nervous for any spark that could light another fight.

It was a fact that even though Celestia did not see Nemesis with the same fear as before, she still was a bit afraid of him and the strength and power the monster held. On his part, Nemesis seemed to be waiting for the moment for the princess to say something very stupid and claw her till nothing is left, he simply hated being treated like an animal.

Finally, the tense moment was over, as Celestia got off her seat to walk straight towards Nemesis, with Twilight behind her. None of the ponies made a single move, but they were getting ready for what could happen.

Finally, as she found herself in front of the monster, her face made an effort to seem taller, even though Nemesis height was way over her own, still, she made an effort to remain tough. "You see this?" She pointed her hoof towards a window, signaling for Nemesis to see the numerous destroyed ceilings. As the beast contemplated the destruction, Celestia continued her speak. "I do not like you, Nemesis and I know you don´t like me as well, but this is my kingdom, I don´t like seeing it getting destroyed because of a single dispute." Nemesis turned to look at her. "Twilight told me you are able to behave, actually avoid destroying everything in your path, if that is true, then I propose we leave this tension at ease, I do not need another broken tooth and I certainly do not need my time or energy wasted into sending you straight to the moon!”

“Roar!”

“Hey!”

That was the answer Celestia received from both Nemesis and Luna, the later forcing the sun princess to place a hand on her forehead, sighing as soon as she noticed her mistake. “Luna, I am sorry for that, but that wasn´t what I meant.”

Luna rolled her eyes at this “Of course not! How could you? Is not like you are famous for sending random ponies there!”

“What?” Celestia replied, confusion on her face, as well as exasperation. “Luna, that is not what I mean...”

“But hey! At least I had some company in the form of a rock to make up for the absence of the stupid alicorn that sent me there in the first place!”

As the struggle continued, the Elements, as well as Nemesis, kept in place, not making a move to interfere in the moment.

“Luna, now its not the time!”

However, Luna released a sarcastic laugh. “Why am I surprised? Now that I confront you about this, it is not the time?” This time, before the sun princess could eve say something, Luna took the decision of turning around and walk towards the door, but before her magic took hold of the knob, her gaze faced Celestia once more. “Perhaps it was a good thing to have somepony like Nemesis to teach you that you are not as all mighty as you think you are!”

With that, the moon princess opened the door and just before she could head out, Luna heard her sister´s voice once more. “Luna!” The sun princess called, but the response was a shake from the dark alicorn´s head, couple with a frown, just before she went out of the throne room. Celestia had made a huge mistake. When Luna mentioned the event, it didn´t have the same reaction as when Celestia did it and she understood this. Being forgotten by your own blood was something soul breaking and after Luna returned, Celestia did her best to avoid mentioning it, but here she was, loosing her coolness and all because of a certain monster.

Celestia faced Nemesis, only to discover he was staring at her. She supposed he was amused by this, a fact she couldn't exactly tell, considering Nemesis´ lack of lips, still, it was infuriating. “Enjoying the scene?” Celestia asked.

Nemesis grunted in response, an almost mocking sound coming out of his mouth, further angering Celestia, who began walking towards him.

“What else can you destroy in one day!” Thankfully, her advancement was stopped by Twilight, who placed herself in front of the sun princess to try and calm her down.

“With all due respect, princess,” she said, “Nemesis had nothing to do with this!”

Celestia turned from the purple alicorn to the creature, thinking about the most recent events, then finally sighed, hanging her head to relieve some of the anger. “I´m going out!” Celestia shoved Twilight away, as she made her way towards the exit, leaving a stunned Twilight behind. “Nemesis is you responsibility now!” Celestia finally said to the Elements, who before they had time to speak, the sun princess had already left them with the word on their mouths.

Soon enough the Elements were left alone with Nemesis, who was walking around, looking at the throne room. Twilight gave a deep sigh and directed her sight to her friends, who were feeling awkward with the situation. “So...” The alicorn spoke. “I guess we stay with him.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the group´s eyes went wide, as they all turned to look at the door´s direction and back to Twilight again.

“Sorry sugarcube,” Said Applejack, “them pie apples ain´t gonna do themselves!” Then with a poof and just before Twilight could say anything, the cawpony went out of the throne room.

Once more directing her gaze towards the rest, the alicorn tried to find some back up, sadly for her, her friends were in a desperate situation and would soon follow on Applejack´s steps.

“I... I gotta go with Applejack, bye!” Rainbow was the next. “Good luck with ugly!”

Twilight turned to look at Rarity and gave a friendly smile, silently praying for her to help, but history repeated itself. “Oh look at this mane! This day surely left it hideous!”

“But your mane is oka...”

“Sorry, can´t listen, have to repair!”

The deadpanning Twilight contemplated another one of her friends, escaping and now, with much less hope, she turned to look at Pinkie, who simply gave her a huge friendly smile. Twilight breathed in relief as she noticed that Pinkie seemed to be staying... Until the party pony dematerialized in thin air as if it was simply smoke. Giving away a frustrated sigh, the hopeless Twilight faced the shivering Fluttershy.

The shy pegasus wasn´t as afraid as the other about Nemesis, but she was kind of afraid to be left alone with him, more after his recent confrontation with Celestia, maybe when everything was settled, she would spend time with the monster, but for now, Twilight already knew the answer.

“So, what are you waiting for?”

“Um, really, you are not mad with me?” Asked the timid pegasus, receiving a deadpanning negative from Twilight, who shook her head in response.

Giving a sheepish smile, the pegasus carefully left the room, now leaving Twilight with the creature.

´Wow! What a day!´ Thought the purple alicorn. Indeed, it had been a rather crazy day: First Nemesis escaping, then his fight with Celestia and now Luna was mad with the sun princess. It was simply too much for just one day and while she silently hoped that the sisters could clarify things, there was one burden Twilight had to carry. At least now there was some silence and things seemed to be at peace for the moment.

Seriously, it had all begun with the monster´s arrival, he had indeed proven to be a problem, but at least he wasn´t the one who killed Flash,´Flash´ thought the princess, feeling her chest heavy. Setting the thoughts aside for good, her gaze returned to Nemesis.

The monster had just finished playing with a jar and was heading towards her, letting the object fall, which soon broke from the collision against the floor, Twilight rolled her eyes at this. Soon, her eyes shifted from the broken jar to his white ball, which was staring at her. She took a deep breath.

“Quite a day, uh?” Twilight said, forcing a smile. Nemesis didn´t reply and opted to simply stare at Twilight. The princess tried again. “So... Anything in your mind?”

The beast cocked his head to the side and remained silent.

Trying to get out of the awkward moment, Twilight began to think of something. There should be something good she could take out of this situation, maybe she could take the time to discover more about the creature in front of him. “Look, you arrived at Equestria at the worst time, sorry if my friends left all of a sudden, but we all had to deal with a lot of stuff and I can´t take you out without everypony loosing their minds, so I was thinking maybe we could use the time to know more about you, what do you think.”

Nemesis had to agree to an extent, he was more than used to everything happening so fast, but he also kind of missed some tranquility without having to fight something and besides, he like Twilight and that was saying something. So far he had found the rest of these ponies annoying, especially Celestia, but there was something about the purple alicorn that simply kept him glued to her. The one thing he certainly didn´t like was the ´know more about you´ part, it was really hard for him to simply communicate, in the end, what else could he do? Finally setting his decision, Nemesis turned to look at Twilight.

“Stars.”

Twilight scratched her mane, a confused look on her face. “I suppose that´s a yes.” Turning around, the alicorn directed her steps towards the door, Nemesis walking behind her.

The huge door was soon being pushed by Twilight, who turned around to see the creature behind her. “Come on, let´s head to Canterlot´s royal lab, a place no pony uses.” She rolled her eyes at this fact.

The purple alicorn kept walking, until she noticed something, Nemesis wasn´t following her. She turned around to spot the monster taring blankly at her. “What´s the matter?” She asked, getting a roar in response. “Come on, you know I cant understand grunts and noises, try speak normal once in a while.”

With another roar, Nemesis walked past her, heading Celestia knows where. He had enough with labs to get himself into another, there was simply no way he would be forced to go into one of those Heckish places. It wasn´t an easy subject for him, the day his life changed for the worse once inside a lab, although he did not remember much about his past life.

He had tried to remember before, but as much as he did, nothing simply came and maybe this wasn´t his memory´s fault, maybe he had been born inside a tube and actually lacked a past life, another point to deepen his misery. Soon enough, Nemesis´ thoughts were cut short by a certain alicorn he almost stepped on.

Twilight had let out a short cry in time to wake Nemesis from his trance. “A little more and I would have ended up being a Twilight sandwich.” She muttered in silence.

Nemesis was just about to go past her again, when Twilight finally talked. “Wait!” He turned to stare at her. “Maybe this is a good moment for you to learn how to communicate.” Nemesis turned around completely. “Just tell me what happened? Was it something I said? Or you just wanted to leave?”

Nemesis grunted, an expression mirrored by Twilight. “Come on, just try to do something, try to articulate even if it is with only roars.”

Nemesis stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then his mouth opened. “Orrrg! Ro! Roar!”

Twilight placed her hoof on her mouth and let out a chuckle. “Okay, that´s better. Now try to answer my question.” The alicorn cleared her throat. “did something I say bother you?”

“Roar! Rorrg!”

Once more, Twilight found herself scratching her mane, clearly confused. “Was that a yes or a no?”

“Orrrgrorr!”

“Okay, what?”

“Or...”

“Okay, just nod with your head.” Finally, she stopped the monster, realizing this plan would just make things more confusing. She would find a way to implement this speech, but for now she had to have a simple way of knowing what he wanted. “Same question.”

After a few moments, Nemesis nodded.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Really? But I just said I wanted to get you to the lab to...”

“Roar!”

Something clicked inside Twilight´s head, as she noticed Nemesis´ tension upon mentioning the lab. With this single action, the alicorn could hypothesise about the monster´s origin, but she needed more confirmation from him. “You don´t like labs?”

Nemesis snarled as a response, making Twilight back away from him.

“Okay, okay! You hate labs, you made that clear, but you don´t have to worry, those labs are not used so much, it should be empty right now.” She had deduced about this before, but now she was sure about his hate towards these kinds of places, which almost answered another question... Was he bio-engineered?

“Roar!”

Twilight sighed. “I´m sorry, but I can´t take you anywhere else without having Canterlot´s population running away from you.”

Nemesis crossed his arms at her remark and turned his head to avoid look at her, making the purple alicorn roll her eyes. “I didn´t mean that in a rude way.” Slowly, the monster returned his gaze towards her. “It´s just that ponies are not used to seeing a giant scary golem walking around Canterlot´s streets.”

Nemesis snarled, but different than last time, Twilight was not taken aback by this. “Stop being so sensitive, besides, there is no other empty place in Canterlot, there are ponies almost every...” Suddenly and idea crossed her mind, then with a curious look, she looked at the monster´s eye. “Nemesis, do you like books?”

Silence ruled throughout the enormous hall, as bot Twilight and Nemesis made their way towards the library. By then, almost everypony inside (mostly guards), knew about the monster´s presence and even thought they would throw themselves out of the window upon seeing him, Twilight still thought it was better to keep him inside. If Nemesis was to set foot outside and before citizens were communicated that he was ´friendly´, panic was mostly sure to take hold of the streets.

Setting away these thoughts, Twilight noticed how silent it was to walk with Nemesis, even though his steps fell with plenty of force on the ground, but it had been at least two minutes since she heard his footsteps,making her decide to take a quick peek behind her.

Twilight released the breath she was holding. Nemesis was still behind.

Finally arriving at the royal library´s wooden doors, the alicorn turned around towards Nemesis. “Okay, some rules before going inside.” She said. “First: Keep quiet as much as you can while you are inside. Second: Try to be careful with everything inside, I fear you may not have enough care when using your force and last rule is: Follow my lead at all times, got that?”

Nemesis growled in response. “Guess that´s a yes.” With that, she turned to face the doors and grabbed the handles with her magic, opening them in the process and granting them access to the place.

Releasing a smile upon staring at a familiar ground, Twilight stepped in and inhaled as deeply as she could, savoring the ambiance of the library.

This was what she needed, some time inside her favorite place, where she could simply relax and peacefully set her thoughts strai...

CRASH!

Almost deciding not to look, Twilight turned around in time to spot Nemesis with the door on his hands, above him, the door frame and part of the wall was destroyed.

Slowly making his way towards Twilight, Nemesis gently handled her the wooden door he was holding in his hands. The alicorn took it with her magic, a dead pan expression on her face as she held the broken entrance.

“This has to be the most beautiful thing anypony has ever given me.” She said, her tone being sarcastic. A moment of silence endured, until Nemesis once more moved his hand up front and gave Twilight the handle. “You really thought about everything, did you?” Giving away one deep sigh, the alicorn walked past the monster, with the intention of getting rid of the door. “Wait for me and don´t touch anything.”

Nemesis grunted in response, before he directed his eyes from the mare to the numerous bookshelves scattered across the enormous room.

He wasn´t exactly a reader, Heck, he didn´t even know if he could read, still, while looking at the numerous books, he did find some interest in either the colors or the images printed on its sides. Quickly forgetting Twilight´s rules, he made his way towards one particular green cover in one of the bookshelves, then looked at it for a few seconds before he began to reach with his hand.

“Okay, Nemesis, guess its time to...” Just before Twilight could finish her sentence, she noticed Nemesis dropping plenty of books in his quest to grab only one.

Lecture after lecture met their ultimate fate in the ground, as a massive monster forced his hand through plenty of novels and history books.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Nemesis didn´t hear and he simply continued his struggle. Twilight got closer. “Stop that, you are going to...”

“ROAR!”

Suddenly, the monster turned around, his pose being a dangerous one, almost as if he was about to go for the kill and the alicorn noticed it. “Easy, relax!” She said to the heavily breathing monster. “Take it easy, everything´s okay.” Finally gaining enough confidence to speak, Twilight made each phrase come out as soft as she could, trying to calm Nemesis, who would soon relax. The princess took the opportunity. “Do you want that book?”

Carefully grabbing the lecture with her power, Twilight brought it from the shelf to her, noticing the picture on the cover, a white star covering most of it and the title: Constellations of Equestria.

Noticing this act interesting, Twilight lifted her head to face the eye of the monster and gulped as she did her best to let the question flow outside her mouth. “Why did you find interest in this one?”

The alicorn lifted the lecture with her magic, as Nemesis extended his arm to grab it, who later answered. “Stars.”

“Duh, pretty much.” The princess replied. “How about something a little more specific? Why do you have a fascination with stars?”

Staring at her for a few moments, Nemesis did his best to answer the question in a way he could and soon came with a viable answer. As he extended his arm towards Twilight to show her the cover of the book, Nemesis closed his fist and placed behind the lecture. Twilight cocked her head to the side, trying to comprehend what he was trying to say, thankfully for her, the answer would soon come.

In a second, the book was perforated by a silver blade, catching the attention of the princess, who simply wide open her eyes in surprise... He wasn´t referring to a star at all, but rather somepony.

Shaking at this revelation, Twilight´s heart began to race, but why was she surprised at all, Nemesis did seem like he had killed before, but still, it would be better to know from him. Doing her best to speak, the alicorn got closer to Nemesis. “Did... Did you kill this somepony?”

Letting out a small grunt, Nemesis shook his head in response and much to Twilight´s relief, still, there was one more question she had to ask. “Have you ever killed somepony?”

Now, much to the princess´ fears, Nemesis responded by penetrating the book with two more claws, releasing a snarl as he looked at her with a killer eye. Twilight gulped.

Trying to ignore this fact, the alicorn decided to talk about this ´star´ once more. “The way you answered made me believe you wanted to kill this somepony. Was his or her name Star?”

Turning around, Nemesis spotted another book with the image of a royal guard in its cover. He took it and placed in front of Twilight´s face, who scratched her mane in response. “Was it a guard called Star?”

Nemesis grunted, shaking his head in desperation, then pointed at the emblem shown in the guard´s armor.

“Oh, was it some kind of squad? Like, Stars squad?”

Giving one step to the front, the monster took out a claw and grabbed Twilight´s hair, cutting a few hairs from her head. She was startled by the sudden movement. “Hey! What was that for?”

Nemesis didn´t answer and instead, proceeded to place her hair in the head of the guard in the cover. Realization hit Twilight, as she pieced the puzzle together, she was glad Nemesis had found a way to communicate something about him after everything that had happened. “So, based in everything you have told me, I can assume you were hunting a female with a similar look to you, which was part of a squadron called Stars?” Nemesis didn´t reply, but he really didn´t need to, he had answered her question, yet so many more had arise, however, there was only one she wanted to know. “Was she the reason of why you are here?”

Lifting his head for a moment, Nemesis thought about the answer, trying to remember how he got here exactly. Everything had happened to quickly, yet he could picture in his mind the tube he awoke and the three Tyrants fighting against him. Before that, he could only remember Jill pointing a gun against him ´Do you want stars? I´ll give you stars!´ The words resounded inside of his mind, making him close his fist. At the end of the day he wasn´t as angered with her as he was with the one who awoke him in the multiverse uprising.

Setting the thoughts away, Nemesis turned to look at Twilight and shook his head in response.

“How did you get here then?” She asked.

Nemesis scratched his head, searching for a way to answer, but to no avail. He turned to look to the bunch of books in the floor, searching for something that resembled what he saw before arriving in Equestria.

As Twilight waited patiently, Nemesis was starting to breath faster, desperation taking hold of him, as he struggled to answer her question.

Twilight noticed the desperation grunts and movement of the beast and fearing an explosion of fury could come, she extended her wings and flew in front of his face, admiring it first hand. She couldn´t help but to feel life leaving her body, as Nemesis´ sole expression seemed to be taken out of a nightmare. She had never seen something as terrifying as him, yet there was more to the beast and she knew it.

Placing her hoof on the agitated monster, Twilight tried to comfort him. “Wait, take it easy.” Nemesis turned to look at her. “Don´t worry, you don´t have to answer if it causes you conflict, we could talk about something else.”

Finally calming himself and after letting out a deep breath, Twilight returned to the floor and took a sit, a smile plastered on her face as she looked at Nemesis. The beast, stared at her for a few moments, before sitting on the ground.

The enormous beast made it to the floor, but he didn´t count on his body strength to push the bookcase, causing various books to fall on his head. A rather comical image ensued next, with Twilight letting out a chuckle at the scene.

Nemesis wasn´t angry at this and simply rubbed his head as he looked upwards.

Th princess couldn´t help to notice how docile the monster was in the moment at least. Maybe if he had acted like that before, Celestia wouldn´t have treated him like that and the fight wouldn´t have happened. Still, wasn´t it Celestia´s fault that Nemesis was driven to the edge? In the end, he had saved her from the Changeling and didn´t seem like h was about to do anything bad to her, but then again, nopony could be completely sure about anything.

“So...” She finally called out, getting out of her trance. “How are you enjoying Equestria? I mean, besides the most recent confrontation.”

Waiting for an answer, Twilight noticed Nemesis looking at the bunch of books on the floor and locking his sight in a cover that had a filly playing in a garden. The alicorn found this amusing. “Do you like foals, Nemesis?”

The beast grunted in response, as he grabbed the book, rubbing its cover with his hand. Twilight couldn´t help but to chuckle at this. “Kind of obvoius, considering how the girls were protecting you.” Nemesis turned to look at her smiling face. “Also kind of funny how three little fillies were defending an eight foot tall golem.”

Nemesis grunted in response, before returning his sight to the cover.

Twilight noticed how glued the beast was to the image, she figured he was recognizing it. The library was quite a beautiful place, that much was true, but strangely, she was feeling the necessity of going out and not because of any awkwardness with the beast, but rather something different. She couldn´t place what it was, but she needed to walk down the streets and enjoy the fresh air, probably an effect of the sour days she had passed.

Returning her focus to the monster, she figured he would behave after all and there was nothing to worry about if he went out. Sure, ponies would freak out, but if they saw him with her, there was a chance they would taking it well. “Nemesis...” She called him out, getting the beast out of his trance with the cover. “Would you like to see the streets of Canterlot?”

“Luna!” Problems, nothing but problems since the blaster freak arrived. First Ponyville, then her smile and health and now her sister. Celestia couldn´t help but to snarl at the thought of the monster, but right now, her mind was more focused on the sister she had hurt. “Luna, please open the door.”

Several seconds of silence followed, as Celestia waited for a response. Everything was happening so fast, she didn´t even had the chance to think and her sister´s anger wasn´t something she needed. The sun princess couldn´t understand why she was so angry, it was all in the past, wasn´t it?

Setting the thoughts aside, she tried again. “Luna, I just want to talk!”

Finally, the door began to open, giving way to a frowning moon princess with a cold stare. “What!”

“Luna, can we talk about this?” Celestia asked.

“You sure you want to talk? Don´t you have worse problems to deal with, like fighting against your cake addiction and stop your butt from growing fatter?”

´Ouch!´ Celestia thought. She was pissed, that much was true and while Luna´s words held a lot of anger, the sun princess had to admit it wasn´t the time to fight about it. “Can we stop arguing for now?”

“Were we arguing?” Luna replied. “I´m sorry, I was distracted trying to see were your neck started in all of that fat.”

Strike two and Celestia still tried to remain calm. “Stop it with the insults, Luna, I just want us the be well, to think about this.”

“Wait!” Luna responded. “You think? I thought you always had your head up your...”

“Luna stop!” Celestia finally snapped. “I came here with pure intentions, to put myself in your place and try to feel what you feel, but I can´t find any reason for your rude behavior!” Luna frowned at her sister´s words. “I´m sorry, but I think you are overreacting! Whatever happened between you and me is in the past and it should be forgotten!”

Silence endured, with the only sound heard, being Luna´s heavy breathing. However, she would not remain quiet. “You really don´t understand do you?” She asked. “Are you seriously that stupid to think anything can be forgotten? Do you have the slightest idea on what it is like to remain alone for a thousand years?” Celestia lowered her head, thinking about her words. “Don´t even think I had a secret alien club as company, no! I had to put up with the solitude! There were days where I simply preferred to sleep all day or simply stare at the Earth!”

“Luna I....”

“No, this time you listen to me!” Luna interrupted. “If had lived what I went through that time, maybe you could understand, but you are so blinded in your stupid magic of friendship ideals that... That...” With a grunt, Luna placed one hoof on her forehead, before she turned around to enter her room once more, but stopped midway. “If you came here to apologize, which I doubt, then I accept it, but I do not want to see your grassy face near me, at least not now.”

With tha, the moon princess closed the door in front of Celestia´s face, who frowned at her sister´s response. “Fine!”

The sun princess made her way towards her room, thinking about the recent situations. How could a simple freak cause so much anarchy? She gritted her teeth as she thought about Nemesis. I he hadn´t appeared in Equestria, none of this would have happened, but there would come a time when she was proven wight about him and in that moment, she would take it upon herself to burn him to a crisp.

As Celestia lost herself in a corner, Luna´s door began to open, revealing the moon princess. She looked at the way her sister disappeared and sighed. It was incredible how blind Celestia could be, causing her to break relations with other ponies.

Going out of her room, Luna took the opposite direction and started her walk. She was sincerely expecting an apology, sure, she had caused terror before her banishment and also true, she had returned to cause even more, but Luna had changed since that moment, she understood the evil she did. In the end, as much chaos as she cause, being forgotten like trash and far away from home was the coldest thing you could do to somepony, especially if that somepony was your own blood.

As she kept walking, Luna noticed a tall figure at the end of a hallway, which soon was revealed to be an all to well known monster.

She wasn´t angry with him, why would she be? As far as she was concerned, his actions were misinterpreted thanks to his appearance, forcing him into retaliation. She knew how that felt.

Getting closer to the monster, she noticed his head turning to greet her. “Nemesis.” She called him out, gaining a moan in response.

“Quite a day, uh?” Luna did her best to release a smile, which ended up looking incredibly fake, thankfully for her, Nemesis didn´t notice or cared.

Silence followed the question, making the moment very awkward. After a few seconds, Luna simply gave up and sighed, as she lowered her head. “How do you manage to keep up with this?” Nemesis stared at her. “I mean, I know what might you been going through recently, we may habe done bad things in the past but we have payed for them and now that we try to do good, its the past the one that digs our graves.”

Nemesis turned his head to look at the corridor, thinking about Luna´s words. There were still many things unclear to him, but at least he knew he was free from destruction´s control.

A few seconds of silence followed, before Luna released a chuckle. “It was kind of impressive how you kicked my sister´s behind.” Suddenly turning to face her, Nemesis looked into Luna´s smiling face.

Soon enough the sounds of hooves were heard behind them. “Okay, Nemesis, I´m ready, let´s get to... Princess Luna.”

The alicorn turned around to spot Twilight and received her with a smile. “Am I to assume you are taking Nemesis to know the streets?” Twilight grinned sheepishly and nodded. “Aren´t ponies going to panic?” Upon the purple alicorn´s silence, Luna couldn´t help but to chuckle. “Don´t worry, I will take care of it, go and enjoy yourselves.”

“Thank you, princess.” Twilight replied, before heading towards the exit with Nemesis behind her.

As the two lost themselves in the corner, Luna began thinking about what she told the beast and figured that she would have her time to enjoy as well and it was about to arrive when. Suddenly, her face lit up, why did she have to wait for Nightmare night inside Canterlot castle, when she could wait for it in Ponyville? The Elements and Nemesis were going to take a train the next morning and she would go with them. ´Nightmare night´ Luna thought, her face showing a smirk.

For too long she had been thinking about her comeback for this year and while she thought she had nothing else under her sleeve to scare the ponies, there was actually something particularly scary to use or rather certain somemonster.

With a big smile on her face, Luna began planning. This year´s Nightmare night was something nopony would ever forget.

Back to Town

Celestia was a rather powerful figure amongst ponies and invaders alike, but after her match against Nemesis, that image was degraded a little. Not only had he humiliated her, but it had also caused discomfort amongst Canterlot´s citiznes, who felt unsure about the princesess keeping the beat in the castle. At least it was inside...

This was the question keeping ponies calm, but it would not last, as an enormous figure became visible outside the royal castle, accompanied by a certain alicorn.

The fact that Twilight was walking alongside the beast, did not help to calm things up and while Luna had passed the word about his precense in the streets, the message only made it to a bunch of guards who took it upon themselves to inform any panicking pony.

Chaos didn´t take hold of the streets, but the city had become rather quiet. Some ponies simply stared in terror at the walking golem, others opted to return home and pray to Faust that it would not devour them. For Nemesis, he did not care about their reaction a sentiment shared by Twilight, even though she did have little concern about this. Shrugging the feeling off, the purple alicorn turned to look at her companion, admiring his features for a few moments before her sight to the streets.

It was kind of funny for her, thinking about how such a scary looking creature like Nemesis could be so docile. Sure, he had his moments, especially when pushed to do something he didn´t like, but any other monster would have already try to butcher her by now. Nemesis though, there was some semblance of comprehensive intelligence that allowed him to actually consider a few things before acting, and it kept Twilight at ease for the most part, still, she was sure to keep her guard up at all times as this intelligence would often prove to be more dangerous, as it usually brought with it the unpredictable in anypony´s actions if they so desired so.

This was another question Twilight was asking herself, just how intelligent Nemesis was? She was glad that it was enough to at least preventing him to wreck havoc inside of the city. Thoughts aside, she had to admit that the silence between the two was rather unnerving and somewhat awkward, a funny fact considering Twilight loved some quiet moments, regardless, it at least allowed her some time to think where to go next.

Casting another look at her companions, Twilight wondered whether Nemesis was also looking for a place to go, or he was simply following. She bet on the later.

For Nemesis, even though he just followed her for the sake of it, he was actually deep in thought trying to recall events. Back at the library he had told Twilight as much as he could about his past life, thinking it would allowed him to remember how he got in Equestria or who brought him here, sadly, without success. It was curious though, knowing that while this was the first time in his life that he was actually conscious about his actions, he struggled to remember the first moments of his conscious life.

While others would have wandered under such a deep thought, Nemesis took notice of his fully aware instincts, as he managed to pay attention to where Twilight was going, while at the same time he was deep in thought. He figured this was one of the perks that came with his new found powers.

Other thing he found interesting was that he no longer felt the NE-α Type´s parasite warping inside of his body, pushing his chest as it struggled to go out and while he could summon his tentacles in the past, he felt more in control of them as sustaining heavy damage did not cause him to loose control of both him and the parasite, and instead, he regenerated almost instantly.

Setting his sights towards a coffee shop they passed just by, the beast wondered what kind of experiments they had done with him this time. Maybe it was a first that he actually was glad of this enhancements, at least they helped him free himself from control, although he was sure this was not whoever-did-this-to-him´s intentions. Back at the library he had some flashes of the place he was before arriving at Equestria, flashbacks about the numerous test subjects inside the tubes, his hands destroying a few of soldiers, his brethren of Tyrants, then a portal. As the seconds passed he was starting to get a clear image of the things that had transcended, and maybe if he tried again, he would also remember moments from his...

"Daddy!"

Much to the surprise of Twilight, who had been keeping an eye on him, Nemesis stopped in his tracks, the blood inside of his veins running cold as a headache forced him to bring his hand against his head, his eye looking towards the place the voice had come.

Mirroring his movements, Twilight turned as well, spotting a small filly playing with his father near Canterlot´s park, making the alicorn to raise an eyebrow, as she set he gaze back on Nemesis, whose single eye remained glued to the filly.

The beast could still feel the headache assaulting him, before he let out a moan of pain. "Nemesis?" He heard the voice of Twilight, faint as every other sound around him as images began to flash inside of his mind, images of a backyard.

"Dad!"

"Fight him!"

"He´s perfect!"

"Nemesis!"

Finally, Nemesis had stepped back into reality, with the first sight being the face of Twilight who was using her wings to remain at the beast´s eye level, while grabbing his head with her hooves.

"Nemesis, what´s wrong?" She asked, noticing Nemesis´ heavy breathing with a worried look on her face that actually amused the monster for a moment.

Bringing his hand back down, Nemesis began to control his respiration, as he tried to make sense of what just flashed in his mind. The voice that called for him, the small backyards covered in green grass, with the trampling lying just at one side of a huge swimming pool. He struggled once more to remember anything else, but that was all he could recall.

"Nemesis!" She called for his attention again, and responded with a faint moan as he rubbed his head. "What happened to you?" Instead of giving an answer (Not that he could, anyway), Nemesis looked past the worried alicorn into the park behind her, where the filly was moments ago, then walked past Twilight who raised an eyebrow at him.

Letting out a deep sigh, Twilight decided to follow him. Something had happened to him, that much was sure, but it puzzled her that he simply chose to ignore her questions about it. Twilight figured she would not get answers from him if she pressed on, and decided to let Nemesis feel secure enough for him to start trusting her more.

As she returned to the ground and kept walking behind the beast, Twilight could not shake the interest on what just happened and how she believed to see recognition on Nemesis´ eye, although more interesting was the fact how easily he simply let go of the weird occurrence and proceeded to enter the park and while she would normally think it was to follow that filly, both she and her dad had already gone. Maybe he just liked green spaces.

Twilight´s guess was not too far fetched, as Nemesis did like nature and couldn´t help but to notice the beauty of Canterlot´s park, of course, he completely ignored the few screaming ponies that simply went out of the place in sheer terror and the other few that chose to remain immobile until the beast was gone. It was good that Nemesis did not care for their reaction, but it did cause Twilight to roll her eyes at the ponies´ reactions.

The walk continued in complete silence between the two, as they passed through a few stores inside the park, on of the stores that house the other five Elements that just happened to be eating inside and instantly caught sight of both Nemesis and Twilight, answering their question on why ponies were running away from fear.

Taking one sip of her drink, Rainbow looked from the duo to the rest of her friends, a mocking grin forming on her face. “Hey girls! I´ve found the beauty and the beast, of course, the beast is Twilight.”

A collective laugh ensued, as they turned to look at the pair getting lost in the horizon. Soon enough, the group regained their serious expressions.

“I simply can´t believe that barbarian is walking through the streets he destroyed without a care in the world.” Rairity said, shaking her head at the sight, before taking another bite at her salad.

“And what can we do?” Answered Applejack. “Did you see what that vermin did to princess Celestia? I wouldn´t want to find myself in that monster´s kill list, he sure doesn´t look like somepony you can mess with.”

Feeling the back up from her friends, Rainbow stood up. “Right? That dude gives me the creeps!” Added the pegasus, hugging herself as she shuddered while thinking about Nemesis.

Suddenly, a certain pink mare collided her hoof against the table, scaring the rest of the group. “And he´s a true meany pants, who didn´t even try to taste my yumi yumi cupcakes.”

Applejack deadpanned. “Didn´t you literally bombed him with one?”

Pinkie smiled sheepishly. “Well, it was an accident.”

As soon as the words left the pink pony´s mouth, Rarity shook her head at her words. “That still doesn´t justify how he tried to hurt us. When we entered that cage, we simply tried to be gentle.”

"Girls I´m telling you!” Rainbow said smashing her hoof against the table. “That freak screams of problems!”

Applejack sighed at her words. She had a point about the beast, he did seemed like trouble. “I can´t belive what I´m going to say, but Ah agree with Rainbow.”

“Thank you... I guess.” Replied a confused pegasus.

Completely ignoring Rainbow´s reply, Applejack gave a deep sigh, deep in thought about a peculiar fact about the beast. “One thing Ah don´t understand though, is why didn´t he hurt mah sister? If that Nem fella is the beast of destruction we believe he is, then why did he protect the girls?”

“That is actually a rather good question.” Answered Rarity, placing one hoof under her chin.

Contrary to their thoughts, Rainbow firmly believed he would bring them problems. “I still don´t trust that freak! He could have been waiting for a good opportunity to hurt them! I don´t know about you, girls, but I will not let him get close to Scoots.” As soon as she finished her sentence, her head turned towards a certain shy pegasus. “Flutters what do you think?”

Taken aback by the sudden question, Fluttershy did her best to formulate her words. “I... Well... I´m kind of scared of him, but I don´t think he is that bad, I mean, if he was, he would have hurt the girls the first chance he got.”

“See?” Replied Applejack. “Isn´t that a bit weird? Ah also can´t stop thinking that princess Celestia was the one who got him mad.” She sighed. “I don´t know girls, maybe we should just give that vermin a chance, but that doesn´t mean we won´t keep an eye on him.”

As three of the ponies answered with a collective nod, Rainbow couldn´t help but to shake her head.

There was no denying it, she was very scared of Nemesis and the things he could do and while Aplejack may be right, there was still something about him that she didn´t like.

Oblivious to the Element´s chatting, Nemesis and Twilight had continued their walk inside the park, with the latter silently trying to guess where the beast directed his walk. Soon enough, Nemesis could spot a large beautiful garden at the edge of the mountain. Within the immense amounts of green, the beast spotted some kind of statue of Celestia. He snarled, while sped up his pace towards it.

Noticing this, Twilight quickly trotted behind him, aware of his sudden reaction towards the figure and took the decision to remain on the defensive just in case the monster tried something.

Finally stopping mere inches from the stature, Nemesis frowned, clenching his fists as he released a low growl. On her part, Twilight remained by his side, waiting for the monster to make his next move, but thankfully a few seconds later and much to the alicorn´s surprise, Nemesis simply turned around and walked away from the statue. She released the breath she was holding.

Ignoring the statue completely, the beast turned his gaze towards a lone tree amongst the grass fields, hurrying himself to its shadow to cover himself from the sun, Nemesis spotted the immense view at the edge of the small park.

Passing by the tree, the beast noticed the familiar sight of Ponyville just under Canterlot´s mountain. A set of houses and green lands that safely remained under the protection of the kingdom. Looking past the civilized parts of the town, Nemesis recognized the Everfree, the forest he called home for a few days and the places where the fillies would often get in danger... he hoped they wouldn´t though.

Turning his face from the town, Nemesis lowered his head, noticing the altitude at which he found himself, not feeling scared at the distance between him and the floor, as if he fell, he would only have to jump to get back up again and he kind of enjoyed feeling the rush of air against his face, even though he felt the sensation rather funny when it collided against the gums in his lipless mouth.

“Beautiful place, don´t you think?” The sudden voice of Twilight interrupted the monster, who turned his gaze to stare at Twilight. He agreed, Nemesis never had the chance to admire a sight that wasn´t being consumed by flames or a horde of zombies.

Returning his sight to the aforementioned town, Nemesis simply let out a grunt before he turned around towards the lone tree.

“So... Which place you like the most?” Asked Twilight, however, Nemesis didn´t answer and simply took sit under the tree. She tried again. “You know? You could try to open up a little more, we are not here to hurt you, Nemesis.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the beast turned to look at her with a deadpan expression, surprising Twilight as she caught that hint of sarcasm.

“Okay...” She replied, rolling her eyes in response. “Maybe princess Celestia wants to hurt you, but me, the girls and even Luna are eager to get closer to you.”

Nemesis grunted in response, an expression matched by the alicorn herself, as she placed herself alongside the enormous monster, sighing in the process.

A few seconds of silence passed between the two, with Twilight using the time to think about Nemesis. He sure was hard to make open up, but at least he wasn´t creating any kind of mayhem. She figured Nemesis would not attack as long as he wasn´t bothered, but other than that, he was very docile.

It was strange, he was kind of an animal, yet he had his moments where some kind of intellect flourished. other thing that was fascinating for her, was the fact that Nemesis had some kind of fondness for foals, the question here being: Was it some kind of reaction to a past memory?

Normally she would think Nemesis simply had no memory of his past, yet the most recent bits of info told her otherwise when he used various methods to try and tell her some of the things he remembered, mainly his connection with this so-called STARS squad.

Suddenly, Twilight´s thoughts were cut short by an all too familiar voice.

“Hey there, Twilight!”

The young alicorn reacted immediately and turned around to spot a certain gray pegasus, looking at her with he signature mismatched eyes and a goofy face that either told destruction would come or just a very awkward moment, Twilight seriously hoped for the later, not really wanting to see the mare´s shenanigans affect Nemesis in a negative way. “Good day to you, Derpy, what are you doing here? Do you have a letter for me?” She asked, cautiously.

The mare looked at Twilight for a few seconds, making the alicorn nervous as she passed her eyes from her to a side look towards the beast at her side. Soon enough, Derpy let out a smile. “What? No, I simply wanted to say hi and... Hi!”

The alicorn looked at her, feeling a drop of sweat falling down her cheek, as she silently prayed for her to leave. “Um... Hi.” She responded, trying to make things move quickly before something happened.

Moments passed before the situation became rather awkward, as Derpy simply stared at Twilight, a big smile on her face and even causing Nemesis to cast a side glance with his eye, further making the alicorn nervous.

On his part, the monster found some amusement o the pegasus´ expression, making him look at her for several moments before returning his gaze towards the town. Twilight, meanwhile, kept her gaze between Derpy and Nemesis, trying to make sure the beast would not respond and hoping Derpy would leave, sadly she just flew there with the same smile on her face for good five minutes.

Occasionally, Nemesis would also look at the pegasus, this time not with an amused look, but rather with some unease, something that caught the attention of Twilight, who could feel her cheeks being covered by plenty of sweat.

A couple of moans from Nemesis later, the unsettling mare finally opened her mouth and Twilight was preparing to sigh in relief... until Derpy simply exhaled without a word.

Another grunt could be heard coming from Nemesis, as he now kept the pegasus under his gaze, without the mare even noticing and leaving a heavy breathing Twilight to try and for something that would not cause more destruction. Nemesis was getting fed up of Derpy´s presence and the alicorn noticed it, she had to do something before...

“Okay, bye.”

Out of nowhere the pegasus simply said, before turning around to leave. As much as Twilight´s eye twitched, she couldn´t help but finally release the breath she was holding. Thank Faust Derpy was already go...

"AAAHHHH!"

If not for gravity, Twilight would have rocketed to the sky following the sudden scream that made her fur stand up. A second after gaining composure, Twilight spotted Derpy with horror in her eyes.

As much difficulty as Derpy had to see properly, the poor pegasus could not avoid looking at the immensity of the monster sitting alongside the alicorn, which cause her heart to almost stop as she realized it had been sitting there all the time. She remained motionless looking at a rather calmed Nemesis, but intentions of freaking out further, were clearly shown on her face.

Just before the alicorn could stop Derpy from panicking, the mare tried take flight away from Nemesis... Then she collided against the tree, making it fall to the ground by the sheer amount of strength the pegasus used without noticing, however, the tree wasn´t the important part, but rather the dizzy gray pegasus trying to fly without success and going straight to the edge of the mountain.

Derpy flew out out control before she collided once more against a rock in the ground, but she didn´t stop there. Several ponies began to round up, going behind the out of control pegasus, to try to stop her advance, however, she was flying rather fast for any of them to be able to do something.

Finally, Derpy found her way towards the edge, as she finally lost complete control of both her wings and her consciousness. Nopony had time to do anything before the pegasus fell from the top.

There was a collective gasp amongst the crowd, who remained frozen in place. Without giving it a second thought, Twilight stood forward, ready to give chase to the falling mare and aid her when suddenly a black blur made it past her.

Everypony gave a small scream of shock and surprise, as they noticed the enormous beast launching himself after Derpy, soon leaving the sights of everypony who remained locked in place. A few moments passed before Twilight, alongside the ponies around, took some steps towards the edge, getting ready to get a look on what could have been a very serious tragedy, but surprise stroke once more against them, as the black golem seemingly appeared out of nowhere and into the skies.

As fast as Nemesis went up, he went down again, creating a small crater under him as he landed next to Twilight, who released a short scream of surprise.

Silence endured amongst the crowd, as they witnessed the monster that had destroyed part of the city, carrying an unconscious Derpy in his hand, seemingly well and without a scratch in her body. Moments later, Nemesis gently placed the gray pegasus on the floor, before he casted one quick look at the ponies around him, then gave a out a moan, shrug his shoulders and proceeded to sit back on the same spot under the tree.

Not long had passed before ponies began to talk between them, trying to comprehend the sudden heroic act of the beast. Finally warming up, while still cautious, several ponies began to approach Nemesis, all of them ready to cheer him.

Twilight couldn´t help but to smile at the scene, as finally, Canterlot´s citizens were starting to open up to him. Now, everything that remained to be seen, was how Nemesis would react to them. Surely he would feel better, maybe even receive their cheers with love. This was it, the moment where Nemesis would show everypony how friendly he could...

ROAR!

Feeling anxious about the ponies circling him, Nemesis got on his feet and placed himself in butcher position, aggressively snarling against the now fleeing citizens. On her part, Twilight released a sigh at the beast´s shenanigans and bad temper.

Screams were heard left and right, as everypony fled from the area, causing Twilight to grunt as she rolled her eyes. For Nemesis, though, he could finally enjoy the soft spot he found under the tree. The beast found himself lost in the almost empty surrounding areas of the park and never noticed the approaching Twilight looking directly at him.

It was funny for Twilight, as scary as Nemesis was, seeing such an imposing and scary creature and yet feel pity for him, was something rather amusing. You would not feel pity for a Timberwolf, or a Hydra, even less any of the enemies she had already faced in the past, yet the scariest thing she had ever seen did not cause her to have nightmares.

Nemesis actually reminded her of an old fairy tale she read when she was younger, one which told the tale of a misunderstood beast. Sitting alongside Nemesis once more, Twilight figured that at the end of the day, this was no fairy tale and as much as she thought Nemesis was misunderstood, he was still a very aggressive being, one that could simply rip her hooves off if he wanted... but would he? Snapping out of her thoughts, the princess returned her attention to the now calmed monster, who was staring directly into the distance, into Ponyville.

Twilight shifted her gaze from Nemesis to the small town, letting out a sigh of sadness, as she remembered her loss. Celestia may consider her strong, but Twilight was very susceptible when it came to a death, and Flash´s was certainly a huge shock. "You know?" She asked, not getting a response from Nemesis, but still she knew he was listening. "I´m usually not one to admire a sunset, but right now..." In a moment, the princess closed her eyes tightly, as she tried to let go of the pain. It wasn´t long before she opened them again, this time taking notice of the single eye staring at her attentively and forcing Twilight to become petrified.

After a few seconds of silence, the princess chuckled "I´m still not used to that creepy smile." Nemesis grunted, returning his sight towards the town. "Thank you for saving Derpy." Twilight had once more caught the attention of the beast, who turned to look at the huge smile on the alicorn´s face. "You know? You are kind of heroic." Nemesis cocked his head to the side at this. "If what the CMC say is true, then you were protecting them, and now you saved Derpy from falling... which reminds me." Stopping her trail of speech, Twilight looked behind her to spot a still unconscious Derpy on the floor. "Shut, I forgot about her."

The princess stood up from the grass, and walked towards the pegasus, then gently pressed her hoof against the mare´s back, trying to wake her up. After a few moments, the pegasus opened her disjointed eyes, and stared back at the alicorn. "Twilight?" Derpy asked, her face showing confusion. "Did I face hit something again?"

Twilight rolled her eyes "Well, at least you now had a good excuse." The mare answered, catching the attention of Derpy, who simply cocked her head to the side. "If it wasn´t for Nemesis here, you may not have woken up."

With those words, Twilight stepped to the side, letting Derpy take a look at her Savior, however, instead of a calm response, Derpy seemed altered by the sight, and looked as if the scene was about to repeat itself, this time, Twilight noticed it in time, and placed her hoof over Derpy´s chest. "Derpy, calm down, Nemesis´ not going hurt you, as a matter of fact, he saved you from falling."

Regardless of Twilight´s words, Derpy felt her blood freezing, upon seeing that tiny eye staring back at her, however, it seemed the princess was right and the monster was not going to rip her arms off. The pegasus slowly relaxed, trying to regain composure.

Twilight smiled "See? He´s not going to hurt you, in fact, I don´t think he wants to hurt anypony." Twilight´s words seemed to speak truth, and Derpy finally relaxed herself... until Nemesis got on his feet and walked towards her.

As fast as the blink of an eyes, Derpy took of to the skies with a loud scream, as if she had seen the grim reaper itself, on her part, Twilight simply shook her head at the scene and Nemesis was just confused. "I guess it´s going to take a while until we manage to avoid ponies getting scared of you." Nemesis grunted in response. "Hey, I kind of understand them, they are not the ones roaring at you." Nemesis looked at her for a few seconds, before averting his sigh towards a rather big bird bath splasher alongside him. It gave him an idea, as he placed his enormous hand inside, making sure he grabbed as much water as he could.

Far from the grunt or even the roar she was expecting, and much to Twilight´s surprise, her own body was soon splashed by a barrage of water. It didn´t take long for her to realize what had happened, as she noticed the monster with what looked an amused sight. On her part, her now wet coat and mane gave her a her uncomfortable sensation, forcing Twilight to shake her body off to get rid of the wetness, the reaction, she ended up looking too much like a puffy cloud. Twilight frowned at this, giving Nemesis a kill look for the ages.

The beast gave a low and long moan of satisfaction, before he raised his arm, reaching Twilight with his palm. The annoyed Twilight could only see in confusion as the enormous appendage of Nemesis got close to her. "What are-"

SQUISH!

In an instant, a tentacle appeared from the monster´s hand, its slime going through Twilight´s mane, and shaping it into a perfect cone. Silence, full and utter silence ensued, as the still confused Twilight tried to warp head around what had just happened, however, the silence would not last, as another sound emerged from her unlikely beast... chuckles.

Not full on laugh chuckles, but very small and subtle came out from the mouth of Nemesis. It was more than clear the sight more than amused the monster.

Rather slowly, Twilight´s face began to turn red, her ability to think clear abandoning her, and because of this, she never took notice of the exact moment when she used that same bird bath splasher to smash Nemesis´ head until it was too late. As soon as she recovered her senses, it was already too late, Nemesis was standing in front of her, staring straight at her. For Twilight, her blood went cold, as the still wet hair of her coat stood up. It reminded her of the first time she saw the beast, that same fear that her life could end in that exact moment, and she was just waiting for it to happen.

Shakily, Twilight opened her mouth. "Nemesis, I-" Before the princess could even finish her sentence, a huge hand got hold of her. It was over for Twilight, she was at the mercy of a killing machine because of a very stupid reaction on her part, and the only thing she could think at the moment was how much it was going to hurt... then she felt wetness taking over her body again. At first, Twilight thought it was blood pouring out from her body, until she realized where she was... inside Celestia´s fountain.

She blinked, then blinked again. Nemesis had not gutted her, he had not crushed her body with one move, he only threw her inside a fountain. The same being who had tried to kill Celestia a couple of times, and nearly succeeded, just because the princess name called him, had thrown Twilight inside a fountain as revenge for her hatting him in the head with a bird bath splasher... then she heard it, the same chuckles from before coming out from Nemesis´ mouth, the same enjoyment.

Twilight wasn´t angry, but she was certainly going through several emotions: Surprise, confusion, a little bit of fear, then... excitement. In a moment, Twilight´s face gave a very sinister smile, as her horn began to glow, seconds later, a barrage of water from the mountain made its way towards the enormous figure of Nemesis, silencing his chuckles in the process. And thus, the war started.

True, the great city of Canterlot wasn´t one to delight a wanting stomach, as its food was nothing more than decent, something that Ponyville had advantage over the city. Regardless, it did its job for any hungry pony that went looking to stuff themselves with a nice meal and this was something that Applejack seconded, as she found herself patting her own belly. "Wasn´t that quite a treat?" She asked, savoring with her tongue the last remnants of pumpkin flavor from the pie she just eat.

Rainbow, on her part and while her belly was actually quite bloated, gave her friend a smirk. "What´s wrong AJ, can´t eat more? I could eat the rest!"

Giving a smirk of her own at her friend´s huge ego, Applejack gave Rainbow a daring look. "Oh yeah? Let´s see that."

Yet again, having been caught at her own game, Rainbow did her best to hide her defeat, as she looked at what was left of her pie then feeling her stomach screaming for her to stop stuffing herself. The pegasus gave a funny look at her pastry before putting the dish away with her hoof. "Nah, I´ll just leave them for tonight."

"No, you won´t!" Pinkie screamed moments before she got herself over the table and used her mouth to stuff the rest of the dish, causing Rarity to shudder at the pink pony´s act.

Rainbow resisted the urge to throw up, before shaking her head and averting her gaze from the pink pony. "So... should we get Twi and..." Suddenly, another sound caught their attention, as resounding stomping sounds gave way for a moment they had hoped not to live again.

A high scream was soon to be revealed as Twilight, who found herself running through the streets of Canterlot, though, her smile went unnoticed by the group, as their attentions turned towards another sight. Like a thunderbolt, the big and bulky body of Nemesis came crashing to the ground, his right arm extended towards the still running alicorn.

No words was spoken between the ponies, who remained shocked by the sight, silenced by the sight of their friend being horribly mutilated. It wasn´t long before Rainbow reacted, as she flew at top speed against the creature, this action was followed by Applejack, who ran straight into the running monster.

Nemesis kept running towards Twilight, his tentacle extended, and ready to slime the young princess. This was a different experience for the beast, a breath of fresh air, but it would soon end. Suddenly, a blue blur stroke against his face, with a blow so strong that made his face move. Nemesis stopped on his tracks, still comprehending what had just happened, until something got hold of his right arm.

He turned around to look at Applejack holding his appendage with a lasso, then something made click in his mind. Rainbow was about to punch the beast again, when in one movement, Nemesis moved his right arm, claws unfolded to strike against the pegasus, who barely dodged the attack as she went under the monster´s arm, however, Applejack wasn´t so lucky, and she soon found herself being used as a weapon to strike against her friend. Without Rainbow noticing, an orange blur made contact with her, bringing both her and applejack to the ground. The beast made his way towards his duo, snarling at them, and preparing himself for a bloody splat. Behind the towering Nemesis; Rarity, Pinkie and even Fluttershy were about to intervene, when another voice caught them by surprise.

"Nemesis, wait!"

Almost as if he was under a spell, the enormous goliath stopped on his tracks just a few steps away from the two mares, then slowly turned to look at the source of the call.

Once Twilight had Nemesis´ attention, she decided to test something. She had noticed that the beast seemingly listened to her and the fillies much more than the rest of the ponies in Equestria, even the ones that were kind to him. She didn´t why this was the case, but after she had thought it had only been a coincidence, the way Nemesis listened surprised her greatly. Her test was a success and she had prevented Nemesis from ripping her friends apart.

"Please don´t hurt them, they just thought you were attacking me!" Twilight said, watching as Nemesis relaxed more and more as the seconds passed. Now, behind the monster, the two figures of Applejack and Rainbow laid shaking on the floor, the two of them hugging each other.

"Wait!" Rainbow called out as she pushed Applejack away, getting the attention of the alicorn. "Ugly bas..."

"ROAR!"

"I mean, handsome dude here, didn´t hurt you!?" She asked, avoiding Nemesis´ gaze as it went back to Twilight, who shook her head in response.

Applejack stood up and placed herself alongside Rainbow. "But we saw it going all crazy behind you!" The mare asked with confusion in her voice.

Twilight scratched her mane at this, before letting out a sheepish smile. "We were just playing."

There were no answers to this, as the faces on the other five told Twilight all she needed to know. They were surprised at this, at listening how this monster who had just beaten the crap out of Celestia, now found himself playing with Twilight. Nemesis looked from Rainbow to Rarity, then back at Twilight, almost as if he just waited for one of them to make a movement and a sight that put Twilight on the edge, but instead of a reaction, the whole area was silent, aside from the occasional voices of the citizens.

The awkward situation would soon finalize as Pinkie´s face slowly flashed a smile, before she went full on psycho. "Yay! I knew Nemy wasn´t bad!" Just as she screamed, Nemesis turned to face her in time to watch her running towards him before the pink menace clenched herself to the monster´s feet, hugging the appendage tightly with her hooves. The rest look at this in horror and just hopped that Nemesis wouldn´t loose it.

"I knew you were a gently giant, but you had me fooled there with your meany pants attitu..."

"ROAAAAAAAAR!"

"OKAYNOYOU´RESTILLMEAN!" Said and done, Nemesis freaked out and in turn, freaked out Pinkie, who instantly released the beast from her grasp before going to hide behind Twilight. However, he did not tried to hurt her and simply remained eyes fixed on the five Elements.

A few moments passed in silent horror before Twilight gulped, catching the attention of everypony. "So..." She called out. "Are we calmed now?"

The Elements gave uneasy looks between them, before each of them decided to step behind Twilight, who gave a deep sigh, looking back at the beast. "I already told you, we don´t want to hurt you, could you please just forget about what happened and not be rude with my friends?"

Nemesis looked at her, complete silence in answer to the alicorn´s demand. For the second time Twilight found herself sweating from sheer suspense, waiting for Nemesis to answer. Thankfully she did not have to wait for too long before the monster gave her a faint groan and continued his walk going past her and the other five Elements. Twilight released her breath once more before looking back at her friends.

"See? I told you he was not going to hurt us." She told them, noticing the looks that they were giving her, making her sigh in response.

One by one each of the Elements stepped alongside Twilight, as the beast made his march towards the castle. Twilight shook her head and looked at them. "Guess we´re going back."

They just nodded in response before walking behind the monster and in utter silence. Twilight was surprised by their actions, considering how valiant each of them had been in the past; Hydras? Evil queens? Fallen kings? No problem! But Nemesis? For some reason he scared them to death and even Rainbow who was the one with the biggest ego and a mare that would do all on her power to not allow anypony to see she was scared, was now shaking.

It only raised the question once more, why did Nemesis listened only to her and the fillies? She would have to look into that with much more determination, but now, she was more preoccupied for the next day, as soon as the sun raised, they would head back to Ponyville.

Looking towards the giant beat, Twilight hoped the rest of the day would go smoothly.

Treason

Boulder found himself running through the streets of ponyville, his breath struggling to catch the fresh air of the night, regardless of the multiple flames consuming the once beautiful town. Sweat ran down his cheeks, as he sped his march towards a safe zone, a place away... from him.

In the distance, Ponyville´s town hall gave Boulder the opportunity he needed to escape the nightmare. He ran as much as his legs could, for using his only wing left was only a waste of time.

Behind him, the sounds of heavy steps echoed, making his head hurt, and his heart race faster. Boulder could hear the monster getting each time closer, and closer to him, to the point where he could even hear breathing. In a last ditch of effort, he took as much strenght as he could and raced towards the door.

Then the beast grabbed him.

Tears flowed from the eyes of the changeling, silently praying for his tormenter to release him, but this beast had no ears. Boulder soon found himself staring directly into that single white eye, into the face of Nemesis.

Loud screams came from the Changelings mouth, wishing somepony could hear him and rescue him, but it was too late. Skin and meat were starting to be ripped apart under the monster´s might. The pain was great, and excruciating, as his limbs were torn from Boulder´s body...

Then he woke up at the final hours of the reign of the night.

Boulder took a huge deep breath in order to avoid screaming. He could feel his body sweating greatly and his heart beat going so fast that his heart almost jumped out of his chest.

Boulder looked from left to right, almost as if he was sure Nemesis would come for him, but only the darkness of the woods greeted him, alongside the rest of his brothers. He took a minute to relax, taking deep breaths until his pulse was back to normal then placed his new hooves on his face, instantly feeling the discomfort of his new appendages.

With a grunt, he retired them from his face and looked at them. It was hard for him to feel the sensation on not feeling his arms at all, yet he could move them as if his demonstration had never happened. Still, it exasperated him the uncomfortable feeling of the wood colliding and joining with the rest of his organic body. He wished he knew some kind of regenerative spells, as Boulder was aware about how weak wooden limbs could be, they would certainly not resist a very strong impact and it concerned him greatly.

Sure, he could enhance them with magic, but that sickening sensation would not place his mind at ease. Going back to his memories of the first encounter with Nemesis, Boulder´s breathing began to accelerate as he passed through the images of his torture. The Changeling winced, once again feeling the sensation of being torn apart.

A green glow emanated from his new appendages, going from the hooves to the bone-like wings on his back, yet he took notice of this, as his mind remained in the past with Nemesis, the cause of his nightmares.

Closing his eyes to contain the bad memory once more, Boulder calmed himself, once more inhaling deeply before letting out his breath. As soon as he was relaxed, the Changeling opened his eyes, as a surprise greeted him. Boulder cocked his head to the side in confusion at what had happened to his appendages, which were now hand-like claws instead of hooves.

It did surprise him, knowing that the more time he passed, the more abilities he learned he could make. Shape shifting seemed to be more than possible for his new claws, but he knew it would not reach the capabilities of a normal Changeling, as such, he remained without the ability to shape shift entirely. As frustrating as that thought was, he was still glad these new body parts seemed to do more than just replace his loss... if only he could enhance them.

Setting the thoughts aside, Boulder lifted his head to look around him, spotting the several Changelings peacefully sleeping around him and under the comfort of the dark forest. They were close to their destination, a destination that he knew would bring nothing to them and would just end up being another failure.

The Changeling released a sigh, remembering the losses they had suffered in this journey of madness, thanks to the stupid decisions of their now delirious queen. Changelings were a strong race, especially in great numbers, but tiredness still affected them; days upon days without anything to feed, so little to drink, so little to live, yet, Boulder knew he could not trust Sombra either, for as soon as he helped the fallen king, he would betray them.

Boulder was placed in a hard decision, as he would struggle to pick a side. Take his chances with Sombra, or let the now mad queen eradicate his brothers and sisters. A difficult choice for a Changeling that used to be the same as the rest, he guessed power came with a prize.

Standing up from the floor, the restless Changeling made his way towards a small opening, being careful not to wake up any of his family. Soon enough he found himself gazing at the bright light of the enormous moon that rested above them, completely free for everypony to gaze upon. Lowering his sight, Boulder caught eye of the place they would soon be arriving to, the ancient temple that Chrysalis thought, would give her answers to open the box. If only he could...

"Quite the night, uh?"

The voice caught Boulder by surprise, who turned around to spot Sombra over a large rock, laying down and simply gazing at the large moon, though, the Changeling didn´t know whether the fallen king was admiring it or simply used the moment to think. Boulder just gave him a look so that he knew he was being listened.

Without taking his gaze off from the moon, Sombra spoke. "We´ll be arriving at that damned temple tomorrow, with nothing but false hopes of having an edge on what truly matters." He finished with a sigh, as he shook his head.

Boulder gave him another look, before casting one side glance at the moon, then turned around to leave the fallen king alone. "You know?" Sombra talked again, stopping Boulder on his tracks. "I used to respect your queen before, in a when she actually used her brain, before she lost her sanity at the loss of her battle." Casting once side glance towards Boulder, Sombra spoke again. "You can still help me and prevent your brothers and sisters from dying for a mad cause."

Boulder snarled at the mad king, before going back to his bed on the floor. He felt at an impasse between the two parties who could end up bringing death to many Changelings, one´s madness could be stopped if he chose to help Sombra, yet the fallen king wasn´t an idiot. Boulder knew he was not nearly as strong as the two of them, but he also knew his power could grow, the question was, with which one of the two would he allow to take the risk.

On one hand, Chrysalis was bringing damnation to the Changelings and her mind was beyond reason and helping Sombra would allow Boulder to prevent any more casualties to his breeden; on the other hand Sombra was not somepony to be trusted and even though right now he would not risk himself to anger the Changeling horde, Boulder knew they were loose canons. Sombra was a traitor, someone who would not share the power he required and he was also quite powerful.

Yet, in the end, the fallen king was more reasonable and hadn´t lost his mind as Chrysalis did, that was a plus for the shadow king. Boulder´s thoughts came to a stop as he spotted a tent you a few meters away from the place his breeden was resting, a tent in which he knew Chrysalis rested.

Boulder gritted his teeth at the sight, not understanding how she could sleep so well and easy amongst so many comforts, while the rest of the Changelings found themselves suffering in the wild. This did not help her cause that much when it came to deciding who to follow.

Looking from the Changeling camp to the tent, Boulder finally chose where to go, as such, he began to walk towards the queen´s place. As difficult as it was for him, Boulder managed to be as quiet as possible while walking towards the tent, noticing how his new claws helped his equilibrium a lot.

After a few more struggles, Boulder found himself at the doorstep of the hut, where he used his right claw to push away the fabric letting him get inside. As carefully as he could, the Changeling entered the place, noticing with anger the luxury of the place, the royal-like carpet giving way to the enormous bed at the middle of the hut, resting at the middle of the four wooden pillars that held the tent.

Changelings, even though could emotionally be set apart from each other, have always been used to work as a hive mind. For somepony as Boulder, making a separation from the rest of the have and his own mind, allowed him to see what was happening and he hated what he saw. A mad queen that cared too little for her subjects to actually make sure they were alright.

Boulder frowned at the queen as he got closer to her bed, looking at her with a frown on his face. It wasn´t long before he found himself just centimeters away from Chrysalis, whose face resounded with the comfort that her tent provided and Boulder hated that.

The horns atop his head began to glow a turquoise blue, as he snarled at the resting queen, then slowly raised his claw. Just before he did anything, his eyes spotted something on a desk alongside her, something that had placed him on this impasse between her and Sombra.

The shadow king´s horn rested in there, not entirely hidden and ready to be taken. Boulder lowered his claw, contemplating the answer; he could take the horn in that moment and take it to Sombra, or he could go right ahead and kill Chrysalis, keep the horn and kill Sombra.

The downside of killing Sombra was that he was not strong enough to take him and he actually needed the fallen king´s help against Nemesis. Weighting his options, Boulder closed his eyes for a moment, making sure not to breathe too hard that it could wause the queen to wake up.

Just a few seconds passed before he took a decision... take the horn and give it to Sombra.

Now, all he needed was...

"Boulder!?"

The Changeling almost jumped in his place, as the voice of Chrysalis caught him by surprise and canceled his further plan and thoughts, in favor of a position where he had no idea what to do.

"What are you doing here?" Chrysalis asked, lighting her horn with green light so she could be able to see better, then looked at the startled face of the Changeling. The queen got up from her bed and sat up, rubbing her eyes with her right hoof before looking back at the Changeling, letting out a deep sigh. "You scared me to death!" She said with a chuckle.

Yawning like there was no tomorrow, Chrysalis laid down once more, covering herself with the sheets of her bed and looked attentively at Boulder, who simply remained immobile on his place. He looked down at her, trying to come up with an idea that could get him out of the mess he was now in, for it was more than sure that problems were about to start and he was not willing to risk his life once more.

A few seconds of silence passed between Boulder and Chrysalis, who remained in the same position, smiling at the Changeling, almost as if she was admiring him, then her eyes shifted from Boulder´s gaze to the now wooden claws. Between gentle breaths, Chrysalis reached with her right hoof towards one of the appendages, rubbing it gently as she admired the work of magic.

"Does it hurt?" She asked, keeping her gaze on his arms. Boulder took a few moments before shaking his head in a negative.

A moment of silence passed before Chrysalis returned her gaze to Boulder´s own eyes, smiling at him, then moved to the side of her bed and patted unto the bed. "Sit with me."

Boulder looked at her in silence, doing his best to prevent the queen from noticing his fear, then after having silently relaxed, he proceeded to do as he was asked and sat besides the queen, his back facing the entrance of the hut and his face facing Chrysalis. Boulder felt eaten by the glare, yet it also felt exciting to an extent; even though he didn´t think kindly of the fair queen, Boulder had to admit there was some kind of exotic beauty on Chrysalis. His heart began to race faster, as the thin hoof of the queen rubbed Boulder´s chest, up and down, in an almost seductive manner, then Chrysalis smile fell.

"Why is all of this happening?" She asked, lowering her gaze, but keeping her hoof on Boulder´s chest. "Once we had so much, and so little to worry, but now..." Chrysalis sighed, looking up at Boulder once more. "Ever since the wedding, I have struggled to think how to keep my Changelings safe." Boulder frowned at this, an expression that went unnoticed by Chrysalis. "We lost so much on that day and I have tried to do anything on my power to reclaim what would have been ours." She sighed. "I´m afraid Boulder, afraid that I have been making the bad decisions, but there is just so much on my shoulders, so much weight that has never haunted me as much as it on these days."

Boulder´s face relaxed, letting go of his frown upon being surprised by Chrysalis words. Almost as if the mad queen that had remained the last few days, was now gone, giving way for a more mentally stable Chrysalis to talk.

"This quest to open that damned box, as much as it would seem like a waste of time, is the hope that I hold unto." She said. "You think I wouldn´t want to just magically get back what those ponies took from us?"

Boulder lowered his gaze, thinking about the queen´s words and actually taking them into consideration. It was weird for him to see the remnants of that old queen that every Changeling could look up to, one that actually seemed to care for her subjects, but he wondered how much of this sanity was real and not just some kind of fever. Boulder´s thoughts came to a stop as he felt the queen´s hoof rubbing his body once more, forcing him to look at her, whose face remained fixated on the Changeling´s eyes. It was a moment of unease, between the assaulting eyes of the queen and the faint noises of the forest that did not help Boulder´s nerves.

"I had no idea I would end up creating something special when I gave you this power, Boulder." She said, a smile forming on her lips. "And I thought I would never feel the same comfort I felt ages ago, the same warmth I had no idea I missed so much." Once more, Boulder´s heart began to race, as the seductive tone of the queen assaulted his ears and his eyes became magnetized by Chrysalis´.

Slowly raising up from her position, Chrysalis got closer to Boulder, as she began to wrap her hooves around the Changeling´s neck. "I so longed for somepony to make me feel and you..." Getting closer, the queen placed her mouth on Boulder´s ear and whispered. "Are perfect."

It wasn´t long before Chrysalis pushed her lips against Boulder´s, pulling the enormous Changeling against her, as they both went down unto the bed. For a moments, Boulder felt like struggling, but he soon fell for the Queen´s charms and let himself go into the emotion.

Between kisses and caresses, the two of them moved around the bed, moving almost in rhythm to the ritual that was taking place amongst the green light of Chrysalis horn.

The queen felt herself liberated from a great stress, as she lost herself on the moment of passionate love and it wasn´t long before the first moans began to escape Chrysalis´ lips, but then something happened that she did not expect.

"Urk!" A faint cry of pain came out of the queen´s mouth, as green blood was sprayed on the beds sheets. It happened too quick for Chrysalis to notice the moment when Boulder used his one claw to slit her throat.

She looked at him in horror, noticing the hateful expression on the Changeling´s face, as he slowly let her go. Chrysalis raised her hoof towards Boulder, almost as if she pleaded for him to save her, but she only saw the cold stare of the Changeling as she drowned on her own blood. The green light of her horn began to diminish, until it disappeared alongside the queen´s life, leaving Boulder in the darkness of the tent.

The Changeling took a few moments to breath, then slowly got off Chrysalis´ bed, then sat on the floor as he placed his left claw over his head. He had done it, he had just killed the queen without so much of a second thought and while he knew there would be consequences, Boulder knew there was no going back.

It would be a few hours before the rest of his brethren felt the loss of their queen and he had time to come up with a plan to make it look like a suicide. Getting up from the floor, Boulder illuminated the room with his own horns, trying to avoid gazing at the blodied body that still held a hopeful expression, then looked passed her unto the object that made him get into the tent in the first place...

Sombra´s horn.

Picking the horn with his magic, Boulder directed his sights towards the dead body of Chrysalis and tainted it with some of the former queen´s blood, then placed it over one of her hooves. The Changeling took some time to clean up his claws, then directed his steps outside of the hut and just before he got out, Boulder casted one last glance at Chrysalis before stepping outside.

Boulder silently made his way towards his "bed" on the ground, making sure he was not heard or seen and it seemed he went lucky. Everything was going in order and if it continued like that, Chrysalis´ death would be taken as a suicide and the one in charge would be him, at least until they found another female to serve as mother of the rest. It wasn´t such a difficult task, as all they had to do was choose one of the female Changelings and power her up in a ceremony to become fit for the position, still, that would have to wait. The hive mind functionality would become a problem, but Boulder hoped his new abilities would allow him to find a solution.

His thoughts were cut short as he arrived at his place, then laid down before closing his eyes, getting ready for what would being the next day.

Another day had passed and the Elements found themselves at the train yard, getting ready to depart towards Ponyville. They had arrived on hour earlier and were waiting for the train to be ready.

They had slept so little, considering the fact that Twilight had decided Nemesis could stay in the room with them, causing the other five to literally form a pillow fortress on one of the corners of the room and as far away from the monster as possible. This was already starting to be a problem, as their faces reflected the little sleep they got, but still had enough force to stay wake up until the train was ready.

Celestia, who was standing alongside them, in front of a big statue of her, couldn´t help but to chuckle at the scene, then turned her gaze from the Elements and to the castle, letting out a deep breath as she thought about her sister and their most recent confrontation. She had never seen Luna act that way, sure, she did worse two thousand years ago, but the difference was that this time she could see her hurt rather than invaded by jealousy.

For her, Nemesis had made things worse ever since his arrival, with actions that would normally lead to a severe punishment, yet deep down she knew nothing she did to him would stop him, nothing not involving teleportation spells. She could simply move her horn a few inches and send the stupid monster to the sun, yet she feared that all she had taught her subjects would be gone to waste. Nemesis had shown how docile he could be, especially with the fillies and Twilight, but she could still feel certain hatred towards him and would not waste her time giving the other cheek.

It was more than obvious she would keep an eye on him.

On their part, Twilight alongside Nemesis where back at the castle, more specifically inside of their room, where the alicorn was preparing a few things before heading to the station. For obvious reasons involving a certain monster, the group had decided to depart and although Twilight found it tiring, she agreed on them waiting for her at the yard.

"I think I have everything." Said Twilight, as she pulled her bag over the bed with her magic, before closing it with her things inside, then turned to faze Nemesis. "I can´t believe how quickly this little visit to Canterlot went by, it seemed like it was yesterday when we arrived."

"Stars." Nemesis replied, letting out a chuckle from Twilight.

A purple aura took hold of the bag as it was magically placed alongside Twilight, then let out a sigh before walking towards the door. "Ok, time to go!"

Without saying anything, Nemesis followed behind as the two began to make their way towards the station, not noticing that Twilight had forgot her train tickets. There where moments where the two sped up the chase so they could arrive on time.

Nemesis couldn´t lie, he was actually excited to go back to Ponyville and away from the annoying alicorn of Celestia, yet Nemesis had the feeling he would see more of her, which of course, he did not like at all. At least he expected to have a quiet time back in town, maybe even take care of the fillies who had accepted him since the beginning.

Twilight wasn´t feeling nervous about going back to Ponyville with Nemesis, as she though he had more than shown how he could contain himself, however, as her mind passed through memories of the town, she ended up on one she did not want to go back.

Her castle, her waiting on a window for Flash to return, only for him to end in such a disturbing way.

Twilight had been doing as much as she could to contain that sadness from consuming her, but not only did the pegasus´ loss was shocking, but it was something that kept her awake at night. Suddenly the cheerful alicorn turned sombre, as the both of them continued their way towards the station, passing through the great gates of the castle and unto the streets of Canterlot.

Nemesis did not notice Twilight´s change of humor, as he was taking his time to look at the structures around him. It actually surprised him to see how much the ponies in the city still feared him and ran away as soon as they caught sight of him.

Half an hour passed before the pair found themselves at the train station, where the Elements and Celestia greeted Twilight, doing their best to ignore Nemesis, who simply stood behind Twilight.

"Geez! You took your sweet time, Twi!" Rainbow said, siting over the bags she had placed on the floor. "For a moment we thought you had a problem with..." She then got closer to Twilight´s ear whispering on her ear so that Nemesis wouldn´t hear her. "20% uglier here."

Twilight rolled her eyes in response. As the rest of the Elements returned to their former chats, Twilight set her bag alongside her, then looked at the train that was preparing for departure thinking about her upcoming travel. She was worried that Nemesis´ height wouldn´t allow him to enter the train, but realized that as long as he remained on the floor, there would be no problem.

It had been a few crazy days in Canterlot and she was eager to actually sleep on a bed of hers back at the castle. "The castle... ugh, Flash." She whispered as soon as she remembered the last moments Twilight saw the pegasus.

The thought of her waiting by the window for his return the sudden attack by Chrysalis and the subsequent loss of the Harmony box; the destroyed city and the wave of Changelings destroying everything on their path, it all came back to her as the former excitement to go back home turned into hesitation. Twilight closed her eyes at the thought, trying to suppress the memories that would not allow her to enjoy the travel.

Unknown to her, Celestia was watching.

"Twilight..." The sudden voice woke Twilight from her trance, as she turned around to spot Celestia behind her, looking at her a look of sorrow. "What is on your mind?"

Releasing a deep breath, Twilight calmed herself and successfully avoided the tears, then turned to face Celestia. "I never thought I would say this, but... I don´t want to go back to Ponyville." Taken aback by this, Celestia placed her hoof over Twilight´s shoulder and waited for her to continue. "It´s that I don´t know how much I want this memories to go back to me, I don´t want to look at the windows of my castle and think Flash will come, or stare at the streets of Ponyville and think about how Chrysalis took the Harmony box." Releasing a sigh of exasperation, the alicorn closed her eyes for a moment before looking at Celestia again. "I have failed so much during the last days that..."

As Twilight finished talking, she placed a hoof over her template. Celestia was sure that the last occurrences would haunt Twilight for a long time, but she had seen her so stable that the princess doubted it would take more from here.

Taking back her hoof from Twilight´s shoulder, Celestia lowered her body, so she could be at the same eye level. "You have not failed anypony, Flash´s death is not your fault and regarding the box?" Celestia smiled, trying to comfort Twilight. "I´m actually sure it will be of no use to her and besides, I´m more happy that you are alive and well, so get that smile back on your face and try to enjoy your way home."

Twilight sighed in response, before nodding at the princess, then a confused expression appeared on her face. "What do you mean by ´it will be of no use to her´?

"It is not called the box of Harmony without a reason, it is bonded to the Elements and can only be used by them." Answered Celestia, letting out a chuckle. "My guess is that the fair queen will spend a lot of time trying to open it, then will come back in search for answers."

Twilight scratched her mane in confusion. "So you want to wait for her to come back?"

"We are still searching for her, but for now it is the best course of action." Responded Celestia. Twilight sighed in response, feeling unnerved by her inability to avoid this situation, noticing this, Celestia placed her hoof over Twilight´s shoulder. "Don´t worry about that, Twilight right now you should really enjoy the way and prepare for tomorrow."

"What´s tomorrow?" Asked a confused Twilight, but when she saw Celestia´s face fall, the purple alicorn found the answer she was looking for. "Nightmare night, right?" She asked, getting a weak nod from Celestia, as she turned to look at the enormous castle in the distance. "Have you talked to her again?"

Releasing a sight, Celestia turned to look at Twilight, then lowered her face. "I tried, but She is just too hurt and the worst part is that I do not know why. She has never responded like this before and I do not know what it was that triggered her." It wasn´t long before a warm smile appeared on the princess´ face, just as the conductor of the train announced everypony that the train was ready to depart. "Do not let my problems get to you Twilight, just enjoy your travel."

Releasing a smile of her own, Twilight went to hug the alicorn princess, who returned the affection. As they broke up the contact, Twilight turned around and entered the train after the other Elements did the same, with Nemesis going behind her, however, he was stopped by the voice of Celestia, whose eyes remained locked on Twilight, not even bothering to look at the monster.

"She may trust you, but mark my words," The princes turned to look at Nemesis, frowning at the monster who simply remained unfazed by her, "if you hurt her or any of my subject, I will personally turn you into the first being that takes a trip to the sun."

Nemesis looked at her for a few moments, then broke the contact and kept walking, only to stop right by the statue of the princess. Nemesis turned around to face Celestia, then raised his fist, causing the princess to cock her head to the side in confusion at the weird action.

Smash!

In a single movement, Nemesis punched the head clean off Celestia´s statue of herself, with the head obliterated by the punch. This action cause the princess to snarl at the monster who had just proved his point. Nemesis turned around, leaving an angered princess behind, who disappeared in a bright light seconds later. Just as Nemesis was about to enter the train (somehow), another alicorn went outside.

"Ups! I have to get back to the castle, I forgot a few things." Twilight said, catching the attention of her friends who rushed behind her as she prepared to teleport.

"Ya better hurry, Twi, ´cause this train here gonna leave any minute now." Said Applejack, who got a nod as a response, seconds before Twilight disappeared in a purple light.

As if faith wanted to screw over with the alicorn, the train began to move, forcing the rest of the Elements to get inside the machine before the doors closed. Like that, the train began to march towards its destination without anypony noticing a certain night alicorn hiding in the compartment all the way to the back of the train.

Just as the train left, a purple light flashed just alongside the now headless statue of Celestia, giving way for Twilight to step into plain sight, catching the attention of the beast walked walked towards her. "Sorry for that, I almost forgot this book." Said Twilight, before showing the aforementioned book with the title ´The secrets of Hope and Fear´ to Nemesis, who paid it no mind as grunted once, Twilight did not mind, as she knew Nemesis would not find interest in it. "I just started reading this, it talks about an universal entity, responsible for these..."

Her face fell as she as she noticed the train disappearing in the distance. "Ugh, this is great." She couldn´t believe how wrong her day had already started and all hopes of relaxing while arriving to Ponyville were now gone with the train itself, now she had to use the fastest way possible: Teleportation.

Letting out a grunt, Twilight turned to look at Nemesis, who was getting closer to the alicorn as he extended his arms. "Guess, I´ll have to trans-" Before she could finish her sentence, an enormous hand took hold of her and placed Twilight on the arm of the beast.

Before Twilight could react, the beast jumped into the air as high as he could, forcing the alicorn to release a scream at the sudden action. The air rushed against the terrified mare, who was still trying to figure out what was happening and while she was not scared of heights, this was most certainly going to leave a mark. Although terrifying, the view was something to be praised, from the clear blue skies the moments they were high into the air, to even the fast views of forests when Nemesis made his land.

It surprised Twilight to see how Nemesis could reach these heights with such an enormous body and how strong his bones had to be to resist such an impact upon falling and without breaking a sweat. Such strength that allowed Nemesis to propel like this and keep momentum and control when deciding where to land and where not to.

One thing Twilight hated was the sensation on a certain place when she fell from a high place, that tingling feeling that as harmless as it was, felt rather unpleasing and it was worse when she saw a forest for a moment before propelled into the air once more. Although she didn´t have enough time to appreciate where she was exactly, she did know what Nemesis was trying... a jumping express to Ponyville.

Half way through, Nemesis took a moment to look at Twilight. "Stars." He said, catching the attention of the now more calmed Twilight, who rolled her eyes at the monster.

"You do know I could have transported us back, right?

Nemesis grunted in response, leaving Twilight to admire the view once more, as she thought about how much envy Rainbow will feel when the alicorn tells her about this adrenaline express, considering how the pegasus loved to be on those kinds of situations.

It wasn´t long before both Nemesis and Twilight arrived at their destination and way before the train arrived. The alicorn was relieved that she had left her bags inside the vehicle and she trusted her friends for them to keep it safe.

Normally, the girls would be waiting, but they had arrived so early that the only ponies waiting where the ones that had nothing to do with her or her friends. Sadly, most of the ponies around freaked out after the huge behemoth landed, causing the majority of them to flee in terror.

Nemesis placed Twilight on the floor, as she took a moment to sit on the floor to let the adrenaline wear off, then with a sigh of satisfaction, she turned to look at Nemesis. "Wow! That was one Heck of a journey!" She said, letting out a chuckle. "Let´s not do that again in some time, alright?

"Stars." Nemesis replied, glad he did not have problems with the alicorn and while he did know Twilight could have teleported them, he simply enjoyed jumping his way towards any destination he like... yet another perk that came from his transformation.

"Guess we´ll have to wait for the train." The voice of Twilight cut Nemesis from his thoughts, who grunted in response before sitting over a bench close by, however, his body mass was something to bear in mind and as soon as he sat, the bench collapsed under him. The sudden noise scared the rest of the ponies brave enough to stay and it wasn´t long before the station was completely empty.

On his part, the sudden sound didn´t really scare, but rather surprised the ruthless monster, who instantly became infuriated when he discovered he couldn´t simply sit. It just angered him when he couldn´t do things and it certainly showed.

Twilight let out a sigh as she noticed this, then her gaze returned to Nemesis, who found himself smashing the rest of what was left of the bench with his fists, while he roared in desperation. Left and rights where launched as pieces of wood flew everywhere.

Twilight looked at him for a few seconds, noticing how he was more concerned about the fact that he could not sit than the scared ponies running away from him and it almost made him looked child-like. As she looked at the scene, Twilight couldn´t help but to give the beast a warm smile, before using her horn to help the frustrated Nemesis. "Here, let me give you a hoof." She said, levitating the pissed off and placing him alongside her, then directed her attention to the destroyed bench and began reconstructing it, using a spell to make it more durable and more in line with Nemesis´ structure.

What was left, was a slightly bigger white bench with wider space and a curve like base, with an equally curved back. Twilight released Nemesis from her spell, to let the beast admire the recent work of art, whose structure didn´t bother Nemesis at all, he just wanted to sit. Looking from Twilight to the bench, Nemesis released a grunt, before walking towards the resting place, releasing a smile on Twilight´s face.

The monster turned around, as he prepared to do what he had intended in the first place, when suddenly...

"Nemesis!"

Three voices said in unison, as the aforementioned beast released a frustrated sigh, before he felt three forces colliding against his body, which from Twilight´s perspective it looked like three fruits colliding against a concrete wall, as the beast remained unfazed. Three huge smiles looked up at Nemesis´ face as they were hugged tightly to his chest.

"Did you bring us something?" Asked Sweetie Belle.

"Did you destroy anything while being there?" Followed Applebloom.

"Did you kick princess Celestia´s butt?" Finished Scootaloo, whose question forced Twilight to interject the meeting.

"Wow! That´s disrespectful, girls!"

The three turned to look at Twilight, seemingly unfazed by princess´ interjection, and only shrugged their shoulders. "Why? Didn´t he?" Asked Scootaloo.

"Well, yeah! But that´s not the..." Suddenly a loud noise interrupts Twilight, which came in the form of the train they were waiting for. The three fillies instantly got off Nemesis and rushed towards the incoming train, ready to receive the rest of the Elements and leaving Twilight grunting at their response. On his part, Nemesis gave out a low growl in the form of a chuckle, causing Twilight to face him. "Don´t you start!" She said, before leaving the beast behind to receive her friends.

Soon, the train stopped and it wasn´t long before the doors opened, revealing several ponies who looked confused by the lack of receivers. Twilight mentally chuckled at this, as she thought about how Nemesis had single handedly made everypony flee. Her thoughts where soon interrupted by the familiar faces of the other five Elements appearing on the doors of the train, then three loud roars took hold of the moment as the fillies ran towards their families.

On her part, Twilight received both Fluttershy and Pinkie, before her attention returned to the rest of the group. Acquaintances were quickly made, and in between, Applejack handled Twilight her bag, which she received with a smile and a roll of her eyes.

Noticing the odd arrival, the fillies asked Twilight how she had got there first, and her response excited the fillies, who immediately ran towards Nemesis to ask for a lift, but the beast denied. Initially, Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity had almost stopped the fillies from going close to the monster, but Twilight stopped them with a smile, signaling for them to not be worried and although Nemesis had neglected the idea of having to jump around, he did receive the fillies in a way the other Elements would never expect from a monster as him.

Once everything was settled, everypony was ready to depart, when suddenly a noise caught them all off guard.

"Last time I do things without thinking!" As soon as the ponies heard the voice, they turned around to spot another passenger they had no expected, in the form of...

"Princess Luna!?" Everypony said in unison, forcing the aforementioned princess to release a sheepish smile, before getting close to the group.

"... Hi?" She finally said, before stretching her limbs.

"What are you doing here, princess?" Asked Twilight, scratching her mane in confusion.

Luna finished stretching her neck before smiling at the group "I figured I could wait for Nightmare night here in Ponyville."

Twilight tilted her head in confusion, an expression matched by the rest of the group with the exception of Nemesis. "Why didn´t you simply teleport?" The alicorn asked.

"Celestia would have noticed and try to stop me from coming, she might still think I am inside of my room." The princess answered, getting looks from the group, which caught her attention. "What?"

"With all due respect, princess, but wouldn´t princess Celestia come here once she discovers you´re not back in Canterlot?" Asked Twilight, looking at the alicorn with a confused look.

Luna casted one quick glance to the castle in the distance, before letting out a sigh. "I do not think she will come..." A frown appeared on her features, before looking back at Twilight. "I know she will not come." The moment turned silence, before the angry expression disappeared from Luna´s face, to let out a thin smile. "Let us not worry about that for now, and let us keep going... wherever you are all going."

The group shared looks with each other, not feeling good about being between the two sister´s problems, but they had no other choice. Without confirmation, Luna began to walk, forcing the rest to follow her.

"So, do you have space in the castle, Twilight?" Asked Luna, getting a grunt for response from the you princess, before nodding with her head.

Nightmare night was close, and even though, so many things had happened, everypony was in the mood to celebrate it, especially Luna, who still had Nemesis in mind.

The first screams of the morning had finally came, Boulder had been expecting them, making the wait the reason for his lack of sleep. Pretending to wake up, he spotted several of other Changelings running towards a direction he knew so well, the entrance to a slaughter that had just occurred a few hours and the loss of a mad queen.

He stood up slowly, getting prepared for whatever was about to come, then after stretching his neck until a loud ´Crack!´could be heard, Boulder began his march towards the former Queen´s tent.

Changelings passed beside him, he could notice surprise on their faces and could only imagine how they would look like once they discovered her queen had "committed suicide". The opening finally came, giving way for the green tent extending a few meters in lenght. Boulder had not the chance to fully appreciate the place and even if it was hard enough for him to see it with all the Changelings surrounding it, the colors and structure were clearly seen.

Stepping behind one of his brethren, he waited. "Boulder?" The Changeling turned around to spot Sombra looking at the tent with eyes wide open. "What happened?"

Without a word, Boulder grunted to himself, as a group of Changelings appeared from the inside of the tent, carrying the corpse of their former leader with their magic. From a quick glance, Boulder could see that Sombra was quite surprised at the scene and it wasn´t long before he gave a smirk. "You chose well, Boulder." The Changeling didn´t answer and remained his sight glued to the body, causing Sombre to chuckle. "You have more guts than I thought you had."

Without another word, Boulder decided to make his approach, opening his way through the horde of Changelings, who moved to the side as the muscular figure walked towards the tent. Once there, the other four Changelings gently dropped Queen Chrysalis to the floor for Boulder to watch and he saw that what was once alive, was now gone. That smile evaporated, those eyes lacking a soul and that black color of her skin now turned a sick gray, pale as death.

Leaving the princess on the floor, Boulder got inside the tent, looking for the horn that had fallen to the side of the bed. So far there had been no problems, leading him to believe they all had fallen for the set up. Boulder picked up the horn with his right claw, clenching it within his hand, before turning around to exit the tent. Once outside, he bent over and in front of every Changeling, used his fingers to close the Queen´s eyes, the last time all would look at them.

Standing up from his position, Boulder looked around him, noticing his brethren waiting for him. They trusted him and it showed on their faces, for as hurt as they looked, all seemed to have hope for Boulder.

Looking back from Chrysalis´ body to the crowd, Boulder took the decision and took a deep breath

"An Era has ended!" A rough and grave voice came out from his mouth, surprising the rest of the Changelings, who were taken aback by it. "A new dawn has come! I lead you to victory, from bloodshed and vengeance! Torture and murder!" The once fallen expressions of the Changelings had begun to spark once more in confidence, confidence for one of their own that would show them the way. "Chrysalis weak! She took easy path, but they forced her! They will pay for this death!"

An uproar took hold of the place, as Boulder spotted the satisfied face of Sombra looking at him, then with a shake from his head, the Changeling called him to his side. The fallen king made his way amidst the crowd, his smirk flashing the rest of the Changelings who opened a path for him to follow.

He would finally have it, his horn back, his power back and an army to back him up. As surprising as it could seem, Sombra did not considering betraying Boulder... yet. He would need the Changeling.

Having finally arrived, Sombra placed himself in front of Boulder, who looked from him to the rest of the expecting crowd. "Sombra, ally! Fallen king help reclaim what is ours!" With that final shout, Boulder placed the horn over Sombra´s head, a dark light taking hold of the area, surrounding everything as a laugh was heard coming from the middle. Even, though the rest of the Changelings had backed away, Boulder remained unfazed until the power explosion had died down and the once weak king was now full of power.

Releasing an excited laugh, Sombra rubbed his horn with his hoof, feeling its power draining him full. "At last, after so much time I finally have it!" The excitement died down, but the smile remained on the king´s face, who looked from Boulder to the rest of the Changelings. "Your leader has gained an ally! An ally that will help you on your campaign against you enemies and from now on, no more hopeless travels! No more deaths in vain! We will be smart and strike to recover what they took from us!"

"How exciting." Suddenly, a voice caught them all off guard, as the Changelings, Boulder and Sombra turned to look at their right, amidst the darkness of the forest, and the place where to voice had come where they only saw two yellow eyes.

"Show yourself!" Growled Sombra, pointing with his horn towards the place, an expression mimicked by Boulder, but the only answer they got was a chuckle.

"I wouldn´t push my luck if I were you, I am here to offer my help." Once again, the voice spoke, not leaving the darkness and even after what it said, both Sombra and Boulder remained on guard. "You see, I need something from your world, something that could cause problems to me."

Finally something made click on Sombra´s mind, as he wide opened his eyes in surprise. "You brought Nemesis here!?"

Once more, an answer came in the form of a chuckle. "I didn´t bring the monster here, I have nothing to do with it, be he has much to do with me."

"So, you are here to reclaim him." Sombra stated.

"I did not come here to reclaim it, I came here to erase it." The figure answered, gaining a confused look from Sombra.

His patience wearing thin, Sombra charged his horn with magic, ready to strike against the creature. "Give us a reason for us to not kill you where you stand!"

"Because you can´t." Answered the figure. "The Elements in your world prevent me from completely materializing and I can only use an astral image of me."

Sombra lowered his defense to give the figure a confused look. "Are you projecting?" The figure remained in silence. "From where?"

"From a place similar to yours, a place where the Elements have perished, where I have made them perish." As he said this, Sombra looked more and more interested, contrary to Boulder, who simply remained gazing at the appearance, ready for any attack.

The figure knew Sombra doubted him, forcing him to show the fallen king the truth. As Sombra got closer to the source of the voice, he became perplexed by what he saw, but before he could give any description, his vision went blur, with the only thing he saw, being those yellow eyes.

As id he had been transported, Sombra saw Equestria, but not the same one he knew. This one was on fire, the houses, the castles, the citizens remained burning with nopony left to mourn them.

Sombra found himself at the streets of Ponyville, where he saw nor sensed anything about the Elements... then he raised his head. Atop, several ships sailed the sky, triumphantly marching through the scorched place. Marching through the streets, the fallen king could spot several ponies walking across the solace of Ponyville, sporting what looked like a complete red armor, with black stripes all across its design, but the helmets were the things that had caught his attention, as they sported several yellow horns forming the figure of a crown... this was all the figure allowed him to see, as he was pulled back to reality.

Sombra took a few moments to compose himself, taking a quick look at the Changelings and Boulder, who remained in place, then turned to stare at the figure. "How?"

"The are greater forces working, forces more powerful than Hope or Fear." The figure replied.

Sombra shook his head once more before looking back at the silhouette. "How do I know this was not a simple vision placed in my head."

"I guess you´ll just have to trust me." The figure answered, before getting a chuckle for an answer from Sombra.

"I have to say, those visions where a delight, but you have done nothing for us to trust you."

Regardless of his words, the figure remained calmed, his eyes simply looking at the fallen king, then in one movement, he raised his arm and a moment later two figures screamed in anguish as they got closer to the crowd of Changelings. Sombra wide opened his eyes as he recognized the two ponies as Canterlot guards.

The two screaming beings where brought just in front of Sombra, who remained on a loss for words, until the creature spoke again. "These two have been following you for a few hours, have I not revealed them, you would have the entire army of Canterlot behind you." Sombra remained in silence, only looking from the figure to the two soldiers, whose expressions looked like they were about to have a heart attack. "About that trust?"

Shaking the surprise off, Sombra turned to look at Boulder, before giving him a nod, then, in an instant, the two soldiers were graved by a green forced that covered them, before being ripped apart amidst the sounds of screams.

For Sombra, even though he did not know who this figure was, decided to take his word. "Speak."

"There is a being from the monster´s world that will arrive at any moment to this camp, this being´s name is Albert Wesker." "The figure said. "He will try to convince you that he is here to help..."

"Like you?" Asked Sombra, who could faintly hear the figure grunt in response, causing the fallen king to smirk.

The silhouette, however, shook off the anger and continued talking. "You will listen and do everything he says, then a great turmoil will shake Equestria to its core." He said. "He will ask you several objectives to break the monster, but you will go beyond, you will act with cruelty and violence."

"And won´t this Wesker feel there is something off?" Asked Sombra, getting a chuckle as a response.

"He will not care, his objective requires the Elements to be destroyed and fear will lower their power, but you will not destroy them... I need you to corrupt them, which you, the master of corruption should be able to do with ease once they are weak."

Getting interested on that part, Sombra cocked his head to the side. "And what would you gain from this?"

"It will allow me to enter your world and do what this traveler will not. Kill Nemesis." Answered the figure, only managing to confuse Sombra further.

"And what exactly would you gain from that?"

The figure remained silent, closing his eyes for a few moments, before the two yellow pearls appeared once more. "He´s here!"

"Wait!" Screamed Sombra, however, as the figure had said before, another creature came from behind, who much to the surprise of the fallen king, did not notice the shadowy figure standing there. Taking a few seconds to compose himself, Sombra greeted the man with a smile.

Wesker stood there, looking at the crown, the smirked. "You look like you could use assistance, something that belongs to me has come to your world and I´m here to help you eliminate him."

Looking back from Boulder to Wesker, Sombra smiled. Whoever this figure was, he seemed to be right and if he spoke the truth, this being would try to use them to his ends; but the mysterious figure? He had seemingly destroyed Harmony in a plane of existence similar to his, more than proof that Sombra could trust him more. "I guess we could use your help."

The day had just gotten more interesting.

Author's Note

Also "Releasing an excited laugh, Sombra rubbed his horn with his hoof"
How easy this could be misinterpreted...

Aftermath

A day had passed since the arrival of this Wesker into Changeling's territory and while their unnamed friend's prediction was quite accurate, he never informed either him or Boulder that Wesker was a 'holier-than-thou', eccentric scientist.

Sure, he did seem smart, but they just had to deal with a self entitled queen and now that they were free of her, suddenly another self entitled queen arrived.

Sombra's plan had so drastically changed, his scheduled plan of investigating Nemesis was foiled by their hidden friend, but he at least seemed to know things no pony else knew and seemingly seemed powerful enough to have defeated the elements and any other type of opposition... In another universe.

For Sombra, it all seemed rather bananas. "Things are getting difficult." Said the fallen king to his companion as he and Boulder walked through the camp, waiting until everypony was ready to depart. The aforementioned companion grunted before giving Sombra a look. "Don´t even try to blame me, how would I know getting rid of Chrysalis would only bring us more trouble?" Boulder grunted in response.

It had been a couple of hours since this Wesker left, three hours after finishing reading the books he had requested. Sombra had to admit, he wouldn't have expected this being to eat through the books in three hours and remember everything.

It actually set him on edge and probably wouldn't trust him if it wasn't for the other one's presence.

Setting the thoughts aside, Sombra looked at Boulder, noticing his way of speaking. The enormous Changeling truly was something. "You know? I´ve seen the rest of the Changelings speak at least better than you, but why do you keep the strong and silent facade?" He asked, getting a grunt as a response from Boulder. "Suit yourself." He replied.

Truth be told, the Changeling didn't find Sombra's presence particularly annoying or dangerous and offered at least more interesting conversations than the queen, plus there was way less tension since she died and he could finally focus in the incoming plan against Nemesis?

"Look Boulder, things are starting to looking up after you got rid of Chrysalis, the rest of the Changelings, knowing she had already lost her mind, believe the good ol´ queen commited suicide." Said Sombra, cutting Boulder's thought short. "We just have to deal with this Wesker until the other comes back."

Boulder snarled, he didn't trust this new creature and neither the other one. On his part, Sombra shook his head. "Geez, how am I understanding if you´re not even speaking?" Asked to nopony in particular. "I know we shouldn´t trust the other, but at least he... somehow gave us an explanation and knew when and what this Wesker would ask for us. Still, we should be on the lookout."

With that, he remained silent. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind.

Wesker was scary enough, but their unnamed friend... There was something... Off about him, almost like an invisible presence, a sensation of dread and cold, but above all there was something that caught his attention. "Did you see his eyes?" He asked Boulder, getting a quick glance from the Changeling. Sombra shuddered. "Even his presence felt... cold."

"Red skin, horns."

Sombra chuckled at this. True he couldn't see him well considering he was in the dark, but even if Boulder had better sight, the thought of a demon looking entity roaming around seemed unlikely considering Cerberus was guarding the gates. "Maybe you´re starting to loose it as well?" Boulder grunted in response. "I´m only joking." Replied Sombra. "In any case, we must start to learn more about our guests, especially..."

"Me?"

Sombra's heart skipped a beat, silently wondering just for how long had this human been eavesdropping then. Their hidden 'friend's' existence was to be kept exactly that... Hidden to Wesker and considering what they had discovered about him, it would be risky if he was to know of the other party.

Turning around, Sombra and Boulder spotted the human in front of them, books under his arm and an unreadable expression that quickly turned the moment uncomfortable.

Regardless of their 'friend' not telling them, both Sombra and Boulder knew this Wesker was a genius or at least seemed to be one, in the end, what kind of idiot would jump into the fray without knowing a single thing about his enemy?

True to that, as soon as he arrived, the human had asked for any kind of information about Equestria, it's royalties, power scailings and of course the Nemesis.

One thing Sombra had on his side however, was lies, he was a master of them and right then he would put to the test his abilities by faking calmness as much as he could. "About time you showed up." He finally said, a faint glint of annoyance.

Wesker remained there, looking at him for who-knows-what. His black shaders barely hiding the sudden red cat like eyes before fading away. "Plenty of stories told about you and I've yet to find any of them accurate to what I'm seeing right now."

Sombra rolled his eyes. He loved to do that, Heck! Any 'intelligent' being seemed to enjoy mocking others they considered less, at least that seemed to stay true with the interdimentional human. "Is there any point to this?"

The cold and hard stare of Wesker would soon soften after what Sombra presumed was satisfaction, thinking there wasn't anything up.

As the fallen king released a silent sigh, Wesker walked past them and towards the entrance of the forest surrounding the camp. "What do you know about the Nemesis?"

Sombra grunted. "I would know if you would tell us."

"But you could have learned." Stated Wesker, locking eyes with the fallen king, before a look of annoyance appeared on his face. "Being ignorant and being stupid are two different things."

Sombra gritted his teeth, amusing Boulder who did nothing more than look between the two. A few seconds of silence passed before the fallen king sighed in frustration. "You said you came here to help us."

"Help, not babysit." The human spatted back. "The Nemesis is a bio weapon, created after the infusion of a parasite into the cortex of T-103." He explained. "He was upgraded moments before he arrived in your world and before that, he never exhibited traits of understanding beyond basic commands, nor a personality per se and emotions like compassion or sadness."

Sombra deadpanned, looking at him for a few uncomfortable silent seconds before shrugging. "And..."

Placing both fingers over his nose, Wesker let out a long deep sigh. "You are known through Equestrian history as a master of deception and here you are complaining about a monster, planning on how to use him when all this time all you had to do is use that little brain of yours and play with the sudden psychological traits that not only he developed, but are also clearly shown." He stated, lowering his arm a he locked eyes with the annoyed fallen king. "Fiction and reality are very different things indeed, as these books may depict a clever genius, I just see nothing but a buffoon."

Sombra was breathing heavily, shooting daggers at the human as he did everything he could to remain in control. He had his horn back and with it, incredible power and he was not going to let some kind of holier-than-thou moron insult him.

"Do not let the scientist's words get the better of you." Sombra's eyes suddenly shot open as he heard a very familiar voice inside his head. "He suspects something, I can feel it and the more anger he incites in you, the more you are likely to loose control".

On his part, Wesker raised an eyebrow, slightly cocking his head at the side as a look of suspicion appeared on his head, something shared by Boulder who wondered what had happened with the sudden change.

"I guess you are not only stupid, but outright retarded, a self bloated, so called king who is way over himself."

Whatever anger he felt, was soon diminishing as Sombra's stern, yet calm gaze met with Wesker's. "Everypony makes mistakes, Wesker, but thanks to what you know about this creature, I may be able to up my game." The human said nothing as he simply looked at the fallen king. "I has been so many years since I've managed to accomplish something big, but my title stands and I will show it to you."

Wesker looked at him, completely silent, which to Sombra seemed like he was analyzing him again. This time, he remained calm.

With a expressionless chuckle, Wesker's gaze softened. "Have most of your Changelings ready to depart back to their home and select a female to take the place of their queen... For now." Sombra said nothing in return, a silent way of telling Wesker he was wondering why such action. "The Changeling hierarchy dictates that females are the dominating force and regardless of your friend's..." He motioned towards Boulder. "Unique condition, a female would fall in place of the established order to successfully consolidate a hive mind as well as serve for reproduction."

Sombra cringed. "Ugh, you had to go there."

Wesker said nothing in return. "We may need to gain allies if we are to retrieve the Nemesis safely from your princesses."

Sombra arched an eyebrow at this. "Retrieve?" He had expected Wesker to outright get rid of Nemesis, but it just seemed insane to even think of catching this monster alive, sadly for the fallen king, he was not far off.

"Do you really think I would let an specimen like the Nemesis go to waste? He's a powerful weapon and regardless of his self awareness we can always make him 'ours'."

The fallen king chuckled at this. "What, you're gonna try a mind control spell on him? I felt the ugly thing's will from a mile away!"

The human snorted at this. "It is true that heavy psychological stress could cause the Nemesis to loose control, but if my theory is correct and his psyche is either in process or already similar to that of a fully sentient being, then breaking him would bring him to a blank state in which this so-called will is useless." He explained. "We will need allies, forces to repel or keep the princesses occupied and if what you told me is correct, once the Nemesis is under control, not even Equatria's royalty will contain him."

Suddenly, Sombra heard a sigh inside his head. "The scientist may be thinking of going with either the dragons or the griffons and that would take too much time." The unnamed 'friend' said. "There is another way, a wild card currently residing inside Hell or as you call it 'Tartarus'."

Sombra had to make an effort to not let his eyes wide open. There was one thing that was indeed trapped inside there and the fallen king had a feeling both him and the the unnamed 'friend' were talking about the same entity... He was nuts. Are you crazy? If you know of him then you know what he's capable off if fully powered.

"You think I don't know what Tirek is capable off? Then you should know I have a way for dealing with him once he is of no use to us."

"What are you talking about?" Sombra asked, hearing a faint chuckle from the other end.

"The Eclipse stone." Their 'friend' said. "It may not exist in your world, but it helped in mine, as I know it will help in yours." Sombra said nothing, waiting for him to finish. "The stone has capabilities similar to Tirek's but on a larger scale, meaning if the 'demon' steps out of line, you would simply need to take his magic away."

"Then I guess we're going back to Ponyville." Thought the fallen king, as he released a mental sigh.

"Good choice Sombra, now be on your way and may the Force be with you." With that, the cold sensation disappeared, while leaving Sombra to chuckle at the very last words from their 'friend'.

That was a certain change of events, as Sombra pondered on the existence of said stone. If what their 'friend' said was true, then they could quicken the pace. "Wait!" Called the fallen king at Wesker, who turned to gaze at him. "I have a better idea."

Luna, Twilight and Nemesis walked towards the castle in complete silence. The rest of the group had parted ways as there was much to prepare for nightmare night. For as excited as everypony felt, none was as eager as a certain night princess for the celebration to come, especially when she had an ace on the hole to beat Rainbow Dash in her own game. A towering, dangerous-claw-wielding-beast trump card.

Her plan now had all the room for success, with the only wild card being the young alicorn that was giving her annoyed quick glances. Deciding to break the ice, Luna cleared her throat. "So... do you have a costume prepared for tomorrow, Twilight?"

"I have something in mind." She answered coldly, before releasing a sigh. "Princess, with all due respect but I still think this is a bad idea."

Giving her an innocent look, Luna turned to look at the huge golem walking with them. "Nemesis, do you think this is a bad idea?"

Nemesis grunted, not even looking at her, regardless, it caused the night princess to give Twilight a smug.

"Does not seem like he does."

Twilight face hoofed and grunted in response. "I´m being serious, princess."

"So, you do not take Nemesis seriously?" Asked Luna, a smirk on her face as she saw the reaction she was expecting.

Twilight instantly perked up in surprise. "What? No, I do, but in all honesty I don´t think he cares."

"Did you bother to ask him?"

Instead of answering, the young alicorn released a low deep sigh of frustration. "Okay, this is getting off topic, as I was saying..."

"Nemesis, do you care about this?" Luna asked, interrupting Twilight. On his part, Nemesis simply grunted, he really didn't care, all he wanted was get back to the castle and be left alone and free from fillies and annoying princesses, although he had to admit that Luna really wasn't as annoying as her sister. "If you had the chance, would you kick my sister´s butt?" And speaking of the devil, almost as if she was reading his mind, Nemesis reacted differently, almost excited at the thought as he took his claws out for a few seconds as an answer. Luna chuckled at this. "I like him."

On her part, Twilight gave Nemesis a look which he ignored before looking back at Luna. "Princess..."

"Hey Nemesis, do you want to scare some ponies?"

"Aha! So that´s the reason you came!"

Upon the accusation, Luna placed a hoof over her chest and made an exaggerated offended expression. "How poorly you think of me, young Twilight." Twilight grunted in response before looking back in front of her. Not even a second passed before the night princess smiled mischievously at the beast. "So, Nemesis, do you?"

This time, Twilight let out a loud and tired grunt as she came to a complete stop, then turned back to face the princess who had a sheepish smile on her face. "Alright, that´s enough." She exclaimed, Nemesis getting behind her as he simply stared at the scene. "Princess, I really think you should talk with Celestia." Luna frowned at this. "Look, if you just..."

"Nope! Too many hours and words wasted!" She answered, closing her eyes as she looked away from Twilight, then after a few seconds, Luna locked eyes with the young alicorn again and raised a hood over her smiling face. "My night only comes once a year and I am not going to destroy it because of some wannabe sister!"

Twilight grunted again. "So how long will this take?"

"As soon as my night is over, I will try, ONLY if she is the one who approaches first." On her part Twilight figured there wasn't much to discuss about the topic and settled with the night princess' answer. Wanting to get the attention of the now more relaxed alicorn, Luna cleared her throat. "Now, about a room?"

"I have, although I don´t think it is that much settled yet."

Luna shrugged at this. "As long as it is comfy." She answered. The walk continued for a few minutes in silence as they began to approach the enormous castle, when the night princess noticed the expression Twilight had as soon as she laid eyes on the tower. "Twilight, what is wrong." She called out, getting nothing but a deep sigh that Luna recognized, turning the moment uncomfortable until she decided to change the topic. "So, uh, any new books you want to talk about."

Noticing what Luna was trying to do, Twilight complied on her efforts and tried to place any unpleasant thought aside to focus in the answer. Indeed there was, one that had caught her eye back at Canterlot. "Just this one called 'The secrets of Hope and Fear' "which honestly sounds more like an imaginary tale than anything else."

Luna chuckled at this, recalling her own 'fairy tale' about her return. "Just as a certain hot, formerly evil alicorn´s tale..."

Twilight returned the gesture with a thin grin, before setting her thoughts back on the lecture. "This one´s just a little bit more... I don´t know how to put it." She said, staying silent for a few seconds as she tried to come up with an explanation. "There´s this being, the embodiment of Hope and Fear, an entity capable of moving universes and changing the course of history." Luna have her an interested look, on her part, Twilight struggled with the thought. "I don´t know, it just seems, so impossible."

The young alicorn princess had always have the benefit of the doubt about these tales and even more since Nemesis appeared, but there was something about this entity that simply seemed unbelievable to her. She came to the conclusion of investigating more of the matter as soon as she arrived home which was right in that moment.

The trio came to a stop as they stood in front of the castle's gates. Nemesis looked at the splendor of the castle, something Twilight caught an eye on, but much to her dismay, he simply looked disinterested as he soon gazed away from the structure and towards her.

Releasing a grunt, Twilight instantly knew he just wanted to get inside. The young alicorn couldn't help but to release a thin smile at the child-like attitude of the giant killer golem. She never told Nemesis, but the beast already knew he was more than welcome of staying inside.

With a smile, Twilight motioned with her head towards the door. "Come on." She said and not a moment too soon Nemesis raised his hand towards the entrance.

Suddenly, remembering the experience between him and doors, Twilight instantly panicked and called out the beast. "Wait, let me..."

Smash!

Too late, Nemesis didn't even bother to use a handle and simply walked through the door, destroying it's thick wood with only his body mass and leaving a rather comical silhouette resembling Nemesis himself. Twilight facehoofed at this, releasing a grunt, while Luna simply whistled at the scene.

"How come we never had a Nemesis before?"

Twilight simply sighed at this as she turned around and walked inside, making a mental note to fix the door later on the day. Right then, she only wanted to settle Luna inside a room and figure out where to put...

"AAAAAAH!"

A laid scream caught the attention of the two princesses, who wasted no time to rush towards the source. On her part, Twilight's heart was threatening her to leave her chest, as she thought about the word possible outcome and considering the scream had belonged to Spike. 'Oh no, he must have angered him and Nemesis must have...' her thoughts soon came to a stop as she entered the library through one more pair of broken doors with Nemesis' distinctive silhouette on them. Frantically looking left and right until they set gaze upon the source, Luna and Twilight released the breath they were holding.

There, in the corner of the room was Spike hugging his legs and shaking badly as he simply looked towards the huge figure of Nemesis, who didn't even bother with the small drake as he had his full attention on every book he could hands on. However, since he couldn't read, the beast simply threw away every book that didn't have drawings on them, which was causing quite a mess inside the library.

"Twilight!" Called out Spike as he ran towards her legs, warping his arms around them. "Get rid of that thing!"

She sighed in return. "It's okay Spike, he's with us and it's not a thing, his name is Nemesis."

"You mean, the guy who kicked princess Celestias' buck?" He asked, still hanging tightly to the alicorn's leg. On her part, Twilight sighed deeply in frustration, as Luna simply chuckled at his question.

It wasn't only the sound of something being ripped apart caught the alicorn's attention that Twilight used her magic to take the Drake off her leg and began to walk towards Nemesis.

The beast was taking hold of a book and with one hand, he shook the object as pages began to fall from it. "Hey! At least be careful with that!"

He didn't even hear hear, as he grabbed yet another one and used both hands to open it, accidentally tearing the book in half. Unsatisfied with it, Nenesis simply threw it away. On her part, Twilight had a vein popping up on her forehead.

"Nemesis!" She called out, getting closer to the beast as she prepared to use her magic. Engulfing the new book the beast was grabbing, Twilight attempted to pull it away and used her strength to fight against Nemesis'.

ROAAAAR!

Throwing the book away, Nemesis locked eyes with Twilight, snarling as he raised both of his arms to his side in combat position and scaring the living crap out of Twilight and the rest present. On her part, Luna prepared for an assault.

"Take it easy..." Twilight said, her voice as smooth as she could to avoid the beats from going into a rampage. "Take it easy..."

Nemesis seemed to breath for a few moments, before erguin his body and making everypony present to release the breath they were holding.

Twilight took the opportunity to talk to him. "Listen, I can separate every book that has images on them for you, but I need you to stop destroying my library." She explained, noticing with contempt that Nemesis was paying her full attention. "Can you do that?"

Moments passed as the beast simply locked sight with Twilight, then as if he was considering her words, Nemesis looked from another book on his hand to the wary alicorn.

Just as Twilight was about to sigh in desperation, Nemesis extended his arm, giving her the book he was holding. The princess couldn't help but to release a smile as she grabbed the object with her magic.

"Holly Molly!" Said a certain drake behind her, looking with eyes wide open towards the now take creature. He and heard about Nemesis since the battle of Ponyville and later with the Canterlot struggle and the fillie's friendship with him and he had expected a know creature, maybe even a powered up unicorn, but he had never thought to see a zombie-looking giant. Definitely way more intimidating than he thought.

"Spike come here." Twilight called him out, taking the drake out of his trance. A look of shock appeared on his features as he pointed towards his own chest with a finger. The young alicorn chuckled at this. "Come on, he won't hurt you."

Spike shook his head a few times before being pushed to the front by Luna, who held a fake innocent smile on her face. Defeated, he gave a grunt and slowly began walking towards Twilight and Nemesis, the later had his eye locked straight at him.

Once opin front of them, the drake placed himself behind Twilight, looking at Nemesis from the 'safety' of Twilight's hind hoof. "T-T-Twilight..." He stuttered.

"Spike, this is Nemesis." She said, then looked back at the beast. "Nemesis, this is Spike."

Shaking behind Twilight, Spike did his best to smile at the beast. "Uh... H-h-hi."

"Now..." She finally said, placing the book alongside her on the floor. "I have the feeling you're going to get pretty bored inside the castle, so I was thinking maybe I could take you out to visit the town while Spike stays to clean up."

"Hey!" Called out Spike, who was about to complain, until a grunt from Nemesis was enough for him to stop his whining and instead placed a claw over his head as a form of salute towards Twilight. "On it boss!"

The alicorn princess chuckled at this, before looking back at Nemesis. "Ok, I believe we should..."

"Actually Twilight, I would love to accompany Nemesis and show him around." The voice of Luna caught Twilight by surprise, who turned to look at the night pony as she smiled at the enormous giant. Twilight, however, held a suspicion look towards the night princess.

It wasn't hard to deduce what she was planning. "You don't have to worry, I can..."

"Glad you agree Twilight!" Said Luna, interrupting Twilight as she turned around to leave the castle while motioning with her head towards the entrance. "Come on big guy!"

"Wait, but I was about to say..." She never finished her sentence as she saw Luna going through the door Nemesis had previously destroyed, then stopped to look back the enormous beast who was simply staring at her.

Truth be told, Nemesis really wanted to simply stay inside the castle and "read" a few books, but it would seem Twilight wouldn't let him alone and since there didn't seem to be much else to do inside the place, the enormous golem decided to follow his curiosity. But then there was Luna, while she was no Celestia by any means, he knew the night princess would be pestering her with some "nightmare night" stuff, then again, he could simply ignored her and it seemed to work pretty well with ponies.

With no other moan or roar, Nemesis simply began to walk towards the entrance, however, before getting to the entrance and much to the surprise of Spike, Nemesis grabbed the little drake and placed it under his arm, taking care to no squish him. With that, he made his way towards the exit, ignoring the grunts coming from the you alicorn who was calling out for him.

He liked Spike, he just seemed so malleable and his fear was amusing to Nemesis, almost like a plushy, a screaming and terrified living plushy.

It wasn't long until the beast walked through destroyed door, making Luna give Twilight a smirk, to which the young alicorn answered with a desperate sigh.

"Just keep an eye on them alright?" She said, frowning at the night princess. "And don't let Nemesis destroy half Ponyville!"

Luna smiled and placed a hoof over her chest. "Scout's honor!" Without, sh exited the place, leaving a frustrated Twilight behind to clean up the disorder.

"Hey, let go of me!" Screamed Spike as he did anything that would not anger the beast, but help him get free from his grasp, which was basically yell.

On his part, Nemesis simply kept walking, Spike in hand and without a care in the world. "Come one, man! I'm getting nauseous." Same as before, Nemesis kept walking.

The huge beast was about to exit the castle, until another voice called him out. "Wait for me, I'm coming!" Screamed the night princess, who placed herself alongside the still walking monster.

"So, where do you want to go?" She asked. "I know a few places where we can practice before nightmare night."

"What!?" Exclaimed Spike. "How about convincing him to let me go!"

"Sorry Spike, but for an amazing nightmare night, sacrifices must be done."

Spike grimaced at this noticing Luna wasn't going to help him. With no will left, Spike simply gave up and stopped struggling and accepted his fate.

"So Nemesis what do you like?" Asked Luna, walking faster to stay in front of the beast, who gave her a side glance. "Eating pies? Kicking trees?... Scarying ponies?"

The drake grunted. "How about letting Spike breath for a moment? Seriously, you grip is tight, dude!"

Almost as if it was a miracle, Nemesis listened and let go of Spike, catching him with a hand and placing him over his shoulder. The young drake remained there, surprised at the course of action, before shrugging with his shoulders. "Meh, at least is better."

Luna chuckled at this.

The walk continued in silence for a few minutes and although no pony... And monster, had a destination, they simply followed their feet to whatever catched the attention of Nemesis. The road was pretty quiet, although that could be contributed at the shock of everypony towards the beast who had defeated Celestia, who was simply walking down the street of Ponyville.

Looking around, Nemesis noticed so excited of the still destroyed structures in town, casualties of the battle that would have most likely changed a lot of things if he hadn't intervened.

Behind him, the beast heard a sigh coming from Luna. "Change!ings have never been this brutal." She said, managing to get a quick glance from Nemesis. "You know? We didn't have time to tell you, less my stupid sister, but if it wasn't for you, the elements could have been gone by now."

He looked at her again, before setting his eyes back on the road.

On his part, Spike chimed in. "Wait, were you also the one who..." He gulped, shaking at the thought of Nemesis' action towards Boulder. "Did that to that Changeling?"

Nemesis grunted.

"What he did was necessary and it was more that anything my sister would ever do." Answered Luna coldly.

"Did you get angry with your sister, princess Luna?"

"Rightfully so, Spike." Was all she answered, basically telling the young drake she was not going to discuss anything further about the matter. On his part, Nemesis sympathised with her about the whole sun princess thing. He just hated who someone felt like riding a high horse, it reminded him of a certain scientist who had brought him back after Raccoon and into a crazy world of beings in spandex uniforms and crazy looking creatures.

"So..." Called out Luna, getting the attention of Nemesis. "Have you thought about aiding me tomorrow?"

The beats grunted in frustration, causing the moon princess to sigh. "Look, as you may be aware of, Nightmare night come only once a year and I have never met anyone who is as if not more terrifying than me!"

Nemesis stopped on his tracks and snarled at Luna, causing her to jump back as she felt the heart leaving her chest. "Fine, more terrifying than me!"

Point made.

"And speaking of terrifying, aren't we approaching Everfree?" Called out Spike from Nemesis' shoulder, amusing the beats as he noticed that they were indeed approaching the forest. He wondered why he just kept going back there.

With no other grunt or roar, Nemesis' continued his walk towards the forest.

Luna should be more than used about visiting said place, for Spike though, he should be getting ready to abandon Nemesis' shoulder. Surprisingly enough, he figured there was no way they would find anything more terrifying than the beast itself, it was with this thought in mind that he simply remained silent at Nemesis' choice while silently wishing he would decide no to venture to far into the forsaken place.

With that, the trip got inside the Everfree.

Their walked followed in silence for a few minutes, until Spike looked at Nemesis' and used his claw to gently tap his head. "Hey, by the way, are you a zombie?"

Nemesis grunted in response, why did everyone think he was a zombie? He still had memories of his nightly mission back in Raccoon city and remembered pretty well the characteristics of the undead. Before he felt desperate trying to answer the drake's question, Luna came in to the rescue with a chuckle.

"I do not think he is a zombie, young Spike, although I would not question further his origins." That last bit sure did co e as a threat and not from the moon princess perse. Thinking back at the castle and Nemesis' reaction to Twilight, Spike heeded the advice.

Setting his thoughts apart from the matter at claw, the young drake noticed a very familiar cottage in the distance, the place where Nemesis was actually walking, causing Spike to mentally sigh in relief, thinking that they would not get any further into the forest.

Nemesis didn't really know where he was heading as he simply walked to his contempt, but he found the place interesting. As they got closer, critters and many more animals began to flee in terror from the approaching monster, who walked into a straight line towards Fluttershy's home.

Before either Luna or Spike could say anything, a singing was heard nearby, a song that both instantly recognized belonging to a certain pony.

"Guess we're about to crash Fluttershy's lessons."

Without another word, they continued their walk, a she two silently wondered why Nemesis had chosen the cottage and what would happen once they find the yellow pegasus.

Soon enough they recognized a familiar set of wings and their owner looking at a flock while maneuvering with her hooves the moment each bird had to sing. Luna and Spike instantly felt at easy while listening to Fluttershy's voice, on Nemesis part, he was hypnotised.

There was something about her chant that made him feel tranquility. As relaxed as he was, Spike could feel some kind of tension on the beast's shoulders all the way up to the cottage, then, they were relaxed.

Nemesis then decided to get closer. Suddenly, bird stopped singing, as they laid eyes on the upcoming beast which had succeeded in scaring them and force them to instantly flee, leaving a confused Fluttershy to try and retain the flock.

She called them out a few times, until an enormous shadow casted itself over her. Heart heart suddenly raced as she felt her hooves trembling to whatever was behind her and the only thought she had on her mind was that it was friendly.

Taking as much courage as she could, Fluttershy began to turn around, getting ready to whatever the Everfree had sent her. Suddenly, her pounding heart relaxed while releasing the breath she was holding. Behind her wasn't a monster, but rather a very unique creature.

"Nemesis you scared me." Said Fluttershy, managing to surprise Spike who was expecting the pegasus to get away in fear. Cocking her head to the side, the pegasus asked. "I'm sorry if I bother you, but what are you doing here?"

"Stars..." Answered Nemesis.

"I offered Twilight to take Nemesis out to know the town, however, he simply decided to come here." Answered Luna.

Fluttershy had figured at most, considering Nemesis had answered with the one word related to the young alicorn, plus the fact he had come with princess Luna.

"Hey there Fluttershy!" Looking to the side of Nemesis, the pegasus gave a warm smile as she spotted Spike riding on Nemesis' shoulder.

"Hello Spike, how are you doing?" She asked.

The young drake placed an elbow over Nemesis' head while letting smug appear on his face. "Just riding over the shoulder of a giant." The pegasus chuckled at this.

She found it no weird seeing Nemesis carrying around Spike like that, considering how he behaved towards the fillies. Letting the thought aside, they did scare her flock and her training had gone to waste for the day, not considering the numerous things she had to do before the day ended as well as doing her best to bring the flock back.

As much as she wanted to know Nemesis more, Fluttershy had things to do. Perhaps another day.

Giving the beast the warmest of smiles, she said. "I am so sorry if I can't invite you inside, but I have a few animals to attend to, a flock to gather again and a bear to search for."

Spike cocked his head to the side at this. "Where did Harry go?"

"I asked him to go to Zecora's for a special brew, but he hasn't gotten back."

The young drake instantly shot his eyes open at this. "And you're planning in going there by yourself!?" True, Fluttershy had experience when regarding the Everfree, regardless, the forest was evil and unpredictable and going inside was like rolling a fortune roulette.

Giving a step up front, Luna seconded Spike's words. "Indeed, you may be brave but you should threat lightly."

Fluttershy shook her head at this. "Thanks for your concern, but I can't stay here not knowing what happened to Harry, besides, I could never ask you to accompany me."

A smirk immediately appeared on Spike's features, as he once more accommodated himself over Nemesis' shoulder. "Normally you would be right, but we happen to know someone scarier than the forest."

Fluttershy looked at him curiously for a few seconds, wondering what he was referring to, until she noticed the young drake's claw giving a certain beast a few knowing Pat's on the head. Instantly knowing what he was up to, the pegasus shook her head once more.

"Oh no, I could never ask Nemesis to do something like this." She answered, getting a roll of eyes from Spike.

"Come one Fluttershy! With Nemesis here, nothing inside the Everfree would even dare getting close!"

"I know, but..."

"And besides," interrupted Luna, who was as eager on going as Spike, "I'm sure even he wants to..."

"Roaaar!"

The trio instantly jumped back at the beast's sudden reaction, even Luna whose smug had instantly disappeared as she felt her heart leaving her chest. "Why do you always shut me up!"

Nemesis ignored her.

It had become a trend by now for the beast, listening to ponies or whatever was in this place, talking about what he should be doing instead of actually considering him. It was annoying, to say the least, especially when he had gone out the castle to do whatever he wanted.

Right then... He was struggling to think what exactly he wanted to do. He found the forest a little bit more interesting, as he at least had a few stress relievers in the form of it's inhabitants, however, he also like the tranquility of either a simple walk or a good book's images. Then he thought back at Fluttershy, the small pegasus that looked too frail.

Going in there would most likely be more dangerous for her.

Looking between the pegasus and the forest for a few seconds, Nemesis grunted, then to the surprise of everypony present, he began walking towards the forest. Over his shoulder, Spike turned around and gave Fluttershy a cocky grin, something the shy pegasus responded with a warm smile.

Luna, however, rolled her eyes at one important aspect everypony seemed to forget, especially the enormous golem. "Do you know where we're going, Nemesis?"

The beast stopped his advance, scratching his head for a few seconds before looking back with a moan towards the night princess, who was chuckling at herself, something mirrored by Fluttershy who walked up front Nemesis.

Looking back, the shy pegasus motioned with her head towards the forest. "Follow me."

Nemesis moaned In return as a confirmation as he walked behind Fluttershy and into the Everfree.

A few minutes passed as the group went by in silence and even though, Nemesis did manage to bring some sense of security, the numerous glowing eyes looking behind the most around the area, sent shivers down the group's spine, with the exception of Nemesis who kept his gaze towards Fluttershy as he made sure not to loose her.

He was not afraid of either the forest or the beasts inside, quite the contrary, he was actually eager to find something to but her.

"Hey, Nemesis." Suddenly, Spike's voice cut short the beast's thoughts, then gave a grunt to let the drake know he was listening. "You think Harry's alright?"

Nemesis grunted again. He didn't know who or what this Harry was, even less if he was alright or not. Frankly he was more focused on getting the group back safe than thinking about someone he didn't even know.

Spike, however, seemed to make his own translation of Nemesis' way of communicating. "Yeah, I guess you're right, we shouldn't worry."

Nemesis sighed in return.

"Harry!" Fluttershy's voice took the attention of Nemesis, who looked back at the pegasus, who found herself running towards... A bear. So that was Harry.

The animal was safe and sound outside a small house that seemed partly destroyed and under construction. Going back to the bear, he had what appeared to be a bag over his back and he looked quite peaceful for an animal like that... Then he locked eyes with Harry.

The bear instantly pushed Fluttershy behind him and arched his body, snarling at the creature who remained there unfazed. Regardless of how taken aback where Luna, Spike and especially Fluttershy, Nemesis' was relaxed and soon ignored the still snarling bear to spot something behind him and Fluttershy.

"Stand back! Don't be afraid of the beast in black!" A small Zebra went outside the hut and past Harry who seemed to calm himself after the new one appeared. Still, he eyed Nemesis warily, who had his own gaze locked with the Zebra.

Zecora walked towards the beast, stopping right inches away from him and stared at his face in silence for a few seconds. "A strange sight indeed, from a being that made a hydra bleed." She said. "And now that you are here, the forest itself trembles in fear."

She narrowed her eyes. "Never thought I would see a beast so vile, with shining claws and a wicked smile!" As soon as her words left the Zebra's mouth, Nemesis tensed up and let his claws go out from his knuckles, snarling at the Zebra who did her best to remain unfazed.

Everypony present was once more on their hooves, while Spike was simply frozen at the scene. If the Zebra said anything else, there would be nothing stopping Nemesis from gutting her.

Suddenly, a warm smile appeared on Zecora's features. "But I was gravely wrong, about such a heart that strong! For you're not the real beast, but he who dwells within the mist."

Nemesis breathed for a few seconds, relaxing his body as his claws got inside once more. Everypony around him began breathing easier after the beast's change in humor and Zecora's bright smile towards the monster.

What Nemesis did was vile, but then again, had it been the other way around, it would have the same effect. Nature is nature and it can't be changed and dead is it's calling card, the only certain thing about life. The forest has always had its own categorization regarding it's most dangerous creatures and right then, the top of the pyramid stood in front of her, yet there he was, protecting the group with which he had walked inside.

Aparting her gaze away from Nemesis, Zecora turned her attention towards the rest of the group. "I'm sorry if I do not accompany you back outside, but I have to search for the one who hides."

Luna cocked her head to the side, completely forgetting about what just happened in favor of the alarming words of the Zebra. "Wait Zebra, who are you talking about?"

The Zebra's expression suddenly turned serious. "He who Mauls the weak, a being of red that makes me shriek." She explained. "His presence has unsettled the Everfree, for the path he serves has called upon me."

Shaking her head, Luna looked at Spike, who shrugged in response at Zecora's words. If it was indeed a threat, either the night princess would feel it, or they would all find out by then. Maybe it was just a superstition from the Zebra, regardless, they still had the box's disappearance problem to fix.

Giving a step up front, Luna locked eyes with Zecora. "I thank your for your warning Zebra, but for now, we are going on our way."

With that, the moon princess looked back at the group and motioned her head towards the place they came from. They all followed suit, waving goodbyes at the Zebra.

"Wait, Nemesis!" She called the beast out, with Spike looking attentively from his shoulder. "You must keep an eye open for him, when he's close you'll hear a rhyme so grim." She gave a quick glance behind her, before looking back at Nemesis.

"Far above, far below
We don't know where we'll fall

Far above, far below
What once was great is rendered small."

Spike cocked his head to the side, thinking about those words, while Nemesis got completely lost by the first sentence... Of course he would not inform Zecora as she seemed to enjoy herself too much.

Suddenly, her expression softened. "I did not inform the princesses about this presence, for his eyes and ways have lost all essence, but still cautious you must remain, the safety of the stars you must maintain."

"Stars..." Answered Nemesis, getting a chuckle from the Zebra, who motioned with her head towards the path where Luna went.

"Now off you go."

With that, Nemesis turned around and started walking. Besides him, Spike sat on his shoulder as he shuddered at the scene that had just unfolded. "That sure was weird, don't you think?"

Nemesis moaned in return. To be honest, he remembered little about the whole thing, with the exception of the last part. 'The safety of the stars you must maintain' she said and Nemesis had no idea what she was talking about. Maybe she was just playing a game and took her interpretation very seriously.

Setting the thought aside, Nemesis kept walking down the path, never noticing three pairs of eyes looking from behind the bushes.