Venomous Uprising

Chapters

Chapter 1: Where Are We?
Chapter 2: Sweet Dreams
Chapter 4: Never Try To Ruin A Bond
Chapter 5: The True Monster
Chapter 6: Hail Hydra
Chapter 7: Let's Get Going!
Chapter 8: Fear of Flames
Chapter 9: Venom's Visit
Chapter 10: Shenanigans of a Symbiote
Chapter 11: Bonding
Chapter 12: Nightmare Fuel
Chapter 13: Smokey Trails
Chapter 14: The "One Who Eats"
Chapter 15: From Predator to Prey, Hunter to Hunted
Chapter 16: A Gracious and Glorious "Thank You"
Chapter 17: Not the Megaphone...
Chapter 19: The Frustrations of the Past
Chapter 20: A Slithering Pain
Chapter 21: Dark Dealings
Update: NOT CANCELLED, please read
Prologue: A Poisonous Battle
Chapter 3: Hello Manehattan
Chapter 18: Pink Priorities and Spider-Strangling

Chapter 1: Where Are We?

When Eddie Brock awoke, he found himself in a light forest, with the sun shining high in the sky. The symbiote had withdrawn into Eddie while he was unconscious, thus leaving him on his back with a simple pair of blue jean, black shoes, and a white T-shirt. He slowly sat up and observed his surroundings, wondering how he ended up from New York to a forested area.

Then the memories came rushing back; the battle with Scorpion, Spider-Man showing up, the odd sphere that was sucking things in, trying to get out, saving the girl, and getting sucked in. He also remembered it being night in New York, yet the sun was shining bright in the sky. He might have just been out a while, but he decided to ask his other half, "How long have I been out?"

'Not long.' Came the response from the alien within. Eddie was confused, for there was no way the sun could have been raised in that amount of time where they were at which made matters even more complicated then they already were.

"I don't suppose you know where we may be at, do you?" Eddie asked, not really expecting an answer.

'No, it's unfamiliar... off.' Eddie raised an eyebrow to that answer in curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

'When we entered that sphere, we were in odd place, never seen one like it. Then ended up here, different enviornment.'

Eddie grew concerned at what the symbiote was hinting at, and asked with concern, "Are you saying...?"

'Not necessarily,' the symbiote quickly responded, not wanting to worry its host for a problem that may not exist. 'Let's look around, Eddie. Might give us clues.' Eddie nodded in agreement, and picked a random direction to head off, hoping to find a path or anything that could lead them to a town or city.

Eventually, the woods got thicker, with the leaves covering out the sky and sun. The area got noticeably darker, but Eddie could still see easy, but instead of heading too deep he figured they would have a better chance of getting somewhere by following the outskirts right along the edge. At one point, the symbiote spoke up, 'Being watched, Eddie.' Eddie took its word, and looked around himself.

Sure enough, out of the deep parts of the forest, he could see pairs of yellow eyes slowly getting closer. Growling noises started to come from them as he reassured themselves, "Just wolves, this won't be-" Eddie stopped his voice in shock, as the creatures came out to reveal wolf-like creatures, but they were made of wood; so much sticks, twigs, branches, and some stuck out leaves, all forming wolves made of wood, it was as if a wooden sculpture came to life. There were six of these wooden creatures, and they were slowly advancing on the buff man.

"...That's new."

'These weren't in New York.' The wooden creatures were stalking towards Eddie, jaws open to reveal perfect teeth for a simple chomping job, with what appeared to be tree sap drooling out of them. They each had a hard gaze which spoke of malevolent intentions for him. It was then Eddie realized, these creatures thought he was their prey. That may have been shocking, but Eddie's time as Venom, even before, has allowed him to see some pretty weird stuff, so the shock didn't last all that long. Eddie actually chuckled at the prospect of these wolves thinking he was their prey; he didn't even need to turn into Venom.

He allowed the hungry beasts to form a ring around him, ready for the first strike. 'Left! Left!' shouted the symbiote in his mind, and Eddie quickly swiveled his head left to see a timberwolf about to pounce. As it leaped with the intention to shred its prey, Eddie introduced his foot to its face, completely obliterating it and sending small chunks of wood flying everywhere; after all, Eddie Brock was one of the stronger type of people. One of the wooden constructs tried to take him from the right, but Eddie caught it with both hands around the midsection, and slammed it into the ground, followed by a hard kick, sending it off into a tree where it shattered upon impact.

The symbiote warned him of and attack coming from behind, and spun around to see two more of the wooden creatures mid-leap. Eddie caught both around their throats, before repeatedly slamming their heads against each other until they smashed completely on the third slam. Only two of those wooden wolves remained, and they seemed a bit uncertain, as their "prey" easily took care of their brethren. If only they knew the true beast he and the other made, they would know to get out of there immediately.

To the relief of the timberwolves and surprise of Eddie and the symbiote, a green aura surrounded the defeated wolves and they started to float and reassemble, and as they finished let out a howl into the sky to instill fear, and glared at the being that had smashed them in rage. That time, the creatures got in a semi-circle. That time, they would not toy around. 'Recognize the green stuff, Eddie,' spoke the symbiote, 'It's magic, you've seen it too.' Eddie sighed; annoyed these creatures came back, as he wanted to get a move on. So to speed things up, he decided to give them a small taste of their true power.

As the timberwolves were about to pounce, Eddie's face immediately became enshrouded in black tendrils as it morphed into a black face, with large white eyes, huge carnivorous teeth much larger than the wooden wolves, and a long lashing tongue that was drooling acid. Eddie's 'Venom-face' made a loud predatory noise, which sounded like a mix between hisses and growls, followed by a loud roar.

The timberwolves suddenly backed up, and were struck with something which they have not felt since they were born: absolute fear. They realized then that the beast was something that they could not ever hope to defeat, and fled away whimpering, as fast as wooden legs could travel, hoping to never come across that terror again.

Eddie turned to walk as he decided to stick closer to the edges in hopes of avoiding dealing with annoying pests. He walked for about twenty minutes, when he came upon something even more bizarre. He saw a manticore, an honest to God manticore, just from Greek mythology. The same one that has a lion body, wings, and a scorpion tail. Eddie was taken aback, for he clearly was not expecting that. The manticore was in a nap, but the presence of Eddie woke it up, and fluttered its eyes before they rested on Eddie.

Then its stomach grumbled, telling the manticore it should feast, and luck would find it that odd prey was just standing there. The manticore got up, extended its wings for intimidation, narrrowed its eyes, and started to approach Eddie. The symbiote shouted into Brock's head in anger, 'Another pest! Must show it we are superior!'

Eddie smirked, and whispered, "I agree."

Before the manticore could get ten feet from its prey, Eddie, the symbiote covered Eddie, with its usual blotchy-tendrils, covering him in black. The being was now much taller, stronger, and definitely scarier. When it was complete, there was no more Eddie, no more symbiote.

Only Venom.

The manticore was stunned, and suddenly got a whole lot less confident; but its pride overwhelmed common-sense, and lunged at the living nightmare anyway. Venom too leaped, eager for the quick bout of entertainment. When they met in mid-air, Venom completely pushed the hybrid back with no effort and pinned it down. The wicked web-slinger gave his usual sadistic grin at the pinned down manticore, and looked at its wings and said gleefully, "Whoa! Quite a pair of wings! Lets see how good you are with them!" As he said this, Venom gripped the manticore by the tail, and started swinging a few rotations until he released and launched it to the sky to the distance, laughing at it as it tried to right itself in the sky.

The symbiote detected something and pointed out, 'Eddie, left of us. Something is there.'

Sure enough, Venom turned and saw tiny little quadrupeds resembling ponies looking up at him. Eddie thought to himself and the symbiote, 'First the wooden wolves, then the literal manticore, now colorful ponies. I don't think we're on Earth anymore...' They noticed that the little things were staring at them with fear as clear as day, not surprising, considering how they look and what they just did. But those were no ordinary little ponies; they were colorful, colors which horses and ponies of Earth did not have naturally. They had very large eyes for their faces, as well as colorful manes, and the last odd thing was that each of them had marks at their rear.

As soon as Venom took a step towards them, curious at what exactly they were, almost all of them ran the other direction at once, all but one. This one was a creamy white, but the curling mane and tail was half pink, half navy-blue. The eyes were an aqua blue, and the mark on the rear was three pieces of candy. Venom could see this creature was shaking on her (Eddie assumed it was female given its posture, but he wasn't a pony expert) legs, sweating profusely, and her pupils shrunk smaller than the tip of a finger; she was terrified.

So terrified, that it appears it was stuck there out of pure fear. Venom went forward, and picked it up with a single clawed hand around the back, and looked at it curiously, well, as curious as an expression his face could make. His mouth was now thin, though the teeth still showed, as well as the eyes seemingly narrowing, to inspect theodd creature. The tongue withdrew into the mouth at that point.

Venom could feel her shivering in his large hand, and inspected it more, mumbling, "We are confused on what exactly you are, you look like something out of a show for six-year-old girls... oh well." Venom gently placed the horrified creature on the ground, and watched as it ran off where the others of its kind ran to, presumably to safety. Brock then thought that perhaps if those odd creatures were there, civilization was further off, so he and the symbiote stayed as Venom, and with great stamina and speed, sprinted off in the direction opposite where the ponies ran, webbing a tall tree time to time to boost themselves forward.

'Odd place.'

"Yes, yes, I agree. Let us hope we find something soon."

Twilight and Spike got back to their palace after finishing the picnic with their friends. The sun was beginning to set, and they each decided to call it a day. Twilight first figured to go get some fruits before wrapping the day up so she would not have to do it in the morning; plus, they might have been on sale. She normally would bring Spike, but he seemed pretty tired, and decided to give him a break, "I have to pick up a couple of things, Spike."

Spike yawned, and mumbled, "All right, I'll be taking a nap... probably sleep for the night, actually."

Twilight chuckled before replying, "All right, see you tonight, or tomorrow, depending how long you sleep." And so Twilight went to gather some fruits.

Twilight figured that Applejack might not be selling apples that late, but it was worth a shot, for perhaps Big Mac was there. A short while later, and sure enough, there was the stallion almost getting ready to close up while conversing with his sister, Applejack. Twilight approached the stand and readied her bits, while saying in a cheery tone, "Good afternoon Big Mac, could I get six apples?"

She then placed the appropriate amount of bits, as Big Mac dished out the apples with his traditional, "Eeyup."

Applejack looked over to her purple friend and greeted, "Afternoon, Twilight. See yer gettin' some shoppin' done."

"Better now than in the morning when it'll be busy." The three ponies then heard low rumbling from the distance, and turned to see a small group of ponies galloping their direction.

"What in tarnation?" mumbled Applejack. As they got closer, they could hear them shouting for their princess, and so said pony decided to trot to them as to meet them half way, with Big Mac and Applejack not far behind. When the ponies came close, they all tumbled to a stop. Some took deep breaths, others were in thought as if thinking how to put a certain description together, and others were all talking at once.

A young stallion started in a panicked tone, "Princess! You're not gonna believe what we just saw!"

A mare broke in, saying, "It was huge!"

An older stallion with a more controlled, but still panicked voice, said, "It was near the Everfree, and just threw a manticore like it was a hoofball!" By this point, all the ponies were talking at once. Each voice was drowning out the other, a myriad amount of voices all at once, all too hard to decipher.

Twilight couldn't know what was going on with any of it, so she used her royal voice to silence them"Enough! Now, could one pony tell me- in a calm and collected manner- what this is about?"

Bon-Bon trotted up to the princess, gave a quick bow, and started explaining, "We were all just heading back from a trip from Manehattan, but we decided to take a more scenic route, and go along the outskirts of the Everfree. On the way, a pack of timberwolves were running our direction, but they just ran right past us. Then, we all heard something and went further down to check it out."

She took a breath as she continued, "We saw... we saw a manticore pinned down by some beast we've never seen before. Like they said, it was huge and had muscles everywhere. It was all black, except for a huge white spider on the thing's chest and its back, and some white on the back of its claws. But the face..." Bon Bon shuddered again, as she remembered the face of the grinning nightmare, of it staring into her, "Oh Celestia the face... it had no muzzle,no ears, just a large mouth with rows of razor sharp teeth, with a huge, long tongue twisting out on the side with this green stuff dripping out, and was grinning like Pinkie would when a new pony comes to town. The... eyes... were all white, and twisted and curved, it wasn't something pleasant to look at. But that wasn't even the strangest part!

"I-It spoke! Honest to Celestia, speaking clear Equestrian! Though the voice sounded all rumbling like and distorted. But then, it picked up the manticore and just threw it in the distance like nothing!" Bon Bon took a break to catch up on her breathing; meanwhile, Twilight had mixed feelings towards this story. At first Twilight though it was just some prank to get on the papers. But the more she heard Bon-Bon speak, hearing the trepidation from her voice, the more concerned she grew.

As if she was reading her mind, Applejack leaned in and whispered, "Twi, she's telling the truth." Twilight was definitely concerned, Applejack was the Element of Honesty, and could always tell when one was lying or telling the truth; she had hoped the ponies might have thought they saw it, that it was just a trick of the eyes, but that was very unlikely, so she decided to acquire more information.

Twilight asked in a stern tone, "Can you tell me more? What did it say? What happened after that?"

"W-well, it was mocking the manticore all happily, like it was enjoying it. After it threw the manticore, I think it was about to go away, but then it stopped and looked at us." All the ponies in the group shuddered, as they remembered the thing's gaze boring into all of them.

Bon-Bon continued, "It took a step towards us, and everypony else ran." All the ponies in the group spun their heads at her with large eyes.

"Wait, you stayed?" Asked Twilight in disbelief, the others nodding their heads in areement.

"Um... you know how some ponies can get so scared, they're just glued to a place? That kind of happened. It walked over and picked me up, and said something like, 'We are confused about you.' But then it put me down, and I galloped as fast as I could to get away."

All were stunned about this revelation, but Twilight was confused on another part. "Wait, 'we'? Why did it refer to itself as 'we'?"

"I don't know, your highness."

Applejack then whispered to Twilight, "Do ya really think a beast like that could exist?"

The purple alicorn thought this over, and eventually decided on this, "Okay, here is what will happen. I'll get some guards to scout the borders to see if they find it. I'll do research on this and contact the princesses to see if they might know anything about it." The ponies seemed to agree with this by nodding, and they all left to their houses.

When all the other ponies left, Applejack asked Twilight, "Twi, what if the guards don't find this thing, if it even exists? Or if they do find it, then what?"

Twilight sighed, then answered, "If they can't find it, and no other reports of its whereabouts have been made, then we could assume that it resides deep within the Everfree, and that this was a one-time occurrence. Or that the ponies thought they just saw it." Twilight then sported a grin, with excitement clear in her voice, "Since it can talk, it must be sapient, and it is a creature I have never heard about before! I'll get the guards to try to convince it to come with them, likely to Canterlot to interview, study, and learn more about it, a possibly new species!" Twilight lost her grin, as well as her enthusiasm, replaced with concern, "However, if it refuses, then the guards would have to bring it in with force. But if what those ponies said about it being able to throw a manticore like nothing is true..."

Applejack finished her sentence, "You don't like their chances against it?"

"Yes, and this is assuming the beast doesn't just decide to attack them at first sight. Well, I'll go look further into this, see you later AJ."

"Later, Twilight. See ya tomorrow." Both ponies left with worry in them back to their homes.

Eventually it was night, and Eddie was in between two trees lying on a web canopy. Eddie was staring to the sky, seeing the stars beginning to shine. He sighed as he thought about their situation. The symbiote came out as a mental projection, almost snake-like with the head looking almost identical to the face of Venom. It looked down at Eddie, and asked 'What do we do?'

Eddie replied, "For now, we can rest here 'till morning. Then we can try to find a civilization again. After all, we did see those tracks earlier, we can't be far off."

The symbiote then slithered up his right arm and looked up, whilst asking, 'If we aren't on Earth, what do locals look like?'

"I think we'll know when we see them."

'How will we get back to Earth?'

"I... I don't know," Eddie answered in a low voice, but quickly came back to being calm, "but what we saw with those wooden wolves reconstructing themselves with magic, the locals might it. I'm no mage, but it's magic, if they have it, they might have a way to send us back."

'Sounds like we're running on luck.'

"Luck is all we've got right now."

'What do we do when we come across locals?'

"Make a good first impression; don't want to scare the crap out of them. If humans aren't native here, perhaps we could trade our knowledge for their help go get out if possible. But I don't know if I want to reveal you to them, they might be afraid, or attack us, or try to take you." The symbiote then projected itself as a small, skinny, humanoid being, with the white spider as well, sitting on Brock's chest.

'Cannot harm us, they cannot take me, I wouldn't bond with any of them. Perfect host is you.'

Eddie shone a genuine smile and said , "Indeed, you and I have definitely been through a lot together. Let's just try to get out of this place as soon as possible." Eddie yawned, closed his eyes, and drifted to the land of sleep, with the symbiote mentally watching over him.

'I hope we can find ones that can help us, Eddie. We really need it.'

Author's Note

Finally got this chapter polished up a bit.

Chapter 2: Sweet Dreams

Eddie Brock once thought he had it all. The respect which boosted him, with so much money to do with and to help life ease, and love to keep him motivated. People enjoyed him for his fame and respect. He found out the hard way that those are only illusions, false. The people who wanted him for that really didn't want him at all, he became useless to them. Respect turned to humiliation. All the money, to barely paying for food on the table. Love, to being abandoned. During that dark time in his life, he was weak, easier to break than a branch, just so hollow.

But when he started praying for forgiveness over and over, that is when they found each other. When he became whole, and all the pieces glued back together. He learned that there were people who would try to take that away, and you would have to stop them. There was once a time when they were separated, but when he was slowly dying, the other never gave up, for it was obsessed with him, and would never give up on him. But Eddie knew, so long as they were whole, they could overcome any obstacle in their way.

Eddie awoke after the dream ended, a dream with memories he'd rather not visit. The symbiote projected itself on a tree branch, as a little black figure, and spoke, 'Lets go Eddie. I think we might be closer.' Eddie saw that the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, so they would have more time to cover more ground.

"Okay..." Eddie whispered, pushing the dream and the memories with it to the back of his mind. He hopped off the webbing and thick foliage, and started to walk the same direction as yesterday, determined to find some form of intelligent life. "Okay."

Far away, on the side of a great mountain, stood an excellent castle, showing off in the rising sun and seemingly defying gravity and physics. That was the castle of Canterlot, where the two leaders of Equestria work and reside. In the dining area, the Royal Sisters were having their meals, one who just woke up, and the other who just got done watching over the dreams of the many to ensure they had a good night rest. One was a tall white alicorn, with her mane and tail consisting of a grass-green, pink, and a light blue, and both were flowing rhythmically, despite being nothing environmental doing it. This was the Ruler of the Sun, Princess Celestia. Her counterpart to her left was almost an opposite. While still an alicorn, and almost as tall, this one was a navy blue color, with the mane and tail consisting of white specks and another shade of blue, it was as if the night sky was apart of it; it was also flowing like her sister's. This was the Ruler of the night, Princess Luna. The meal would be interesting, for they each ran into something interesting not too long ago.

Last Night, when Princess Celestia was about to retire for the night, a green flame whisked into existence into her chambers. The flames had formed a scroll with a seal on it, and the ruler recognized it being from her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. She made a low hum, wondering why Twilight would have Spike send a later this late, for she usually sent scrolls on a certain schedule of hers, unless it was something of concern. She unrolled it, and it read:

'Dear Princess Celestia,

Earlier today I have come across an issue that you might want to know about. I was with my friend and the element of honesty, Applejack, near sundown, when a group of ponies came galloping, calling out for me. They were all in a panic, but I got one to explain what had them so spooked. Apparently, these ponies were coming back from Manehattan, and took a scenic route at the edge of the Everfree forest, and said they came across something rather unusual. They spotted a creature, which I have never seen or heard about before, pinning down a manticore. According to what they told me, it was furless, all black except for some white on the back of its hands/claws, and apparently, a large white spider symbol on the front and back. Also the face with white eyes, and a tongue that often stuck out.

I can assume it is carnivorous based on the description of the teeth. But most surprising of all, it spoke Equestrian, though they said its voice sounded a bit distorted. Applejack confirmed them telling the truth, unless they thought they just saw it, but that is unlikely. I am currently doing research, but I would like to make two requests on this matter. The first being that, if you could, dispatch some of the royal guards to scout the edges of the forest. Just think, a possibly new, sapient species! The second request, is if you could tell me if you or Princess Luna know anything about it. Thank you for your time,

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.'

At first, Celestia too thought this might have just been a stunt by those ponies, but with Applejack having confirmed the group of ponies telling the truth, and knowing that Twilight wouldn't buy into something like that without good reason, she wondered if such a creature could exist. She considered it probably being nothing, but she knew from experience, that if it's probably nothing, it's likely something. So she gave the task for one of the captains to assemble a squad or two to search the edge of the forest; they would not want to go in, for despite knowing the experience and training her guards had, deep in the forest was not a place one would want to be.

Luna, on the other hand (or hoof), had walked into a rather interesting dream last night. Her duty was almost over, and she was about to exit the dreaming world into the waking one, when she "felt" an odd dream around her. The Princess of the Night figured one more dream wouldn't hurt, so she searched the realm for the door to the odd dream. When she eventually found it, even from the outside she could feel slight tints of emotions. The princess hummed as her curiosity rose even higher, "What an odd dream this must be." And with that, she entered.

She was not in there for long, for the dream was coming close to an end, but she experienced rather odd things in the dream. Like before, she felt a flurry of emotions, each lasting only a couple of seconds; first, they were good, and made her feel nice: happiness, pride, and love; but then, the emotions completely reversed, to humiliation, sadness, anger, and a feeling of abandonment. But what she was able to feel most, was a feeling only she could describe as being broken. Then, she felt the negative emotions go away, to a feeling of being complete. During all that, she saw images flashing, too fast to decipher what they were, but when she turned her gaze, she saw not a pony, but what she remembered from Twilight's description, a human. She gasped, too stunned to move for a moment. The human was a male, had short blond hair, buff muscles that spoke of spectacular strength, and only in a pair of black boxers.

Before she could confront this man that was on his knees, the dream ended, thus kicking her out, literally and figuratively. She was about to complain, when she thought about something. Although she only saw one, she sensed not one, but two beings in the dream, not counting herself. When she had reentered the waking world into her chambers, she did not know what to think, as her face scrunched up in thought, thinking to herself, 'Could a human somehow have arrived in Equestria? And what was with all the feelings in that dream? Were there really two in the same dream?... Who was that?' And so, she decided to tell this to her sister, for perhaps she knew what this was about.

The princesses were eating, making small talk at first, with Celestia complementing Luna on her night and such. Eventually, Celestia started to tell her younger sister about the scroll she received from her student. "Twilight sent me a rather interesting scroll last night." This caught Luna's attention, and she looked up from her food.

"Oh? Do tell, what was in it?"

"To sum it up, she and Applejack were out in the town, when a group of ponies rushed her and wanted to talk to her. One of them told her that their group was coming back from Manehattan, walking at the edges of the Everfree, when they encountered a rather odd beast." Luna was starting to build up thoughts, as she nodded for her sister to continue. "It was described as black with white spiders on the front and back, a rather odd design for an animal, I think. Also apparently very strong and fit, from what the letter said." Luna was surprised at first, that beast sounded nothing like the possible human she saw earlier. Becoming suspicious of this coincidence, but she still had another thought.

"And Twilight was sure that these ponies were not jesting?"

Celestia shook her head before replying, "No. Like I said Applejack was there. She confirmed them to tell the truth. Plus, I know that my student wouldn't be tricked like that if it were a false story."

The dark alicorn was starting to think about this, but wanted to hear about the rest, so she asked, "Was there anything else in the letter?"

The older sibling nodded, responding with, "Yes, she asked for some guards to search around the Everfree, which is already dealt with, and if you or I know anything about what this thing might be. Which I do not. Would you happen to know what the creature is?"

Luna took in a breath, ready to explain what she witnessed earlier. "Possibly, actually." Celestia's eyes widened, she wasn't really expecting either herself or her sister to know anything. She leaned forward, eager to hear more. "While on my dream-walking duty, I was about to exit, when I sensed a dream that was going through different varying emotions, very different from the others."

"Was it the dream of the creature?" Celestia asked excitedly.

Luna shook her head, before replying, "Nay, I do not believe so. The dream was already almost over when I entered, but I was able to feel and see quite a lot for the few seconds I was there. I was able to feel the emotions of this dream, and there were many. At first it was nice, happiness, love, joy, etc. But then they just... flipped." Celestia rose an eye brow in confusion.

"Flipped?"

"Yes, they flipped to the complete opposite, of negative emotions: Rage, sadness, hollowness, misery, hatred, and a few others. Like some other dreams, instead of this being a miniature landscape, there were just some images, but they were flashing too fast for me to see what they really were."

Celestia was now really intrigued, and inquired, "Did you see who the pony was having the dream?"

Luna chuckled a bit at that, before saying, "That's the thing. It wasn't a pony, or a griffon, or a minotaur, or any other creature I know about. For the few brief seconds, I saw a human, like the ones Twilight saw."

Celestia gasped, for a human has never stepped foot in Equestrian terrain before, and started bombing questions at her younger sister. "But how? Are you sure? What did it look like? Did you talk to it? What was it doing? Could it have something to do-" Luna raised her hoof for the questions to die down. Celestia realized what she was doing, shone a sheepish smiled. "Sorry Luna, but please, continue."

"It is alright. Anyway, the human was facing away from me, but from what I could see he was a male, with blonde hair and just a pair of boxers. Also, I don't know if this is a norm for their kind, but he seemed very fit and muscular. As for what he was doing, he was just on his knees, looking up at the images. I would've tried to communicate with him, but, alas, that was when the dream ended." They each gave out a disappointed sigh, upset that Luna was not able to talk to Equestria's first human visitor.

Celestia then spoke up, "Could this be connected, the thing from the Everfree was said to have talked, after all." Luna then shot up, as this brought even more questions with no answers as of yet. "I doubt that we would get a human and possibly a newly unrecorded species in Equestria all in twenty-four hours by coincidence." Celestia brought her hoof to her muzzle, and furrowed her brow in thought, when she popped up.

"Luna, where you able to know where exactly the dream was at?" Luna sighed and shook her head.

"No," Luna quickly changed into a more hopeful tune, "However, I do know that the dreams before that were in Ponyville. Possibly meaning..."

"That the human who dreamt could have been sleeping in the Everfree! They are pretty close, after all." Luna nodded her head in agreement.

"But what could this mean? Twilight's letter never said the group of ponies saw a human, or another creature that could be described as one."

"This will only add more questions, but there was one more thing about the dream."

"And what might that be?"

"Though I only saw the human, I sensed another presence there, both in the same dream."

Both princesses sat in silence, until Celestia got up from her seat, and spoke with powerful determination, "It is clear that this new creature and human are somehow related. I will dispatch even more guards to search a larger radius. The creature likely is with, or knows where the human is, we should know how a human even managed to get here. Plus, we could learn about this new one, like what it is, if there are others of its kind, and more."

Luna too stood and spoke, "And I shall try to find the human through his dreams, and, if this new one can dream, it too." They each smiled, before they went there separate ways to accomplish their new mission.

The Lethal Protector had ventured for awhile, even coming across some odd chicken-snake hybrid. It had stared in his eyes, but after a couple seconds of nothing happening, it looked surprised, then scared and fled. Both Eddie and the symbiote were confused by that, but shrugged it off and continued. The long wondering was worth it, as he found a trail, leading presumably to some far off city or town. The symbiote had slunk inside of Eddie, because they did not want any locals that might pop up to find out about the symbiote if at all possible. So Eddie Brock was following the path, which by now went outside of the mysterious forest into an open plain with some small hills here and there. 'Do you think this leads anywhere?' The symbiote piped up.

"It's a trail, it has to lead somewhere eventually, plus, it confirms there is intelligent life around, we might even find someone along the way." The sun had been slowly ascending the sky, providing plenty of light, with a few clouds, and a nice breeze, a rather perfect day. Eddie smiled and took in a breath of the fresh air; he didn't get to just appreciate nature enough.

While they were walking, there was a cloud closer to the ground than the others, and the symbiote could tell something was up with it. 'Eddie! That cloud! Something is odd with it.' Eddie took notice of the cloud, and after moments of staring, he noticed a wing hanging off of it.

"Is that... a bird?"

"Hey! Who ya' callin' bird!?!" A male, gruff voice spoke out as a winged creature zipped in front of Eddie. The thing looked angry at first, but getting a good look at Eddie made his jaw slowly lower, and his face adopted one of surprise. Eddie was mimicking this action, for he could not believe what was in front of him. If he knew some mythology well enough, he could tell this was a griffin. White, feathered face, yellow claws, brown body, with a pale, lion half-body at the back. The griffin came to about Brock's torso. They each just stared at each other, baffled, until they each spoke in unison, "The Greeks weren't crazy after all..."

"That Lyra pony wasn't crazy after all..."

They each just stared some more until the symbiote reminded Eddie, 'Our first local! Make a nice impression! Ask for any help!'

Eddie shook himself out of it, and awkwardly said, "Uh... sorry for calling you a bird..."

"It's forgiven..." The griffin was still shocked and continued to stare, while Eddie, though not a diplomat, still tried to be formal, "My name is Eddie Brock, I'm what you would call a human."

"I'm Woodchip, a griffin, um, can I help you with anything?" The griffin, too, trying to be polite; not so much as just for the sake of being nice, but so he wouldn't be the one to cause an inter-galactic war if he pissed off an alien on possibly first contact.

Eddie nodded and said excitedly, "Yes, please! I'm searching for anyone who could help me. Do you have any leaders? Or maybe a city or town near by?"

The griffin, now out of his immediate shock, responded, "Well, there are the two rulers of this land in the direction you just came," Eddie was chastising himself, for out of all the directions he could have walked, he chose the one farthest from where help could be, "but there is a city, Manehattan, not too far here. Just keep heading down the trail for a couple of miles, and you'll see it. Oh, and a heads up, the locals might be a bit... unnerved." Eddie nodded, figuring that they would freak out over aliens.

"Thank you, you have been a great help." Eddie shone a genuine smile, waved, and went on his way.

The griffin waved back, still sporting a somewhat confused face, and went back to the cloud, and thought, 'Made alien contact? that's got to count for something.'

Meanwhile, back at Ponyville, word had already gotten out about the beast from the Everfree, and of it defeating a manticore as if it were a rat. Some ponies didn't believe it at first, but when some of the royal guards arrived to check the nearby forest, that proved it for them. Some were panicked, some afraid, others curious, others excited about the possibility of a new sapient species. The mane 6 were just talking about the subject, in Sugar Cube Corner. They each had mixed reactions to the beast. Twilight, the ever so curious, was excited about studying a new species.

"Just think of what we could learn! Like, why does it have a spider symbol on its chest? How is it so strong? Where did it come from? The possibilities are endless!"

Applejack was a bit skeptical, but fair, "Now hold on there sugarcube, we don't know what this things intentions might be, but if it is peaceful, then I see no reason why not to welcome it."

Rarity was also a bit curious herself, "While I'm not as curious as Twilight, I must admit, I too am interested to learn about its culture."

Fluttershy was too busy worrying about the "poor little manticore" that had fought a vastly superior foe. "Oh, I hope the poor little manticore is okay... I know this thing may have just been defending itself, but did it really need to do that?" Rainbow Dash, having watched too many movies, wasn't very trusting.

"What if it eats our brains out!?! You know how it was coming to those ponies! I mean, c'mon! So much sharp teeth? Large tongue? Drooling green stuff? Totally predatory!" Pinkie Pie was already thinking about what kind of party it would like.

"Yes! you're right, Dashie! I should make the cake brain themed! Maybe a few 'eyes' and 'blood' for punch! You're a genius!"

"That's not what I meant, Pinkie!"

Rarity shot Rainbow Dash a disapproving glance, "Now Rainbow, perhaps it just wanted to ask for help. After all, it didn't even take a step before they all galloped away, apparently."

"All except Bon Bon, apparently." Spoke up Twilight.

Applejack asked, "Now what did that thing do with her again?"

"According to Bon Bon, it just stared at her, mumbled to itself, and put her down."

"See! Completely creepy!" Rainbow piped up.

Before they could argue, Spike bust into the door, panting heavily, with a scroll in his claw. Twilight looked surprised, and asked, "Spike? What are you doing here? I thought you were napping, again?"

Spike wobbled over to the table, still trying to regain breath, "Here..." He dropped it to Twilight, who immediately recognized who it was from.

"A letter from Princess Celestia?" The others leaned in, as Twilight read aloud, "Dear Twilight Sparkle, while I am not able to provide information on this new creature, my sister has discovered something important. During her dream-walking, she came across an odd dream, but a human was the one dreaming it!?!" Twilight half yelled that last part, while the others gasped in shock.

Rainbow Dash asked, "But, how did a human get here?"

Twilight continued on, "The dream was ending, so I regret to inform you that she was not able to talk to this human. However, we were able to deduce it must have been around the Everfree, the same place this creature showed up. We both believe this is not a coincidence, so I have dispatched more guards to search a larger area for the two. I was leaving this to the guards at first, but I would like you and your friends to keep a sharp lookout as well, and try to bring them back here to Canterlot. Remember, this is the first human in Equeastria, and possibly a new species, so, though I know you won't, don't act rash. Your fellow princess, Princess Celestia."

The table was quite at first, until a hyper and pink mare shouted with glee, "Now I get to throw two parties! This is great!"

Applejack voiced the others thoughts, "But, how'd a human get here? And what does it have to do with this strong feller?"

"I don't know Applejack," Twilight talked, as she rose up, "but I know that the princesses need us! Rainbow," Rainbow Dash quickly stood at alert, "You're the fastest pegasus, could you do a sweep over the edges of the Everfree?"

Rainbow grinned, and saluted. "You got it, Twi!" And with that, the cyan pegasus quickly flew out in a blur of rainbow.

"As for me, I'm going to continue my research, as well on humans to see if we can find anything out."

"What about us, Twi?"

"Right now, I need you all to be at the ready and stay alert if we find these two." They each nodded, as Twilight finished, "I just hope things won't get complicated."

Eddie was happily grinning at the sight in front of him. The symbiote was delighted, as it projected itself as a mini-figure sitting on Brock's shoulder looking up at him while shouting, 'We made it! We can get help!' Eddie chuckled, as he stared at the city only about a mile or half in front of him, Manehattan.

"We finally made it." Eddie's grin receded, as his worry grew with a breath, "Now comes the hard part, I'm no diplomat."

'Don't worry. I've seen a lot, can tell you what to do, you just gotta listen to me!'

"I agree with you." Eddie started to walk forward into the busy city, neither having any idea what to expect. "I'm sure this... Manehattan, which still sounds like a rip-off of Manhattan, is about to get more interesting, hopefully they are the 'ask questions first' kind of race." And with that, the two prepared for what could come ahead.

Author's Note

Hello again! Please, leave a comment on what you thought. I won't spoil the next chapter, but I can say this. The next chapter is when the action really starts!

Chapter 4: Never Try To Ruin A Bond

Princess Luna was laying on her bed, idly passing time. She was waiting until the human, or the other creature, rested. Since the meal that had transpired in the morning, the night princess had been recalling on what the dream 'felt' like since before she entered the human's dream, as to pinpoint his among various others. It was not night, so few ponies would be dreaming or napping. Some times she would have entered the dream world and check for dreams around the Everfree or any place near, but only found some dreams, none having come from the human or the beast. Luna did not have much to do for that day, so she used it to keep a look out for the human's dreams.

Her sister, Celestia, had already issued more guards to search near the Everfree, and nearby cities and towns also had lookouts. The princess began to wonder what to do when they would meet the human, and possibly this beast. Likely ask how they came to Equestria, who they were, and exactly what the beast is. She and her sister were fair rulers, so as long as the two would remain kind and respectful, they would be hospitable and help them. Though she was sure scientists and biologists would love to study the new creature, even she found herself a bit curious of its kind.

Luna would have continued to think about what the future would hold, until she felt it. It was small, like a ting of static electricity, but it was there nonetheless; the human was asleep, and dreaming. The night princess let out an excited squeal, and quickly shut her eyes and focused. When she reopened them, she found herself in the familiar terrain of the world of dreaming, the vast landscape holding fewer doors than usual due to how many ponies were dreaming at the time. Like a radar, Luna rotated left to right, trying to locate the dream of the human. When the connection didn't get any stronger, she strolled over to dreams near Ponyville and the Everfree, as the first dream was located near there. The connection grew slightly stronger, and she now had a general direction to go.

So she spread her great wings and took off, scanning the horizon for the dream of the interloper. As the connection got stronger, she noticed that she was further from the Everfree area of dreams, and starting to near a more populated zone. "Hmm, the human left the forest, I don't blame him for that course of action, but where could he be dreaming?" After a couple minutes of flying, Luna saw in the distance, a single door moving along the ground. Luna rose a brow, puzzled at the moving door, meaning that the dreamer would have to be moving as well. He certainly could not be sleepwalking, unless... "Of course!" Luna shouted to herself with pride for figuring out this part of the puzzle. She recognized this general area of dreams, having encountered moving dreams at this spot before, tracks for a train. "He must be on one of the trains right now! But where would he be heading?"

She was indeed curious about all of this, but knew her number one priority; communicate with the human. And to do that faster, she would have to go to the dream and talk to him. So she flew down to the still moving door, and noticed that she did not feel a flurry of emotions from this dream like the previous, just one: love. More curious then ever, Luna slowly pushed the door open, and stepped in.

When she entered, she noticed everything around her was dark, except for the center with where it was light like the daytime. She heard music, slow and classical music. But in the center of it all, was the buff human suited in a black tux, combed hair, and smooth black shoes. The human was smiling as he was dancing with another human, a female human, in a white dress. That human was smiling up at the other human, as they held each other and were doing what could be described as a slow dance. Luna suddenly gasped as she realized this was a memory, a memory of this human's wedding.

Luna smiled warmly at the display, witnessing the ceremony in front of her. She hated to ruin the pleasant dream, but she had a human to talk to, so as politely as she could, she spoke out, "Excuse me." Both humans stopped, and turned to see the pony interrupting. They both went wide-eyed at princess, mouths slightly agape, and stopped their dancing.

Luna was about to introduce herself, when a voice from behind her cut in sharply, "Who are you?" The princess must have jumped at least five feet in the air, and spun around to confront the construct of this dream that managed to sneak upon her unnoticed. What she saw was a bipedal being, nearly all black, darker than the blank background around them, very skinny and scrawny, white eyes that were currently narrowed, sharp and dented teeth, and a white spider etched on its torso.

Luna recognized this thing looking similar to the description of the beast in Twilight's letter, but the thing here was small and looked weak, not large and strong as described to her. She assumed this to be apart of the dream then, as she thought that this thing was part of the memory, and commanded sternly, "Leave at once, dream construct! You are not required here."

The being just narrowed its eyes even more, and replied," Who are you and what are you doing here?" The princess was taken aback, for a dream construct never disobeyed her will before when she demanded it, none have ever questioned her, because they were just dreams; not sapient, thinking beings like ponies or the human dreaming behind her.

The princess then assumed a regal stance, and commanded again, "I am the Princess of the Night! And you will obey my command!"

That surely would have gotten the scrawny little thing to behave, but to the shock and anger of Luna, it spat with venom in its voice, "I'm not yours to command, I won't leave." The Princess of the Night was truly shocked, if the dropped jaw indicated anything. Not only had the dream construct refused her commands, it rebelled against her, the only things in dreams to have ever done that were rogue memories (which she thought was the case) and nightmares who thought highly of themselves. But she had an easy way of dealing with those. The shock was overtaken by anger, as Luna's horn started to glow, as she shouted, "If you will not leave, then you will be terminated, dream construct!" The princess's horn then flashed a blinding, white light, turning the whole room from darkness to light in mere seconds, and when it stopped, the thing was still standing there.

Luna gasped, "How... you are a dream, you shouldn't be standing after that! Why are you still in this man's head!" The thing, however, whispered in a low and threatening tone, "Did you try to separate the bond between us?"

"What bon--?" Luna was interrupted as the thing hissed and growled, and its mouth quickly grew in size, the jaws increasing to the size of a building. And Luna saw in the mouth dozens--no, hundreds of teeth with sharp ends and fangs, and Luna then realized what the thing's intentions were.

The thing shouted in aggression, "You will leave! Now!" Luna knitted her brows, and ducked her head as her horn started to glow. She was determined to defeat this rogue dream, somehow powerful enough to withstand a blast directly from the Princess of the Night. She then fired five consecutive shots meant to destroy dreams and nightmares like the last, but more powerful, into the thing's throat where they made impact. Luna smirked, with a, "Huzzah!" to accompany it. But when she looked back up, she found herself to be inarticulate, as the skinny being approached her still, no noticeable damage whatsoever. The thing made a noise like a mixture between a hiss and a growl, and with speeds Luna did not think this thing was capable of, brought its mouth over her form, consuming her within its jaws. Luna was surprised, but not worried; No dream, no matter how powerful, could harm her.

And yet as the thing's jaw closed in on her, and the hundreds of white teeth started to come, she felt an ounce of pain. Luna could not speak, this could not happen. She then realized with dread as her breath hitched, if she could feel pain from this, then-- "Aaaaaahhhh!" Luna suddenly screamed as hundreds of the teeth sunk into her like spears, hot blood starting to poor out of the freshly made wounds. She was in too much pain to fight back, as more teeth drove themselves in deeper to herself. Then, they started to crunch her, breaking bones and disjointing limbs. Luna could not lie, she was afraid. She could not die there, as it was still technically a dream, but she could still feel all of the pain as if she were. The jaws were closing in, starting to flatten her. She knew she had to get out by exiting this dream, even if it meant not being able to talk to the human properly.

As for the dreaming human, his mate was no where to be found, and he was staring at the whole display with a scrunched up face. His blue eyes started to scan for his mate, but when he could not find her, he went back to watching what was happening in front of him, small breaths escaping his lips.

Luna was nearly flattened, and had more holes in her body than a changeling or Swiss cheese. With a grunt, she focused as much as she could into her magic and horn. The pain was almost too agonizing, but she managed a few sparks to fly out. "Come on, come on!" She shouted desperately. Her hind legs were now completely filled with the little spears all the way through, and more crawling up her body. She focused again, and that time got a continuous glow. After a few agonizing seconds, the princess was out of the dream and out of the dream world. She opened her eyes and took in a large breath, and started breathing rapidly. She was back in her bed, and in one piece again. She felt a ghost of the pain for a fraction of a second, but went as fast as it came.

The princess merely laid there, going over the whole experience in her head. She went to the human's dream, and attempted to communicate with him. Then that thing that looked almost like the creature in Twilight's letter came and ruined it. Not only did it disobey her, it attacked her and drove her off. Luna was thankful that nopony saw that humiliating defeat; well, except that human. She thought about how a dream construct managed to become powerful enough to attack her directly, for that should not have been possible. Luna's eyes slowly widened as she recalled something from the first dream, and now that she thought about it, was in the one she just escaped from.

Excluding herself, there were two beings in both dreams. She did not encounter the source in the first dream, but the one she came out of, she thought more on. Could it be possible that the thing she fought was not a dream construct or memory, but something not originally from the dream like she was? The shots she fired were meant to destroy anything dream-wise, and it obviously did not harm that skinny creature, that looked so similar to the one she thought about. Bringing a hoof to her chin, and eyes narrowed, she thought, 'Could there be more to the human and this beast than we thought? Is the beast somehow connected to the human's thoughts?' The princess got up and went to her door. That was something her sister should know about.

Rainbow Dash was a proud mare. She was not only an Element of Harmony and has helped saved Equestria, but the fastest pegasus ever. She was one of the greatest among the Wonderbolts, a surrogate sister to her number one fan, and overall awesome. She liked to brag about herself and show off, but always a loyal friend. So one could easily imagine how much she hated being humiliated right now. The black patches were still stuck on her hooves and mouth, preventing herself from talking or moving. A guard earlier had tried to pull the webbings off, but only accomplished getting himself stuck as well. Some guards suggested trying to shoot the odd substance off, but was quickly dismissed as they realized they would have struck the Element of Loyalty as well. The guards had to admit, though, that the black substance that had trapped most thieves made it much easier to get them to a jail for the time being, and some guards went to arrest the remaining thieves that had retreated into the city earlier, while others were sent to see where the creature went.

Some ponies came to take a look, some chuckling and laughing to the anger of Rainbow Dash. The press were practically eating it up as they took all the photos they could get. Ponies from a block away could see the red in the mare's face, and could tell she was getting pissed. Rainbow thought of what the headlines would be for next week's papers, 'Gee, it'll probably be "Element of Loyalty Gets Her Flank Hooved To Her By Odd Beast", this just isn't fair.' She wanted to get out of those cursed strings trapping her so she could find the black creature that had done this to her, and beat the absolute crap out of it.

The ponies around started to talk about the creature with a white spider on its chest, and how it single-hoofidly defeated the thieves and their leader.

"The thing was just tossed them around like toys! They didn't stand a chance!"

"That thing looked like something straight from a nightmare."

"So it shoots black ropes that stick? Kind of like webs?"

The colt known as North Star, who was saved by the creature that called itself Venom, was surrounded by other colts and fillies around his age, his hooves waving wildly as he told the story of the fight. "Then, when I thought I was gonna get shocked or something, he came and shot something like a black rope from his hand, pulled him, and punched him straight to the bank wall!" He was waving his hooves enthusiastically, as the colts and fillies leaned in, ears perked, with the usual gasp, whoa, awesome, cool, etc. "Half the thieves screamed like little newborns and galloped off, the rest shaking like scaredy-cats! The blue pony got out and was all like, 'who wants to tangle!' You should have seen him when he saw the thing! It was awesome and all like, 'We do' and said, 'We are Venom.'"

One colt asked, "Wait, why'd he say 'we'?"

North Star shrugged with an, "I dunno." He was about to resume his story, when a purple flash erupted in the center of the street.

When the light subsided, they all saw the Princess of Friendship emerge from it, gasping for air while looking around. Most of the ponies quickly bowed, but Twilight Sparkle paid no attention to them, as her darting gaze finally rested upon her friend, Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow!" She quickly galloped to her trapped friend, stopping a few meters to look at the substance that had her friend and a guard stuck to the street. "Rainbow, what happened? Where's this creature at?" Rainbow mumbled, then looked down to her mouth, then back at Twilight. Twilight's cheeks became flushed, realizing why her friend couldn't speak, and told her to hold still. She grabbed both the guard and her friend with her magic and tried to gently pull them out, but the thick blackness proved to be too strong. She then tried to remove the dark patch itself by pulling a little more, but they refused to release. Here eyes narrowed, as she tried without exerting too much power, but to no avail.

Her face scrunched up, as she knew she would have to pull really hard to get the stubborn stuff off, but fortunately for her, she was an alicorn. She focused her magic on the two ponies and the webbing, pulled them away with each other with much more might than before. Soon, a 'snap' was heard, and the two were released, though a small patch still stuck to their legs. Rainbow tried to talk again, but realized the black stuff was still preventing her from doing so. Twilight looked to Rainbow and said, "Alright, I'm going to need you to be extra-still." The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes, but nodded in understanding. Twilight then focused her magic on the small patch, and very quickly with much magical strength, ripped it off.

Rainbow Dash yelped from the quick bout of pain, and gave her friend a firm glare while speaking, "Hey! What giv-- hey! I can talk again!"

Twilight sighed in relief, and thought to herself, 'That took more power than I thought. How could something so small be to hard to tear off and apart?' She addressed Rainbow Dash, "Sorry Rainbow, that was the only way I could think of getting it off then, but we'll have to figure out how to get the last of it off." That was true, for some still stuck around her muzzle and legs. She then looked at her friend and rapidly spoke, "But not now. Rainbow, did you see the creature? What was it like? Where is it now? And how did you get this stuff all over you?"

Rainbow grunted, but said, "I saw it alright! Just like what those ponies said it was! I also saw it beating up ponies, so I decided to show it what for!"

Twilight quirked a brow and asked like she knew the answer, "And how well did that go?"

Rainbow's pose deflated, as she looked at the ground and gave off a low, "I... lost that round... But that's not important right now! Besides, I can always get a rematch!" She quickly looked into her friend's eyes, "We've got to find that thing before it harms any more ponies! I mean, have you seen its face? It just reeks of evil!"

Before she could continue her rant, a colt shouted, "Liar! He saved me and the guards!" Both mares swung their heads to the direction of the outburst, and saw a colt with an angry expression on his face. "The only ponies he harmed were the thieves and the one that was shooting lasers! He was helping us!"

Rainbow threw her hooves in the air and said loudly, "What are you talking about? The guards were without their spears, I didn't see any robbers other than ponies trapped by that thing, those were just regular ponies the guards probably took to get un-stuck, and it was looking like it was getting ready to eat you!"

The cold retaliated with, "Nu-uh! They were the thieves, and made the guards drop their weapons! But Venom came in and kicked their flanks! He even asked if I was hurt and if I needed help!"

Before the irked pegasus could respond, Twilight butted in. "Wait, Venom?" The colt's face went from anger to excitement and enthusiasm in a heartbeat.

"Yeah, he said 'We are Venom' so that must be his name! Or maybe that's just a super-hero name. Either way, the name sounds awesome!"

Twilight thought to herself, 'There with the "we" again, but why? Its just one being, not two or multiple. And Venom? That's an odd name for a pony... or whatever it is'

Rainbow said with some irritation, "Oh come on! you can't be--"

"Excuse me." The three ponies turned to see one of the guards, one the colt recognized.

"Dad!" He shouted as he rushed up to hug his leg. The father chuckled and hugged his son back before looking back at the two Elements of Harmony.

"Actually, miss Dash, my son is telling the truth. A large group of thieves were robbing a bank, one with armor and a weapon which we have not encountered before. As a matter of fact, you'll see the front almost completely blown away because of one of their weapons. They were overwhelming us, and my son was about to be shot down," He paused as he remembered the heart-racing moment, As both mares stared with large eyes, jaws slowly lowering themselves as they heard what would have become of the colt. "But then he came... Venom, I think, and stopped the pony from harming my son. While I must agree that he looks definitely looks pretty intense and scary, he defeated the thieves that didn't immediately gallop off, including the blue one. I don't know what it is, but he saved my son, so he's good in my book." The father finished with a small, but warm smile.

Rainbow eventually regained speech after the truth was revealed to her. She had thought that the beast was the one to blow the bank entrance, not the ponies that were just revealed to her by a guard to be thieves. "Wait, but that means... he saved you? Okay... maybe I had a bit of an understanding... but if I see papers talking about what it-- he did to me, I'm still gonna get a rematch." Rainbow looked down with a shameful expression written on her face, and looked over to the colt. "Sorry for not believing you little dude, You were here the whole time. I should have believed you."

The colt's lips curled up, as he replied smoothly, "Its alright miss Dash, but you have to admit, the way he beat you was pretty funny."

Before Rainbow could talk the colt out, Twilight asked the father, "Do you know where this... Venom... is currently at?"

The father sighed, and shook his head. "No, princess. We've had guards try to search for him, but nothing showed up. Wherever he is, he's out of the city."

Twilight was a bit down after hearing that, but wanted to confirm if the human was there or not. "You didn't happen to see anything else, did you?"

"No, your highness."

She nodded and gave her thanks. She looked to her friend and said, "Lets get back to Ponyville, Rainbow. Maybe we can plan ahead on what to do next there." Rainbow Dash nodded, and she and the princess were casted in a bright purple light, and suddenly they were gone.

"So let me get this straight." Princess Celestia was currently in her chambers, with her younger sister, Princess Luna. "You sensed the human's dream, found it moving, and concluded him to be on a train since it was near an area of train tracks."

Luna nodded her head. "Correct."

"You went in and witnessed a memory of this human's wedding."

"Correct."

"You tried to communicate with him, but a creature similar to the one described by Twilight's letter interrupted, but was smaller and skinnier."

"Correct."

"At first you thought it was a dream construct or part of the memory, and commanded it to go away. But it didn't, and you tried to get rid of it."

"Correct."

"It then put you in its mouth and started to chew on and crush you, which I presume was pretty painful?"

"You have no idea, sister."

"You then retreated back, and we end up here."

"I didn't retreat! It was a well planned maneuver called a 'strategic withdrawal'." The older sibling rolled her eyes, but looked back to Luna.

"But you now believe that the black creature in the dream was the second being you sensed in the first dream, and is somehow related to this black beast." Luna nodded her head again, as Celestia asked, "Do you know where the human may be heading to?"

Luna smiled, and spoke with a hint of pride, "I do. This train is heading towards Ponyville right now. Though, I don't know what the human is planning, hitching a ride on that train."

Celestia smiled down at her sister. "Don't worry, I'll get the guards currently stationed in Ponyville to go down the tracks a ways and stop the train to check it. I'd have them do it at the station in Ponyville, but I don't want any civilians to get in danger in case he proves to be hostile." The Princess of the Day went to get a quill and paper, and started writing.

Eddie slowly started to wake up from his rest he had. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and took a peek outside to see the train had still going and not too much time had passed. He then started to remember the dream he had. It started out as a memory, of him dancing with his beautiful wife on their wedding day. But things went weird after that. Some one called out to him, and Eddie and his wife looked to see a large pony, with both horns and wings, and flowing hair, or manes, as he read earllier they were called. During the time, Eddie was 'living' the memory, so he thought that he was at his wedding. Before the pony could continue, the symbiote came out and interrogated her. It looked like she had tried to destroy it, but it had proved to be futile. The symbiote then brought its jaws down on her, as he heard her scream out of pain at the time. Shortly after that, the dream ended, and regular blank sleep greeted him. He started to think about what that dream was, until the symbiote spoke up, 'Wasn't a complete dream, Eddie.'

Eddie asked what it was on about, "What do you mean?"

The symbiote projected itself as a blotch of liquid as a puddle in front of him on the floor, but when Eddie looked at it he saw the face of Venom instead of his reflection. 'Pony invaded your mind. I asked her what she was doing. Tried to command me. She tried to break the bond between us.'

"What do you mean?"

'Pony entered your mind somehow, she used her magic on me. It did not do anything, but I know what she desired, Eddie. She wished to break the bond between us, tried to get me out of you. The bond between a Klyntar and its host is sacred, so I removed her.' Eddie knew what the symbiote meant on that. He knew how far a symbiote would go to stop those who would try to separate a symbiote and its ideal host, and what they would do to reunite if they were somehow separated. He recalled hearing one time, when the Carnage symbiote and Cletus Kasady were separated, that the Carnage symbiote used people as vessels and travelled for miles on end, just to reunite with its proper host.

Eddie sighed, and brought his hands to his face. "Lets just hope they can forgive that, assuming you didn't put her in a hospital." Eddie said disapprovingly.

'I'm sure she's fine.' They sat in silence for a few more minutes, until the train screeched to a halt. 'Why did we stop? Lets take a look.' The symbiote came out of and wrapped around Eddie Brock, as Venom lifted the grate on the roof from which they came in. They checked the skies and the top of the other carts to make sure the coast was clear, and when they were satisfied, crawled along the top. They hung low as they heard the disapproving voices of the passengers, likely complaining about the train stopping. They noticed that they were near the same forest that they found themselves in about a day ago. Venom crawled to the side of the cart closest to the forest to see what was stopping the train. They saw a platoon of the guards up ahead with barricades, and entering the carts, to check them. Eddie realized he and the symbiote would have to make the same choice again.

"Should we confront them, or still try to go to this Canterlot without this world's police on us?" Asked Venom.

'I would prefer not to get in a fight with the guards if they try, it would make us look evil for beating them. We can use the forest as a cover to go along.'

Venom nodded in agreement, looked to check no guards were near or looking, and leapt off the train and sprinted into the dark woods where none of the ponies were at. Unlike before when they were heading to Manehattan, Venom headed deeper into the woods for good cover. They recalled predators like the wooden wolves coming from here, so they assumed that the ponies wouldn't go anywhere near there. 'Do you suppose we will run into any other towns or cities along the way?'

"Likely, If I recall, the train was supposed to take us to a popular town known as 'Ponyville'."

'Do you think we will run into trouble there?'

"I hope not, but with what's been thrown at us so far, probably."

All the creatures of the Everfree Forest were living their lives, doing their duties as usual; the timberwolves hunting down their prey, manticores keeping watch over their cubs, the occasional hydra lounging around, and so on. Everything was normal for the Everfree, until smog rolled in from all sides. They all immediately dropped what they were doing, and watched the approaching cover consume them. They coughed and hacked, but not because the smog was entering their lungs. No, all their heads were in intense pain, as new thoughts popped into their heads.

Suddenly, they didn't care about what they were doing, hunting, resting, or defending the young. All at once, they each felt nothing but unbridled hatred; but it was not towards each other. No, all the thoughts of hatred, for reasons they did not know, was on all the ponies in the small town close by known as Ponyville. Specifically, these six mares that they just wanted to shred to pieces. Every predator, big and small, let out a hiss, roar, growl, and howl in aggression, and moved in the same direction as one. Predators didn't care if prey was near them, nor did the prey care about the predators. Their recently gained hatred for those six mares and the ponies in the town was greater than the fear or irritation they shared with one another. All at once, the animals of the Everfree united as one, with one goal above all else.

Kill the ponies of Ponyville.

Author's Note

Another chapter done! I'm glad that a lot of you are enjoying the story so far. What did you think of this chapter, and what do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 5: The True Monster

Pinkie Pie was at Sugar Cube Corner, serving up a vanilla milkshake to a customer. She wore her usual ear-to-ear grin, and spoke with a voice filled with absolutely no negativity, "Here you go mister! Have a nice day!" The stallion took the cup, and nodded his head with a, "Thank you, miss." The stallion left the shop with drink in hoof, slurping it on the way out. Pinkie sighed in content, and took the time to admire all the treats in the glass counter before her.

So many cupcakes, chocolate, cake, icing, and more. It was a dentist's worst nightmare, but a dream come true for foals and anypony with a sweet tooth. She noticed that there weren't all too many customers that day, and decided to use it to her advantage and sweep the lobby area. She hummed a tune, as she cleaned in a rhythm, never letting the boredom infect her cheery demeanor. Soon, however, two of her best friends entered the store. The two were bickering about something Pinkie did not know of yet. "C'mon, Twi! I should totally get a rematch!"

The purple alicorn sighed, and replied in an obvious tone, "Dash, you attacked it...him. It was self-defense."

"Yeah, I admit that's true... But it stuck me in that weird gooey stuff for two bucking hours! I couldn't talk, couldn't move, and everypony was taking pictures! Do you know how much this will damage me if this ends up on the papers?"

Before Twilight Sparkle could retort, the pink mare working at the establishment instantly zoomed up to her friends, and greeted with a rapid and high, "Hiya Dashie! Hiya Twi!" The two arguing ponies quit their dispute, and looked at their hyper friend with smiles on their faces.

Twilight was the first to speak, "Hello Pinkie. Oh, guess what? Rainbow here had a run-in with the beast earlier." Twilight shot a quick look of disappointment at Rainbow, upset that she chose to fight the one that had saved the guards, instead of being rational about it. She then quickly caught her mistake, knowing that Rainbow wasn't a rational pony. Pinkie jumped in the air, with fore hooves brought to her head, jaw dropped, widened eyes, and floating in the air. During all of that, a loud and continuous gasp came out of her gaping mouth, like that of a dramatic gasp from actors. She quickly went up to her pegasus friend, shoving her face into Rainbow Dash's, and spewed question after question.

"Did you find out what its or his favorite color is? Cake flavor? A favorite hobby? Favorite games? Social or shy? I figured since it -or he- had a spider design on himself, that he liked spiders, so I was gonna go all spider themed for the party, don't you agree!?!" Rainbow Dash brought her hooves on the party pony's shoulders and pushed her back until she felt she had her personal space regained.

She sighed before saying, "No, Pinkie. I didn't find out if it liked-- wait! Are you seriously planning a party for it!?!"

Pinkie bobbed her head up and to, and chirped, "The human too!" Rainbow's mouth was agape, right eye slightly twitching.

After a few seconds, she blurted out, "B-but, why!?!"

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes, still sporting a grin. "Well duh, Dashie! The big guy is new here, and needs a 'Welcome to Equestria!' Party!"

Before the annoyed pegasus could question that, Twilight took that chance to speak. "Rainbow's right on one thing, Dash here didn't find out anything about him, because she attacked him." Twilight shook her head at that last part, as Pinkie looked Rainbow Dash up and down, now with a slight frown. "Now Dashie, didn't anypony ever tell you not to attack others because we want to?" Rainbow hovered in the air with fore hooves crossed, head turned with thin eyes. "I thought it, uh, he... was attacking guards."

Twilight came in with a noticeably more excitable tone, "But apparently there were thieves that attacked and disarmed the guards while robbing the bank in Manehattan. They probably would've gotten away with the bits, if he didn't come in, stop them and save the guards and a colt, while spawning this odd black and sticky strings from the back of its hands! Oh I can't wait to find out how this Venom does that!"

Pinkie then did another quick dramatic gasp as before, and shouted," Now I have to throw another party for the act of heroism! Yipee! And Venom? Sweet name!" At that moment, Pinkie had what others might think to be a seizure. First, her left eye rapidly twitched. Then, her back left leg kept on thumping. Finally, her mane deflated, inflated, deflated, and inflated again. "Yikes! My Pinkie-sense is tingling!" The two other mares in the room stared with large eyes, for they knew what dangers could happen when the Pinkie-sense predicted it.

Pinkie's face scrunched up as she tightly closed her eyes, bringing a hoof to massage her temples. "Ooh... that was a big one... and not good." The other two gulped, and waited to see what Pinkie had to say, if any more were to be said. But, the pink mare quickly galloped out of the shop, into the streets of Ponyville. Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other curiously, before joining their friend out side. When they caught up, they saw their pink friend staring directly into the Everfree forest, eyes wide and jaw loose.

Twilight grew a concerned look, and asked, "Pinkie, what's wrong?" She looked to Rainbow Dash for support, but her face perfectly mirrored Pinkie's. Twilight slowly looked towards the Everfree, and the trio all wore the same face. For out of the dark woods, dangerous creatures of all kind, big and small, started to pour out. The three could tell one thing from that distance; they were coming directly towards the town, and they looked pissed.

Venom had been swinging via webs through the dark forest for some time. Eddie and the symbiote were thinking of what to do when they got out of the woods. The symbiote made its suggestion, 'We could always try to go back to the train tracks, there is a chance that train or another could be heading in that direction.' Venom nodded his head for Eddie's understanding, but countered, "That would be good if there are any trains there, but if not? It would not be the best idea to wander out in the open, the pegasi could spot us, and lead us into more trouble." The two were still deciding on what to do when the time came the forest would not provide cover for them, when the symbiote noticed something. 'These woods... so empty. No creatures like before, why could that be?' Eddie couldn't help but look around as well, and notice there were barely any animals around at all.

"...Odd. But at least we don't have to waste our time dealing with annoying pests." So the two stayed silent, as Venom swung forward.

Some time later, Venom noticed the area had started to light up, and the trees were growing fewer and far between. He grinned, as Eddie and the symbiote knew they would be out of the woods, and closer to Canterlot. When they made the great final swing out of the woods, they were greeted to a grassy plain, with an orchard not too far off, with a town a bit further off. Curious, Venom went up to the orchard. When he approached, he saw it was vast with rows of apple trees, that went as far as the eye could see. Down to the left, was an old wooden farm-house, with a red barn not too far from the right of it. The apples reminded Eddie that he hadn't eaten in a while. The symbiote technically could keep his hunger at bay for long periods of time, possibly permanently, but it left an odd feeling in his gut, and changes on his body would be noticeable to anyone. Venom looked around himself, and when the coast was clear, they symbiote retracted in Eddie, leaving only the buff man.

Eddie wasn't a fan of stealing, but he needed to keep his hunger in check. Besides, he doubted the owners would seriously notice one apple missing. Eddie strode over to the nearest tree, and plucked a fat and red apple from a low branch. He bit into the fruit, and started to eat his small meal. It wasn't anything special, just a regular apple, but he wasn't about to complain. "Figures, they're all herbivores after all."

The symbiote projected itself as a snake-like strand hanging on a branch, looking at Eddie. 'Could use trees here for cover, could work for a bit.' Eddie nodded in agreement, and dropped the apple core to the ground. He walked towards the path and took a quick glance to his right, to see the town of what he assumed to be Ponyville. He would've continued towards through the orchard, until he noticed black smoke coming from the town.

Eddie squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows, as he mumbled to himself and the symbiote, "Is there a fire or something?" It was then that he heard three shrill screams not to far off in the direction towards the orchards trees.

Eddie was now concerned, and the symbiote told him, 'Something is wrong. Should check it out.' As the symbiote finished, it came out and wrapped around Eddie, turning them into Venom, as they sprinted off where they heard the screams.

Eventually, as they came through more trees, they spotted a tree house in the distance, with stairs unattached and left at the base. It was light brown with wooden planks, and a window on each side. The roof was a classic triangle-slant style, and a darker brown than the rest. But what surprised them was that it was surrounded by some of those wooden wolves from the day prior, and a manticore. The wooden wolves were clawing at the tree and looking up at the tree house, growling ferociously. The manticore stared at the tree house, visibly seething with rage. Venom got closer, but not too close to reveal himself. He wanted to see what exactly was going on before he intervened.

Unknown to Venom, on the inside of the tree house, were three fillies huddled together; an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn. These three were close friends, younger sisters (one being a younger surrogate sister) to three of the Elements of Harmony, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The earth pony was Applebloom, the pegasus Scootaloo, and the unicorn Sweetie Belle. "We're trapped!" shouted Applebloom. She was sweating profusely, her eyes darting for any way out of the predicament she and her friends found themselves in.

"But there's going to be a way out, or somepony to save us, right?...right?" Sweetie Belle said that last part in a low and broken voice.

"C'mon girls! We just gotta think of something!" The little orange pegasus that was Scootaloo scrunched her face in deep thought, searching her mind for any spark of an idea that could get them out of this. The manticore, however, had different plans. It stalked towards the tree, eyes never leaving the tree house, as it pushed the timberwolves out of the way. Using its upper body, it rammed its mass into the area of the tree underneath the club house, starting to have made creaks and noticeable dents. The trio screamed again on the second ram, the clubhouse now being forced to the other side, slightly tipping.

Sweetie Belle started crying, Applebloom on the verge of tears and visibly shaking, and Scootaloo then started to sniffle. They didn't want to think what the timberwolves or that manticore would do to them when they would be forced down. It appeared as though they were wrong, nopony would save them.

As the manticore got ready for the final ram to send the tree house crashing down, something gripped its tail. Before it could have looked at its assailant, it was lifted off the ground, over its attacker's shoulders, and landed on the ground hard on its wings. It growled in anger and pain, and looked at its attacker with a fierce glare, ready to tear it to shreds. But when it saw what had attacked it, the rage was then quickly replaced by fear. For the thing that attacked it was the same thing that quickly took the manticore down and threw in the distance a day ago, and that time it looked cocky and happy. This time however, the face was in a scowl, and it looked pissed.

Venom had seen enough when he heard the screams coming from the tree house; judging from the sounds, they sounded like only little fillies, innocent. So Venom decided to show the manticore what he does to those who seek harm among the innocent. As he looked down at the manticore, with the white eyes as thin as pencils, he spat out with disgust, "You and your kind, always harming innocent who have done nothing wrong. You may just be an animal, but we will see to it that you never do such a thing like this to the innocent again, especially the young. You may act all big and tough, but when you come across a real monster, you're nothing."

"Wait, did y'all hear that?" asked one of the young fillies, and three heads stuck out of the door to take a peek. The looks of hope on their face were quickly replaced by panic, as they saw Venom over the manticore and staring it down. Venom heard, but paid no mind as he was about to deal with these creatures. Venom placed a clawed hand over the top of the manticore's head, and another on the chin. With one quick motion, Venom yanked the head off, decapitating the creature as blood poured on the ground and himself. The girls gasped, and made a mad dash back into the safety of the tree house. Venom then turned his sight to the wooden wolves, whom looked on with their large yellow legs, slightly shaking.

Venom's usual eager grin returned, with eyes widened in excitement. "Now its your turn!" Before the wooden wolves could so much as whimper, Venom went on all fours, and leaped with a mix of a hiss and growl, immediately smashing one to pieces when he landed on it. Venom quickly leaned forward and opened his jaws, scooping up one of the wooden wolves, and closing down with a loud 'crunch!', as the debris flew in all directions. The two remaining ones tried to flee, but Venom shot a thick black web string from the back of each hand. "Oh no you don't!" When the webs connected, the wolves tripped and landed on their chins. Venom then yanked his arms upwards, bringing the wooden wolves sky-high. With a grin as always, Venom pulled down on the webs, re-introducing the wooden wolves to the cold, hard ground, where they shattered completely upon impact.

"Ah, we killed them off rather easily." Venom's gaze hovered over to the tree house. "But we should make sure the little ones are alright." Venom approached the tree house, noticing that the door was too small to hold his form, he didn't even think the tree house would hold with him standing in it. He crawled along the tree itself, and peered into the open window. He saw the three little fillies huddled together, shaking more than leaves on a windy day in autumn. Venom spoke in a loud enough voice so they would hear. "Are you alright? Do any of you require assistance?" The three fillies shot their eyes towards the window, and saw the face of Venom peering in. They screamed in fright and backed to the furthest corner they could; they thought the timberwolves and manticore were scary, but Venom was on a whole other level.

They whimpered, as Sweetie Belle pleaded, "Please don't eat us! We don't taste good! Pinkie Promise!"

"Please don't hurt us!" Applebloom joined in on the pitiful begging. Venom frowned with his face a bit crestfallen, as his eyes took on a sad expression. Eddie and the symbiote have encountered this from children before. They knew they didn't look like the cuddliest thing in the world. Eddie thought of something that might calm them down, but at a cost. Seeing the fillies in the state they were in, and needing answers, it was worth the risk.

Venom's upper lip pulled up and back around the head, as the bottom jaw molded to the symbiote, leaving Eddie's head where Venom's once was. Brock then spoke in a calm and soothing voice, "Hey, its alright. I'm not gonna hurt you." The three fillies paused their shaking to take a look. The CMC slightly gasped at the reveal of the other face. They were still spooked, but much less so, for Brock's face was not a nightmare like Venom's. "I'm only here to help." There was a sort of peace and safety the crusaders saw in Eddie's eyes, like they could trust him.

Being the daring one of the group, Scootaloo slowly shuffled about halfway over, eyeing the man somewhat suspiciously, and managed a barely audibly, "Wh...who are you? What are you?"

Eddie replied with the same calm and warm voice as before, "You can call me Eddie, and I'm a human." All the girls gasped at the revelation that Eddie was a human, a creature thought only to be myth and legend, and quickly did a one-eighty from scared to happily curious.

Applebloom was the first to ask with glee, seemingly forgetful about the whole ordeal that had just happened. "What's it like having fingers and toes?"

Sweetie joined, she too with gleeful curiosity, and all the fear gone. "Is that your suit? Do you have super powers?"

Scootaloo gave a squeal, and nearly shouted, "Are you... a super hero!?!" The three fillies looked up at him with wide eyes, waiting for an answer.

Eddie blinked a couple of times, before shaking himself out of his stunned state. Children would be children, he supposed. Plus, he'd prefer them in that state than fearful. Eddie didn't quite know how to answer the question, as someone like him would likely be categorized as and anti-hero. Despite using brutal methods for the worse criminals, he and the symbiote still wanted to protect the innocent and to stop those who seek harm upon them. But he needed their absolute trust then, so he told them an answer that was still the truth. "I do my best to protect innocent like you, and to stop those who seek harm upon them."

The girls were silent for a few moments, until simultaneously, they each shouted, "Awesome!"

The girls decided to quickly introduce themselves to the new hero.

"I'm Applebloom!"

"I'm Sweetie Belle!"

"I'm Scootaloo!"

They then spoke all at once, "And together," they all stood on their hind legs while shouting to the top of their lungs, "We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" They got down on their hooves as each rushed to the door, and went out on the deck to get a better look at the hero. Eddie chuckled at their antics, and how quickly their thoughts changed on him. The fillies came up to the deck before the tree where Eddie was on, only being around his shins in height, and looked him up and down, with a continuous, "whoa..." Eddie webbed the slanted tree house to the tree so it would stick and hold his weight, to the surprise and delight of the CMC. When he got on, he stooped to one knee to be closer to the three fillies, and asked with the calmness and patience still in his voice, "Can you tell me what exactly is going on? Why is there smoke coming from the town?"

Scootaloo was the first to speak up, panic in her voice again, "The animals from the Everfree... they all came out and just started attacking! None of us know why, though. Our sisters told us to go here to safety, but we were chased by timberwolves, and barely made it to the club house!" The other two fillies nodded in confirmation.

Applebloom picked up where Scootaloo left off. "Yeah, and we would've been goners!"

Sweetie Belle wore a smile and finished, "But then you came and saved us! I don't know how I feel about killing them, but thanks, Eddie!" Eddie smiled down at the foals, hearing the thanks from Sweetie Belle. "But... there's so many animals from the Everfree attacking Ponyville! Our sisters could be in danger!" She suddenly gasped and brought a hoof to her mouth. "And what about Fluttershy!?! She lives right next to the Everfree!"

The crusaders were then panicking, thinking what do to help their sisters. Eddie looked off to the town, thinking what was going on with more of those creatures in the area. He wanted to get to Canterlot as soon as he could, but he and the symbiote both knew they could not leave innocent life in danger when they had the power to stop it. He looked back down to the crusaders and asked, "What do they look like? I'll make sure they're all right." The girls quickly looked upon Eddie with large eyes, breaths hitched in their throats.

"R-really? You would do that?" Asked a previously disheartened Applebloom, then with spirits raised higher.

"I help protect innocents, remember?"

Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at Applebloom, and stated, "Well, duh, Applebloom! He's a super hero, its what he does."

Eddie wanted to get their fast, but needed to learn what their sisters looked like to make sure they would not be harmed, as well as the other ponies in the town as well. He asked with a stern, yet soft voice, "Can you tell me what your sisters look like? I need to know who to look for, after all."

Applebloom was the first to speak up, "Mah sister is Applejack. She's orange with a blonde mane and tail. She usually wears her stetson as well."

Sweetie was the next to give her description. "My sister's Rarity, she's white with a blue mane and tail all stylish and curly."

Scootaloo finally told Eddie of her surrogate sister. "Mine's Rainbow Dash, the coolest and fastest pegasus ever! She's like a light blue and a rainbow mane and tail!"

Eddie's eyes lidded as his brow furrowed, that pony sounded familiar to him. "...Does she have a cocky attitude and brash voice?"

"Yeah! Wait... you know Rainbow Dash!?!" Scootaloo stared at Eddie in amazement and awe, a grin plastered on her face. "Isn't she the coolest pony ever!?!"

"Yeah... awesome..." Eddie actually chuckled at the prospect of protecting one who tried to defeat him and the symbiote a day earlier. Emphasis on tried.

"I'll go and stop those creatures, but I need you three to promise me something." The three nodded in agreement, they'd do anything for their sisters. Eddie brought a clawed hand near his face, and pointed at his face. "Promise me that if ponies ask you about this, you won't tell them about this face." The three tilted their heads, eyes squinted.

Sweetie voiced the crusader's thoughts. "But why? whats wrong with people knowing about your face?" Eddie knew telling them everything would take too long, so he decided on something simple any young one would believe.

"It's my secret identity, can't have everyone knowing it, can we?" The tree let out a long 'ooohhh' in understanding. "Tell them," the symbiote covered Eddie's face, leaving only Venom. "You saw this." The three were a bit spooked at that face returning, but not scared, as they knew a kind and great hero was underneath it all.

The three nodded their heads with smiles equipped, and gave a quick, "We pinkie promise, Eddie!"

Venom smiled at the girls, eyes twisted in determination, and got ready to leave before he told them, "And don't tell the others we are Eddie. Tell them we are Venom."

Applebloom looked at Venom with a confused expression riddled on her face, "What to you mean 'we' and 'Venom'?"

Venom leaped off the tree, turning back to them to call out, "Venom is our other name. As for we, that is a good question... for another time. I promise we will make sure your sisters are safe." As he finishsed, Venom web-shot a tree to slingshot himself towards the smoking town of Ponyville. The crusaders looked on in awe of the hero leaving.

Sweetie muttered loud enough for the others to hear, "Thank you for saving us, and them... Eddie."

Fluttershy was not expecting any of what happened that day to happen at all. She was just out and doing some shopping. Getting supplies for the house, including food for the animals. But those plans changed when an army of Everfree residents came out and decided to attack Ponyville.

The royal guards were there in the center of town, fighting the ruthless beasts with their spears and magic. They were able to keep them back for the time, but more of Everfree's residents just kept on coming. Most of the residents ran as far as they could from the relentless creatures. She was looking for her friends, the other Elements of Harmony. She knew they would help fight the hordes off, so she would do what she could to help. She was looking around houses, shouting their names, but no response came. She was always a timid pony, so one could imagine the panic she was in during the time. Sweating, shaking, large eyes that were darting around, all the other usual symptoms of fear.

Two timberwolves came out of an ally, and started stalking towards her, but despite her usual unwillingness to fight, she had her secret weapon with her always; the stare. Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed but tips raised, and a frown. She mustered as harsh a tone as she could and began to scold, "How dare you! Coming in here and hurting everypony for no reason! Shame on you!" Her scolding always managed to turn the fiercest of animals into a quivering mess, like the timberwolves before her, as they retreated into the safety of the Everfree. Her previous fearful and panicked expression quickly made a comeback, as she returned to looking for her friends.

She eventually made it to where her pink friend worked, Sugar Cube Corner, where she saw Applejack bucking a timberwolf in the jaw. "Git on outta her ya darn varmint!" Applejack then pulled her lasso out of her hat, twirled it a few times in the air, before throwing it on the neck of another timberwolf, and bringing it down, subduing the timberwolf. When she was done, she noticed the shy yellow pegasus, and shouted with relief clear in her voice, "Fluttershy! Thank Celestia, yer all right!" Guards were continuing to battle as the farm pony galloped over to her friend. "Yer not hurt, are ya?"

Fluttershy flashed a quick smile at her friends concern, and shook her head with a, "No, i'm all right. But where are the others?"

"Rarity and Pinkie are evacuatin' the other ponies, Twilight went to get spike for a letter for reinforcements, and Rainbow's somewhere fightin' these critters. Mah Celestia, why'd these critters even come to attack?"

Fluttershy scuffed her hoof on the road, with a low, "I don't know. They usually stay in the Everfree, but they all seem so angry, but I don't know why." The two elements heard a cry from a guard, and turned to see three manticores barreling through them, their eyes right on the two mares. Fluttershy gulped and shook, as Applejack readied her lasso for another round. The guards tried in vain to stop the three projectiles, but were trampled over as they ignored the guards. Applejack managed to throw the lasso on the legs of one of the charging beasts, managing to make it trip and tumble in a heap. The other two kept coming, but Fluttershy used 'the stare' to put them in submission as they came to a stop and shrunk under her disproving stare.

"How do ya like 'em apples?" Asked Applejack with a grin and a cocky look in her eyes. Before she could celebrate their victory, a large paw swatted the side of her face, as a fourth manticore appeared. Fluttershy gasped, and looked on and tried to aid her friend, but the moment she stopped 'the stare' and scolding, the other two manticores were free of its control, back to rage, and took the temporary advantage to pin the pegasus on the ground. Fluttershy gave a little squeak, and couldn't look at the two pinning her due to being on her stomach, and was forced to watch what was about to happen to Applejack. The guards were either too injured or passed out to come and help the two elements, thus leaving them in that unwanted predicament.

Applejack wriggled and squirmed, with a, "Get off'a me ya varmint!" But when she looked up, her eyes widened as she saw the creature bar its lips, showing its teeth, with brows knitted and lowered. The manticore had the other paw raised, claws extended, ready for the finishing swipe. Applejack knew what was about to happen, and the usually strong and confident mare could only get out a weak, "No..."

"Applejack!" Fluttershy was now crying, tears leaking the ground before her, her captors forcing her to watch on. Applejack closed her eyes, and prepared for the end. The sound of flesh tearing and bones shattering was heard all across the town.

But Applejack still felt in one piece.

She heard Fluttershy gasp, and decided to crack an eye open to see what was going on. She saw the manticore with a confused look on its face, its breath seemingly caught in its throat. It then slowly looked down, as did Applejack. Her eyes widened in complete surprise, whereas the manticore seemed even more confused.

Purged straight through the beast's chest, was a long, black, large, muscular arm, with a clawed hand holding the manticore's heart. It was quiet for but a second, as the hand immediately squeezed into a fist, crushing the organ. The arm retracted through the gap, as the hybrid's eyes rolled into its skull. It stood, then shook, then tumbled over. Applejack looked beyond the deceased manticore to see what had done that, and when she saw what did that, her pupils decreased to small points. She wasn't exactly proud to admit it, but she was pretty scared.

For the thing that had done that was the massive black creature with a white spider on the front and back, horrendous face, something from the nightmare of foals and adults alike. Applejack released a quick gasp as she realized this was the thing mentioned by the group of ponies the day before, the same one that defeated a manticore so easily, just like the one before her. It looked down on her with its white eyes, Applejack not knowing what it planned on doing. To the slight relief of Applejack, but fear of the two other manticores who had just witnessed one of their brothers get killed, it looked to them. It lashed its tongue with a series of hisses and growls to accompany it, as it balled its bloody hand into a fist, and shot two black lines that came rapidly and connected to the two beasts. Before the two manticores could so much as piss, the true beast brought its arm back, as the two went sailing towards it. The black being caught them by their throats with each hand, eyes narrowed, as is quickly slammed their skulls together, crushing them, leaving the two manticores without a head and blood pouring out.

Fluttershy was taking in small but fast breaths, eyes with small pupils, just like Applejack had but a moment prior. Fluttershy practically knew just about every animal there was, and everything about them. Rabbits that loved carrots, eagles that loved flight, to the dragons that hoarded their jewels, and cocatrices that turned any foe to stone. But this, Fluttershy knew nothing about. She had never seen anything with eyes like that, with muscles like that, with as many or as large teeth, or anything with a large tongue that seemed to have green toxic stuff on it. She knew one thing, though; this black being, was an apex predator, on top of the food chain. The black being looked down at Applejack, and to the surprise of both ponies, talked. "Are you alright, madam? Hurt in any way?"

Applejack slowly pulled herself to a sitting position, eyes never leaving the black thing. She could only get a, "Uhh..."

"Ah, forgive us, we did not introduce ourselves. We are Venom, and you must be Applejack."

Applejack only stuttered, "H-how do you... how can y-you..."

To the concern of the two ponies, Venom smiled down at her, all his glorious teeth and chompers on display, with his eyes twisted in what might be described as cheeriness. "Ah, so you are Applejack. The three fillies designated as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' told us about you and a couple others, i'm glad we came on time."

Applejack quickly took on a shocked look, and sputtered out, "W-wait! Applebloom!?! Where are they!?!"

"They are safe now in a tree house on the local orchard, but some wooden wolves and manticores were attacking it earlier, but we made sure they wouldn't do that again."

Applejack was appalled at the discovery of their lives in danger, and continued on despite the fact that large beast called Venom was standing over her, "So... you stopped them, saved them? And what's with the 'we'?" She asked in slight hesitation. Venom nodded his head in confirmation, ignoring her second question. Applejack could always tell when somepony was lying or not just by looking at their eyes, but giving Venom wasn't even a pony, and the eyes were unlike others she had seen before, she couldn't quite tell. From what she could tell though, Venom seemed to be telling the truth. Though she didn't agree with his methods of taking care of the animals, he still saved them.

"They told us about you, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. They also mentioned a Fluttershy." Fluttershy, who had been listening to the whole thing with wide eyes, not having left her spot on the ground, squeaked at the mention of her name. Venom heard, and looked over with his usual grin.

"Ah, so you must be Fluttershy." He approached her, with her shaking more than a foal, shrinking under Venom's unblinking gaze. It knelt down and asked, "Did those manticores harm you much? Do you require medical assistance?" Fluttershy stopped shaking, and looked at Venom's face curiously. She had thought it would have torn into her like he had done those manticores, but instead, the being she assumed to be carnivorous, seemed legitimately concerned for her well-being. It was as if a fox approached a downed rabbit, and asked if it was all right.

But the most odd thing, was what Fluttershy saw in those odd eyes. She didn't see malevolence, hunger, or anger. Instead she saw eyes that showed that of caring, kindness, compassion, and concern, concern for her safety. She dumbly nodded her head, as her shaking started to cease around this protector. "I-i'm alright... thanks." Venom then slowly scooped her into his non-bloodied arm, and went to Applejack to do the same. As she too was in the massive arm, she started to disagree. "Hey! What're you doing?" Venom used his other arm to shoot a thick web from to one of the taller buildings, and yanked himself upwards.

"We must take you to a safer place. Do you know where those other ponies are I mentioned earlier? Are there any buildings currently guarded?" Applejack had a rush of excitement as they soared upwards, and swinging downwards as Venom shot another web and swung ahead. Fluttershy screwed her eyes shut and hid her face behind her hooves, while making sure she was packed tightly in Venom's arm as to not be dropped.

Applejack then regained her train of thoughts after the initial rush of excitement, and said a bit loud so they could hear over the passing wing and 'thwip' from Venom's webs. "We can't do that now! We've gotta stop those darn critters before they tear the whole town apart!"

Venom turned his head to the farm pony with the same grin, "We will take care of them, but we must get you to safety. Do you know of any place in this town that could suffice?"

Fluttershy took this moment to voice her suggestion, though could barely be heard. "Well... we could go to Twilight's palace. Its the one that looks like a large, blue, crystal tree. Twilight's there, and she could help us." Before Applejack could interject, Venom already spun his head until his eyes rested on the location described by Fluttershy.

"There it is." He swung forward to palace, making a final great swing to the fright of Fluttershy. Venom landed on both feet, and gently placed the two mares down. Fluttershy was tumbling around, as she shook her head to get the world to stop moving, while Applejack muttered, "Sure was something..." She then looked to Venom. "So... Venom... What exactly do you plan to do to take care of these critters? You can't beat 'em on your own." To the annoyance of the farm pony, Venom laughed at that remark.

"Oh, you underestimate us so. Trust me, we can handle this." Before Applejack could retort, the front doors to the great palace busted open, with a galloping princess and number one assistant on her back outwards. Twilight took deep breaths as her eyes locked on to her two friends, not noticing Venom behind them. "Girls! Girls! Reinforcements won't be here until half an hour to an hour! We have to hold out on our own until then!" Spike dug his claws into the back of Twilight's neck, as his teeth started chattering, his eyes large as he stared above Applejack and Fluttershy. "Ow! Spike! What wa--"

She was interrupted as spike pointed a claw straight ahead, screaming at the top of his lungs. "M-m-m-monster!!!" It was then that Twilight noticed the lethal protector behind the two friends, her eyes slowly widening, jaw unhinging, a small breath exhaling out as Venom stared at her.

"...Y-you're Venom..." Venom rose an eye at her statement, until he recalled that perhaps the ponies of Manehattan likely told others and news about him.

"Correct, madam." Twilight was silent for seconds, but felt like minutes to her, taking in the thing before her. She had one thought though, 'How did Rainbow hope to defeat Venom if he's like this?'

Spike pointed and screamed again, "Monster!"

Twilight huffed and turned to her assistance and spoke with an irked tone, "Spike, you already said that."

"No not that one," Spike pointed behind Venom. "That one!" Everypony and Venom turned to see something that surprised them all. Venom was surprised for another mythical creature having popped up, and the others for what it was. It had dark blue scales, four clawed feet, three long necks with heads that had two fins on each side, with narrow, purple eyes.

A Hydra. And one of the largest, as it came to about the palace in height. One head was looking to Fluttershy and Applejack, another on Twilight and Spike, and the central head on Venom. Applejack piped up, eyes never leaving the leviathan. "Uh, Twi, how do we take care of that?"

Venom looked the thing up and down with narrowed eyes, and commented, "You're big," His sadistic grin, as well as risen eyes returned. "But we've fought bigger." Everypony looked at Venom with dropped jaws, complete looks of disbelief, as the lethal protector brought his arms out, his black claws ready to to shred this thing. All three of the hydra heads now looked to him, ready to squash the puny thing. The on looking ponies and dragon all had one thought.

Tartarus was going to be raised.

Author's Note

Hey guys! Just a quick thing, I won't be releasing the next chapter this weekend, I'll be out of town. You can expect it sometime next week, however. What do you guys think? Please, I enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 6: Hail Hydra

"Alright, Pinkie. Everypony's out of Poniville, lets go help our friends and the guards dealing with these ruffians." Spoke the Element of Generosity, Rarity.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Piped the Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie. The two ponies had just gotten finished helping evacuating the citizens out of Ponyville, whether via the train or carriages pulled by royal guards, heading to the next town or city depending which transportation the citizens were on. When the Everfree creatures had attacked, Twilight ordered Pinkie and Rarity to get the other ponies out of there, as the other elements had their own tasks. Since they were done, they could help their friends fight back against the aggressive invaders, but they would have to find them first.

As they were galloping through the streets, avoiding the rummaging creatures and sometimes giving an outnumbered guard a hoof, Rarity asked, "Pinkie, where do you suppose they could be at? We have to find them, and fast!"

Pinkie, still managing a smile despite the mayhem, replied in a cheery voice as per usual, "Twi should be at her palace! Maybe she knows where the others are as well!" Rarity nodded in agreement, and changed course to their friend's palace. As they were running, they noticed three long necks towering the buildings, heading in the direction of the palace. They quickly realized with dread that a massive hydra was on its way to Twilight and her palace, so they quickly made haste. Rarity shouted, "Pinkie! We've got to get there before that hydra does!" Pinkie was then rapidly bouncing to the palace, surpassing the galloping Rarity with a look of determination on her face. "Gotta stop the meanie-weanie! This is already ruining the party I had planned for Venom and the human!"

Rarity decided to simply ignore that last remark, not thinking it was worth it to question such a thing, especially during the time. Despite being faster than the hydra, the hydra was taking much larger steps, covering more ground in a single step, making things a pretty intense race. By then, Pinkie Pie was already a few yards ahead of Rarity, and rounded the corner to the street the palace was on. Before Rarity got there, she heard one of Pinkie's dramatic gasps. Fear quickly overtook her heart, wondering what was so horrendous that her pink friend saw. Were her friends in danger, getting eaten possibly? What could be going on?

She quickly rounded the corner and saw that Pinkie stood still, a bad sign to her. She galloped to her friend, not looking ahead in fear of what it could be. "Pinkie, what's wrong? Should I look, or is it to horrendous?" But when she saw her friend's face, she saw the same wide grin that forced others to shine a smile, and her big blue eyes staring ahead.

Rarity furrowed her brows, but before she could speak, Pinkie practically squealed whilst pointing a hoof, "Yaaay! Venom's here! And he's helping us!" Rarity was really confused then, that was the second time Pinkie brought up this 'Venom' pony, a rather odd name to her, and decided to see for herself what was going on. When she looked, her jaw slowly receded, eyes wide in bafflement at the sight close to her.

She saw her friends Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, and her little Spikey-Wikey, and the enormous hydra looking down on them. But another figure was there that her attention was on. It wasn't like the hydra in height or size, but still very tall and large, especially compared to a pony. Large muscles, white spiders, clawed-hands, white and unblinking eyes, and that outrageously long tongue that was out of the mouth and curving and twisting behind the head. It didn't take too long for Rarity's mind to click, she realized this was the thing Twilight was talking about, the creature from the Everfree. Was this Venom? Is that who Pinkie was on about?

Pinkie wasn't sitting for long, as she quickly zoomed over to join her friends, and the new one, Venom. When she came, she saw all her friends gawking at Venom. Applejack shook herself out of her state, and nearly shouted to the Lethal Protector, "Are you cray!?! You can't seriously think you can beat this hydra, do ya?" Venom's eyes never left the hydra, as its gaze never left him as well.

"We don't think, we know."

Applejack groaned and shook her head. "Oooh! Cool voice!" Twilight quickly swiveled her head right to see Pinkie sitting next to her, looking up at the black being with a grin like a foal would have on Hearth's Warming Eve.

Twilight stuttered, "P-Pinkie! When did you get here!?!" Pinkie merely waved a hoof at her, her eyes never leaving Venom.

"I just got here, silly-filly!" Rarity then caught up, huffing and regaining precious air to her lungs.

Before any of the ponies or dragon could greet her, Venom turned his head to look at them, and said mildly, "It would be wise to back up, this might get messy." The hydra saw its opportunity as its opponent looked away, and quickly sent the central head down upon Venom, jaws opened wide with the plan to gain a quick snack.

Applejack tried to warn him, "Look out!" but there was no need.

The symbiote had warned Eddie of the attack, and so they took a leap backwards, avoiding a jaw that chomped empty air above the ground where they once were. Venom took this advantage by raising both arms, fists lowered, as quick spurts of black webbing shot out of the white squares, covering the central head's eyes. Despite the quick maneuver, the ponies were still worried, all except Pinkie, of course.

"Go Venom! Kick the big meanie's butt! We can have an even bigger party after this!"

Twilight, with Spike on her back, tried to formulate a plan, as the blind head started shaking around as the other two looked on at Venom in rage. They hissed, before swerving around the flailing central head, straight towards the Lethal Protector.

Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane, with a quick, "I can't look!" Venom however, was not panicked. Quite the opposite, as he wore that confident grin of his, a grin that could quite possibly rival Pinkie's. As both heads came from his left and right, Venom made a massive jump in the air, as his arms were outstretched at both sides, aiming for both heads. The webs connected on the foreheads of both heads, and with a great tug of both arms, sent the heads going faster than before, ramming into each other. A loud 'crack!' was heard, as the heads retracted and winced, hot blood seeping out of the nostrils. Most ponies gawked at the display, whereas Pinkie was whooping, and Spike looked with excitement etched all over his face.

"Hey, that was actually pretty awesome!"

"Yepper-peppers!"

The hydra was too distracted to stop two more strands of black webbing to coil on the central head, being wrapped around the jaw, forcing it shut. Venom then yanked himself onto the chin of the flailing head, still managing to stick to the amazement of the ponies. As Venom was crawling atop the head, Twilight wondered aloud, "How does he do all of this? the stuff that sticks, crawling, seeing things even before looking? Its like he's a... spider..."

Venom, still grinning, taunted, "Awww... you look hurt, allow us to distract you of the pain." Hearing that, Fluttershy peeked out of her hairy pink shield, curious as to what the Lethal Protector meant by that. She first thought that Venom would have mercy, ease the pain and subdue the hydra.

"I-is he... going to help it?" She asked with a bit of hope, happy to see this protector wasn't planning to annihilate the hydra. Fluttershy was always a pony who felt sympathy for others, even the 'bad ponies' and creatures like that hydra. She saw Venom grab each fin on the central head with both heads, despite it squirming around so much, trying to launch Venom off. The others looked on too, wondering why Venom was gripping the hydra's fins. Applejack with trepidation, for she knew what was about to happen.

"Uh, y'all might wanna look away--" A loud 'rrriiipppp!' was heard, and any hope that the ponies had of Venom being a bit merciful was crushed, as he held the ripped off fins in each hand. The central, fin-less head was then screaming in pain, as the ponies looked with disgust, and some bits of fear. Fluttershy started shaking, before gulping, and turning around to hurl. Spike and Pinkie seemed less enthusiastic than before, and Applejack and Twilight looked with disgust at the brutality.

Venom placed a hand down, and his other stretched and ready for claws ready to sink into the skull. Unfortunately for Venom, the left head got a lucky hit, as its nose rammed into him, launching him off the head , soaring through the street, and into the wooden wall of a house. The front wall crumbled due to the force and size of Venom, leaving a house with only three walls. Venom quickly got back up, and shook his head while saying, "That was unexpected. We ought to be more careful."

The ponies were surprised at how Venom shrugged off a blow that would put many other ponies in the hospital, possibly the morgue. Applejack leaned into Twilight's ear, Fluttershy having recovered from her sudden sickness, "Uh, Twi, we might not agree with Venom's... way of dealing with these critters, but do ya think we should help and... not sit and watch?"

Twilight's face flushed, disappointed in herself for letting the stranger do the protecting part, instead of her. She was the Element of Magic, and Princess of Friendship. If anything, she should be protecting that stranger, instead of the other way around, despite how capable Venom seemed to be. So with gritted teeth, Twilight commanded, "Right! Pinkie, Rarity!" She turned to the two ponies. "I need you to distract the hydra!" The two nodded, as Pinkie pulled her Party Cannon out of her mane, and Rarity started using magic to shoot gems, none of which would be able to pierce the hydra's scales, but gain its attention.

As Venom dashed over to return to battle, Eddie and the Symbiote noticed the pink pony apparently named Pinkie Pie fire off a colorful cannon, launching a cake into the left mouth, stuffing it completely. "A...cake?" Venom curved an eye at the odd choice of weaponry, as they also saw the white unicorn release a shower of gems, crystals, and other jewelry to the right head, only achieving to annoy the head as that head turned its attention to her.

The symbiote informed Eddie, 'Rarity. The sister to Sweetie Belle. We must protect them.'

"Yes, these ponies don't seem to have much in weapons anyway. They're gonna need us."

With the central head having already been blinded by the webbing and jaw shut, Twilight looked over to the farm mare. "Applejack, do you have enough rope to tie all the necks together?"

"I think, but how can I do that when they're squirmin' constantly?" Twililght lowered her head until her horn was pointed directly at the chest of the hydra. She stood there for many seconds, her horn glowing brighter by the second. With the three-headed monster too distracted, it could not see, stop, or avoid the large purple bolt Twilight fired at its exposed chest. When the shot connected, the necks of the hydra all went straight from the effects that were happening in itself. The spell Twilight used was one that would slow blood flow and circulation. The hydra would still live, but reduced blood circulation and blood flow resulted in increased tiredness and sudden loss of energy.

Everypony and everyone noticed the effects immediately, as the necks stopped wriggling, and started to sink to the ground. The eyes were becoming heavy, as the beast went on its knees. "Now Applejack!" The farm mare wasted no time as she went on a full gallop to the heads, lassoing all three at once, and quickly pulling. The rope pulled until it was covering the necks, then she tied it in a knot. Fluttershy shuffled a little bit closer to the hydra, still feeling sympathy for it despite the destruction it was causing.

Spike had gotten to the ground, and looked the hydra up and down, mumbling, "That's a huge one..."

But, it seemed the hydra had some fight left in it, as with its remaining adrenaline, the three necks all pushed in different directions, and went to pound the nearest pony, Rarity. Spike went wide eyed, while shouting, "Rarity, look out!"

She looked to the fast approaching heads, and tried to backpedal out of there. Twilight would have used her telekinesis to quickly yank Rarity out of there, but Venom beat her to it, as a line of black web attached itself to the side of Rarity, and suddenly lifted off the ground right as the three heads collapsed. She was screaming from suddenly being off the ground, until she felt herself being caught by hands. She was placed down, as she saw Venom rush past her to the hydra. Before the heads could do anything else, Venom squirted more webbing around the necks, trapping it down. "Now, don't you think its time you took a little nap?"

The ponies stared in awe, as Twilight went to the subdued hydra to examine the black webbing. Looking at it curiously, like a foal would examine a new toy, she reached a hoof to touch it, but pulled back as she thought she would likely get herself stuck as well.

The ponies and dragon stared at Venom, as Venom looked around. Spike eventually spoke with awe, "Dude... you're strong."

Venom replied to the obvious fact, "Yes, indeed." Venom looked over to Rarity and asked, "Are you all right, Ms. Rarity?"

Rarity broke out of her stagnant state, cracked a small smile at Venom's mannerism, "Yes, quite all right, thank you."

Eddie and the symbiote didn't know what the one called Twilight exactly did to the hydra, but it was down for the count, that was for sure. They looked around, but didn't notice the pony they were looking for. Venom turned to Fluttershy and Applejack, and asked, "Do you know where this Rainbow Dash is? We promised to make sure she was safe as well."

Fluttershy silently shook her head, eyes on the ground, as Applejack started to look around as well. Twilight did not know what Venom was talking about, and started to trot over to him. As she started to notice how sharp and how many teeth he had, as well as the toxic saliva drooling off the enormous tongue, she was hit with a small wave of fear. It quickly passed, as she mentally scolded herself for thinking of the one who helped take down the hydra being a threat to them. His face certainty didn't paint that picture, though. She noticed how large Venom really was, being up close to him for the first time, as she asked, "Why do you need to look for Rainbow Dash?"

Venom exited his glancing around, and looked down at Twilight. Eddie and the symbiote both noticed that this one had horns and wings. They didn't know what that meant, but passed it off as they answered her question. "We promised the fillies known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' to make sure their sisters were safe, one of them being this Rainbow Dash."

"Wait, you met the CMC?"

Venom nodded his head. "Yes, they were trapped in a tree house on an orchard surrounded by 'timberwolves' and a manticore, but we disposed of them." Twilight had a sinking feeling in her gut, figuring she knew what he meant by 'disposed'. She regained her determination, and continued with questions. "So, what's with the 'we'? And do you know of a human that could be around?" Venom stood stock, before answering only the last message cryptically, "Yes, we do. He is always near." Before Twilight, could ask anything else, Venom spun his head around, seemingly looking for something.

Then all the ponies and dragon heard a faint shout, slowly getting louder, as they looked in the same direction Venom was looking to. "Aaaaaahhhhhhh!" They all saw a cyan pegasus twirling in the air, seemingly trying in vain to regain control of flight.

"Ah, there she is." Venom seemingly not bothered by her twirling flight path.

Fluttershy looked on with fear for her friend's safety. "Rainbow!"

Venom looked to her, and calmly said, "Do not worry, Ms. Fluttershy. We will catch your friend." Fluttershy didn't see how that would happen, but her doubts melted when she looked to Venom. Those same eyes that might look malevolent, evil, and bad to others. But to her, she saw the same kindness and reassurance of their safety in them as before. And despite the oddity to his voice, it also sounded reassuring. She may not like his brutal methods of having dealt with the Everfree creatures, but trusted him while nodding her head.

Twilight either didn't see that happening, or ignored Venom as she hovered in the air, mentally planning. 'Alright, if I use just enough force, and the right amount of magic, I--' Her thoughts were caught off, as right as Rainbow was just above the Lethal Protector, two thick, black, smooth tendrils sprouted out of Venom's shoulders, wrapping themselves around the mare, stopping her twirling flight.

The ponies looked shocked at this, while Pinkie hopped towards Venom and Rainbow Dash. "Wowie! Neat trick, Lemon Venom!" She looked up to the disorientated pegasus. "Hiya Dashie!"

The tendrils gently placed the mare on the ground, as she rubbed a hoof on her head. Venom looked down at the rainbow mare, asking, "What happened, Ms. Dash?"

The pegasus groaned, as she started to open her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I was beating the hay out of those punks, until--" She stopped as she saw two black legs in front of her. Slowly looking up, she saw the white spider on a chest, and the constantly grinning face of Venom, with the continuous tongue and green drool seeping down it. She groaned again and brought a hoof to her face. "I had to get saved by you of all ponies..."

"We're not a pony."

"And with the 'we' again."

Fluttershy trotted up to her friend, worry clear in her expression, and asked. "Rainbow, are you okay? What happened?"

Rainbow flashed her usual cocky grin to her friend, gloating, "Of course I am, Flutters! Just that, one of those things got a really, really, lucky hit, and I ended up here." She finished by rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof, smiling sheepishly.

Fluttershy looked up at Venom, with her lips curled into a peaceful smile. "Oh, thanks for catching her... Venom is it?"

Venom grinned down at her, while replying, "Correct, madam. And please, there is no need to thank us. We were just doing our job."

Before the ponies could ask what he meant on that, they all heard a rumbling in the distance. They looked in the direction Rainbow came from, to see a massive amount of timberwolves and manticores rushing to them, anger in all their eyes. Rainbow Dash groaned again, "Looks like they came to try and finish me..." Fluttershy squeaked, and started to tremble. It looked as if the Everfree creatures broke the chain of guards keeping them at bay, allowing them to get further into the town. The six mares (Spike having stayed at a safe distance) voiced their thoughts.

"Well, they aren't gonna finish me!"

"It'll be like applebuckin' trees!"

"O-oh my..."

"Time to stop these party poopers, and get that party for Lemon Venom and that human rolling!"

"We must stop these ruffians from trashing anymore of the town! For honor! No... for fashion!"

"We can do this girls!"

Eddie and the symbiote saw the oncoming attackers like the others, and thought to themselves of how to deal with this efficiently. Eddie thought to themselves, 'We could easily fight them off, but we should get a move on. There's got to be a faster way.' Venom looked around, until his curious gaze rested upon the barely conscious hydra. The symbiote spoke with eagerness, 'You know I can do it, Eddie! Finish this!'

Venom grinned eagerly, and stalked over to the hydra. Spike was watching the fight about to have gone down between the elements and animals, but noticed Venom going towards the hydra. Despite some fear he still had for the Lethal Protector, he managed to ask, "Hey, what're you doing?"

Venom raised a clawed hand in the air, "This." Before bringing it down on the webs connecting to beast. He then gripped the webs around the jaw of the central head and pulled it off, as well as the ones on the eyes.

Spike's eyes popped open wide. "What are you doing!?! Why are you freeing it!?!"

"Trust us. This is going to help us, a lot." The central head's neck craned upward, as the head looked down at the black being, the hydra having much more energy than before. Venom spread his arms out wide, still grinning, and shouted, "Come get your dinner, you overgrown-mutant snake-thing!"

The elements heard this, and spun their heads around to see the central head of the hydra about to eat Venom. They gawked at what they were seeing, Fluttershy galloping over to try to stop it. "V-Venom!" Venom looked to her, smiled with a raised thumb, and winked. She was too late however, as Venom was scooped up in the jaws, and the central head closed. Fluttershy came to an immediate stop, as her heart yanked. The one who, despite the rather bloody methods, saved her, Applejack, possibly Rainbow, Rarity, and the CMC, was just devoured before her very eyes. The others could only stare as well, with Fluttershy's eyes starting to leak tears. They had just witnessed the death of Venom.

Or so they thought.

To the shock of the ponies, and bafflement of the hydra, black, thick, liquid started to ooze out of the hydra's mouth, like syrup out of a bottle. More of the odd stuff came out, and started to wrap all over the central head, and some forming above the head. The ponies could only stare, momentarily forgetting the approaching horde. The hydra shook its head to try and get it to stop, but to no avail. The other heads seemed to have gone blank, as they could only stare ahead.

The ponies gasped as they saw a familiar black figure forming atop the central head, the black substance almost covering the whole head.

Eddie and the symbiote have performed this tactic before. Because of the symbiote's ability to shape-shift, shifting the host's body as well, they would not have been crushed. The symbiote then had internal access to the hydra, where only a small, skinny slither entered the central head; but that was all that was needed. That small strand connected directly at the brain stem, having complete control over the hydra. When the symbiote finished wrapping around the head, it was much different than before. It was now larger than before, with much larger teeth, all black head, with white patches around the now yellow eyes. Grinning, Venom held strands of the symbiote he used as reigns, and cheerily commanded, "Mush! Onward!"

The ponies could not believe what they were seeing. Venom seemingly surviving the jaws of a hydra, without a scratch no less.

Twilight could only stammer, "H-how... what is he?"

Rainbow with a lowered jaw, admitted, "Okay, I admit. He's pretty awesome."

Pinkie bouncing on her tail, with a grin as big as Venom's, "Yipee! Lemon Venom's got his own hydra!"

Rarity could only stare dumbly, as Applejack muttered under her breath, "Holy mother of apples..."

But Fluttershy was the only one not gawking or staring oddly, just smiling. Venom wouldn't go down like that, and he said he had his promise to keep, and he seemed like the type to never go back on their word.

At the symbiote's mental command, the central head stretched outward, the other, smaller two as well, releasing a mighty roar that was amplified due to the buff of the symbiote, thundering in the sky. Venom shouted to the ponies, "You might want to move!" The ponies didn't need to be told twice, as they quickly scurried out of the way.

As for the Everfree animals, the sight of the black creature riding a massive, upgraded hydra straight towards them had them slow their charge, becoming more unsure of themselves, if the concern and fear in their eyes was anything to go by. The hydra charged to the animals, much faster than before, ready to utterly annihilate the pests. Some of the rather brave and/or stupid creatures charged regardless, but were met with a large black jaw shoveling them in, and meeting a devastating end with a loud 'chomp!'

'Just like the time with that Devil Dinosaur!' the symbiote gleefully shouted within Brock's mind.

Venom agreed, "Yes, yes! Except this time, we have three heads instead of one!" As Venom finished, the left and right head curved and rammed themselves into the animals they were gaining on, shattering timberwolves, wounding manticores, and other wounds one would not want to wake up with in the morning. The fleeing animals tried to outrun the hydra that was mounted by the black being, but the central head stuck close to the ground, and a massive tongue slithered out, whipping the animals off the road, into the awaiting mouths of the other heads. The animals knew this was a battle they could not win, and despite the rage they held for reasons even they didn't know, retreated to the Everfree. Venom still had the hydra chase and devour most of them, teaching the survivors a valuable lesson; don't prey on the innocent.

Some of the guards that were still in fighting condition saw the animals retreating with a large hydra on their tail. They could only watch, their eyes glued especially the the hydra's rider. The mares and Spike watched in awe, definitely having questions on what exactly Venom was. They heard many hoofsteps and wing beats behind them, as somepony shouted, "Princess Twilight Sparkle!" The six mares turned to see what they had been waiting for: the reinforcements.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, as the commander of that squad bowed, and Twilight trotted over. "Thank Celestia you all got here when you did!"

The commander had his stern hard face like every good soldier, and reported, "We currently have small groups split to assist the other guards, and chase off the creatures of the Everfree! We also spotted, as you may have, A large hydra chasing those creatures back to the Everfree, but the most interesting thing was that the thing riding it matched the description of the creature guards were sent to search for near the Everfree yesterday!"

Twilight nodded in agreement. "Yes! It--he showed up about the time after Ponyville got invaded. He said he was Venom, and he is a rather peculiar creature."

"Shall we contain him?"

Twilight shook her head. "Try to convince him to come. If he refuses... we'll think about what to do then."

The guard nodded, turned to two pegasi, and gave a silent command. The two saluted and took off to the hydra to find Venom.

As the guards were pushing what few creatures were left back to the Everfree, the six mares conversed on what they just went through. Applejack was the first to speak up, "Well, that Venom feller is certainly something." They each nodded their heads.

Twilight shared an idea, "You know how he could shoot this stuff like webs? Crawl? Has really good senses? Its kind of like a spider, maybe that has to do with something with the spider he has on his chest and back." Some of them hummed in thought on that idea, while others had more to say.

Rarity commented, "While his appearance can seem a bit... frightening...but he certainly is polite."

Pinkie shook like a volcano about to erupt, sporting a grin as per usual, "I can't wait to throw Lemon Venom his party! And get to be really great friends with him! And just think, we still have to meet the human!" The others had completely forgotten about the human during the whole battle, and had time to think about that too.

Fluttershy pressed her two forehooves together, and quietly commented, "While I don't like how he deals with those poor animals, I think he's been really nice so far. Maybe we could be friends." Fluttershy thought more on that prospect, thinking about what that protector does on free time and such.

The two pegasi came back, with crestfallen faces. They trotted up to their commander, "Sir, the beast... It vanished." The ponies gasped at this, and the commander's face reddened as his brows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"The only thing left is the hydra... no traces of that creature."

Rainbow's wings flared, with a loud, "What!?!" She quickly took off towards the direction where Venom had chased off the Everfree creatures. Surely enough, in the open field was an unconscious hydra, no longer having the black ooze on its central head. It was heavily wrapped in black webbing. She saw the Everfree, but there was no way Venom could have gone that distance unnoticed by the pegasi, right? She gritted her teeth, mumbling swears under her breath, as she lazily flew to confirm the news to her friends.

"I don't think we've ever fought a hydra before." Mused Eddie Brock, munching on fruit he foraged. He was lying on black webbing, from between a face of a tall rock and a thick tree. The symbiote projected itself as a small figure, with the same grin as Venom's, sitting at the edge of the webbing looking at Brock.

'Don't think so. We were heroes, Eddie! Stopped the darn Greek creatures!' Eddie nodded, as he sucked in another grape. When they saw guards arriving, and chasing off the remaining animals, they knew they were no longer needed. The pegasi spotted them, but that didn't really matter, as Eddie and the symbiote assumed they went to report them to a commander or something. To have remained hidden from returning pegasi, he and the symbiote camouflaged, turning invisible to any pony that might have looked their way. They did not know how the guards may have reacted to them, a seemingly new creature, but the symbiote had plenty of experience in that area; and most of the time it turned out bad.

So they decided to find in a more safe part of the Everfree Forest, planning to go forward the day after. "You saw that mountain in the distance earlier, with the castle? That was in the direction the leaders are supposed to be at, it has to be Canterlot."

'But we rest here?'

"Yes, need to rest up, and to lay low after another encounter with the public. This time, I know this is gonna spread."

'You were a journalist, you know this stuff.' Eddie finished his last grape, as he and the symbiote planned on what to do once they reached Canterlot and the the rulers of Equestria.

Author's Note

Another chapter set! The hydra-control scene was an idea I got from Venom #153, a great issue. What did you guys think? Please, I enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 7: Let's Get Going!

Night was beginning to shroud the land in its darkness, the last rays of Celestia's sun sinking below the horizon of Equestria. Ponyville was in much better condition then it was but only earlier that day. Some of the town residents came back, while others stayed in hotels or with family in other cities or towns until they were sure the whole mess was cleaned up. There were guards still stationed in case the Everfree creatures decided for another ambush, and to help clean up the mess that was made. The town overall looked pretty decent. Only some broken windows, small fires that were quickly extinguished, and some busted walls caused by the more heavy-set animals. Most of the ponies were either cleaning the messes on their property, shopping for replacement, or just enjoying the night sky, scattered with white specks, and one shining moon.

It had only been an hour or so since the attack, and six mares in particular, after having finished helping clean up and chase off any remaining creatures, were thinking about what to do about the creature. The one who took down, and controlled, one of the greatest hydras. The creature that called himself Venom.

"Since he keeps running off, can't we just trap him and bring him in or something?" Asked the cyan pegasus with not as much brain capacity as others, Rainbow Dash. The ponies were on their way down the trail of Sweet Apple Acres, heading to Applejack's home to check on the CMC. They tried the clubhouse, but saw it empty with only black webbing holding it up, (something that worried some of them).

Twilight shook her head with a sigh, responding with irritation, "Dash, we haven't even had the chance to ask him about it. And you saw what it could do, what trap do we have available now that could contain him?" Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but closed it when she realized she didn't have a good answer to that question. Pinkie was hopping as usual, but with a heavy frown on her face and furrowed brows.

She spoke in an irked tone, "He could've at least stayed a bit for a party, but noooo, he has to go somewhere for something not-so important!" Rarity was more concerned about the fillies, specifically her sister, Sweetie Belle. While Venom did save them, and presumably the CMC, she wasn't one-hundred percent trusting as of yet.

"I just hope that the girls are all right, I still can't believe that timberwolves were on their tails." Applejack nodded, also having been concerned for her sister, Applebloom.

"I hope so too, Rares. But if I know 'em, they probably found someway outta there." Fluttershy didn't say anything, but her face spoke her feeling of worry and concern for her, worry for the CMC just like the others. Eventually, they came to Applejack's house, where her dog Winona came running up to them, tail wagging and barking in joy. Applejack chuckled as Winona came and started running circles around her. "Hey, howdy Winona. Did you defend the farm from any critters?" Winona barked even more. "Well good girl!" After the other girls gave their greetings to the dog, they each went inside the house.

"Granny Smith! Is Applebloom and her friends home?"

An elderly voice which belonged to a mare called out, "You mean them littleuns? Just in here." The six heard her voice come from the living room, and came in to see, surely enough, the CMC on the rug playing with Granny Smith watching over them. The six shone smiles of relief, as Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash came up to the fillies who dropped what they were doing to go meet them. They greeted each other joyfully, the pairs of sisters hugging. Applejack was the first to pull back, looking down on her sister with concern etched all over her face. "Y'all didn't get hurt now, did ya?"

Applebloom shook her head, a smile still on her face, and told her, "Nope! not a scratch!"

Scootaloo chose that moment to add on to that, "You're not gonna believe this! We got saved by a real-life super hero!" The six mares, excluding Granny Smith, took a gander, and all guessed, "Venom?"

The CMC collectively gasped, smiles morphing to grins. "So he did save ya then!?!" Applebloom practically shrieked out.

While Rainbow was hesitant on using that, Applejack gave a firm nod.

"I dunno 'bout the others, but he sure as tartarus saved me from some nasty manticores!" 'Don't know about the whole killing part, though.' She finished the last bit in her head.

Twilight scoffed with a light smile, "Not to mention he took on one of the largest hydras I've ever seen. Heck, he probably could've taken it down without our help."

The CMC screamed out, "He fought a hydra!?!"

Scottaloo finished that with an, "Awesome!" The mares continued to describe what happened, the fillies enthralled and entertained by the epic battle that took place only hours ago. Granny might have listened, if she hadn't dozed off to sleep. One of the fillies' eyes would light up at a feat their sister had done during the recounting, with the other three content on just listening or adding on what happened.

They had just gotten to the part of Venom having vanished, when Sweetie Belle frowned. She asked with a bit of disappointment, "Aw, why'd Eddie leave?" The other two fillies quickly shot her a look, one of panic and the other of anger. Sweetie quickly caught her mistake with a light gasp, "Venom! Why did Venom leave?" She then tried twisting her lips into an innocent grin, though the worriment was clear from her eyes and some sweat coming off her face. It was, however, too late. The six mares in the room already heard, and looked at her curiously.

Rainbow was the first to voice the other's thoughts, "Whose Eddie?" The other mares nodded, also curious at who Eddie was.

Applebloom tried to handle the situation, and piped up for the other fillies, "Eddie? haven't heard of a name like that for a pony before..." She finished with some unconvincing chuckles, she too was sweating with a false grin. The mares weren't convinced, as Applejack narrowed her eyes with a frown, her gaze boring into the fillies.

"Now that's a lie if I've ever I heard it. C'mon now, why do y'all need to hide this 'Eddie' pony?"

Rainbow Dash had joined in the interrogation, specifically trying to pry answers from Scootaloo. "Yeah, we wanna know, who is Eddie?" The fillies tried to avert their gaze, having started to shake a little from the interrogation.

Scootaloo, without thinking from the pressure of the stares, blurted out, "Venom asked us not to tell!" When she finished, she slammed her hooves on her mouth, eyes wide. The two crusaders gave her firm glares, as the mares all processed what she had just said.

Applejack spun her head towards Scootaloo, and asked in a stern tone, "What did Venom not want you to tell anypony else?" The crusaders tried to salvage the situation, but realized they had already dug themselves in a hole too deep to get out.

Still, the crusaders had pinkie promised Eddie that they would not tell. Besides, breaking it would result in Pinkie's wrath, something nopony wanted. So in a desperate last attempt in keeping the promise, Sweetie muttered just loud enough for everypony in the room to hear, "But Venom asked us not to tell... and we pinkie promised him." The crusaders looked to the ground, as Applejack sighed. She knew how important the pinkie promise was, and was thinking of how to get this information from them gently. After all, if it came from Venom, it was likely something important.

Pinkie, having watched from the sides, sighed and trotted up to the crusaders with a gentle smile. Being the creator, in a way, of the pinkie promise, she of all ponies knew how valuable and precious it was the the ones who made it. It was a guarantee from one friend to another, almost sacred in a way. But in that moment, she knew how important finding out this Eddie could be. "Girls, could you look at me?" The crusaders slowly turned their heads to the pink mare, still worried about breaking the pinkie promise. She continued in a knowing voice "You all want to keep this promise, don't you? Its important to both you and Venom, isn't it?" The fillies slowly nodded their heads to confirm what Pinkie Pie already knew. Pinkie continued on gently, "And that's good. You should never break a promise, especially a pinkie promise. I'm so proud that you're trying to keep this promise."

The crusaders looked at her surprised, they thought for sure some stern lecture would have been thrown their way instead. Applebloom asked, "You mean... yer not mad?"

Pinkie shook her head with a giggle, "Of course not, silly-filly! You should always keep a pinkie promise! But this... is one exception." All the ponies looked at pinkie with wide eyes. The one who cherishes pinkie promises the most of ant pony, is the one to have suggested breaking one? Pinkie saw all the looks of disbelief, and sighed, though still having a small smile. "Venom is really important right now, as is the human. If this Eddie is related to him in any way, we need to know. Right now, this is more important than that pinkie promise. So for one time, and one time only... It will be alright to break this pinkie promise."

The ponies in the room all collectively gasped, having never thought they'd see the day Pinkie Pie would give a pass on breaking a pinkie promise. The fillies were looking to one another with nervous looks, still not sure about breaking their promise to Eddie. Eventually, with silent looks of agreement, Applebloom spoke with hesitation, "Eddie... is the human."

"What!?!" The six mares shouted, with Granny Smith still having somehow managed to be sleeping.

Before the mares could bombard the fillies with questions, Twilight asked loudly and quickly, "Where was he when Venom was around?" The mares paused to think about that as well, wondering why they haven't once seen the human.

Sweetie mumbled just barely, "I think Eddie is Venom." The mares had yet another surprise reaction for that day in a short amount of time, and turned their sights to the small unicorn.

Rarity decided to go up and ask, "Whatever do you mean, Sweetie? A human and whatever Venom is don't even look the same."

"That's the thing!" Sweetie was now motioning her hooves in the air, getting ready to describe what she and the crusaders saw. "We saw Venom at first, but when we looked again, we saw Eddie's face instead!" The mares were really confused by then, having been dealt so many reveals in a short span of time.

"So what... it was like a mask?" Asked Rainbow, who was having a headache from all this new information and twists. "But it can't be a mask! It's just too... real." The others were thinking the same thing, knowing what they saw was a face, and definitely not a mask.

"Well, I don't think it's exactly a mask." The mares looked over to Scootaloo, the one who had spoken up. "I mean, masks are something you just pull off and on. This though, just... molded on." Seeing the confusion of the ponies, she tried to look for a better way to describe it.

Applebloom chose that moment to better describe the transformation, "It was like this black stuff from his suit started covering his face, and gave him bigger teeth, bigger and white eyes, and a heck of a bigger tongue."

While the ponies were imagining what that would have looked like, Twilight asked another question on her mind, "But why didn't he want you to tell any other ponies about this?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and spoke blatantly, "Uh, duh! It's his secret identity! Nopony can know it!" Twilight knew that was a lie. If you were the only human in Equestria, what need would there be for a secret identity? Having received this new and valuable information, she decided on what to do.

"All right girls. I'm going to head back to the palace."

As she was trotting to the door, Applejack asked, "What do ya plan on doin', Twi?"

She looked back at Applejack and the others. "I need to write a letter to the princesses, they're going to want to know about this. And I'm going to have to wake up Spike."

Princess Luna was waiting patiently in her chambers. She was lying on her bed, passing time by until she felt him dreaming again. Last time, she underestimated the thing in the human's dream, resulting in a humiliating defeat. During that time, she thought that it was just part of the human's dream, but she learned the hard way how wrong she was about that. The previous times on visiting the human's dreams, she detected another presence there, one that was not her own. And after her defeat, she thought that, perhaps, that scrawny and black thing was the presence that was not originally from the human's dream.

If that was the case, she was coming prepared. She hadn't dealt with other dream intruders in a long time, but had experience with them regardless. She reread some spell books about dreams, specifically with dream intruders. She would come prepared, ready for battle. Though, she would try to communicate with the thing if it showed up. Her original plan was to simply get rid of it, but her older sister reminded her how she was the one who not only shot first, but basically ignored its questions. Though Luna was upset, she agreed to at least try to talk to talk to the odd thing. Though, she was almost hoping it would be hostile; she really wanted payback.

Some time had passed, before she finally felt it; the human, the human was dreaming. With a small smile, she closed her eyes and concentrated. When she opened her eyes, she was in the vast dimension that was the dream realm. Normally, she would be helping ponies who were having nightmares, but the human and the dream intruder was her number one priority. She performed the same procedure as last time: searching for the signal, finding the general direction, and getting to the dream. After a while of tracking, she found the dream of the human. It was the same door as all the others, though it wasn't moving like last time. She trotted up to the door, more slowly in case she were to feel something from the outside like the other times. She felt two feelings: pain and agony.

Luna wore a concerned look on her face, for if she could feel the pain and agony from out of the door, then what would it be like inside? Perhaps that time, the human was having a nightmare. With a determined look, she used a hoof to open the door, and trotted in. What she saw made her jaw almost hit the floor.

The background was blank and black as usual, and the human was not too far off. But what had her in the shocked state, was the thing that held the human in a claw. It was relatively skinny, large and tall, making the human look mouse-sized to it.It stood on two legs, with two arms that ended with long, thin claws, that any predator would be jealous of. It was a deep blood-red, with some black streaks across its torso, arms, legs, and some on the face. A massive jaw, vertically long, that was also black, two rows of long, sharp, black teeth that looked like it could tear into an ursa major. Eyes -that she could've sworn she saw something like before- that were large, white and jagged with sharp edges. There were also black, red, and skinny tendrils coming of its back and twisting madly in the air above the monstrosity. What really freaked the Princess of the Night, was despite the oddities of the face, it was contorted into a malevolent grin, the eyes shaped in a way she could only describe as evil.

Then, to the surprise of the princess, it spoke. "Aw, what's the matter, Brock? Did I cut too deep?" The voice was male, a bit higher than others, and sounded like croaking. Luna's large eyes hovered into the monster's one arm that hung in the air, claw just in front of and slightly below the face. The claws stuck out, with more of the small, red-black tendrils going down, and were wrapped around each of the human's limbs. The human was thrashing around, but the tendrils proved to be too strong. The human grunted, sweat sliding down his almost-naked body, only the black boxers covering him that time. As Luna looked closer, she gasped as she realized that the tendrils were cutting into his flesh, slowly and painfully. Suddenly, more tendrils came and began cutting the human across the chest and back. When one begin to dig in, he yelled from the pain.

What truly sickened Luna, was that the red monster was laughing and grinning during the whole thing, enjoying the agony of the human. How could something enjoy the misery and pain of another like that? How could one cause said misery and pain with a smile on their face?

"You got them muscles, Brock. But that ain't gonna mean a thing when you're a corpse." The whole display sickened Luna, and was about to step forward to eradicate this awful nightmare, when she noticed something from the side. She barely noticed it due to it being just as dark as the background, but the bright white eyes stuck out. She gasped as she recognized it as the thing that had humiliated her so much. With narrowed eyes, she was about to confront the thing, to give it a piece of her mind, until she noticed the expression on its face. The dream intruder was watching the whole ordeal as well, but the eyes and mouth were curved in a way that suggested it was...sad?

She saw the thing watching with a sad look, slightly wincing every time the human was introduced to a new form of pain. She was enraged at first, almost of accusing it of letting the human endure the terrible dream, but curious, as she wondered why it looked so sad. She was still plenty upset for what it had done, but she needed answers; plus, Celestia would lecture her for a whole day if she up and attacked it again. With a steady trot, she approached the dream intruder, the thing still watching, not noticing the Princess of the Night. She didn't want to get too close in case it was hostile, so when she was only a few yards away, she coughed in her hoof to gain its attention.

The scrawny thing's head snapped up, and spun its eyes on Luna. As soon as it noticed her, its eyes narrowed, a mouth forming into a heavy frown, with all the teeth still showing. "You!" It growled. It then got down on all fours, ready for combat.

As much as Luna would have loved to have had her revenge, she knew she had to at least try being civilized about this. She raised her hoof up and quickly spoke, "Calm yourself. I am not here for a fight." The black creature didn't look convinced, but didn't attempt an attack either. Luna took that as a sign of it listening, and continued, "I only wish to communicate with the human." She flinched as she heard said human shout in pain, as the monstrosity continued to torment the human. She cast a quick glance, her eyes having gone wide yet again as she saw more of the tendrils beginning to impale the human.

She had seen enough, and started to gallop to the monstrosity and human to eliminate the nightmare. She would have, if a black tendril hadn't wrapped around her back hoof, causing her to stumble and trip with an 'omph'. She shook her head and looked back to see the odd creature, with a tendril sprouted out of the shoulder, similar to the monstrosity tormenting the human, wrapped around her hoof. Luna was really beginning to get irked with the dream intruder, and nearly shouted, "What are you doing? We can't let him suffer in this dream when we can stop it! Unhoof me at once!"

The dream intruder did not release her, however, and with narrowed eyes, asked sternly, "Who are you? What are you doing?" Luna really didn't want to discuss that during the time, but would do it if it meant being able to speak to the human.

With a small sigh, she rapidly answered, "I am Princess Luna, and I am trying to stop that thing from giving the human anymore of a nightmare!"

The dream intruder looked at her a little surprised, then asked with what Luna assumed to be a bit of hope in its voice, "You can stop nightmare? Can stop Carnage?" Luna looked at the dream intruder confused. What carnage was it talking about?

"Yes... can't you?"

The thing looked away, almost guilty, and mumbled, "I can only watch dreams. Can't interfere or manipulate." Luna hummed in thought on that. An odd creature that could enter and watch dreams, but couldn't directly manipulate them. It was interesting, but she was getting distracted.

Luna tried persuading it, "I can rid this human of the nightmare, but bickering with each other won't help." Luna saw the dream intruder look back and forth between her and the nightmare that went on. She had no idea what was going on in its mind.

As for the symbiote, it was deciding whether to trust the pony that tried to break the bond or not. It didn't trust her, but she said she could rid Eddie of the nightmare that was Carnage. Plus, she claimed to be a princess. She must have been related to or was one of the rulers, and so not being on her bad side would be beneficial to Eddie and itself if there were to be any chance at getting back on Earth. So with a nod of its head, it begrudgingly granted her permission.

Luna was relieved, but relief quickly turned into annoyance, as instead of the dream intruder releasing the tendril, it extended the tendril. She was practically a dog on a leash. While she wanted to argue for the tendril still remaining on her hoof, she needed to speak to the human before the dream ended. With a heavy sigh, the princess walked over to the monstrosity, as she charged her horn, causing it to glow white. The dream intruder followed a few yards back, looking at the horn curiously as it glowed. The monstrosity noticed a bright white light glowing from below, and stopped its toying with the human to take a look. It looked at the princess in confusion, before bursting out in laughter.

"Well how 'bout that, Brock? Pretty little horses!" Angered at the insult that was thrown at her, she finished her spell with a blinding flash. She heard the receding wailing of the fading nightmare, and when the light cleared she saw the human on the ground, all wounds having been healed by the spell since it was caused by a nightmare.

The symbiote was stunned, the odd pony had actually managed to get rid of the nighmare. It still didn't trust her, though, not completely.

The princess slowly approached the human, who was on his knees and taking shallow breaths. She gently spoke, "Excuse me." The human tilted his head up, his eyes going wide at the sight of the princess. He slowly looked her up and down, confusion clear all over his face.

He slowly asked in a near whisper, "Who...who are you?"

The princess was thankful for finally being able to talk to the human, and replied, "Greeting, human. I am Princess Luna." An awkward silence passed in the empty dream, none of the three speaking once. After a while of silence, Luna decided to ask her next question. She leaned closer to the human so the scrawny thing wouldn't hear her, and whispered to the buff man, "Do you know what that is? Is it in here against your will?"

Eddie looked to the growling symbiote, knowing it had obviously heard. He looked back at the pony that was revealed to be a princess. He had no idea how or why she was in his dream, but if she was a ruler, he really needed to not screw up. He thought hard on how to avoid the truth, but realized he had no choice. She was in his mind, seeing him and the symbiote separately. So she knew of the symbiote, or at least that there was something inside himself. Not to mention that he exposed himself and, though not directly, the symbiote to those fillies earlier. They promised not to tell, but children could go back on their word as easy as they could make them. He came as Venom to other ponies, but hasn't once showed himself to them, only to those fillies, and now that princess in front of him.

With a sigh, Eddie reluctantly admitted, "It's my symbiote."

The princess rose both eyebrows at that, she hadn't heard of a symbiote before. "What is a...symbiote?"

Eddie knew that might have taken a while to explain, so simply with, "It is a part of me. Its my other half."

Before she could ask about that, she felt the devastating feeling she did not want to experience at that time. The dream was coming to an end. She sighed, before explaining to the human she assumed to be Brock, "It appears as if your dream is coming to an end, you will soon wake up." She was getting ready to exit, not wanting to be roughly kicked out like the first time. She notice the symbiote giving her a firm glare, one she returned as well. The two still did not quite trust each other. Before she left, she turned back to the human, who was still somewhat confused on what she was doing. "It would be important for us to meet in the waking-world. Though, I don't know where you are dreaming this time." That was true, for Luna was far too focused on finding the dream, she did not keep track of where she was at relative to the waking-world.

To her surprise, Brock chuckled. Before she was removed from the dream, he said, "You can expect us at Canterlot."

Luna went wide-eyed, but was suddenly kicked from the dream. She grunted, as she proceeded the same process of entering the waking-world. When she found herself in her chambers again, she got up and over to the door. The human and its... symbiote... coming to Canterlot. The symbiote being an entity of which neither she nor her sister have ever encountered before. Celestia should know about this.

Twilight was pacing back and forth at the train station. It was early in the morning, and she was waiting -impatiently- for her friends to arrive. She had received a letter not too long ago from her mentor, explaining what Princess Luna had encountered in the human's dream. Not only had she found out that the other presence in the human was something known as a 'symbiote' (which sounded really odd to her), but that the human, apparently called Brock according to Princess Luna, was going to come to Canterlot. Though the letter never said when he would come, it was safe to assume it would have been that day. So, the elements were requested to come as well, to meet the human, and if things got nasty.

Spike was sitting on a bench, for he wanted to have come to Canterlot as well. Not only had it been awhile since he went to the capitol, but it would have been interesting to meet something thought to have only been mythology, or from the mirror world.

Eventually, they both noticed five familiar figures approaching from the distance. When the other mares came to the station, Twilight greeted with some irritation, "Well, took you all long enough."

"Twi, we are literally two minutes late, cut us some slack." Responded the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash.

"C'mon Twi, the train just got here, but it ain't goin' nowhere yet."

Twilight wanted to argue more, but dropped it with a shake of her head. The mares, as well as Spike, went in the train, into their own private section. Spike quickly went to sleep again, having woke up too early for him to get to the train. The others were conversing among themselves on what do do when they encountered the human, Eddie Brock.

Twilight was the first to speak up her thoughts, "This human, Eddie, told Princess Luna that this symbiote was 'his other half', any ideas on what that could be?"

They all thought about what that could be. Rainbow also being confused, asked "What the hay does he mean by 'his other half'?"

They all shared ideas, until Twilight recalled something. "Hey, Princess Luna described this symbiote looking just like Venom, but smaller and skinnier."

"Yeah, so?"

"Do you think that might have anything to do with Eddie's 'suit'?" They each thought more on what Twililght Sparkle had said, and found themselves thinking more and more about the prospect.

While the mares were discussing in one train car, the train car in the back was occupied only by a certain human and alien. Eddie Brock was in the luggage car yet again, using various items for pillows and blankets. "They know about you now, but at least they will be expecting us to come. Better to have them informed than completely surprise them."

'Do you think they might try to ambush us?'

"If they do, we could always go seek help elsewhere."

'Think they can send us back?'

"If they have the magic to look into my mind, then they might have some mass-teleportation spell, or however magic works." As they finished, they heard the train creak, as it began accelerating towards their destination, Canterlot.

They had failed the simplest of jobs. How could those beasts from the Everfree get defeated so easily? The whole thing enraged it. No matter, however. It had been watching and waiting. It saw the Elements of Harmony, the six mares on a train to Canterlot where the princesses were at. It found joy again. Two birds, one stone. It exited its activity of stalking, to resume its project. It floated near its almost complete creation, almost ready for use. The creation looked almost like a pony, but larger, larger than Celestia. It was made of steel, except it was only a skeleton. The rib cage, the skull, all the steel bones exposed. It also had large, folded, metal wings at the side, where the artificial feathers came to a sharp edge. The hooves were pure titanium, strong enough to easily shatter bones.

The creation was almost complete, and it planned to finish the project. It muttered words of an ancient and forgotten language, creating an orange spark in front of it. When it finished with its chanting, the spark grew into an orange, barely stable sphere of orange energy the size of a softball. It hovered the sphere of energy into the interior of its creation, where the heart of a pony would be. When the sphere was set, it muttered more ancient words, and all at once, its creation went ablaze. It was not worried or afraid, it was happy. When the flames receded, there was fire surrounding the interior and exterior of its creation. The flames filled the entirety of the inside, even causing the eye sockets to glow an intense orange from the flames. Cinder was exerting from the creation, enough to choke a pony.

It brought some finishing touches to its creation, and tested it out. The creation then moved on its own, like an organism. The creation obeyed its creator's will in testing itself out. It was pleased with its creation, it was everything it had designed the creation to be. But every creation needed a name. After a moment of thinking, it came up with an appropriate name.

The Ignis War Horse.

Satisfied with its creation and name, it commanded the Ignis War Horse to go off to Canterlot to do its master's bidding. It also came, but at a leisurely pace. If a pony, griffin, or anything tried to look, they would not notice it. It stalked towards Canterlot. After all, the princesses would need to be kept busy.

Chapter 8: Fear of Flames

When Eddie was in the train car that was nearing Canterlot, he spent the time scavenging for papers, just to make the ride go by faster. When he did find one, both his and the symbiote's curiosity grew. The paper was printed the day before, but what caught their attention was the headlines. It read, "Monster in Manehattan!", and below was a picture of Venom with a thief in one hand, the other in mid-punch to another. "So, news spreads fast here as well, eh?"

The symbiote projected itself as a skinny black figure sitting across from Eddie, arms crossed, and a scowl on its face.

'They call us monster. Mean words, Eddie.'

Brock took his eyes off of the paper, as he tried to calm his other half. "Remember, this place probably hasn't seen a human before, I doubt a symbiote, and definitely nothing like us as one." His other's face reduced the scowl a bit, though its arms were still firmly crossed. Eddie looked back at the papers that was in his hands to read more. One of the guards described Venom as 'my foalhood nightmares.' and another to 'I would rather trash talk the princesses to their faces than fight that thing.' Eddie chuckled at those, and continued to read. The large blue pony that was equipped with the large laser turret was put in a hospital, as well as all the thieves having been arrested, as well as other photos of Venom in action.

What caught Eddie's eye, was what one guard had to say. According to the papers, he said, "I'll admit, that thing-- Venom, I believe is what it was called, looks like something you don't want to run into in a dark alley. But whatever I may think of it or what it might do, we can't deny the fact that it single-hoofidly defeated those crooks, even the big one. I won't lie, if Venom hadn't come around, we probably would've been screwed."

The symbiote lightened up at that, glad to hear that one of the ponies knew that they were helping them. Eddie's head snapped up as he heard a loud ring, then a voice echoing across the car. "Attention passengers, we will be at Canterlot, capitol of Equestria, shortly. Please, pack up any luggage you may have left out, and return to your seats if you are out of them. Thank you, and have a wonderful day."

The symbiote advised its host, 'We should leave. Go by foot, understand what Canterlot is like before we introduce ourselves.'

"Yes, it would be a good idea to see what we would get ourselves into before jumping in." And with that, black tendrils morphed from and around Eddie, leaving only the Lethal Protector. They exited the same way as last time by removing the grates from above, checking for any pegasi in the sky, and crawling out. They could see the approaching city that was Canterlot; the towers, decorations, mountain, and of course the castle. They leaped off the moving train, waiting a bit for the train to go further ahead. When they thought it was far enough, they strayed away from the tracks, sprinting to their destination while looking out for ponies.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were in the throne room, discussing about the human and his symbiote. Luna had told her sister of what she had seen in the human's dream, apparently named Eddie. Celestia was appalled at the nightmare the human had about the red monstrosity. But she was intrigued about the other thing in the human's dream, the symbiote, as the human said. "So this human, Eddie, has something in his mind, a... symbiote, was it?" Asked the Princess of the Sun. Luna nodded her head as Celestia continued. "The human said he was fine with it, but why does this symbiote wander in the mind of the human?" She said as she looked down and brought a hoof up to her chin.

Luna voiced an idea she had, "Perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye." Celestia looked over to her sister with a raised brow, and waved a hoof for her sister to continue. "This symbiote looks like the creature called Venom, but smaller and skinnier."

"What are you saying?"

"Think about it, sister. Yes, Twilight's letter did say that Venom was the human, but you and I both know by the pictures that the human isn't wearing a regular outfit. As a matter of fact, Twilight's letter said that the younger sisters of three of the elements described the transformation as black tendrils wrapping over and around his face, making another face. This symbiote could be connected to the human more than just through thoughts."

Celestia was taking in what her sister was implying, and she found herself agreeing. But before she could speak, the doors to the throne room burst open. A royal guard entered, one who was coughing and hacking heavily as he limped over to the princesses. The guards in the throne galloped to their fellow guard, all asking if he was all right. The guard coughed more before managing to choke out, "Black...cloud. Gotta get out." Before either the princesses or guards could ask what he meant, a low hiss was heard.

All eyes turned to the doors of the throne room, as a thick, black, smoke seeped in and started to shroud the room in its darnkess. "What is this!?!" Shouted one of the guards in confusion and panic. The princesses eyes widened as the stood up and slowly trotted forward. Suddenly, the smog rushed in the room, flooding it in a black cloud. All the guards, immediately started coughing violently as they were forced to the floors.

"What in tar--!?!" Before the Princess of the Night could finish that, a large amount of the black smoke entered her mouth. She started to join the guards in a heavy fit of coughing, as Celestia fell to the floor as well in a coughing fit. The smoke never let up, as both princesses lit up their horns to banish the smoke. To their panic, all it did was clear a small meter wide radius, which was quickly consumed by more smoke. The smoke wasn't killing them, but they were rendered immobile. The princesses lit up their horns to try again, but received the same results as before. Unknown to the ponies in the throne room, the smoke had spread to all the other areas of the castle, turning it near pitch black and nearly choking anypony that found themselves within the black clouds. If a pony from the outside were to look at the castle, it would appear as it always way, only with the windows being nearly black. And nopony on the outside knew of the predicament of the ponies on the inside.

When the train pulled into the station, six mares and a baby dragon exited from it and started moving out. They were trotting on the streets of the marvelous city, towards the castle that housed the royal sisters. As they trotted along, they discussed among themselves about the human and his symbiote. "As of right now, all we know is that it resides his thoughts." Said the Princess of Friendship.

"What would that be like, though?" Asked Appplejack. "I mean, it can be awkward some times when Princess Luna comes into yer dreams, but having somethin' like that always there, watching 'em?"

"Yeah, that's gotta be creepy." Butted in the self-proclaimed fastest pony in Equestria. The pink party pony was waving her hoof to the nobles, only some returning the gesture. But while they were going down the street, something caught the young dragon's eye. He barely noticed it at first, for it appeared nothing more than a black speck; easily mistaken for a fly. It was in the air, appearing to be above the buildings, and even the castle. But as he watched, it slowly grew larger, and looked a faint orange as well.

"Huh?" he said, as he squinted his eyes at the spectacle. Then, a faint flap was heard every few seconds, not just by him, but by the others as well. "Hey, do you all hear that?"

"Yeah, what is that?" Spike pointed his claw at the thing, but realized that it was not growing bigger, but whatever it was, was getting closer.

The others squinted their eyes at the approaching speck, Rainbow Dash muttering, "What the hay is that?" As the noises of the flaps grew louder, the pedestrians, stopped what they were doing and looked at the approaching speck. It was not a speck then, as it had gotten into range for the ponies to determine what it was. All their eyes widened as the details became clearer. Applejack asked in bafflement, "Is that a pegasus... on fire?"

It appeared to be a large pegasus, but what caused them to gasp was that it was indeed on fire. They could barely see what they assumed to be metal bones making up the structure and surrounded by fire, the pegasus leaving a long trail of cinder in the air. The skull itself was enshrouded in cinder and smoke, the empty eye sockets glowing a hollow orange. Its great wings spanned and glowed like that of a phoenix.

The ponies on the street were slack-jawed and in complete bafflement. The flaming pegasus was flying downward at a steady pace, right towards the elements. While the others were wondering how that could be such a thing, Twilight didn't have such a good feeling about it. "Girls... I don't have such a good feeling about this." She spoke with uncertainty.

Rainbow Dash scoffed, eyes never having left the flaming pegasus. "Well duh, Twi. It's not every day you see a pony on fire and flying casually." The flaming pegasus stared at them, and with a good distance away, spread its great wings to its maximum span, and suddenly released a storm of fireballs with trails of smoke.

The attack came so sudden that Twilight barely erected a magic barrier from instinct. The mares and Spike yelped and tumbled backwards with wide eyes from the attack, as more flaming pellets assaulted the barrier. "What in tarnation!?!" Applejack hysterically asked. The ponies on the street gasped, and started to flee while screaming in all directions. The flaming pegasus soared past the barrier, and right overhead of the mares and dragon, as it dropped a massive ball of flaming gas over the shield. They could barely gasp as the ball hit the barrier and exploded, breaking the shield and sending them flying in different directions. Rainbow Dash and Twilight caught themselves in the air with their wings, but the others had a hard meeting with the walls of some buildings.

"Why's it attacking us!?!" Twilight practically screamed. Rainbow looked back to her friends to see them slowly getting up, mostly alright except with a few bruises. She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the returning burning pegasus.

"I dunno, Twi. But I'm gonna knock it in the dirt for that!" She emphasized her point by punching her two hooves together. She spread her wings and took off after their assiliant, quickly meeting it above the buildings. It took its hollow eyes off the ponies on the ground and to the rainbow pegasus a few yards across from it. Rainbow's face adopted a scowl, as she shouted out, "Alright, buster! You mess with the bull, you get the horns!" She then shot straight for the flaming pegasus, hooves outstretched. But the flaming pegasus had a counter.

Before Rainbow was a few meters from it, the flames around it roared around itself, consuming it in the hottest of flames, more so than before. Rainbow's eyes widened, and thanks to training as a Wonderbolt, managed to veer to the left just before she met a fiery end. But when she looked behind herself, she saw the flaming pony chasing her, wings outstretched and beginning to shoot off more fireballs. "Gah!" She managed to pull off quick maneuvers as she barely dodged the blazing pellets, trying to shake off her pursuer. But the flaming pony would not give, as the shots were getting closer to their mark.

Before it could have fired another shot, a beam of purple magic slammed into its face. It shook the magic off and quit its chase to look to its left, finding an angry purple alicorn hovering in the air. "I don't know who or what you are, but nopony hurts my friends like that!" The rest of the elements on the ground were cheering their friends, Fluttershy hiding behind Applejack because she just couldn't look. Twilight fired more beams, but the flames seemingly ate them up and didn't appear to be causing much harm to the flaming pegasus.

When there was a break in her shots, the flaming pegasus opened is mouth, and released black cinder right at Twilight. It was too fast for Twilight to dodge or counter, and found herself in a coughing fit. She quickly cleared the cinder from her eyes, to see the flaming pony zooming right at her. Right when it was about to slam into her, A rainbow blur rammed into Twilight, forcing her out of the way. Despite Avoiding the head on collision, the blazing pony's burning wing ripped Rainbow along her back, causing her to scream. The ponies on the ground gasped, with Fluttershy in complete panic. "Rainbow!"

Twilight used her magic to catch and levitate Rainbow carefully on the ground as she landed, checking her wounds quickly as the flaming pegasus was making another pass. The others galloped over to their wounded friend as well, checking if she was alright.

After getting bombarded with questions of concern if she was all right, Rainbow Dash managed a chuckle, slightly wincing from the pain. "Come on, you all know it takes more than that to take me down."

Pinkie Pie pointed out the returning threat with a, "Meany-weany's coming for another attack!" She reached into her mane and pulled out a military helmet with one gold star on it, as her face turned into one of determination. She shouted to the flaming pegasus, "I won't let you ruin Eddie's visit to Equestria!" As the flaming pegasus fired more shots, Pinkie Pie pulled out her party cannon from her mane, and fired cake mix to intercept the shots.

Applejack quickly asked her friend, "Twi, you gotta plan on how to take down this varmint?"

"Well, we could try--"

"Why must this place have to be attacked now of all times?" The mares and dragon's eyes widened as they heard that familiar voice. The nobles from the distance gasped, some even screamed, at the one that talked. The flaming pegasus turned its head, only to see the Lethal Protector swing into him with his legs. Venom landed on the street as the flaming pegasus was sent creaming into the corner of a building, crashing straight through the walls. Rubble was falling toward the ground, about to collapse on a noble who could only stare with wide eyes. Fortunately for him, Venom was faster, and shot a line of webbing at him, and yanked him back right as the rubble collapsed on the ground. The pony yelped as he was caught in a clawed hand, and quickly placed down. "You all need to get out of here, we can deal with this."

The noble turned around, and looked up at the black being with the massive tongue and razor sharp teeth. The pony ran all right, screaming to get away from the massive nightmare. Venom looked behind to see the Elements of Harmony and Spike stare at him in bewilderment. His eyes rose in surprise as he asked, "You all again? Why are you here?"

Rainbow tried to hover, but a burst of pain reminded her of her wounds. She winced as she looked at him warily, "Well, when you told Princess Luna you were coming here, they wanted us to come."

"Why you?"

Twilight took a few steps forward as she answered his question. "To meet you, of course. Properly, this time." Twilight saw the confusion on Venom's face, and clarified more. "You see, us six," she motioned to her friends, excluding Spike. "Are the Elements of Harmony. We're essentially Equestria's defenders." It made sense when Eddie and the symbiote thought about it. After all, they were the only ponies besides the guards fighting the creatures from the Everfree back at Ponyville.

Before Venom could ask more questions, he spun around as he heard an explosion coming from the same building that had the flaming pegasus. The flaming pegasus erupted from the building, as it hovered in the air and stared down at the Lethal Protector. Venom's face turned to a scowl as he took a step toward the flaming pegasus. "Protectors or not, your friend is wounded. Take her to safety, this threat will be dealt with."

The symbiote, however, was not quite as confident. 'Fire, Eddie. I don't like the fire. It stings and burns...'

'We have to get rid of this threat, though. Besides, this isn't the first time we've fought an enemy who was literally on fire.'

Some of the ponies tried to argue, but Eddie and the symbiote ignored as they saw their foe flying straight towards them, flames growing brighter. Venom was going to give a curt uppercut, but the flaming pegasus braked in mid-air swiftly. It then opened its mouth and released a torrent of flames that showered Venom. He brought his arms up to help block the flames, but he winced from the pain regardless. He was too busy trying to block out the inferno to see the flaming pegasus rushing him until it was too late. "Venom!" Cried out Fluttershy in concern, as two titanium hooves slammed into his chest, knocking the Lethal Protector down. Twilight and the others were still tending to Rainbow's wounds, despite the pegasus' continuous arguing and persistence to 'knock the horse-apples right out of that fire pony'.

The flaming pegasus flew up then zoomed down to Venom, but he quickly rolled to the right. The blazing pony slammed into the cold, hard, earth, skull first. As it pulled itself up, it saw a large black fist rapidly approaching its face. The impact had the raging inferno sailing until it caught itself with its wings in the air, and looked down at Venom again. The symbiote shouted within, 'Don't want to taste the flames! Don't like them!'

'We can handle this, we just need some way to put out the flames.'

The flaming pegasus pulled off the same maneuver as before, and stopped close to Venom as it opened its mouth to release fiery doom. That time, however, Venom was prepared. When the blazing pony opened its mouth, he quickly raised an arm and web-shot black webbing at the mouth. Before the flaming pegasus could comprehend what had just happened, its opponent used his raised arm to rapidly stretch it as his fist struck the flaming pegasus square in the jaw. Venom sported his usual grin, and put his clawed hands around his mouth as he hollered, "Hey, pea-brain! Come and catch us if you can!" As he finished, Venom shot a line of web upon one of the many tall buildings, and yanked himself upwards. The flaming pony spread its wings as the fires roared once again, and the raging inferno shot off to the swinging-away Venom.

A hail of fireballs fired off under the wings of the flaming pegasus straight to the Lethal protector. Fortunately for Venom, he was agile and quick enough to avoid the onslaught of flaming bullets. 'Water, Eddie. We need to find water!'

"That's what I'm looking for!" The ponies below the street screamed and galloped as Venom swung over them with fireballs hitting the sides of buildings, along with the flaming pegasus pursuing the Lethal Protector. Out of the corner of his eye, Venom saw that one of the larger fireballs was screeching straight toward a group of galloping ponies. "No!" While they were not fast enough fast enough to pull the galloping ponies out, they were fast enough to intercept the shot. Before the mass of flame hit the panicking, oblivious ponies, Venom swung in between as his back took the full force of the burning ball of flames. Venom snarled from the pain as he quickly met the ground. The flaming pony began to close in, but Venom was quick to recover and shake off the quick pain. He shot two webs onto the buildings as he slingshot himself upwards. The flaming pegasus was hot on their tail, and the shots of fireballs were getting much closer than before.

What felt like an eternity to the symbiote, it and Eddie found their solution: a water tower. Venom grinned again as they swung onto the roof of the building, right in front of the water tower. He looked back at the soaring inferno, and signaled with his hands to come at him, all with an eager grin and twisting tongue. The fiery pony shot off towards the nightmare, and even continued as Venom shot a line of web on each wing. Venom yanked back with great might, as the flaming pegasus then went sailing forward much faster than before. Venom ducked as the fiery flier crashed straight through the water tower, and went falling into the street below. It crashed hard onto the street, so hard that the impact left a rather large crater.

It slowly and weakly pulled itself out of the crater, and looked up to see the Lethal Protector looking down at it with a sadistic grin. It quickly opened its mouth to release a rain of flames, but the only thing that came out was some smoke. It was confused, until it took a look at itself in a puddle of water. There was still the metal bones, albeit bent and damaged, but no fire: and with an exposed core.

The flaming pegasus tried to retreat, but found two, black, thick tendrils wrapped around the joint of the wings. With a 'snap!' the wings were broken off, greatly wounding the pile of metal bones; perhaps, if it could scream, it would. It looked back at Venom, as it slowly backed off. "We would deal with you, but my other would like this to itself." Suddenly, the black skin of Venom seemingly leaped off, leaving the buff man and an aggressive alien with a face in the form of a scowl rapidly crawling to the metal pony. Before it could so much as gallop, the symbiote wrapped all over it, and started squeezing and crushing the bones. As the pile of scrap sunk to its knees, the symbiote performed the finishing blow by impaling the core, and shattering it completely. The metal frame shook, and suddenly collapsed into many pieces. The symbiote rushed back to Brock, where it entered inside of him. Eddie sighed with a frown and said, "Well, if these ponies didn't know about you before, they'll likely do know."

'That princess saw us. Told those others. Ponies will already know about you and I.' Eddie smiled and turned around to walk off.

He would have, but the sight that greeted him stopped him in his tracks as his eyes slowly went wide. There were guards with wide eyes and shaking hooves, all of them having their spears pointed at Eddie Brock. But what took his attention was the large white alicorn and the familiar dark blue one. They had cinder covering the both of them, and what one would call a 'bad hair day', with wide eyes as well. As the gears in Eddie's mind clicked together, he slowly rose his hand in the air, with a shocked expression, and said, "Hi."

Author's Note

Another chapter done! Sorry for the late update, work was rather busy. So, what do you all think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 9: Venom's Visit

When Eddie was planning on how to introduce himself before he arrived at Canterlot, he had a simple plan laid out. He and the symbiote would have watched the capitol without exposing themselves as to get a better idea of what to and what not to do. When he felt he would have been ready, he would have found a gentle and calm way to approach the city without causing the ponies to panic, hopefully to be perceived as a non-threat. Guards would have likely surrounded him and demand to tell them who he was or to come with them. Eddie would have either complied or requested to see the rulers. If the guards were to agree, he would have gotten to meet the rulers, and if his belief of there being no other human in the land of Equestria, then they would have likely asked him questions. Eddie would have explained his situation of how he is not from their world, how he is from a different one. If the leaders were noble and fair, and had it within their capability, they would have helped to send him home. Whether that would have worked or not, Brock would never know; because instead, he got an awkward and odd introduction to the rulers.

He had just got done shredding the once flaming pegasus with his other half when they turned around to about a dozen or so guards and presumably the rulers of the land. An awkward silence passed until Eddie slowly rose his hand with a shocked face and said with a stunned voice, "Hi." Eddie had hoped that would have at least broken the ice, but instead had the effect of causing the already disturbed guards to all collectively gasp and raise their spears on shaking hooves towards Brock. The one Eddie and the symbiote recognized as Princess Luna looked over his form with a curious gaze, seemingly studying the buff man. Her lips then turned into a smile as she greeted, "It's nice to finally meet you face to face, Eddie." Eddie was a bit surprised how quickly she went from stunned silence to warmly welcoming, but he would take it. He shone his own smile with a, "Likewise, princess."

The introductions were interrupted as a guard blurted out, "So are we just going to forget about that black thing that just came off him, crushed that thing, and just went inside of him!?!" The other guards nodded in agreement, but quickly looked away when Princess Luna gave them a firm glare for the interruption. The other alicorn spoke to Eddie, "We have much to talk about, Eddie." She then turned around and spread her great wings. "But I must check on the elements. I trust you can handle things here, sister." Princess replied with a nod as the white alicorn took of to the skies in search of the elements. Princess Luna turned to the guards behind her and ordered, "Search the capitol for any damage cause by that," she motioned her hoof the the pile of scrap once a threat. "Make sure that any pony that was wounded receive medical attention as well." The guards all saluted and took off in smaller groups in different directions.

Eddie frowned a bit at the fact of the symbiote was definitely revealed, once in his dreams and then to the public in the great city of Canterlot. The symbiote took that moment to speak within Eddie's mind, 'Meeting went better than expected, Eddie!' Luna's head swiveled in the direction of Eddie, as her eyes darted around.

Brock's brows knitted as he asked, "Is something wrong, your highness?"

Luna shook her head, as she started to charge her horn, "Nay. We are about to teleport to the castle. Be warned, first time teleporters tend to have a queasy feeling in their gut."

"Wait, wha--?" Before the buff man could finish that question, a sudden white flash erupted from the tip of Princess Luna's horn with a loud 'bing!' When the lights dissipated, Eddie, the symbiote, and Princess Luna found themselves in what appeared to be a throne room for what must have been the castle. Eddie took note of the long red carpet, along with the marble floors and walls, with tall stain glass windows, each portraying a different and unique picture. But what stood out to him the most was all the soot and black ash coating nearly everything, even the handful of guards in the room, which he noticed had bloodshot eyes. True to her words, Eddie put a hand on his stomach as it started to rumble in disagreement to the odd form of travel. Brock thankfully had the symbiote to quickly rid the odd feeling in his gut in less that a couple of seconds. The guards in the room flinched a bit at the sudden appearance, but bowed when they recognized one of their rulers, but when they rose back up their curious eyes settled upon the human.

"I apologize for that, but it was the quickest and most efficient way of getting here."

Eddie waved his hand with, "It's fine, I understand." While it was not the introduction Eddie would have chosen, he had to have admitted, the greetings and introductions were going much better than he had expected it to. Eddie was a bit larger than Princess Luna due to him being around six feet tall in height, and so had to look down at the ruler.

The Princess of the Night looked up at Eddie with content as she spoke, "I know we have much to discuss, but there is one thing I wish to get out of the way." Eddie was curious, so nodded for her to go on. "When you first got here and reports of a seven hoof tall black being came around, we were certainly surprised. Never has Equestria received a human visitor, as you are the first." Eddie gave a small smile at being correct on the assumption he made earlier. "My sister and I knew you and this thing were connected some way, but we thought you were two different entities." Eddie slowly quirked a brow as he listened on to the princess. "But I noticed something. Whenever you where around, the black creature was nowhere to be found; but whenever the black creature was around, you were nowhere to be found." She then began to sprout a knowing smile that was ever-growing. "But when I went into your dreams, I discovered something certainly unexpected. I found another being within you, a symbiote, as you told me." Brock's expression turned slightly surprised, like the princess was slowly piecing together some enormous puzzle. "I thought it to be a part of your dream before I knew; but when I did find out, I noticed it had the same skin, eyes, and white spider just like the creature Venom, but much smaller and skinnier. I also realized that you and the creature were strong, though Venom undoubtedly being much stronger and durable."

The Princess of the Night chuckled a bit at Eddie's expression as she continued, "Then there was the reveal that you were Venom; however, I knew that you wore no mere suit. My fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle, later confirmed my thoughts when three foals, who you showed your face to, described the 'other face' coming back as many small tendrils and ooze wrapping and forming around your face." She took a moment before continuing. "But that brings us here at Canterlot, due to some... troubles... my sister and I were not able to arrive to the scene of a supposed flaming pegasus wreaking having among our beloved capitol. But when we arrived, we saw Venom standing over a metal pony that was not on fire; but then, the skin came off of you and charged at the pony and crushed it. I assume it to be the symbiote."

Eddie nodded with raised brows, a bit impressed at Luna's skills at thinking and theorizing. "I then came to the thought that either you or the symbiote was the one called Venom, but with some thinking I realized I was wrong."

"How did you figure that out?"

"Simple," Luna stated proudly as she held her head up. "When ponies said Venom talked, they would say that sometimes he would refer to himself as 'we' or 'us' and such. At first I thought it to be royal speech, like I used once, but one line caught me and I truly realized. " She looked Brock right in the eyes as she quoted Venom's most famous line. "We are Venom." She continued on, "I came to the realization that Venom is not you or your symbiote, both of you are. Venom is a union of you and the symbiote, isn't he? Venom cannot exist without you like it could not exist without the symbiote. You are Eddie Brock, it is the symbiote; however, together, you both are Venom."

Eddie was at silence for a moment, until he flashed a smile. "Wow, princess. I'm impressed. Most people, or ponies in your case, who don't know about symbiotes or anything like that take a while to figure out how it really works."

She chuckled as she responded, "It comes with a thousand years of experience." Before Eddie could question her about that, the doors to the throne room were thrown open, as the Elements of Harmony, Spike, and Princess Celestia all came in. The Princess of the Sun and the others trotted at a steady pace, but Twilight came galloping full force with an eager twinkle in her eyes. She braked a few feet in front of the amused Luna and curious Brock. Like Luna had done before, Twilight scanned Eddie up and down with her wondering glance, one that could be found on a child in a candy shop. A grin started to morph on her face as he took all of him in, Brock staring back down in bemusement. The others trotted over as well, Rainbow Dash slightly wincing, from the healed wound (but still stinging) on her back.

Twilight was the first to speak up, "Hello! As you might already know, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, but I'm fine with just Twilight." She held out her hoof which Eddie shook with his hand. Before introductions could go further, the symbiote projected itself as a tendril with a face sprouting out of the back shoulder of Eddie and looking at its host. 'We meet ponies, it is fun indeed. Must remember what we came to ask for, though.'

Princess Luna stared above the shoulder of Eddie Brock and released a gasp as she exclaimed, "So that's what it looks like regularly!"

The other ponies looked at Princess Luna in confusion as Rainbow asked, "Uh, Princess? What are you talking about?"

The symbiote looked back at Princess Luna and spoke to Brock within his thoughts, 'Let's ask her, Eddie. Get help, go home.'

Princess Luna looked at the confused faces of the ponies as she pointed above Brock's shoulder. "There! Can't you see it? The symbiote!"

Princess Celestia voiced everypony's thoughts with concern, "Sister, none of us see anything."

Though the ponies and Spike didn't understand what was going on, Eddie's and the symbiote's eyes widened as they both stared at Luna.

'...Think she can see me, Eddie.'

"Oh, gee, you think?"

Princess Luna took a step forward as she narrowed her eyes at the symbiote. "That reminds me, you still have not answered for what you have done in the dream realm, nearly crushing me."

Rainbow Dash whispered into Twilight's ear, her eyes never leaving the Princess of the Night, "Uh, Twi... who's she talking to?"

Twilight shook her head with a slightly slack jaw, "I have no idea, Dash."

The symbiote narrowed its eyes at Luna and replied, 'You started it.'

"Started it!?! It was a bucking accident that I thought you were just part of the dream! You didn't have to try and squash me!" The ponies looked on in confusion, Celestia with concern for her sister. Eddie was looking between the two with furrowed brows, wondering how she could see the symbiote, and afraid where that argument might be heading.

'Doesn't matter. You tried to break the bond.'

"What bond? I was going to remove you with a dream remover spell because I thought you were just part of a dram, but since you aren't a dream, it had no effect. I wasn't trying to break a bond!"

Eddie looked at the dark princess with weary yet curious eyes. "How can you see it?"

Luna ignored as she continued to interrogate the symbiote. "Look, I apologize if you perceived me as a threat, but was that really necessary?"

The symbiote seemingly thought about it and replied, 'Yes.'

Luna's right eye twitched slightly, her irritation for the alien quickly rising to higher and greater levels. "No it was not!"

'Was too!'

"Was not!"

'Was too!'

"Was not!"

'Was too!'

"Was not!"

The ponies looked back in forth between Princess and the symbiote that remained invisible to them in their childish argument until...

'Was not!'

"Was too! It was too necessary!... Wait!...No-gah!"

The symbiote grinned triumphantly as it stated, 'Learned from an old cartoon show. The bunny was wise like me, the duck was not, like you.'

Before Luna could ring the symbiote's metaphorical neck out, Fluttershy blurted out, "What's going on!?!" The ponies, even Eddie looked at her in surprise for her outburst. She quickly quivered as she used her mane as a shield against the onslaught of all the staring.

Eddie realized and understood the confusion of all other ponies present during the time and clarified, "Princess Luna is somehow able to see and communicate with my symbiote," he turned to Luna with knitted brows. "How can you see it anyways?"

Princess brought a hoof to her chin as she thought on it. "I can't say yet why I am the only pony here able to see it."

Rainbow Dash wiped some sweat away from her forehead as she spoke in relief, "Thank goodness, Princess Luna. I thought you were going crazy or something!" The others nodded as Rarity began to cough a bit.

When she cleared her throat, she asked the two rulers, "Princesses, with all due respect, why is there so much ash covering the castle?" The ponies looked at the walls with looks of interest, as if they have not noticed them before.

Twilight's eyes widened as she noticed the familiarity of the cinder and ash. "Oh no... did that thing attack you?"

Princess Celestia shook her head as she explained, "No, Twilight. We were in here discussing, when out of the blue a black cloud swarmed the entire interior of the castle and caused everypony to go in a coughing fit that knocked them to their knees, even us." The ponies and Spike gasped at that bit of information, while Eddie's eyes narrowed in thought.

The symbiote told him, 'Someone meant to attack them, Eddie.'

Twilight hurriedly asked, "But what happened to it?"

Celestia shook her head with a sigh, "That's the thing, it just vanished after a while. No doubt somepony or something very powerful sent it, but why would they stop?"

"Maybe 'cause big guy over here and the thing living in his mind crashed their party." Rainbow Dash stated as she jerked her head in Eddie's direction.

"Perhaps, but whoever or whatever did this left no magical energy to track to a source, but we should remain on the tip of our hooves in case this happens any time soon." The others nodded as the Princess of the Sun looked over to the human visitor with a grateful smile. "But as for you and your friend, Mr. Brock, I have so much to be grateful for." Some of the ponies looked at her with surprise like Rainbow Dash and Rarity, while others like Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie smiled, knowing what she was talking about. Eddie was intrigued as he waited for her to continue, "You wound up in a new land, with multiple different sapient species that could have tried to harm you or shun you. You could have easily crushed my little ponies or harm them, but instead, you and your symbiote helped them when they needed it most. Not only in Manehattan when you two defeated the thieves, but also stopping the Everfree invasion, and saving the lives of some of these mares. Recently as well, stopping this flaming pegasus from causing anymore destruction. For help you have shown to me and my ponies, I am in your debt."

The ponies stared between the two with large eyes, but Eddie smiled and told the Princess of the Sun, "Innocence is of highest importance, and should be protected, no matter what they might be, your highness." The Princess shone a genuine smile toward the buff man and the hidden symbiote.

"Though one question that I would, and I'm sure the others would like to here is, how did you get here?" The other ponies and Spike turned their gaze to Eddie, waiting for an answer. Eddie knew that the story might need some explaining, and they would likely have had questions, so he began his tale of how he and his other half wound up in Equestria. The ponies listened as he told them of his battle with the Scorpion, and how Spider-Man came in. The ponies were amazed to hear about not only another spider-being, but that other people on Earth were powerful in one way or another.

At one point, spike asked with glee, "So wait, your world is full of super heroes and super villains?" When Eddie told him yes, Spike could not stop thinking about all the amazing people in Eddie's world, and what it was like.

When Eddie got to the teleportation malfunction, and how he wound up there, Twilight asked one question after another to satisfy her scientific curiosity. "How does teleportation work on technology? How did it not overheat this 'Scorpion's' suit? Do you know how to make one?" She would have likely continued if she wasn't silenced by the glares from her peers. She quickly apologized and bid for Eddie to continue. He reached the conclusion of his tale when he got to the part of him and the symbiote figuring it best to seek the leaders for magical assistance in order to get back to their beloved home of Earth.

Rainbow Dash punched her hooves together and declared, "That fight sounded awesome!" Spike nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

Fluttershy was concerned for the safety of the humans close to the battle, "Oh, I hope no human got hurt badly."

Twilight was interested in the technology of the Scorpion, Rarity thought he was a barbarian, Pinkie couldn't stop laughing at the other spider's jokes, Applejack thought the Scorpion got what he deserved. Both sisters were very intrigued by the description of the human's world and what had transpired, they knew then he definitely did not come from the mirror world.

Eddie looked to both princesses calmly and said, "So as you can see, I need your help. Do you happen to have anyway for me to get back?"

Celestia shook her head sadly, and gave him an apologetic look. "As of right now, no. Not only is teleportation across different dimensions extemely difficult, yours is new, therefore we can't 'get a lock on it' so to say." Eddie's face turned into an expression none of the ponies could describe, but the symbiote could feel anger, sadness, fear, and dread. A warm smile graced the face of Celestia however. "But that's not to say we can't at least try. After all, it's the least we could do for all you and your friend have done for my little ponies."

Eddie's expression turned back to his calm face, as he smiled to her, "Thank you, princess. I really appreciate it."

She sighed as the thought aloud, "I would usually give guests a room in the castle, but due to the recent attack and the guest you are, here might not be the best place."

Twilight took that moment to voice her suggestion with blatant enthusiasm. "Oh! OH! He could stay at my palace! That way I can study, interview, and experiment him any time of the day!"

Brock chuckled more when Spike dropped in with, "And I can hear more about those awesome stories! Who needs comics when you've got a real super hero in the flesh?"

The symbiote spoke with excitement to Brock, 'See, Eddie? We're heroes!'

Celestia tapped a hoof against her chin and eventually asked Eddie, "Would this be all right with you?"

"So long as I have a bed to sleep on, I don't really care where I'm at."

Celestia smiled and gave Twilight a quick reminder, "Remember, Twilight. You can't experiment on him against his will."

Luna nodded in agreement with that as she assured Eddie, "We will be on our hardest finding a way back to your home."

Eddie thanked them, as Twilight gripped his hand with her magic and started to pull him outside where a carriage would be waiting. "C'mon! The sooner we get back, the sooner I can look into that symbiote!" Eddie sighed and shook his head as he was practically being forcefully dragged through the castle, the others not far behind.

It had come so close to victory, it could taste it. The princesses were contained, and its Ignis War Horse was dealing with the elements. Everything would have gone to plan, if that thing hadn't shown up. It was greatly confused at first,
it had never seen such a thing like it before, with a twisting tongue, white spider, sharp eyes, and large teeth. Its Ignis War Horse was fighting it, but the creature seemed to have a counter to its every attack. In the end, the black creature stood victorious over the destroyed Ignis War Horse.

It was enraged, victory was so close, yet yanked away like a bully would do to a toddler with candy. It then calmed down, it might not be a bad thing. That creature proved strong and powerful, it could be useful. Knowing it had lost, it released its hold on the castle and quickly went back to a place it called home. It began brainstorming on what to do with the creature, and how to deal with it.

But it thought about something that made it shiver with glee.

Why destroy a potential threat when you could convert it on your side?

Author's Note

Hey guys, another chapter done! The story's really kicking in now, so I'll see if I can get these out sooner. What did you guys think? What do you think is gonna happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 10: Shenanigans of a Symbiote

"So... Eddie, was it?"

"Yes."

"Do you mind if I ask you some questions about you and the, what was it... symbiote?" The six mares, Spike, and Eddie with the symbiote were in a carriage gliding across the sky and being pulled by two pegasi guards. That certainly made Eddie a bit dumbfounded when the carriage actually took off the ground and wasn't tilting or slanting in the slightest. It was perfectly parallel to the ground and seemed to weigh like a feather if the calm expressions of the pegasi pulling it were to be believed. Eddie was no physicist, but he was pretty sure that should have been physically impossible.

He caught his own mistake when he remembered that he was in a land with talking magical ponies that looked like they were straight from a kid's show; besides, Earth had its fair share of people and things that seemed to break logic. Eddie sat at the edge of the carriage, taking in the scenery that was passing below them. The flight started in silence for some minutes, but Eddie did notice the one called Fluttershy try to make an effort to talk to him, but always faltered and looked away whenever she was about to say something. The one who he learned was Pinkie Pie squinted her eyes at him and rubbed a hoof under her chin, while also giving off a low hum as if she were in deep thought. Eddie would also notice the small dragon glancing at him with a look of awe, but would quickly turn away when he would turn his head his direction. All the others as well stared at Brock with expressions he couldn't quite decipher, but if he had to take a guess, it would likely have been curiosity and wonder.

The silence was shattered when Twilight Sparkle spoke to him and asked if she could ask some questions on him and the symbiote. He supposed it was a fair request, with him and the symbiote being interlopers, the ponies were bound to want to ask something. He was cautious at keeping the symbiote hidden, but that clearly didn't work out; however, the ponies made no sign about trying to take the symbiote after learning about it, and they didn't even attack him, so he could trust those ponies for the time.

Eddie looked back to Twilight and answered, "Of course, your highness."

Twilight shook her hooves and released a quick sigh as she informed Brock, "Please, you don't need to call me princess or refer to me as 'your highness'."

"Of course," Eddie grew a thin smile as he finished, "Miss Sparkle." Twilight grumbled under her breath as Rainbow Dash and Applejack both snickered.

She chose to simply ignore that as she went on with her first question. "Let's start off simple. What is your planet called?"

The others leaned in a bit as Eddie replied, "Earth. Simply called Earth." He quirked a brow as he saw Twilight spawn in a note and pencil with a bright flash, and started to write down notes on what he was saying.

She nodded her head as she began, "Alright, next question: What would you say your kind is best known for?"

'Probably how we're always finding ourselves in some form of trouble.' Eddie thought. He gave his second answer to the curious alicorn, "Probably our intelligence. We have some of the greatest technology, though that's also because most humans don't have magic."

Twilight's eyes lit up in awe as she jotted down more notes. "Amazing... a race that can thrive without hardly any magic."

Applejack took that moment to ask her own question. "Outta' curiosity, how do ya humans buck yer trees?"

Eddie nearly had a coughing fit as he slowly spun his head to the farm mare, staring at her with wide eyes, knitted brows, and a slightly agape jaw. "I'm sorry... how do we do what to our trees?"

"Y'know, buck 'em. I dunno if yer one of a kind or if all humans from where you come from are as strong as you, and y'all stand on two legs. Do you buck trees lightly, or do ya buck 'em real hard?" It was at that moment Eddie's mind thought about what he thought ponies meant on bucking trees, and if it weren't for the symbiote being able to remove and block thoughts, Brock might just have been mentally scarred.

Rainbow Dash joined in as she gloated, "You look like you could really buck a tree, but nopony is a good as a tree bucker as me!" She chuckled as Applejack rose her eyes at her with a frown, "Okay, maybe a few ponies are better, but that's all!" She finished as she crossed her hooves with a huff.

Applejack rolled her eyes as she reminded her cyan friend, "Really? 'Cause if I remember correctly, Applebloom had ta' help you on yer first time apple bucking."

"Hey! There was a lot of mud that caused me to slip, alright!?!"

The buff man reluctantly interjected, "Wait, Applebloom? A child and you," he pointed a hand at Rainbow Dash,"... bucked trees... together?"

To Rainbow's irritation, Applejack chuckled with, "Yup, the great Rainbow Dash, needin' help from a foal to applebuck." The pegasus and farm pony continued to banter with the others watching, none of them having noticed Eddie gagging.

His other half spoke to him, 'Odd culture, Eddie. Haven't known a lot of races to do that, sharing in the acts of reproduction among adults and children.'

Eddie scrunched his face at those words, and mumbled into the palm of his hand, "Please... don't say that."

Twilight looked back to Eddie as she wanted to steer the conversation back on track, so she repeated the question again, "So, how do humans get their fruits off of trees?"

Eddie looked at her with furrowed brows and a curious look with, "huh?"

"How do you get all the fruits off of trees? We ponies, usually the earth ponies, have to kick them with our hind hooves, or bucking, to get the fruit down? Do you all buck them, or do you have a different method?" Applejack and Rainbow Dash had stopped arguing, and all of them listened in, awaiting Brock's answer.

Eddie thought to himself, 'Kicking, bucking... horses and ponies buck... oh, thank God.' After mentally thanking God that they didn't buck trees like he thought they did, he answered, "We just hand-pick them."

Applejack looked stunned at that fact as asked in wonder, "Y'all take apples, oranges, and other fruits one by one with yer hands? No bucking at all?"

Eddie shook his head as he replied, "Nope. Trees in my world can't just be kicked and the apples tumble down. You'd hurt your own foot doing that."

Applejack looked down and thought about that as Twilight continued to rapidly scribble down notes as she asked without looking up, "You seemed confused when we were talking about apple bucking. Did you think we were talking about something else?"

"Nope, nothing at all." Brock quickly responded. Fortunately for him, Applejack was still too busy wrapping her mind around the prospect of picking fruits down trees one at a time instead of bucking, that she didn't catch on to the lie.

Twilight couldn't help but express an eager grin as they were about to get to a topic she was eager to discuss: the symbiote. "Can you give me a basic description of this symbiote on others like it?"

Eddie thought that was fair enough, and so as the others listened in he told them of the symbiotes. "They're actually a race called Klyntar. As far as I know, age doesn't really hinder them. They come from a far off planet, but are spread throughout the universe." Eddie paused as the symbiote fed him more information about its kind, and so that Twilight could catch up on jotting her notes as the others paid deep interest into the symbiotes. "They are organisms that bond to others-- hosts, through mind, body, and soul."

Rainbow Dash seemed a bit disturbed by that fact, and asked, "So, wait, that thing is inside of you? Twenty four-seven?"

Eddie nodded. "All the time."

Twilight looked up from her notes as she asked, "If they're called Klyntar, then why do you call them symbiotes?"

"This symbiote was the first ever to come to Earth, and when it bonded with a host, was taken to some scientist. They found out it was alive, and dubbed it a symbiote." The others seemed to soak up the knowledge like a sponge, but Applejack squinted her eyes at Eddie. He wasn't lying, she could tell; but he wasn't telling everything either, particularly around the part of the unknown host. She passed it off, however, as she figured it wasn't that big of a deal.

Fluttershy hesitantly asked the buff man, "If you don't mind me asking, where and how did you and your friend meet?"

Eddie would only answer one of those as he chose to look ahead as he said in a low voice, "At the Our Lady of Saints Church."

"Okay," Twilight pointed her pencil at Eddie, "But could you be more specific? Like, why did it bond with you? How did it all go down? Also, how does the symbiote grant both you and itself powers like a spider?"

She looked at Brock expectantly, but was surprised and disappointed when he shook his head and looked at her, "I'd rather not answer those questions, sorry."

"But it's just some--"

"Just... don't, please." Eddie sharply cut her off. The ponies and Spike looked at Eddie and Twilight with worry and concern in their eyes, but didn't say a thing.

Twilight opened her mouth, but reluctantly backed off. "Alright, if you don't want to talk about it, I can't force you."

Complete silence filled the carriage, until a pink head popped up between Eddie's legs. His brows furrowed as he glanced to where the pink mare was previously seated. The others chuckled at Eddie's expression as he looked back down at the grinning pink pony. He opened his mouth to ask her if she wanted anything, but a flurry of words beat him to the mark. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! You might already know that, but I just wanted to make sure! But now," she reached into her mane, and after a bit of scurrying, pulled out her own notepad and pencil. "It's my turn to ask the questions!"

"Alright," Eddie waved a hand at her, "ask away."

"First question: Cake or Pie?" Eddie was caught off guard by that question. After all, of all the questions one could ask an alien, they would ask if he prefers cake or pie?

He knocked off the shock as he answered honestly, "I like cake more." Pinkie nodded as she marked out at check box on her note pad.

She looked back up at Eddie as she continued, "Next question: favorite flavor of cake?"

Eddie rose a brow, but answered regardless, "Vanilla's my favorite."

Pinkie nodded as she went on to the next question. "What's the symbiote's name? Surely you don't just refer to it as 'the symbiote'."

"Symbiotes don't generally have names like you or I. If we want to be specific, most people refer to mine as the Venom symbiote, but no real name."

The symbiote was a bit intrigued that the pink pony was interested at who it was, not what it was like the purple alicorn. Eddie took note of how that information made Pinkie frown, and also a bit sad. Her grin quickly jolted back to life, as her voice came back as a cheery, "We can always think up a name later. But what I wanted to ask is what flavor of cake does it like?"

The symbiote took the chance to speak to Brock, 'If she's asking... think they have brain flavored cake?'

"Vanilla. It likes vanilla." Eddie swiftly said.

'But that's not--'

'Too bad. We are not seeing if they have brain flavored icing.'

Everyone in the carriage jumped a little when the wheels touched the ground. They all quickly looked around and realized they were already in front of Twilight's palace in Ponyville.

Twilight spoke everyone's thoughts, "Well, that went by faster than expected." One at a time, they all clambered out of the carriage and noticed it was already getting dark out.

"Well, its been interesting guys," Rainbow spoke as she let out a yawn and began to hover, "But I'm gonna hit the hay." She looked back at the buff man. "Interesting meeting you, Eddie. See you all around." Like that, she took off like a rocket to her home.

Applejack began to trot down the road, "Mah family's probably worried 'bout me. See y'all tomorrow." She tipped her hat to Eddie as she said, "Nice meetin' ya face ta' face."

Eddie nodded with a smile, "Likewise."

"Well darlings, I'm sure Sweetie Belle probably already caused some trouble, so I better stop and clean it up before it gets worse." She began to trot off as well, but she looked back at Brock with a smile, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Eddie. Best of luck on getting back home."

Eddie returned the smile with, "Thanks. Have a nice night, Ms. Rarity." Rarity chuckled as she went on her way. Fluttershy and Pinkie both gave their farewells, one with a quiet goodbye to Eddie, the other with a large grin who bounced merrily on her way.

"Well, Eddie," Twilight motioned her hoof to the palace, "Welcome to my home, and your place of residence for the time being."

Eddie shone a grateful smile as he said, "Thank you again for letting me stay here."

"Please, its the least I could do for all you and your friend has done for us." Twilight, Eddie, and Spike entered the massive palace, Eddie taking in the whole place in awe.

At that moment, Spike released a loud yawn, and mumbled, "I'm going to catch up on missing sleep. If you need me, don't wake me up." Twilight giggled at her assistant's antics as she motioned for Brock to follow her. He obeyed, and eventually they came to a small room with one window and a single bed. The bed, surprisingly, was large enough to hold Eddie. He thanked her and began to stride over to his bed to gain sleep; but before he could, Twilight called out to him.

He turned around and looked down at the princess. "Yes?" Twilight kept trying to speak, but always faltered whenever she almost got to that point, and tried to rethink what she was about to say.

Eventually, she managed to get out, "I know this might seem much, but I was wondering... is there a way I could get a... sample of the symbiote?" She looked up at Eddie as she tried to feign an innocent smile, but quickly shrunk under the firm glare he was giving.

After almost a minute, he held his hand out, and a bit of the symbiote slinked out. Twilight gasped as he held his hand to her, looking back up to his still firm face. "I'm gonna need that back." Twilight could only nod dumbly with a grin as she grabbed the sample with her magic, and quickly left with a good night. Eddie sighed as his "clothes" turned black, unraveled and withdrew into him, leaving only a pair of boxers as he crawled in bed and pulled the covers over himself. "Well, with all that's happened, all I want is a good night rest."

He shut his eyes as the alien within spoke, 'That is good,' its voice had a hint of glee, 'I want to test something.'

Princess Luna had just gotten done vanquishing the nightmare of a small colt when she left his dream back into the dream realm. The night had started relatively easy: few nightmares, mostly good dreams, easy work. She decided to check up on the dreams of the Ponyville residents, as they were the closest to her at the time. She spread her great wings and took off in the realm, eyes on the look out for any dreams that may have been infected with nightmares. Luna finally arrived at the Ponyville dreams, all the doors awaiting to be entered.

She looked over to the location where Twilight's palace would have been at. She saw two familiar doors, and a third one she had gotten to know over the days. With a smile, she trotted over to the door of Eddie's dream. She figured she could check on him, and perhaps have a quick chat as well. She put her hoof on the handle and pulled, but the door only moved two inches. "What the...?" She tried again, but would't open to her increasing irritation. She looked at the small gap between the door and frame to see a chain and lock. The Princess of the Night found herself flabbergasted, nopony could block her from dreams, and she was sure the human couldn't do it either. The only other thing she knew of that could interact with dreams was...

"Hello, pony princess." She looked into the crack again to see a pair of familiar white eyes, a large grin with clear joy, and a large white spider below it.

She glared at the symbiote as she demanded, "What are you doing?"

"This?" The symbiote waved a clawed hand at the chain. "Installed a lock. Too many trespassers these days."

"B-but, how?" Luna sputtered out. In her thousands of years of experience, no pony, beast, or thing could just simply install a lock on their doors in the dream realm.

The symbiote's grin stretched further as it said, "Learned how to. Not telling."

The princess's eyes narrowed as she demanded yet again, "I command you to open this door."

"You're not my princess."

"Open it!"

"What's the password?"

"I said open it!"

"Sorry, not the password." The door promptly slammed shut in front on the infuriated princess. The fury only burned brighter when she heard the chuckling of the symbiote. She growled as she lowered her head and began charging her horn. With a large blast, the door blew inwards and off the lock to reveal a shocked symbiote staring to where the door once stood. Luna grinned in triumph as she began to trot over to the dream of Eddie Brock. The symbiote's eyes narrowed as it showed a heavy frown, "More locks where that came from!" All of the sudden, tendrils came from the symbiote's back in many directions in the dream, and pulled back with more chains and locks. With speed that could rival Pinkie's, all the tendrils quickly wrapped the chains and locks around the frame of the doorway, completely blocking it in chains.

Luna watched with wide eyes as the symbiote simply refused to let her in. She sighed in frustration as she quickly blasted off the chains to show an angered symbiote. She rose a brow and asked with annoyance, "Are you done yet?" One of the symbiote's tendrils held a chained lock in front of it as it grew a grin again, which worried Luna. "Almost." With a flick, the lock was sent sailing straight to the princess's forehead.

"Ow!" She rubbed where the lock had hit her, and looked up to see the symbiote going further into the dream.

"Done now."

The Princess of the Night grumbled as she trotted into the human's dream, though she was curious to see what would be there that time. She heard the symbiote speak fondly, "Ah, remember that." The dream wasn't blank like the other ones, but took place in what looked to be a convenience store. The first thing she saw was a male human at a cash register pulling money out of the register with sweat flooding down his face. She then saw what looked to be a teenage male human in front of him with an arm held out with a metal gadget attached to the arm.

As she scanned around, she saw two more like him throughout the store, stealing and rummaging through all sorts of goods. "Hurry it up, man! We ain't got all day!" Shouted the angered robber in front of the cashier. The cashier tried to work harder, but he wasn't going any faster than before. Luna shook her head at disapproval at the ordeal, until she noticed a familiar man walk in the store with a sly smirk. In the dream, Eddie was wearing a brown sweatshirt that had the white spider logo patch on a shoulder. He wore a simple pair of blue jeans, as well as black shoes.

She noticed that he quickly shot his arms in the air while proclaiming, "Whoa! I was just here for a lottery ticket, but I can come back..." One of the robbers spun around and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Yeah, well tonight's not your lucky night! Get over here!" Luna noticed that while the robber was demanding for Eddie to get his wallet out, a small, skinny trail of black ooze thinner than a pencil came from Eddie's left foot, and began to maneuver to the furthest robber. With raised brows, she watched as it hovered in the air behind one of the robbers, and without warning, quickly wrapped all around his face. She watched with wide eyes as the man struggled, until the thin strand slammed his head into a wall. It then let go, leaving an unconscious robber, and retracted into Eddie.

The robber in Eddie's face held the wrist with the metal gadget on it right at his him, as he demanded, "C'mon, man! Get that wallet out! I killed a villain for this! It was the...uh... 'the sprayer!' And I'll kill you, too!"

Luna couldn't help but chuckle at the kid's poor attempt at being threatening, Even Eddie cracked a smile at that.

"C'mon, kid. the sprayer?"

"Screw you!" The wrist with the gadget squirted out green, misty gas all at once at Eddie; but when the gas dissipated, the wicked web-slinger stood where Eddie once did, towering over the shocked robber as he gave his usual grin.

"Ooh! Peppery!" Venom then grabbed the robber with one clawed hand and quickly grabbed the other that tried to flee. With a single move, the Lethal Protector slammed their heads together, then released them to fall and slump to the ground.

The cashier was staring with wide eyes and could only stutter in gibberish. Not that Luna could blame him, she would be quite surprised if she was in his position. Venom walked to the exit as he told the cashier, "Apologies for the mess, go ahead and call the cops." Venom opened the door, but gave one last look to the cashier before he left. "One last thing, if they asked which hero saved you, tell them it was us, tell them it was Venom." The landscape then drifted like wind blowing in the sand into complete darkness.

Luna looked over to the symbiote and asked, "How often would you two have to stop crime, or anything like that?"

"Odd things happens on Earth a lot. Usually something special twice a month."

"What I don't get, is why didn't you two just come in completely as Venom and take care of them? Wouldn't that have been faster?"

The symbiote sighed as it shook its head, "Eddie is smart. Made himself look weak so the innocent man wouldn't be in danger. Lives could have been lost."

Luna nodded her head in understanding, but sighed as she turned to leave, "I would have liked to speak to Eddie," she shot an annoyed glare at the symbiote, "If something hadn't tried to keep me out."

The symbiote crossed its arms and narrowed its eyes. "Invasion of privacy, we didn't ask for you to come here."

The Princess of the Night was in no mood to argue, but she knew something would raise her spirits. With a chuckle, she spoke with malevolence, "You forgot your locks." The symbiote turned around, but could only twist its eyes in shock as a hail of locks came into contact with it. Luna chuckled as she exited, and thought to herself, 'Where to next?'

Author's Note

Hey guys, another chapter done! What did you think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 11: Bonding

Celestia's sun had risen above the land of Ponyville, and began chasing the darkness to the other ends of Equestria, along with Luna's moon. The sun's rays had begun to cast down the land, awaking many animals and ponies, both readying for another day in Equestria. The rays had also flowed to the palace in Ponyville, one that was housing the first ever human in Equestria. The light had even managed to breach the covers of said human, and had also begun to infiltrate and clear the darkness in his closed eyes, slowly rousing the man from graceful sleep. The man mumbled and stirred, until he split his eyes open a tiny crack. His vision was blurry, but a moment of concentration had allowed him to see a clock on the opposite end of the room, and could see that the time was 8:32 AM. He pulled the covers off and sat up on the bed, just staring at the floor.

He began to recall his predicament, the foreign room being a reminder of that. He also remembered the events of last night, meeting the rulers, Twilight allowing him to stay at her palace, giving her a small sample of the symbiote, and welcoming sleep's sweet, warm embrace. He brought his hands to his eyes as he cleared the sleep out of them, and began to stretch his arms and legs with a loud yawn. Eddie stood up as the symbiote converged around him as early morning clothes: lounge pants, long-sleeved shirt, and a house robe. He had to admit, even though they weren't technically clothes, the symbiote still managed to make it feel comfortable. Before he left the room, he asked his other half, "Did anything odd happen in my dreams? I could've sworn I saw Princess Luna."

'Pony princess did come,' the symbiote giggled like a child would pulling a prank on a sibling. 'got to lock her out, though only temporary.'

Eddie left the room as he looked down both sides of the hall. "What do you mean 'locked her out'?"

'Whenever she entered your dreams, I began to learn more. Began seeing the door, door to your dream. Got to interact with it, and lock it.'

Eddie strode down the direction in which Twilight took him the day before, hoping to find her or Spike anywhere in the large structure. "While I admit that does sound pretty funny," he began to lightly scold his other half, "it's not smart to pick on the one who could get us out of here."

'It was invasion of privacy.'

Brock opted to let it go, and decided to search if the pony or drake were awake. He would have called for them, but he didn't want to wake them if they were indeed asleep at the time. After a minute or so of exploration, the human and the Klyntar came across the dining area, where they saw Spike on a stool over a stove in a chef hat cooking. The drake heard the footsteps and reared his head around to see Eddie. He greeted Eddie with a smile and a sincere, "Good morning, Eddie!"

Eddie couldn't help but smirk at the sight of a baby dragon in a chef hat, but wholeheartedly returned the gesture, "Good morning to you as well, Spike." Eddie walked over to the counter and pulled out a stool for himself, but quickly found out that stools made in mind for ponies were far too small for one like Brock. So he decided to lean against the counter as the small dragon prepared a meal.

"Want some egg casserole? Its got peppers, olives, and some mushrooms as well."

"Yes, please. That would be nice." Eddie began to scan the room for the missing pony, but found no Princess of Friendship. "Hey, do you know where Twilight is?"

Spike gave a look to Eddie like he just asked what two plus two was. "I dunno what you gave her last night, but this morning I found her still doing some research or whatever on it. And judging by how wacky her mane was, she was at it all night."

Eddie huffed as he said, "That can't be healthy."

Spike broke out in chuckles as he came to the counter with his and Eddie's egg casseroles. He sat on a chair while Brock held the plate with one hand and used a fork given to him with the other.

"Please, you think that's bad? You should've seen how long she was at study when some tiny rock from space landed here. She was at it for two and a half days, and probably would've kept going. But to make sure she didn't over work herself, the last batch of coffee I gave her was drugged with some sleep aiding pills." Both the drake and human snickered at that as they enjoyed their breakfasts.

They each heard slow hoof steps approaching from behind them. They turned around to see a frazzle-maned Twilight Sparkle with the sample of the symbiote held in a small vial within the grasp of her telekinesis. Despite her physical appearance, she sported a grin one would find on a foal at Hearth's Warming Eve. She saw both Spike and Eddie and exclaimed, "Ah, you two are up! That's good!" She turned her excited gaze to the man whom lent her the sample, "Thank you again for the sample! I've studied many organisms in the past, but never have I seen anything like this! These symbiotes have to be the most incredible forms of life I have ever witnessed!"

Spike offered Twilight some breakfast, which she graciously accepted. The trio finished their meals relatively fast, Eddie being curious of what that day had in store for him and his other half. During that moment, however, Eddie chose to remind Twilight on something. "Are you still using that?" He pointed to the vial that had the sample, at which Twilight released a small sigh.

"While I would like to look at it more, I understand you need it back, or the symbiote in you." She popped the quirk off and hoofed the vial to Eddie. Both Spike and Twilight gasped lightly as they saw the seemingly immobile tar like sample immediately shoot right for Eddie and disappeared within him.

Twilight began to pick on something previously unnoticed to her and her assistant. "Hey, since when did you have those clothes with you?" Spike, too, began to notice the clothes Eddie hadn't had on before.

"Yeah, I didn't see those the other times."

Eddie smirked as he held his arms out wide. "Here's something I bet you didn't get from that sample, Twilight." The curious drake and alicorn found themselves shocked when the false clothing darkened to a pitch black and unraveled to tendrils. The tendrils came back down, and to the surprise of Twilight and Spike, morphed a simple white T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of black shoes. They also noticed the famous white spider symbol on a round black patch on the right shoulder of the shirt.

Twilight shook herself out of her stupor and rushed up to the buff man and began to inspect the false clothing on him. "That's incredible! Not only does it look like real clothes," she rubbed a hoof against the shirt, checking for any odd textures or surfaces but finding none, "but they feel just like it as well!"

"It definitely comes in handy."

Spike thought aloud, "Gee, what Rarity wouldn't do for something like that." Eddie didn't know what he was referring to, but that remark brought a chuckle from Twilight.

Twilight looked up at Brock with an eager smile as she said, "I was thinking, since you might be here awhile, I could show you around town. I know you already saw the town a bit, but..."

"It was in chaos from pissed animals from the Everfree forest." finished Brock.

Twilight brought a hoof to the back of her head as she continued, "Yeah.... Anyways, I thought it would be nice to show you around on a calm day, get better accustomed to the area." Eddie realized that day was the first real calm day for him ever since he arrived in that land, and would be best to spend it; besides, he was curious about the town, and thought that taking a small tour would be enjoyable. He agreed, and the two got prepared.

Twilight offered Eddie to use one of the showers in the palace, which he graciously accepted, he hadn't realized how long he had gone without one. At the reminder from Spike, Twilight combed her mane and tail back to its usual straight and orderly self. Spike decided to stay back to catch up on his napping during his day off. Soon after, the two came ready for what that day had in store.

The two exited the grand doors and were greeted to Celestia's sun as it bestowed upon the town its golden rays. Eddie embraced the cool, crisp air in a large breath, and exhaled back to nature. "Well, Eddie," Twilight began as she waved a hoof across the trees, buildings, ponies, and many other elements that made up the town. "Welcome to Ponyville." Eddie took in the scenery, it being one akin to an old fashion village. He saw carts with vendors, foals playing on the streets, birds in the air and chirping a merry tune, and many small but colorful buildings.

They continued onward as Eddie spoke with a small smile, "I admit, when its not under attack by savage animals, its actually quite nice." Twilight chuckled with as they approached a stand with newspapers stacked on it. She plucked one within her magical grasp as she squinted her eyes at the front cover, then shone a small smile.

"Well, look who's Mr. Popular." She floated the papers over to Eddie as the man picked it up with a quirked brow. The front page was nearly dominated with a picture of Venom swinging across the massive structures at Canterlot with a flaming pegasus battling him in the air. The headline read, "Monstrous Battle at Canterlot!" He read further and saw the paper did indeed recognize Venom from Manehattan, but what stood out was the picture of Eddie Brock off the side with the symbiote crushing the scrap that once was a blazing threat. Eddie read some, hummed, shrugged, and handed the paper back to Twilight.

"Whoever was the journalist for that was alright, but he could've done the writing a bit better. Kept repeating 'huge' and 'epic' a lot."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the remark as she trotted next to the human. "Well, why don't you try to do better? I heard journalism isn't as easy as one might think.

Eddie gazed down at the purple alicorn with a deadpanned look. "Twilight, I did journalism for a living, and was one of the best at it. I still am, but depending on how long I'm here... well, I don't think my boss will take 'I was stuck in a land of talking magical ponies' as an excuse."

Twilight's eyes brightened up as she asked Eddie, "You're a journalist? I wouldn't have taken you for a journalist."

"Looks can be deceiving." When they walked through the crowds, the two began to notice that Brock was becoming a magnet to the eyes of many ponies. The ponies that had their newspapers with them glanced down at their papers and back to Eddie with a cautious look, and repeated the process over again. Ponies were halting whatever activity they were doing, both adult and child, and either stared at Brock with curiosity, trepidation, wonder, even amazement, or were whispering to others about him.

Eddie could pick up the poorly whispered conversation of a mare and stallion, with him as the topic. "Hey, that's the thing in the papers!"

"Yeah, but where's the other thing? Y'know, the scarier thing?"

"Didn't you see the other pictures? I think he is that thing."

Eddie payed no mind to the stares or chatter, but Twilight tried to reassure him, "Don't worry about that, they're just curious, is all." He nodded in understanding as they strode past a building that looked like a massive gingerbread house; it appeared like something out of Candy Land.

Eddie rose an eyebrow at that with, "What the hell?"

Twilight didn't understand what hell was, but knew Eddie was confused about the building he was staring at, "Oh, that's Sugar Cube Corner, where my friend Pinkie works, the one who asked you food related questions yesterday."

"Right, the one who could bounce on her tail." Right as he finished that, a familiar pink party pony came out of the doors and went bouncing out of the building with a platter balanced on her head holding two vanilla cupcakes right at the two.

She shouted merrily, "Hiya Twily! Hiya Eddie!"

Twilight welcomed her with, "Hi Pinkie! Not to be rude, but how come you're out here and not in Sugar Cube Corner?"

"I'm only out here to give these puppies," she pointed a hoof to the cupcakes above her, "to Eddie and Mr. Symbiote!" She brought a hoof to her chin as she thought aloud, "Though I think it could use a nickname. Maybe Bob? No, too simple..." Pinkie continued to mumble to herself as Eddie looked at the cupcakes with a small smile.

"So that was why you asked what flavored icing we like. Thank you, Ms. Pie, I haven't had one of these in a while."

Pinkie exited her self-rant and waved a hoof at Eddie as she informed him, "Please, Ms. Pie is my mom, just call me Pinkie!" Seen only by Eddie's eyes, the symbiote appeared as a skinny humanoid figure about the size of a pony, staring up at the cupcakes with a grin similar to Pinkie's.

'Food, Eddie! More food!'

Eddie went to retrieve the cupcakes as he spoke to his other half aloud, "You already took most of the breakfast from me, pal, try not to take my cupcake either."

Pinkie continued with her cheerful demeanor while Twilight looked at Brock with confusion. Her eyes shot up when she realized exactly who Eddie was talking to. "Oh! Are you talking to your symbiote? What's it saying?"

Eddie took a bite of the cupcake before saying, "Well, it definitely likes your cupcakes, Pinkie."

"Well thanks, symbiote!"

Eddie took more and more bites with satisfaction as he said, "As for me, one of the better cupcakes I've had, thanks."

She waved a hoof with, "No problem!" She began to trot back to Sugar Cube Corner as she looked back at the two. "I have to go back now, see you later!"

Twilight and Eddie both waved bye as they went forward. The symbiote spoke in the back of Eddie's mind, 'Cupcake is good. But not sufficient. Need food, Eddie. Need meat.'

'I know, I've been relying on your metabolism too much. I'll get you some soon.'

Their mental chatter was silenced when Twilight spoke up. "So, Eddie," she turned to look at him, "You come from a world with real superheroes and villains? Heck, you yourself are one. Could you tell me what some of them are like?"

Eddie nodded as he began, "Well, Earth has a group called the Avengers, they're full of heroes and highly skilled agents meant to take on threats. Some of the more famous ones are those like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and so much more. Unfortunately, there are just as many villains, like Doctor Doom, Galactus, and again, more. There are a lot, big and small, good or bad."

Twilight flashed a grin at Eddie, "Well, I bet your world views you and your friend as one of the greatest heroes."

She saw Eddie's face falter for a moment, but his face quickly returned to its calm state, "Well, some people have seen us as monsters. Both when we started and even recently."

The purple alicorn spun to Eddie with shock etched all over her face. "What!?! But you two have done nothing but good since you got here! Sure, you two look terrifying together, but still! You guys said you do this a lot back at your home. Why don't they like you?"

Eddie shook his head with a sigh, "Because, people never forget, and rarely forgive." He walked ahead as Twilight pondered over those words, but couldn't draw them to what Eddie was talking about.

The symbiote picked up on something, and advised its host, 'Eddie, behind us. We are being watched.' He took its word and turned around to see, sure enough, a small crowd a few yards away. When the crowd realized Eddie was staring at them, they quickly spun their heads in any direction but his, and whistled a tune to try to appear normal. Key word being try. Twilight looked where Eddie was looking and saw what he saw.

She sighed, and spoke apologetically, "Sorry, Eddie. They're just really curious, is all."

"It's fine. Everyone always gets curious when something new pops up."

They walked further into town as they ignored the slowly growing mass only a few yards behind them. Eventually, they noticed a familiar yellow pegasus, barely pulling the blatantly heavy bag of food with her teeth across the ground. Eddie sped his approach to her as he said, "Allow me." Fluttershy was too concentrated on moving the bag to have noticed Brock or Twilight, and stumbled back with an audible gasp. Eddie hefted the bag over his shoulder as Twilight helped her friend up.

Fluttershy looked at the two with a low, "Oh, sorry, you two. I didn't hear you from trying to pull the bag of food."

Twilight waved her hoof, "There's no need to apologize, Fluttershy. Feeding the animals, huh?"

Fluttershy nodded with a small smile, when she looked up to see the buff man carrying the bag of food over his shoulder.

She wore a worried look as she spoke with concern, "Can you carry that all right? It's okay if it's too heavy."

Eddie walked past her as he chuckled. "I think you're forgetting who you're talking to, ma'am."

Fluttershy's face flushed a bit as she spoke in an even quieter and softer tone, "Oh, you don't need to call me that. Fluttershy is fine."

"All right, Fluttershy," he waved an arm for her to lead on, "lead the way."

The trio made it to Fluttershy's cottage in good time. They were inside, and Eddie was impressed at how many animals the rather shy pegasus was willing to take care of; it was practically a zoo. He set the bag down where Fluttershy requested it. She went to her kitchen to make tea along with Twilight while Eddie observed the miniature jungle that was the home of Fluttershy. There were many animals scurrying along, even some that most would consider pests. Like the ponies in the town, though, most of the animals were staring at him. Their expressions were a bit harder to read, but he was willing to bet they were the same to what the ponies before were thinking. He also noticed a white rabbit giving him a hard glare, but never confronted him. From what Eddie figured from his time in Equestria, the animals there weren't quite sapient, but seemed to have more spirit and emotions in them than most animals on Earth. It intrigued him, but it also fell perfectly into the category of shows for kids as well. The animals that used their sense of smell more than the other four senses seemed to sniff the air around him a lot as well. There was even a bear watching him with narrowed eyes through one of the windows.

The two ponies came back into the living room, Twilight levitating a tray with three cups of tea on them. "Thank you again, Fluttershy."

The two ponies sat down on the couch as the tray was placed down on the table. Eddie stood with tea in hands as Fluttershy replied, "Oh, it's no trouble at all. After all, it's the least I could do for what you've done." As she finished that, the white rabbit hopped over to her, along with some other small animals, and began rapidly chattering to her. Brock rose a brow at the display with Fluttershy listening to the rabbit. She nodded her head after the rabbit stopped, and spoke to it, "Angel, that's Eddie. He and his friend are stuck here, and the princesses are trying to find a way back for them." A skunk approached her and made confused chattering noises which she listened intently on. "I don't smell anything odd with him, your smelling might just be picking up scents better." A squawk from a parrot came from the end of the room. "Oh, well, you see, his friend is special. It's called a symbiote, and it lives inside of him." Excited chatter erupted from the animals from that comment, but Angel spoke a question only she and the other animals could understand, with Twilight awaiting what she would say, and Eddie amazed at the whole ordeal.

"Oh, what'd he do? Well, not only did he and his friend stop thieves from Manehattan, but they also battled some flying thing that was on fire. He was also here during the Everfree invasion where they battled a hydra." The animals had various, reactions to that, some with fear of what exactly Eddie and his friend were, and others with hints of pride. "Oh, he also saved some of my friends and myself from manticores. Who knows what would've happened if they didn't come in?"

In that moment, everything in and around the cottage paused. There was no scurrying, no chattering, no movement. At that moment, all the animals were staring intensely at Eddie Brock. Twilight and Fluttershy looked around confused, and Eddie would be lying if he said he wasn't unnerved a bit by the sudden shift to the unreadable looks all the animals were giving to Eddie.

The symbiote spoke within, 'Did we offend them?'

'No, we didn't.'

All of the sudden, those blank faces contorted into happy grins, and all at once the animals all let out a cheer before rushing Brock. Eddie could barely spit out his tea as all the animals converged on him and wrapped their limbs all around him in one massive hug. Even Angel hopped over to pat him on the leg. Eddie's eyes were wide, but before he could question exactly what was going on, he twisted his head, the only part of his body that could move freely, to the sound of a door being knocked down. He watched with an agape jaw and wide eyes as the bear from before was rushing him with an eager grin, ready to give his own literal bear hug. To have avoided being knocked over, the symbiote wrapped around Eddie and gave him the white spider and obvious features of Venom.

Both ponies stared with wide eyes, but Twilight began laughing at the odd scene while Fluttershy was making an 'aww' at the sight before them. There stood a heavily confused Venom, with all the animals that were in or out of the cottage giving him one massive hug, accompanied by joyful chattering, thankful licking, curious sniffing, or some even resting on his shoulders or head, all the while Venom was staring ahead with large and confused eyes. The bear murmured something which the other animals agreed to. The wicked webslinger clearly didn't understand, which Fluttershy picked up on as she translated, "They say 'Thank you'! They're really happy for what you've done."

Venom slowly nodded as he gently brought his right arm with some animals still clinging on to it, and patted the bear on the head, still wearing the stunned expression on his face. "Yes, well, there is no need to thank us. Your happiness is reward enough." There are many rare sights with characters of Earth: Spider-Man punching Captain America, the Hulk wearing a maid's outfit, and many other odd and ridiculous things. Venom being hugged by nearly every animal was likely one of them.

The bear pulled off and went outside, but came back in with a large fish. He handed it in front of the Lethal Protector with a face that read 'take it'. Venom was about to decline, until the symbiote eagerly spoke, 'Food, Eddie! Delicious, sweet, meat!' Eddie realized his other half was right, and thanked the bear while taking the massive meal. He was oblivious to the flash and click of a camera in the hooves of Fluttershy. He also found it interesting how the animals didn't mind or didn't care about the sudden change to Venom, but would welcome it as he chowed down on the fish.

"Well, the animals certainly seemed to love you."

"I'm still finding feathers all over myself, that really was an odd experience."

The two were walking back to town after Eddie and the symbiote experienced nature's love, literally. That time they stuck to the edges of town to avoid massive crowds, but the buff man still managed to draw the eyes of the ponies. After some time, Eddie recognized the orchard he was at the last time he was in Ponyville. Twilight spoke up, "This is Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack and her family own and run the place." Eddie nodded as they continued down the trail. "This is usually the time Applejack is applebucking, so we might see her somewhere." Sure enough, they soon heard the noise of apple trees being bucked accompanied by many apples falling and landing on a wooden surface. They spotted the farm mare bucking the trees only some yards off, and quickly approached her.

Applejack heard the approaching steps, and paused to look over at the purple alicorn and buff man. She stopped as she smiled and welcomed, "Well, howdy Twilight and Eddie. What're y'all doin' here?"

Twilight returned the expression with, "I've been showing Eddie around Ponyville, and thought showing him the place where the best apples are grown would be a good spot to stop by."

Applejack chuckled as she said with pride, "Darn right. Nopony grows better apples than the Apple family!" She turned to Eddie with the same smile and offered, "Hey, how 'bout ya two try an apple pie? They're just made, and on the house."

He was about to politely decline until the alien within spoke eagerly, 'More food, Eddie!'

'Damn it, you already took the majority of my breakfast, and had a whole fish. How hungry are you?'

'...Is good food... you can have some too, if you want...'

'Fine...'

After his mental debate, Eddie looked down at the farm mare, and replied with a cool smile, "If you're offering, lunch is soon anyways."

Twilight agreed as well, and she nodded as she trotted off to the farm house, Eddie having leaned against one of the many apple trees. He closed his eyes for a small rest, until he heard three, shrill, high voices shout with glee, "Eddie!"

His eyes snapped open as he saw three galloping fillies he hadn't seen in awhile, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They screeched to a halt only a few feet from him, and looked up at him eagerly. Scootaloo was the first to speak, "I heard you fought a hydra! That's so awesome!"

Applebloom was the next to pipe up, "Ah heard ya fought some doohicky that was on fire in Canterlot!" Twilight chuckled at the fillies' antics, as Eddie looked with amusement.

He noticed, however, that Sweetie Belle wasn't as optimistic as her other Crusaders, and even seemed crestfallen. Eddie decided to find out what was wrong, and asked her, "Is something wrong, Sweetie Belle?"

She looked up at him with sad eyes, and said guiltily, "We pinkie promised not to tell anypony about your secret, but we told anyways. The adults wanted us to and said it was okay, but I still feel bad, I'm sorry for breaking our promise."

The other two were infected with her sad state, and began to look down, not able to meet Eddie's gaze.

To their surprise, he softly responded, "It's not your fault, I understand the pressure adults put on their children to tell them something they want to know. All is forgiven."

The three fillies' heads shot up simultaneously with an unbelievable, "Really!?!"

Eddie nodded as the Crusaders became relieved again. Scootaloo eagerly spoke up, "Oh, oh! Could you tell us about one of your awesome adventures?" The other two nodded in agreement, and even Twilight seemed interested about one of Venom's adventures. Eddie looked up in thought, as he thought of a suitable story for foals.

It had to be something quick, so none of the long ones. Something children could like or understand. His team up with the Punisher was something he remembered well, but he was not a character to be associated with children. Spider-Man adventures might have been fine, but they would have likely not understood why Venom was battling a superhero. His team up with Wolverine was one to consider, but also dismissed due to some of the gore in it. The time he and Scream were captured and had to kill a Xenophage was a match to remember, but that might've scared the foals.

And, of course, there was no way in hell he was going to tell foals any story that had Carnage in it, at all. They wanted entertainment, not to be traumatized.

He eventually thought of one of his more recent adventures and picked a rather simple, but fun one, "How about the time I fought a community of dinosaur people, and their leader, Stegron the dinosaur man?" The fillies took in breaths of anticipation, they were clearly eager to hear that one.

So he told of his time of how he started working for Alchemax, how he fought the dinosaur people in the sewers, working together with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, defeating Stegron, and freeing the dinosaur people from his mind control.

"Wow, that was so awesome!"

Applejack appeared with two apple pies, and hooved them to Eddie and Twilight with a, "Here ya go, fresh from the oven!"

He thanked her, and took the pie. He enjoyed it, the symbiote enjoyed it even more, and the fillies loved the story.

He and Twilight gave their goodbyes to them and vice versa as the two exited the orchard.

The day was getting later, and the two were still on a tour around the town. There were much less ponies around than before, but still enough where the effect of stares could be felt by both Eddie and Twilight. That time, they passed by a light purple building that stood at a point, and looked rather fancy. "This is the Carousel Boutique, where my friend Rarity works at and makes clothes." Eddie hummed as they noticed the owner herself towards the entrance and bidding farewell to a customer.

She noticed Eddie and Twilight and waved them over with her hoof with a cool smile. "Twilight, Eddie, what brings you by this time of day?"

"Just showing Eddie around town, is all." Answered Twilight. A thought then entered her mind which caused her to snicker. Both Rarity and Eddie looked at her confused, as she looked between the two with goofy eyes. "Hey, Eddie, could you show her the thing? You know, the thing with the clothes?"

"Whatever do you mean, darling?" Rarity looked over to Twilight with confusion written all over her face, but Eddie nodded, though he didn't see the importance as to why Rarity would be super intrigued by another shape shifting technique of the symbiote.

Rarity was taken aback as his outfit darkened to deepest of blacks, then his fake outfit unraveled and came back down again, but she could only stare with wide eyes as the black tendrils came to be a brown leather jacket with a badge of a white spider, black jeans, black shirt, and a pair of boots. Rarity couldn't believe her eyes, as Twilight snickered at the sight of Rarity's flabbergasted expression, with Brock having one raised eye brow. She locked eyes with Eddie as she shouted, "Again!"

"If you insist." The process was repeated, but the clothes formed a buisness suit and tie, the white spider being part of the tie. Rarity slowly came to Eddie, eyes locked squarely on the fake clothing. Eddie allowed her to reach a hoof to feel the suit, as she kept muttering to herself in awe, as if the suit itself were a holy object.

"Perfect stitching, looks like the material, feels like the material... it's perfect." Eddie understood why Twilight wanted him to show Rarity that, as she still erupted in giggles at the sight. "Oh... how I wish I could get my hooves on one of these symbiotes." Her eyes lit up as she looked at Eddie with a pleading look. "Say, you don't suppose I could--"

"No." Was the firm answer she got.

"B-but I--"

"No means no." She saw that Eddie was frowning with furrowed brows, obviously not giving into her requests.

Rarity sighed with a disappointed, "Fine..." She turned her sights at Twilight, and gave her a glare. "You rose my spirits, Twilight, only for them to get crushed."

Twilight waved a hoof dismissively with a reassured, "Oh, come on, Rarity. You still make the best clothes, you don't need an alien to be with you to get great clothes."

Rarity lightened up at the comment, and reciprocated it with, "Well thank you, Twilight. You know just what to say to make a pony smile." She turned to head into her abode, as she looked back at the two, "I will see you two later. Have a nice time, Eddie." And with that, the two continued on.

The two had seen many other places within the town, and Eddie had to admit, it was a nice little town. The day had gotten much later, and the night was crawling over and onto the horizon. Ponies were beginning to call it a night, and the two decided to head back to the palace. It was a silent walk back, nothing much being said between the pony and the man, as well as the man and the Klyntar.

That silence was interrupted with a, "Hey, egghead!" Eddie and Twilight looked up to see a cyan pegasus hover down in front of the two. She looked over to Eddie and gave a nod of acknowledgement, one he returned, then turned back to her purple friend. "How's it going? I just came by and saw you and came for a quick stop."

"Good so far, I've just been showing--"

Her talk was interrupted by a loud crash, followed by the sound of galloping hooves. The three spun their heads to see one of Ponyville's shops with a busted window, and three ponies with black masks around their faces gallop off with bags of large sums of various treasures.

Rainbow Dash was the first to take action as she shouted to the fleeing ponies, "Hey! That's not yours!" She then took off after the three, as Twilight adopted a scowl and flew off as well.

Eddie sighed, as his symbiotic other questioned, 'Thieves again?'

The symbiote began to cover him as he said, "Better than super villains, at least."

The few ponies on the street looked with panicked faces as the three thieves ran past them with stolen loot.

"Hey, buster!" The thief on the left could barely twist his head to the voice, as a rainbow blur slammed into him and tackled him into the dust. She pinned him down and subdued him as a purple flash emitted in front of the thief on the right.

His eyes rose in panic as he screeched to a halt, and tried to backpedal from the purple alicorn. It was of no use, as Twilight simply levitated him, and cast a small dome to form around him, trapping him. He slammed his hooves against the barrier in a desperate attempt to escape, but to no avail. She repeated the process on the thief which was being pinned by Rainbow Dash. The ponies on the sides watched and cheered on the two Elements, as the two turned their sights to the last thief.

The thief looked back to see he was the last one, as well as two pursuing Elements. He shouted in defiance, "You'll never catch me ali--umph!" The pony slammed into something hard and bounced back into the ground.

"Maybe, but we certainly can."

The thief quickly shook his head, and looked up to see the fierce creature that was Venom. At the sight alone of his teeth that may as well have been daggers, the long twisting and curving tongue with toxic saliva, and the sadistic grin, the thief screamed like a filly and scurried backwards in a futile attempt to escape the Lethal Protector.

The citizens stared at Venom, some screamed, some began breathing rapid and small breaths, others stared in awe and fascination. The terrified thief twisted around and tried to gallop off, but with a 'thwip', the back hooves of the thief were covered in webbing and stuck to the ground. Before the thief could do anything in protest, a thick tendril sprouted from Venom's shoulder and knocked him in the face hard enough to cause him to collapse on the ground unconscious.

Twilight and Rainbow strode over to the defeated thief, with Twilight thanking the Lethal Protector with a smile, "Thanks, you two. Of all the days something had to happen, it had to be today."

"Well, with this dude around," Rainbow pointed a hoof toward Venom, "they chose the wrong day."

Twilight collected the sacks within her magical grasp as she turned around, "I'm going to take these back to where they belong. Eddie, or Venom, you can go ahead and head back to the palace, I'll meet you there. Rainbow, could you get the guards to arrest these ponies?"

Rainbow smirked and saluted before taking off like a rocket, whereas Venom nodded and turned around as he opted to sling across some of the slightly taller buildings via webbing.

When the area was empty of the three, the civilians had different reactions.

"Why didn't the princess stop that thing!?! It's clearly a monster of some kind!" Shouted a mare.

One of the other ponies spun in her direction with an aggressive look as he nearly shouted, "Hey! that 'thing' helped stop those thieves, and then some in Manehattan and Canterlot! Show a bit more respect, would you?" Many of the ponies nodded or mumbled in agreement.

Another pony spoke up, "Yeah, right. Nothing that looks like that could possibly be good. It's probably just a ploy, or something." Fewer of the ponies didn't nod, but considered their words.

"Oh, now that's just stupid. Didn't anypony ever teach you to not judge a book by its cover? 'Sides, I think he actually looks kinda cool."

Both sides argued whether Venom was truly there to protect, or there for some darker purpose. Whatever the ponies thought, the fact couldn't be changed that he has done very good deeds in Equestria. The ponies hoped it would stay that way.

Author's Note

Well guys, another chapter done! Sorry this couldn't come out early like I thought it would, but it's out now. What did you guys think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 12: Nightmare Fuel

The night's darkness had cast its grand shadow over Equestria, as well as Luna's moon shining high in the sky. Most, if not all the ponies had gone inside for dinner, relaxation, or to call it a night. At Twilight's palace, she and Spike were having dinner with their guest, Eddie Brock. "So," Spike continued even as he jammed his face full of salad, "There was a robbery or something earlier?"

Eddie nodded as he took another bite of the salad. Twilight answered with a slight tone of displeasure, "Unfortunately, yes." Her attitude changed to a lighter one with, "But we, along with Rainbow Dash stopped them. The stolen items were returned, the bad ponies were imprisoned, and the owners were very thankful!" She finished with a smile almost like Pinkie's.

Spike shoved down the last bits of his supper down his throat before speaking, "Well, glad that everything turned out all good." He turned his head to Eddie with a smirk, "But you probably deal with stuff like that a lot, I bet?"

Eddie scoffed and looked at the drake as if he asked him if he could lift. "Are you kidding? Dealing with petty thieves is a much welcome break when compared to what usually happens back on Earth."

"Oh yeah," Spike brought a claw to his chin as he reasoned, "You probably face a lot of super villains, but that's gotta be fun!"

Eddie scoffed yet again as he finished up his salad. "You deal with that kind of stuff all the time, you won't be thinking that."

Spike opened his mouth and raised a claw in the air to offer a rebuttal, but sagged when he couldn't find any in his mind. "Yeah, okay, good point."

Eddie stood up as he took his bowl in hands, "Enjoy your days off, kid. You never know where life will throw you the next moment."

Twilight levitated Eddie's empty dish out of his hands, as well as hers and Spike's. "Oh, you mean like getting thrown into a completely different dimension where you're the only one of your kind there?" She asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

The buff man lightly raised a finger at her point with an, "Exactly."

Spike hopped out of his seat as he collected the dishes from Twilight and went to wash them. When he left, Eddie released a yawn from his lips. Twilight looked up at him with a smile, "Tired?"

Eddie began to stride down the hall to his room as he looked back at the princess, "Like I said, Twilight. You never know where life might throw you next, so I'm taking advantage of times like these. Goodnight, and thanks again for the tour of Ponyville, it's a nice little town."

Twilight waved her hoof with, "It was no trouble at all. Have a good night rest, Eddie."

He waved back as he continued on, and eventually came to his room in the palace. The symbiote uncovered its guise as simple clothes and withdrew into Eddie. He went into the bathroom it had, and did all the nightly procedures everyone should do before they head to bed; the toothbrushes meant for ponies worked just fine for human teeth as well. When he was done, he briefly discussed with his other half, "Tonight, when I sleep, you know what you should do?"

'Install an even bigger lock on your door?' It spoke with tints of excitement.

Eddie sighed and shook his head as he crawled under the covers of his bed. "No. I was actually going to suggest you let Princess Luna in if she does come this time, she might've came for something last time, all right?"

'...Fine.'

Eddie nodded as he shut his eyes, and began to embrace the sweet sensation of sleep. Soon thereafter, Eddie would dream.

It was around midnight, and everypony had gone asleep by that time, with the exception of a few late-night workers.
Everything in Ponyville and around was in dead silence under Luna's night. It was the perfect time to strike.

It had waited a day to observe the odd creature, for it had never seen anything so strong, so bizarre, so spectacular, so powerful.

The creature would make a great asset to help achieve its goal.

It had waited for night, as it would be the perfect conditions to dominate the beast. Nopony up and around, not even the pathetic Princess of Friendship or her purple gecko would be able to listen, nor help.

It could have dominated any creature, such as the ones from the Everfree, and it required a bit of skill for sapient ones, but they were definitely more effective. So when the odd creature came in Canterlot and showed what it was capable of, it had to have the creature. Though the chances weren't likely, in case Luna were to have come to Ponyville as it was in the process of making the creature its servant, it spread many things of nightmare fuel into the dreams of many around, as a sure way to buy it all the time it needed and even more.

It had waited enough, and it began to slink through the doors of the palace. It went along without a sound, as if it were a shadow itself. It slowly moved down the hall, the one with the creature residing in one of the rooms. There, it spotted a door cracked open unlike the others along the corridor. With no noise having been emitted, it opened the door and came in to see the odd creature sleeping soundly in a bed. It approached with eagerness, ready to have the beast as its own.

It fascinated it, really. A beast with two skins, two sides, two different things. All the more reason to have it.

As it came up to the bed, it began blooming a small amount of smoke. The small trail of smoke curved in the air, and carefully made gentle movements as it began digging into the creature's ear, slowly making its way to the brain.

The creature flinched slightly, but stayed asleep all the same.

It had completed the first step of the plan, the next step of it was to commence.

Observe.

The day had been an excellent one so far. The Daily Globe was bustling with papers, papers that were not only printed a few hours before, but was the number one selling paper at the time. Employees all over the floor, the whole building for that matter, were scrambling around with the papers in hand with special tasks. Whether it was to deliver them, sell them, or display them, all those papers had a purpose.

Every worker was exhausted because of all the work, but there was one man who wasn't tired or stressed like the others. No, instead that man was almost the opposite: excited, happy, and overdosed with joy. During that moment, that man was on top of the world. He was wearing a blue suit and tie as per dress code at his little cubicle of the floor, staring at the screen of the Daily Globe website that was displaying how many copies of the papers were being sold. The reason that man was so overjoyed?

He was the one responsible for the article on the papers.

The journalist had been at that very case for a long time, but it was well worth it to him. It first came to note to him when a serial killer, the Sin-Eater, made himself known. Sure, he was no mutant, freak of nature, or some crazed scientist with a death machine, but the Sin-Eater had been very erratic with his killing spree, and was a growing threat to New York. The journalist supposed that that's what drew him to the case in the first case. He always loved to report a good story, the "big scoop", but there was another reason he did what he did.

All the rotten criminals could be caught by superheroes, sure. But exposing them to the public, to the whole world? Not only would the police be on them faster than they could react, but the public would do everything in their power as well to shut them down. Superheroes were great at stopping threats, but exposing them would completely eradicate the threat.

So when the Sin-Eater became more popular, the journalist kept him in mind in case he ever found a way to expose him. He wasn't his primary concern during his first appearance, however. No, it was the fact that, no matter how hard he tried to not be depressed or remind himself, he had been diagnosed with adrenal cancer. The doctor was brutally honest with him and told him he had about six through nine months left to live, and would take a miracle to cure it. So, he had spent the remainder of his time with his wife and trying to find that "big scoop" before he went down.

One day, he received a letter by a man who claimed to be the Sin-Eater. The letter said that he killed Detective Jean Dewolff, and to call him at a pay booth. The journalist was confused, and didn't know if he should have believed it or not; until reports came in of a dead Dewolff. He complied and contacted the man who claimed to be the infamous Sin-Eater. The man told him his name was Gregg, and that he was the one responsible for all the murders, and more. At first, the journalist didn't believe him. But Gregg told him details and patterns he had done with the murders that the journalist himself made connections to. When he asked him why he was telling him this, Gregg told him that he wanted his story to be told, his half of the story to be known.

The journalist was hesitant, but after convincing and persuasion, he gave in.

A couple days after that, the journalist released an article making sense of the Sin-Eater, and the whole time the writing was alluding to who the killer was, but not confirming at all. Those papers sold well, and soon afterwards, his boss, police, and father demanded that they tell reveal who the Sin-Eater was.

The journalist complied, he wanted the public to know after all. He didn't understand why the Sin-Eater wanted to be turned in, but perhaps it was for forgiveness. The journalist was Christian, after all.

The paper that was selling so much that time was the one about the Sin-Eater, and revealing who he was. The man was so proud of himself, to him it was his last greatest achievement before he would move on to a better place. He himself looked at a copy of the paper with a proud smile, staring at the name of the man who wrote it.

Eddie Brock.

The number of copies being sold was only growing, and the people of couldn't stop eating it up. He even planned to take his beloved wife out on dinner for celebration.

His daydreaming was interrupted when a co-worker broke him out of his trance by informing, "Hey, Brock, the boss wants to see you." Eddie blinked a couple of times before looking to his co-worker, who he noted had a tint of worry on his face. Eddie passed it off as he thanked the man and began the trek to his boss' office. He had various thoughts of what his boss could have called him for. Was it to congratulate him? To thank him? Give him a raise? Whatever it was, Eddie thought it would only be great news. On his way, he couldn't help but notice one worker out of the corner of his eye staring at him with sympathy. When Brock asked him if he was alright, the man sighed and shook his head, telling him it was all right. Eddie usually would've drove further to see what was up, but he had a place to be.

When he reached his boss' office, he took a breath for preparation while wearing a calm and collected expression, and knocked on the door. "Come in." Was the firm reply he received. He briefly wondered why his boss sounded that way, but thought he usually sounded like that anyway. He obeyed and came into his office, where there was his boss, a bald man with some brown hair growing on the sides along with side burns, glasses, a suit, a mustache, and a look of disappointment on his face.

Eddie began to become concerned, but that was not enough to shake his happiness in him. He took a seat, and his boss began the conversation. "Do you know why I called you here, Brock?"

Eddie was still excited, but controlled himself and spoke in a professional manner, "No, sir."

His boss shifted a computer monitor on his desk to face Eddie. He leaned in as saw Emil Gregg being arrested by the police at some rural district. "It's your source, Emil Gregg, he got arrested for trying to assassinate J. Jonah Jameson early in the morning."

Eddie thought he knew what his boss was going for, and stood up as he said, "I'll go to the courthouse to talk to him, I'm the only person he'll talk to--"

He was cut off by his boss with a stern, "Shut up, Eddie. Let me show you someone else. Tell me, does this man look familiar to you?"

Eddie wasn't understanding why his boss seemed so have a calm anger within him, but it was starting to make him nervous. The picture on the screen changed at a click of the mouse from his boss, to show him a picture that made him confused, appalled, worried, and even afraid.

There were two pictures on the screen. On the left half was the Sin-Eater in his outfit. A tan overcoat, brown jeans, and work shoes, with his iconic lime-green mask with angled slits for the eyes to see through. The picture on the right held the image of the Sin-Eater unmasked; there was just one thing that Eddie's mind couldn't wrap around.

That man wasn't Emil Gregg.

Eddie's mind began racing back in forth as to what he thought it could mean. He was getting the idea of what that meant, but he didn't want it to be true. "No... who--"

Eddie's denying mumbling was interrupted as his boss filled him in on crucial information. "That is Detective Stan Carter, he worked with Jean Dewolff. Spider-Man caught him just an hour ago trying to break into Jameson's vacation home."

Eddie's heart was beating rapidly, and showed no signs of stopping. That couldn't be true, he tried to tell himself. He tried to tell himself that was some cruel joke his boss was pulling. He tried to think he somehow heard and saw wrong at the same. He tried so hard to tell himself that his last great achievement was false, that he would pass away as a failure. It didn't help him that his boss continued the onslaught of words shredding his soul to pieces, bit by bit.

"Your source? He was the delusional neighbor to Stan Carter, police suspect he must've found out who he was, but wanted to pretend to be him for some reason." Eddie took one last desperate attempt to somehow mentally survive the barrage of soul crushing news, but his boss would not give. "He's the real Sin-Eater, Eddie. Your guy was just some copycat."

Eddie opened his mouth to say something, anything, to save him at all. How could that have happened? It wasn't supposed to be that way. His mind searched and raced as fast as his heart was, but found nothing to save him. His boss was silent only for a moment with his heavy frown and knitted brows, until he spoke only a few words that took part in destroying Eddie Brock.

"Clear out your desk, Brock. You're fired."

When Brock exited the office, his former co-workers saw he had a look of complete apathy on his face, but his face betrayed what he was really feeling at that moment: Anger, sadness, bitterness, depression, all the dim emotions like those. Some of his former co-workers who knew wanted to apologize to him, to tell him how sorry they were that that had to happen to him, to comfort him in his time of life that was already depressing. None of them found it in themselves to be able to do it, for Eddie just didn't want to be reminded of his failure at something he was best at. As we was begrudgingly packing his office without the optimism he had only minutes before, he heard a chuckle.

It wasn't usually an off sound in that floor, but something about it was odd. It came from everywhere at once, and bounced off all the walls and cubicles. He looked up from his task and rotated his head this way and that, but couldn't find the source. He returned to his task with a sad sigh. Only a few seconds later, a chuckle resonated again within the floor. The irritated ex-journalist got up and looked around with a glare, ready to give whoever was emitting the obnoxious laughter a piece of his mind, until he caught something at the windows.

He looked with squinted eyes, as he thought he saw that day had suddenly turned to night. He was about to question the odd occurrence, until upon further inspection, he saw not the night with the moon shining high in the sky, but a sea of black smoke of some kind, completely drowning out the sun's light. His eyes widened when the smoke unexpectedly rushed the windows and broke through them with a loud 'krtash!', the pieces of glass spraying all over the floor. Eddie would have shouted to a person in the office on what the hell that was, but a spin of his head revealed that everyone in the floor suddenly up and disappeared.

Brock slowly backed away from the smog, eyes wide, unblinking, and never having left the oddity before him. To his surprise and fear, another chuckle resonated from within the black cloud before him. Adding on to the scale, a voice hit Brock's ears from the smoke. "Well, well, well. Eddie Brock, is it? An odd name, but I won't mind." The voice was male for sure, but was almost vibrating, making the smoke sound that much more intimidating than it already was.

Brock managed to stutter out as he took more steps back, "W-what are you...?"

The smoke chuckled once more as it began creeping towards Brock, "That is a good question, but it won't matter. Soon, you shall refer to me as your master." As the entity finished, twelve, thin, wisps of smoke shot out right for the startled Eddie. Before he could so much as yelp, each wisp wrapped itself around either an ankle or a wrist, and slammed him into the furthest wall. He screwed his eyes and grunted in pain from the impact, and opened his eyes to see the dark cloud feet from his face, stalking towards him.

It chuckled again as it spoke to him again, "You are indeed an interesting one, and by this dream you had, I take it you're not from Equestria." Brock tried to push against the strands of smoke holding him, but to no avail, and was forced to listen. "That must be terrible, being on top of the world one moment, only to stumble to rock bottom."

Eddie continued to resist the smoke strands holding him as he shouted, "What do you want!?!"

The smoke gave off another chuckle that Eddie was quickly growing to hate, as he said, "What do I want? I want you." Eddie took a pause from resisting and stared at the black cloud with confusion and trepidation. "What you did in Canterlot was remarkable, I had never seen anything as great as you, and I just knew I had to have you to serve me. You will be a great help to me." Another wisp of smoke wavered out of the dark cloud, and stalked towards Eddie's face. Eddie watched the approaching wisp with nervousness, and thrashed against the smoke harder than before, but only gained the same results as before. The strand of smoke hovered down to his neck, and crawled along his skin up his face as the smoke spoke once again, "The princesses are pathetic rulers. Celestia was always too soft, which is why she always has to get help from her subjects to do her job of keeping Equestria controlled. Luna had committed great treason because the big baby was upset that everypony sleeps at night. Those are just two reasons of many," Brock looked from the corner of his eye as the wisp on his face quickly approached his ear. "But with you, I can get rid of those two miserable 'rulers' easily. Things will be how they once were, and you will be my ultimate weapon."

Eddie grunted as the wisp drove into his ear, and started to move about. Thoughts entered his head, thoughts of loyally serving the entity before him, to do his every command, obey every order, and take out the princesses, whoever they were. The process of domination was interrupted by a surprised, startled, and furious voice. "What the!?!"

The wisps and the movement of the smoke stopped, as the smoke asked to himself, "What? How are the memories still active?" Eddie managed to twist his head to the right to see something that made his jaw drop. A scrawny, black, humanoid thing with an enormous white spider etched onto its torso and back, and a furious expression on its face.

It pointed a claw out and shouted aggressively, "You're not the pony princess!"

The smoke retaliated, "And who the tartarus are you?" He received his answer in the form of the symbiote's enlarged fist slamming into the smoke, driving it off of Eddie, and slamming it through many cubicles, until it smashed into a wall. Eddie fell against the wall as he began panting, and looked at the symbiote. Suddenly, he remembered everything, and how the event he was experiencing happened long ago. As the realization struck him, he sighed and rubbed a hand against his forehead, muttering, "Fucking dreams..."

The symbiote looked over to Brock, arms still raised in a fighting posture, and asked with it still having had an aggressive expression, "Eddie, all right? What happened? That's not pony princess!"

Eddie stood up as he dusted himself off, "Yeah, yeah. Everything was okay until that thing showed up."

Eddie went to stand by the symbiote's side as they prepared to fight the smoke, "And it's definitely not Princess Luna."

They stood ready as the smog released a roar of rage into the room. "You dare attack me!?! You are but speck to me!"

As he finished, the smoke started to divide into smaller forms, those forms dividing, and so on. The process stopped until there were about a dozen or so smoke figures that took a humanoid shape, with sharp claws raised right at them, prepared for battle.

The symbiote looked to Brock with, "Can you fight them?"

Brock nodded while replying, "I wasn't as fit as when I was at the Daily Bugle, but now that I'm back to normal..." Indeed, Brock's usual muscle mass had returned to him after remembering the events and realizing he was experiencing a dream.

The smoke figures rushed them with silent roars, claws outstretched, half at the symbiote, half to Eddie. When three of the shadowy figures ganged up on the symbiote, stretched its jaw to proportions most would have thought impossible, and brought it down on three of the unfortunate shadowy figures. While it was chewing on them, Eddie picked up a pair of scissors from a nearby table by the blades, threw it like a throwing knife, and hit one of the figures square in the head, causing it to dissipate into smaller strands of smoke that slithered in many directions. Eddie rushed ahead and grabbed a stool as he charged a rushing shadow figure. It leaped with outstretched claws, but Eddie batted it out of track with the stool as it smashed into many pieces against it. The figure landed below the symbiote, where the symbiote shoved its claws through the shadow's face, and forced it to dissipate into wisps that retreated to the corners of the dream.

Another smoke being rushed for Brock, who was wielding a broken leg of the stool in one hand with the broken and sharp part pointed outward. Eddie did the same and charged towards the smoke being that was outstretching its claws. As the shadowy figure was about to pounce the man, Eddie's speed suddenly doubled as he rammed the figure with his shoulder, effectively shoulder checking it. It was sailing with a silent yelp before it busted a table with its own impact. Before it could get up, Eddie rushed over and brought the leg of the stool down into its torso, causing it to silently scream before vanishing into wisps of smoke.

Unknown to Eddie, a shadowy figure had silently crept behind, and prepared to bring down the buff man with a finishing slash. Unfortunately for it, its plan was foiled when it heard a snarl, and turned its head only to be tackled down by the symbiote. Eddie heard, and turned around to see the symbiote slashing into the thing's face with its superior claws, causing it to join its brethren as wisps. Another one tried to impale the symbiote from behind, but without turning its head, it conjured up a black spike that sprouted from its back, and impaled the smoke being perfectly through the head. It stood with a scowl as it grabbed the last shadowy figure with one clawed hand before lifting it in the air, and impaled it through its torso with the other clawed hand.

Eddie and his other half looked around the wrecked floor for any other shadowy beings or smoke figures, but were relieved when none were found. Eddie huffed with a frown as he spoke, "I think we showed that idiot- whoever he or it was- not to screw with my mind."

The symbiote grinned and bobbed its head up and down with an excited, "Stupid dream invaders, how much will we have to teach them until learned?" It looked to Eddie with narrowed eyes. "Told you bigger lock was a good idea."

Before Eddie could counter, a pitiless chuckle resonated through the floor, causing Eddie's eyes to widen and the symbiote to adopt a scowl with all its teeth visible. "Pathetic..." As it finished, strands of smoke shot out of everywhere at once, and shot down to the ground. When they hit, shadowy figures spawned, the only difference being there were much more than before. A lot more. Eddie and the symbiote looked around themselves as the whole floor was being filled with foes of smoke, preparing themselves for another fight. "It's such a shame. You would have been a great warrior, but it appears that this thing ruined that. Oh, well. I can still get the job done, and with you out of the way, it'll be that much easier. Good bye, Eddie Brock and... you."

Without warning, all the shadowy figures leaped, rushed, and charged towards the vastly outnumbered duo.

"Shit!" Was the last thing Eddie shouted before he and the symbiote were tackled down by a mass of smoke people.

Eddie thought that claws would impale them, or that teeth would sink into him, but before that happened, he and the symbiote managed to see through the cracks a bright, white, light. "Leave this dream at once!" Was what they heard, before the light intensified, and appeared to burn the smoke beings in agony, until they were nothing. Eddie had covered his eyes, and the symbiote stood up to see what had happened with a confused expression.

It heard the same voice as before, but startled, "What!?! You!?! It couldn't have been that long!"

The symbiote looked around, until its eyes fell upon the one who saved them. Its jaw slackened when it saw Princess Luna, looking around the floor with a glare, and steam coming from her horn. The symbiote almost smiled from relief. Almost. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but... glad you're here!"

Luna, still having searched the dream for the one who invaded Eddie's dream, responded with a slightly surprised, "Wow, never thought I'd hear that from you."

"Don't get used to it. One time thing."

When Eddie cleared the light from his eyes, he too saw the Princess of the Night, and nodded his head in appreciation. "Thanks for the backup, princess."

Before Luna could have replied, the trio spun their heads to the sound of something akin to steam hissing, and saw the same black cloud as from before. Luna's eyes widened as she recognized it as the same black cloud from Canterlot. Her eyes narrowed and she took a step forward as she demanded, "You! Who are you, why are you here, and what were trying to do back at Canterlot?"

To her frustration, the smoke was silent for a moment, until it promised, "This is not the end." Suddenly, the black cloud itself formed the door to Eddie's dream, and rushed out within the span of two second, though Luna managed to land a shot on the black cloud. She tried chasing after it, but the door vanished as soon as it closed.

Luna grunted then sighed, irked that the entity had gotten away. Eddie approached the princess as he asked, "Princess, who or what was that thing?"

She sighed as she brought a hoof to her forehead before replying, "I wish I knew, but whoever it was, was definitely responsible for all that has recently happened in Canterlot." The symbiote joined them while staring at the spot where the smog disappeared with a growl. "However," Brock and the symbiote looked at her puzzled as she spoke with more optimism, "before it left, I hit it with a tracking spell. It's not permanent, but I can pin the location of wherever it may be at. Meaning, my sister and I, along with the Elements can bring the fight to it." She finished with a look of determination.

An irked symbiote piped up, "What about us? It attacked us, we should get to squash it!"

Eddie spoke after him, "I agree, we can help you guys with this."

Luna shook her head and refused, "While I appreciate the gesture, I can't allow it. You have already done enough, and you won't be needed." Eddie and the symbiote wanted to protest, but reluctantly agreed; one with a cross of its arms, the other with a nod of his head. Luna sighed as she looked to Eddie once more. "I would've been here sooner had I known, that and all the other dreams in Ponyville were plagued with nightmares. I apologize for not arriving soon enough."

Eddie shook his head with, "There's no need. None of us knew this was going to happen."

The symbiote spoke up, "Which is why I wanted a bigger lock on door."

Eddie ignored his other's thought while Luna rolled her eyes. The door to Eddie's dream reappeared soon, and Luna strolled over to it. She opened it before looking back at the duo with a, "Though your dreams may not have been pleasant tonight, I wish you a good night's rest." And with that, the Princess of the Night left Eddie's dream.

The man at the computer scrolled through various images on his screen, until his head dropped with a sigh. He turned around to look up to the man who, despite wearing a mask, had a clear expression of worry on his face. The man shook his head and spoke dimly, "We've been at it for days, but there's still no sign of an Edward Charles Allen Brock."

"Nothing at all?" Asked the masked hero above him.

"No, and neither have they." The man waved his arm across the room to various other people at computers, who were trying to find Eddie through any means. "S.H.I.E.L.D is looking for Eddie as well. Actually, they've always had eyes out when they heard that Flash no longer had the Venom symbiote." He sighed and continued, "S.H.I.E.L.D couldn't find him, police couldn't, bounty hunters didn't have much luck as well, and we certainly have no clue where he is at."

The masked hero sighed as he looked down at the papers on the desk. Venom's disappearance had caused quite a ruckus, and many agencies went looking for him, though it was probably so they knew he was in prison or locked up. The man at the desk spoke up again, "I'm sorry we couldn't do much, Spider-Man."

The Amazing Spider-Man shook his head and replied, "You all did what you could. If Eddie's nowhere to be found, then..." The man dipped his head, both in concern and respect for a man who might not have made it. Spider-Man sadly thought to himself, and perhaps to Eddie, 'It doesn't sound good for you, Brock. I still don't trust you or exactly like you, but I know you were really trying to make a change. So, if you really are gone... then may you find peace and happiness in a better place.'

The silence was cut when a man opened a door to the computer lab, looking around. When his eye's fell on Spider-Man, he held a phone out with one hand. "Spider-Man? It's for you. It's S.H.I.E.L.D."

Spider-Man strode forward as his quip-attitude returned, and said, "Someone wants to talk to little ol' me, huh?" He thanked the man as he took the phone from him.

"Hello? Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man speaking, you wanted to talk to me?"

The voice at the other end was male, fast, and straight to the point. "I came to talk to you. Something popped up relating to Venom."

Spider-Man's tone switched to a serious one as he asked, "Did you find him?"

"No," Spider-Man's hopes nearly deflated, but the man continued, "But it has to do with the teleportation device that sent him somewhere."

"What about it?"

"I don't know how smart you are, so I'm going to dumb it down. When something teleports via that device, it leaves an energy trail we can track."

Spider-Man's hopes were reignited, as he spoke with that hope, "And you're finding him with it?"

"Well, that's the thing. The trail vanished... from this plain..."

Spider-Man had a heavy feeling in his gut, he had a pretty good idea what the man was on about.

"So... what does that mean?"

"Well, we're still tracking it down through many ways. It's slow, but working." The man on the other end chuckled, "Scientists here have a pretty good theory of where Venom went." He snickered as he said, "Tell me, Spidey, have you ever traveled through different dimensions before?"

The eyes on Spider-Man's mask widened in correspondence with his actual eyes, as he could only say, "Aw, crap."

Author's Note

Another one done!

Chapter 13: Smokey Trails

The time was close to morning, the sun waiting to be raised by Celestia. Most ponies were still asleep at that hour, with a few "early birds" around to perform early morning tasks. It was the same in Ponyville, with its citizens enjoying their last bits of slumber. The Palace of Friendship held two sleeping forms withing it at the time: one of them a small drake that loves naps as much as gems, and a human who had a rather unique dream that night. Those two were sleeping peacefully, holding on to the warm embrace of slumber before the day finally would have come around.

There were two others as well, though awake. There was the man's other half, his symbiote; though, it doesn't sleep like most organisms do, its almost always awake . It was watching over the man's mind, and making sure it had plenty of backup locks. The other one awake was the Princess of Friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle. Instead of performing stagnant tasks or activities like the other three in the palace, she was galloping down the hall to Eddie's room as fast as her hooves could take her. She was alerted by Princess Luna in her dreams moments ago about what had transpired, and informed her it would be best to check the palace for any signs of danger and her guest as well. Luna had hoped Twilight wouldn't overwork herself when she awoke, but Twilight is known well for doing just that.

She was panicked as she saw black cinder spread across the hall like some scribbling done by a foal, and even more so when she saw it lead into Eddie's room. On her way, she shouted, "Eddie! Eddie!" She burst through the door into his room of a slumbering Eddie, but either ignored that or didn't notice as she grasped him with telekinetic magic, lifted him off the bed, and rapidly shook him back and forth. "Eddie! Are you all right!?!"

Eddie might have slept in late that day, but unfortunately for him, a certain purple alicorn brought him a rough awakening. As soon as he was pushed an pulled in midair, his eyes snapped open as he sputtered gibberish, still trying to comprehend what was happening and why he awoke so soon. When Twilight saw that Eddie was awake and appeared unharmed to her, she stopped the violent shaking and dropped him back to his bed with a sigh of relief. She spoke with that same relief in her voice, unaware of Brock's startled, tired, and confused state of mind, "Oh, thank Celestia you're all right. As soon as Luna told me what happened, well, I was pretty worried."

Eddie had finally regained coherent thought after the plummet to his bed, and understood what Twilight said. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes with his hands as he groggily mumbled, "I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't need to shake me like a chew toy."

Twilight held an awkward expression on her face as looked away and scratched the back of her neck with a, "Oops... sorry."

Eddie rubbed a hand through his hair and held his other hand up as he shook it. "It's fine." He looked up and saw the black marks against the floors and wall of the room, and a trail that lead to the head of his bed. "What the hell did this?" he muttered to himself.

Twilight shook her head with a sigh as she replied, "We don't really know yet, just that its the same thing that attacked the princesses at Canterlot." her dreary mood changed to a hopeful one with an eager smile working on her face, "However, Princess Luna managed to track it to a small city not far from here, and I've been requested by her to get the girls ready."

Eddie began stretching his arms as he asked, "And how soon would that be?"

"Well, it depends how fast I can get Rainbow to wake up. She can be a pain to wake from her naps and sleep, you know."

Eddie nodded his head as he grabbed the wrangled covers and tried to situate them in the same state before his rude awakening. "Well, good luck on catching whoever or whatever it is, but I'm returning to sleep. I was told to stay here, after all."

Twilight turned and trotted over to the door with a chuckle. "You're just like Spike when it comes to sleep."

Eddie buried his face into the soft and welcoming pillow as he mumbled, "That's because most people don't want to wake up this damn early in the morning." With that, Eddie had begun to gain some extra hours of sleep.

"All right girls, ready to deal with this once and for all?" Twilight had finished gathering the rest of her friends at the edge of Ponyville, and was mentally double checking a list for things to be prepared for, what to do, what might happen, etc. Getting them was a simple task, but she had to take some more time getting Rainbow Dash out of her bed and woken up. They all were a little groggy, but re-energized themselves to prepare to go after the thing that had not only caused the Everfree invasion and attacked Eddie in his dreams, but attacked the princesses themselves. They knew that it was time to take it down.

They had a hot air balloon next to them to take them to their destination. It usually wasn't the fastest method of transportation, but with Twilight's modification of spells and magic, its speed would be tripled. To answer Twilight's question, they each nodded their heads with their own words of confidence to go along with it.

"Time to give this freak the beat down of the year!" Rainbow Dash emphasized her point with a grin and punching her two fore hooves together.

"This varmant's gonna pay fer all the trouble it's caused!" Applejack finished with knitted brows and thoughts of how to repay the thing in kind for all it had done.

"That ruffian will finally get what it deserves!" Rarity finished with a huff.

"How could somepony force those poor animals to go into war?" Fluttershy looked toward the Everfree forest, feeling sympathy for the animals that had to fight against their will.

"Ooh! Maybe after this, I can finally throw that party for Eddie and... still thinking of a name, but the symbiote will have one!" Pinkie finished with her signature grin and reaching a hoof into the infinite abyss that was her mane, and pulled out a steel baseball bat with barbed wire and tacks all over it.

The other ponies looked at Pinkie with wide eyes, Fluttershy asking everypony's thoughts, "Pinkie... w-why do you have that?"

Pinkie Pike stuffed her bat back into her mane as she giggled like a little filly. "Well Fluttershy, sometimes you can't beat 'em with kindness."

After a few moments of awkward silence and staring, Rainbow Dash had decided to move things along. "Oookay... Twilight, didn't you say Princess Luna would be coming with us?"

The Princess of Friendship stopped staring at Pinkie and looked over to the cyan pegasus as she answered her question, "Yes, she said she would be meeting us there to help."

"But what about Princess Celestia?"

Twilight shook her head while informing them, "She can't. Not only is day court about to begin, or already has, its really not a good idea to have both princesses away from Canterlot at once while a threat like this is still loose." Twilight's approached the basket of the hot air balloon, and opened it with her magic, as she waved her friends in with a hoof. "Come on girls, lets finish this."

They all clambered aboard, and once everypony was set, Twilight increased the flame under the balloon to get their transportation to rise. Then, the balloon started floating much higher and increasing speed, starting their trip to find the smoke creature.

By the time Eddie and Spike awoke, the sun had been raised, and ponies had begun to set out daily chores and work. Ponyville wasn't an exception, and ponies had set out their vendors, all prepared on selling daily goods. Being freshly and properly awoken, Eddie sought out breakfast for himself in the palace. By then, the familiar sensation of black strings crawled out of an around him, only to form regular morning clothes like lounge pants and a robe. He and Spike both met in the kitchen, and agreed to make some breakfast together. That time, they had scrambled eggs with green peppers to fill them up. They chatted and ate, nothing special going on during the time. When they finished, Spike said he was going to do chores, and Eddie opted to find some activity to pass time.

Eventually, Eddie figured that a simple stroll outside would help the time pass. He exited the palace after the symbiote re-converged on him with a simple white T-shirt and jeans, both awaiting of what that day had in store for them.

Brock stood at the front of the palace as he took in a breath of the crisp air, scanning from left to right to find a good path to walk down. He decided to head towards the edge of town, as there were less ponies there. He didn't mind the ponies, but he didn't want to amass a large crowd that would follow him around like before. There were some ponies that stopped and stared with various looks in their eyes, but he paid no attention. He was on a walk, and he didn't want it to be interrupted.

His thoughts drifted to Earth, and how he got to Equestria. He thought of all his times on Earth, as Venom, both as the enemy to Spider-Man, and as the Lethal Protector. Though Spider-Man and Venom weren't as big as rivals as they once were, and perhaps could be considered uneasy allies, they still didn't exactly like or trust each other. Only when big tasks called it could they be seen fighting side by side.

Usually web slinging as Venom would help clear both Eddie's and the symbiote's mind, but not only were there too little supply of structures, they weren't all that tall to swing across like they usually would have at their home.

Home.

Eddie lived in a rather poor apartment, though he got a job in journalism not long before that payed well. He lived in a rather large city, always bustling with people and activities twenty-four/seven. There were people there that gave Eddie different impressions all the time. Sometimes he thought they were flat out idiots, others were wise, and some gave him hope for the future, even if they didn't intend it. A lot of the times when Eddie went to sleep, he could swear that the symbiote would slink out of him and turn on the television. Though Eddie didn't think it did that for the entertainment, although it could definitely be amused; when Brock first bonded with the symbiote, beyond the mutual hatred they shared for the webhead, he could feel its curiosity, its desire to learn. Perhaps it watched the television when Eddie slumbered for knowledge.

Where he lived and the area surrounding it, it was in some sort of danger a lot of the times. Whether it would be in the form of simple petty crooks, or some sort of super-human out for his blood. It was a rough place. He didn't have many friends there, his father and sister were about his only family left, though they haven't spoken to each other in a long time, and last he spoke to his father, it ended coldly. Not to mention, the majority of the public saw Venom as a threat, a demon out for blood despite the changes that the wicked webslinger had done or tried to make for good; though, Eddie and the symbiote were thankful that there were at least a few people that appreciated them. Even if the public might have feared Venom or have preferred an 'official' hero, Venom would still defend the innocent.

It might not have been a pleasant place, but it was his place, his city, his home. He didn't think he would ever think it, but at that moment, Eddie was beginning to miss home.

'Sad, Eddie?' Spoke his other half, who could feel Eddie's emotions during that moment.

Eddie sighed as he admitted, "I guess I'm a bit homesick, despite home being a shit hole most of the time."

He could feel the symbiote's emotions correspond with his as it spoke within him, 'Miss it as well. Many opportunities to be a hero, many fun experiences. No Luna there, too.'

Eddie hadn't noticed that they were out of Ponyville and in a flat field with only grass and the train tracks not far behind them. He continued ahead as he asked, "What is it you have against her? I know what she tried that one time, but it was an accident."

'Annoying, coming into your head without permission, also annoying.' Eddie was about to say something, but his symbiote suddenly and firmly said, 'There's something to our right.' Eddie swiveled his head to his right to see something that caused his eyes to narrow and the symbiote to growl. Above the land, high in the sky, floating in the air, was a cloud of black smoke. It was sailing at a fast pace, and soared past the two along the tracks further down.

Eddie watched with a frown as he asked, "Do you think it is what I think it is?"

'Has to be.'

Eddie began to head towards the cloud as he continued, "But I thought that Princess Luna tracked it down into some other place? And where the hell's it going?"

'Only one way to find out.' As soon as the symbiote finished, the false clothing molded into the same black tar-like substance, and converged all around Eddie like darkness consuming light, along with the other features of them becoming one.

Venom sprinted after the cloud, but not only was it surprisingly fast, it was too far above the ground to do much to it. When they were about to curse their luck, they spun their head left as they heard a whistle going off, and to see a train departing Ponyville in the same direction as the black cloud was going.

Venom grinned as his eyes twisted and curved in a way that spoke of pleasure, as he quickly dashed to the train before it could gain too much speed. "At the rate we're riding trains without tickets, we might be considered hobos!" When the train was gaining much more momentum and Venom was only yards away from it, he stuck his left arm out as a line of webbing shot out from the back of his clawed hand and connected to one of the train cars. Venom was immediately yanked off his feet and hanging on the web with both hands as the train's speed kept increasing. He quickly landed on all fours on the side of the train, and crawled to the top of the train. The Lethal Protector narrowed his eyes at the black smog soaring in the air, their speeds matching the other's. "Once we catch you, we're gonna be sure to rip out your insides."

The day had been calm despite what she knew might've gone down. She looked around her to see her dozen Lunar guards she had brought with her. She was sure that she herself and the Elements of Harmony would have been enough to deal with the threat, but her sister implored her to bring at least a few. The Princess of the Night and her guards were at the edge of the city, herself scanning for where the pony or thing that had caused all the smoke might have been at. She didn't know why the pony or whatever chose a city, albeit a rather small one, as a form of hideout; though, she supposed it went a long time without getting caught, so it must have hidden well. Unfortunately for it, nothing could hide from Princess Luna.

The process was slow, but she was beginning to pinpoint where the thing was at. She had already ordered the guards to make sure the citizens were inside their homes for the next few hours. She didn't call an evacuation for the city because the situation was small enough to the point it could be dealt with without a city-wide panic. Luna's activity of tracking down the smokey creature was halted when a guard approached her and saluted with a stoic expression, "Your highness, the Elements have arrived."

She nodded to the guard before replying, "Excellent. Have them come here."

"Yes, your highness." The guard then galloped the opposite direction to retrieve the six mares. Not long after, the same guard came back with the six mares in tow. Luna welcomed them with a soft smile and with, "Greetings, friends. You've arrived just in time."

The six mares returned the gesture as Twilight spoke up, "It was no problem at all." She looked into the city, seemingly scanning the empty streets. She turned back to Luna and asked, "Were you able to pinpoint its location?"

Luna slowly nodded as she began a slow trot into the city. "I'm able to track it much closer to its origin, and it seems to be somewhere in the center of the city."

Many of them became confused, and Applejack voiced everypony's question with, "But, of all the places ta hide, why in the center of a city?"

The ponies, including guards, trotted after Luna as she answered, "I don't know myself, but we practically have them cornered."

They all went forward with Luna up front, stopping once in a while to track the smoke again. Eventually, after about ten or twenty minutes, they found themselves in the center of a street deep within the city. They were the only ones there, as all the citizens were already in their homes. Only them and the couple-story high buildings surrounded them. Luna looked puzzled, as she muttered, "This... this doesn't make sense."

Everypony was also puzzled to as why they stopped, and Twilight approached the Princess of the Night as she asked, "Luna, what's wrong? Why'd we stop?"

"I... the source is tracked directly here, but..." They looked around, but no smoke or abominable monster was in sight. "This can't be--" Luna's eyes immediately widened as she felt her horn tingle, and senses spike up.

The ponies picked up on her expression, and a worried Rainbow Dash asked, "Uh, Princess? What are you doing?"

The slightly panicked princess answered with, "I can sense the source again..." Everypony let out a sigh of relief, "... But it's coming from everywhere, and converging on us."

The ponies slowly looked outward with weary eyes, Fluttershy shaking on her hooves. Twilight looked up, but squinted her eyes when something caught her attention. At first, she mistook it for a raven. But then, a loud hiss was heard, as it came much closer. Everypony looked once they heard, and looked shock to see long, thin, narrow smoke quickly slither across the sky, straight towards them. They all spun around when they heard the noise again, only to see another strand of smoke. They all turned in various directions when they heard and saw another. Then another. Then more. Then much more.

The ponies backed into one another as the sky slowly darkened due to the sea of shadows. Luna lightly gasped as she realized, "We tracked it here... just like it wanted."

One of the guards shouted as he firmly gripped his spear, "It's a trap!" The guards all got in a defensive position before their princess, as the Elements prepared for combat, with Luna charging up her horn with magic. They quickly found the city enclosed by a dome of the smoke, and found their surroundings turning darker by the second.

Rainbow hovered above the group as she asked Luna, "Any ideas, princess?"

Before she could give an answer, a hollow howl of what sounded like wind resonated through the streets. The ponies were in for another surprise when they saw figures approach seemingly straight from the dome of shadows. They were pony-like in sense, with four legs and such. The real difference was the fact that they were made out of the smoke as well, and had no eyes, ears, or tails. The ponies looked all around as the same smoke creatures slowly trotted, almost menacingly, from around the other buildings of the street and around the dome.

To the suspense of everypony, a voice resounded across the city. The voice sounded hollow and dry, almost as if it were a whisper, saying, "Et vos hodie moriar."

Luna's response was to narrow her eyes as she hovered above, ordering the ponies, "It is clear what we must do. We must fight our way out of this." She punctuated her point by having her horn blaze with a neon blue as it fired a streak of raw energy. It impacted the front smoke ponies and released a shock wave effect that shattered the wave of smoke ponies. Despite the large amount erased, those ones were easily replaced by the vast number of more. Twilight joined Luna in the air as she began blasting the creatures to oblivion as well.

"Time to give these suckers on heck of a beat down!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she dove for the ones from the back of the street. Despite being constructed of smoke, she still managed to strike them with her hooves. Whenever they were struck hard enough, they would vanish into slithers and retreat back to the shadowy dome.

The guards and other Elements found themselves in the brawl with the limitless amount of smoke creatures. Though they gave their best, they found that the smoke ponies were replenishing and pushing forward faster than they were being eliminated. The guards were the first to find themselves victims to the smoke ponies' retaliation, as they charged with a gallop instead of a slow trot. They bent their heads down and delivered a painful ram to the guards, despite being just smoke.

Twilight saw the situation slowly tilt against them, and turned to Luna while still firing at their enemies. "They keep coming faster than we can destroy them! There's got to be a way to stop it!"

Luna took a brief pause to look around the city and the dome. That's when she noticed that the smoke ponies were coming from the dome, because they were made from the dome. She blasted more of the smoke ponies as she quickly spoke, "They are coming from this sphere around us, we'll have to take it down. All I need is a few moments."

She hovered in place as she closed her eyes and mentally prepared for a good spell to take down the shadowy dome. As she concentrated, a low chuckle was heard across the city, as the same voice spoke, "Mitterent ad mannalus." As soon as the voice finished, smoke ponies with horns adorned on their heads were born from the dome, and turned their sights to the Princess of the Night. All of the sudden, streaks of steaming smoke shot out of their horns directly at Luna.

Twilight saw the incoming projectiles, and as she shouted, "Luna, look out!" she summoned up a barrier around herself and Luna.

Luna opened her eyes with, "Wha--?" but was cut off as the bombardment of smoke projectiles thundered against the dome. Yet again, despite being smoke, it managed to crack, and quickly shatter the dome, causing both alicorns to be sent flying back. Before they could right themselves in the air, they both slammed against a brick building hard, hard to the point cracks were made and the wall being slightly busted in. With a groan they pulled themselves out of the wall, and glided down to the rest of the ponies.

One of the guards galloped to them and nearly shouted, "Your highness! Are you all right?"

Luna nodded her head with the response of, "Yes, we'll be fine."

The same eerie voice rang through the street as it gave off another command. "Non parcet." With that, the smoke ponies no longer toyed around, and charged with fury like that of hell.

"We've really gotta stop running into trouble." Spoke a slightly annoyed Venom, as he stood before the outside of the smokey dome. Earlier on the train, he spotted the city the ponies were at, but shrouded in darkness. The wisp he was following was accompanied by many others, as they all were seemingly absorbed into the dome of smoke. So he leaped off the train when it was close enough to the city, and ran half a mile to get there.

Before him was the same dome, with the same smoke that he had encounters with in the past. He didn't know what was going on in that city during the time, but he knew that that was where the Elements were. He also knew that the smoke was always a threat, especially to innocents; the Lethal Protector didn't like that.

He placed a hand on the dome, somewhat surprised when the smoke felt like an actual solid instead of like a gas. It did not, however, deter Venom. Instead, he shone another eager grin, raised his right arm and pulled back with a readied fist. He shouted, "Open sesame!" as he drove his whole arm straight through the black barrier. He received the desired effect with a gap just large enough for him to fit through appeared. When he slipped through, Eddie thought, 'Why are these ponies always somehow getting attacked by something?'

The symbiote replied with, 'Not much different from people.'

'Huh, good point.'

When he was on the inside, he quickly noticed an abundance of smoke ponies all rushing further in the city, though they didn't seem to notice Venom. He used that to his advantage as he quickly scaled the nearest building, then leaped from rooftop to rooftop, following the myriad amount of smoke ponies below to their destination. Both Eddie and the symbiote had a bad feeling of where it might have led, though.

It appeared they were correct on their assumptions, as Venom beheld the sight before him on the street below. There were the severely outnumbered ponies, that being a dozen or so guards, the Elements, and surprising to both Eddie and the symbiote, Princess Luna herself; though, despite the blatant difference in numbers, the ponies seemed to be holding up well. Luna and Twilight took to the skies and blasted the smoke ponies too close to the guards, who were using their spears so keep the smoke ponies at bay. At the opposite end of the street, the Elements were holding fairly well against their enemies. Even though they were defending themselves well, the man and the Klyntar knew that they couldn't keep going forever, seeing as how the smoke ponies kept replenishing themselves. They knew it was time to intervene.

The guards on the street were slowly falling back as the smoke ponies kept advancing onward in greater numbers. The guards that were unicorns had to cast barriers in front of themselves and their comrades to keep the smoke ponies back and their smoking shots, but only managed to slow down the barrage. One of them grunted as the managed to speak through the struggle, "We're losing ground here!"

"Geronimo!" was the voice they heard from above. They all looked up and widened their eyes when they saw the wicked webslinger coming down onto the smoke ponies with two raised fists. Venom punched the ground simultaneously with his landing, crushing the smoke ponies under him. The assault didn't end their, as the fists wavered into a puddle like goo that spread in front of him and under the smoke ponies insantly. They might have charged, but quickly found themselves impaled and pierced by the black tendrils-turned-spikes from puddle under their hooves. The guards stood frozen, not knowing what to do or say. The same voice in the dome echoed, though it sounded much more furious than the times before, "Quid tu hic!?!"

Luna heard the aggressive voice like the others, and spun around to see Venom to her shock. "Eddie!?! What are you doing here?"

Venom looked up at Luna as he spoke, "First off, we've really got to stop meeting under circumstances like these. Secondly, we followed on of those smoke things here. Looks like this isn't a simple day after all." The guards calmed down once they recognized Venom. They have not seen him before, but they heard of what he has done. Despite his nightmare appearance, they knew the good he had done at Canterlot, and Princess Luna seemed to know him a bit, so they weren't afraid to go near him and prepare for another defense against the smoke ponies.

Luna hovered a bit closer to the ground, but kept afloat as she continued to fire at the smoke ponies near the Elements as she shouted over the sounds of battle, "Whatever the reason, we're all in some trouble. I need to take this barrier down to stop these things from reproducing, but it requires some time: Time that keeps getting interrupted!"

Venom looked in front of him to see smoke ponies reaching from the edge of the dome to some yards from himself and the guards. He then looked behind himself to see the Elements barely holding up against the persistent dark foes. He looked back at the Princess of the Night as he asked, "So, we have to hold them off of you for a bit?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"Then that is exactly what we'll do." As Venom finished, he turned towards the charging dark foes with his arms stretched outwards. In less than a few seconds, both arms split into multiple tendrils from the elbows, and shot out to the smoke ponies in all areas in front of him. They didn't have a chance to react as the sprawl of thick tendrils rammed into them with enough force to burst through the toughest of metals. The ones in the front were completely shattered by the attack, whereas the ones from the back were sent flying against buildings or others of their kind.

Encouraged by the attack and the gain of a powerful ally, the guards began to charge with grins. The front few couldn't take a few steps before a large, black and muscular arm blocked them. They looked up in surprise to see Venom looking down at them, shaking his head. "Hey, what are you doing? We're trying to help you." said one of the guards.

"We appreciate that, but for this to work, both sides must be kept at bay. You must help the Elements. Me and my other can handle this side."

The guards looked at Venom as though he were a lunatic. "Are you crazy!?! You can't handle those numbers alone!"

The Lethal Protector sighed as he marched out to the army of smoke ponies, as he called over his shoulder, "Have more faith. Besides, those six look like they could use the help."

They would have continued to protest, until their princess spoke up, "Do it." They turned around with confusion etched on their faces when they saw Princess Luna sitting between the Elements and them, eyes clutched shut and her horn building up power. "It's the only way I'll be able to bring down this barrier." The reluctance and concern was clear in their eyes, but they were not going to disobey an order from Princess Luna. So they galloped off to the other end of the street to assist the Elements of Harmony.

Twilight was hovering in the air as she rained down a barrage of purple and lethal streaks from her horn, her targets being the black foes below her. Rainbow Dash zoomed across the street and back, knocking down and subduing the smoke ponies whenever she could with a look of complete confidence upon her face. Applejack was in the center of the brawl, using her applebucking skills and strength to demolish her enemies who thought they could get the upper hoof on her. Rarity stood at the back, firing a sea of gems and rubies at the smoke ponies. Pinkie charged head on like a warrior with her steel bat with barbed wire and tacks covering it, as she slayed her enemies with that grin of hers. Fluttershy helped wherever she could, but she wasn't much of a brawler.

Suddenly, the Lunar guards joined the fight with the Elements to their shock, but they wouldn't refuse it. As the guards pushed the smoke ponies back with a combination of spears and magic, Twilight landed next to the guards to try and asses the situation. "What are you guys doing here? Who's guarding the other end of the street!?!"

One of the guards turned to face her as he answered in a firm tone, "Your highness, Princess Luna commanded it. As for who is on the other end, well..." He decided it was easier to simply point his hoof to the other end of the street.

Twilight turned her head, and her jaw went slightly agape as she saw Venom slashing and tearing his way through the smoke ponies with his clawed hands, as well as chomping down on a few who were unlucky enough to be in range of his vicious teeth. "Wha-- how'd he even know we were here?"

Rainbow Dash hovered down, saw the look on Twilight's face, and looked the direction she was looking at. She had a fairly similar reaction as she sputtered, "Wha-- him!?! Again!?!"

Before the two could continue, the same guard interrupted, "Um, I don't want to be rude..." Once he saw the two look at him, he waved a hoof at the near limitless amount of assailants. "But if you two could continue fighting, I'd really appreciate that." The two looked at each other with looks of determination, nodded, and resumed battle.

Venom continued to battle the smoke ponies on his side without much trouble. They may have had superior numbers, but their strength was not enough to damage Venom, or hardly faze him. He taunted with his usual grin as he crushed one of their heads in his hand, "Haven't we been through this routine before? You try to fight, but end up losing in the end regardless."

It was as if the one heard him, as it spoke with high anger, "Pecus quoque occidite!" As it finished that, the smoke ponies before Venom paused what they were doing. Venom noticed, and watched with confusion. Suddenly, some of them began to join into another, morphing into one. It started with a few, then many, a bunch, and then all. Every time the process was done, a larger smoke pony was created. Venom found himself staring up with large eyes at the three-story tall, smoke pony before him.

"Well... that's new." Venom raised both arms and shot two strands of webbing at the head of the colossal smoke pony. He yanked himself upward and delivered a swift dropkick under the pony's chin, causing its head to snap up and fumble a few steps back. Venom landed in front of it, and continued the attack by leaping on one of its legs and sinking his claws into it. The smoke pony shook its hoof in an attempt to shake the wicked webslinger, but to no avail. So it raised its hoof with Venom facing a building, and before Venom could react, the smoke on the hoof burst at him and launched him off the hoof, causing him to go sailing and crash into one of the buildings.

Venom crashed into what appeared to be the living room of an apartment, and when he picked his head up, he saw a family of ponies at the far end staring at him with wide eyes and shaking. He looked back at the busted wall as he jumped out of it after he told the family, "Apologies for the damage, but all the property damage caused by this battle will probably be covered by your government."

When Venom landed, the enormous smoke pony continued its streak by blasting him with more of the aggressive smoke. Venom grunted as he was forced back down the street. When he looked up, he saw the smokey hoof of his large opponent quickly being brought down upon him. Venom was quick to react and raised both hands to catch the hoof. The large smoke pony applied more force, but Venom refused to be squashed. As he wrestled with the hoof, an idea came to him as he gave off another sadistic grin. He pulled one of his clawed hands back, but quickly thrust it upwards with the arms splitting into many tendrils with spiked ends. He got the intended results and the symbiote's tendrils purged through the smoke, and forced the large smoke pony to stumble backwards, though with a limp that time.

The Lethal Protector then webbed himself to the side of the nearest building next to a lamp post. With an eager grin, he stood on the side of the wall and reached with his hand on the lamp post. With a loud 'Krrch!', Venom snapped the top part of the lamp post off at a degree that would only leave a sharp and deadly point below. He then looked over to the wounded smoke pony as he taunted, "Come on! At least make a fight out it!"

The smoke pony heard, and with a furious charge, galloped straight toward Venom despite the deep wound in one leg. Venom stood still on the wall, his grin never faltering. When the smoke pony was within appropriate distance, he leaped off the wall right as the smoke pony was about to hit him. It rammed into a brick wall, and stumbled out with a hoof to its head. Before it could clear its headache, it found two more strands of black webbing on its head, and was forcefully yanked downward. It might have done something, but unfortunately for it, the large smoke pony, with a resonating 'Slllnk!', found that its head had a broken lamppost straight through the center. With a final twitch, it dissipated as steam, and joined the dome.

To Venom's glee, he heard the same voice roar in rage, and shout, "Satis! Omnes Inter--" It was interrupted by a blinding white light originating from Luna's horn. The ponies had to divert their gaze, but Venom was able to look directly at the display. He saw the light shoot up into the sky and hit the center of the dome, with the magic of Luna eating away at the barrier. Not only that, but the magic started to swarm the rest of the smoke ponies, and instantly vaporize them without leaving a trace of them having ever existed. When the light cleared, all of the ponies looked around, and shouted with glee when they saw the dome having no longer been there.

But while the ponies were celebrating, Venom and Luna noticed a few strands of smoke escaping to different areas of the sky, and leaving their gaze.

He could not believe it. That damn creature ruined his plans, again. He knew he was struck with some kind of tracking spell by Luna when he was in the creature's dream, but decided to use that to his advantage. He led them to a city, trapped them, and had them battle his smoke ponies. They were not all tough nor durable, but so long as the dome was up, they were numberless. His plan was to wait it out, wait until the ponies got tired and lost their stamina and energy. It probably would've worked.

But that's when the creature called Venom came. He realized he was foolish for not taking the creature into account. A mistake he would not make again.

It was a shame, really. There could have been something glorious with Venom serving his every command, the creature would have been a useful asset. But, since there is something guarding the creature's mind, he could not dominate it. He would just have to destroy it, then.

He was watching the battle from the start, but knew it was a loss once Luna activated her spell, so he retreated back to his lair, hideout, place of residence, whatever he would call it when he felt like it. It was night by then, but he was still thinking. He knew he couldn't strike for awhile, and would have to wait a bit for an opportunity. He would also need to find more about Eddie, Venom, or whatever the thing liked to be called.

He would have continued planning, until it sensed something, something entering the air. He would've passed it off, but his instincts and his magical abilities convinced him otherwise. He exited his lair, and went up to the sky, as the source of the signal was strong there. The signal, it was foreign, nothing he had ever felt or sensed before, and that's saying something.
He looked around from left to right, until his sight fell upon something intriguing. In the sky, through the clouds and starry night, he could see a small, yet distinguishable, streak of fire coming down onto the land.

That was when he realized, the reason the signal felt foreign was because that was the thing.

Something had entered Equestria's atmosphere, something large. He didn't dare go investigate on the risk of being spotted. So instead, he used a spell for enhanced vision to at least get better details of what was entering Equestria. He felt his curiosity grow as he he saw what was not an asteroid or meteor like he had expected, but something even larger with what looked to be tentacles from behind it. That was all he could see without getting closer.

He entered his lair with a new eagerness. He didn't know what the tartarus that was, but watching it would be a fun way to pass the time until he could strike again.

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry for the late update! I thought I would have had plenty of time on Thanksgiving break, (speaking of which, I hope you enjoyed yours!) but... y'know... family. Anyways, this chapter is out! I don't know if the next chapter will be out by next week as well, because finals are coming up, and I'm gonna study the absolute hell out of those at some point. So, if not next week, two weeks is likely.

But hey, what did you think? What do you predict will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 14: The "One Who Eats"

It was only the afternoon that day, but one city was suffering the aftermath of an attack that had occurred on it. Ponies were reoccupying the streets unlike the hours before and were taking in everything before them. Nothing was damaged all too much, only some cracked walls and small broken bits of buildings. Guards were clustered around as well. They were checking on citizens for if they were injured, or keeping their eyes peeled for another attack.

The Elements of Harmony were helping out in their own ways as well. Twilight was trying to figure out where the smoke that had retreated went, Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined the guards in keeping the defensive, and Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity helped the citizens that found massive property damage on their homes.

Sitting on the edge of one of the taller buildings was the only human in Equestria, Eddie Brock. His symbiote had disguised itself as a smooth, caramel-colored leather jacket with a black badge on the right shoulder with a large white spider on it. The other part of its clothed appearance was a pair of black jeans, with some boots to go with it, all covering Eddie as if it were a real set of clothes. As for the man himself, he was watching the ponies below him, but his mind was in another place. He found himself thinking about that smoke, the same one that he first encountered in his dreams. It became apparent to him that whoever or whatever the smoke was had the intention to kill the princesses. He didn't read or know anything of Equestrian history up to that point, so he had no idea if stuff like that happened regularly or not.

His thoughts came to a halt when he heard the alien within himself let loose a low growl only audible to him and one other. He picked his head up and looked to his left when he heard wing beats followed by a set of hoofsteps landing and making a trot towards him. He quirked a brow in some interest when he saw Princess Luna trot to him with a crestfallen face. As she approached, Eddie was the first to talk, "Not that it isn't nice to be confronted by royalty, but shouldn't you be down below or trying to find that thing, wherever it went?"

Luna sighed as she sat down next to Eddie as she shook her head. "I'm afraid to say that I can't track the one responsible for this to a set destination, not as of yet, at least." She looked at the street below them as she continued, "How could I have let myself be tricked like that? It is my responsibility as the Princess of the Night to ensure my subjects' safety, and by failing to stop the trouble, this pony -or whatever it may be- is out again, and can cause more harm to the ponies, or even other nations as well." She dipped her head some, not taking her gaze off the ponies below.

Eddie didn't know how to properly respond to that, but he tried nonetheless. "Princess, if it's any consolation, you have our backing to stop this thing. We're willing to help with this."

Luna was waiting for the symbiote to negate that statement, but perked her head up when she heard no refusal. "Even your symbiote is fine with this?"

'Can tolerate you for a time...' she spun her head to her left to see a projection of a scrawny, humanoid symbiote staring down at the street with large and unreadable eyes. It then looked over to her with a scowl plastered on its face as it pointed a sharp talon at her, '... but don't push your boundaries.'

Luna merely rolled her eyes as she replied, "You have nothing to worry about, I'd rather do various other things that deal with a whelp."

Before the symbiote could come up with a comeback, Luna turned her head to Eddie, who watched the two with a small frown. She spoke in a tone brighter than her disappointed one moments before that as she asked, "You know, I never did ask. What are your relatives back on your world likely reacting to your disappearance?" She saw Brock wearing a stoic face, but saw a flicker of something in his eyes, what it was she couldn't exactly pinpoint it. He looked off below saying nothing, but Luna didn't let up. "Surely there are your family or friends? What about your wife?" Luna backed her head up with surprise when Eddie quickly swiveled his head to hers and nearly shoved it in hers.

His brows were furrowed and he spoke with clenched teeth, but she also saw his eyes were widened, as well as a hint of pain in them. "How do you know about her?" His voice was low, but the tone was that of barely suppressed rage.

The princess was startled, for she had never seen Eddie so angry before that, especially if it was just something that was supposed to be an alright topic, his wife. She stammered as she managed to get, "I-I didn't mean to provoke you, Eddie. I saw her in one of your dreams, the one where I first had contact with your symbiote."

Eddie's face softened as he backed away. He rubbed a hand to his forehead as he sighed, and spoke calmly, "Sorry, princess. It's just that... what you said brought back some certain memories."

Luna frowned slightly as she heard that, but tried to lighten him up with, "Well, surely your wife misses you. I know it was only a memory, but you two looked so happy together in it," she smiled lightly, "she seemed quite lovely."

Instead of merriness or some positive reaction Luna was expecting, Eddie looked away with misty eyes and straight lips. He spoke with what sounded like a longing for something, nearly in a whisper, "Yes, yes she was...."

The princess tilted her head a bit and adopted a look of confusion of her face. "Was? What do you mean...?" Eddie remained silent along with the symbiote. Luna stared about him as she thought about his choice of words, and why he seemed so upset. It didn't take the princess long to figure his meaning on "was", and released a loud gasp as she brought a hoof to her muzzle. "You don't mean she is...?" Luna didn't finish that question in fear for the answer she would receive.

She stared at Eddie with a pair of sad eyes, until his finally and let loose a long and tired breath. He then spoke in a quiet and soft voice, "Dead? Yes, she's been gone for awhile now."

"I... I'm so sorry that had to happen to you, Eddie." The princess wanted to say more, but nothing came to her mind to help at least soften the mood.

"Don't be. It's not your fault my Ann is gone." Neither Eddie or Luna noticed, but the symbiote looked at the street below them with many battling feelings within it. The symbiote had been alive for a long time, possibly longer than the princesses themselves, but it didn't have much experience with emotions. The Klyntar generally learned through their hosts of new emotions, languages, and various other topics. They could be influenced by their host on how they acted, just like they could do the same for their host. Most of the Klyntar learned the basics with their first host; however, the Venom symbiote's first host, and many after for that matter, were not normal and quite unique in one way or another. It learned basic emotions during its early life: sadness, anger, joy and such.

But when it arrived to Earth, the emotions became more complex. Like right then for example, after hearing Eddie speak of his deceased wife, it recalled what happened to her, and it felt an odd emotion called guilt.

While it was thinking more on that odd emotion, Brock stiffened up and looked over to Luna with some confusion when he felt her lay her right wing gently across his back. He saw her looking at him with a sad expression, and he took a guess that what she was doing was the equivalent of someone wrapping their arm around another. Eddie usually didn't take or receive physical contact like that, as the moments when they felt alright were rare. During that moment, though, he allowed it.

The trio were silent for a time, until Luna brought her wing back and asked "Eddie, is it all right if I ask you a question that might be personal?" she hesitantly asked. Eddie furrowed his brows in thought. He didn't know what she would ask, and he really wasn't all too comfortable sharing personal information. As he was about to decline, a thought came to him, something that would make the question fair.

He looked over to the Princess of the Night with a slight smirk as he said, "Only if I get to ask you a question that's also probably personal."

Luna was taken aback by the negotiation at first, but smiled as she said, "Deal."

Eddie nodded as he waved his hand at her with a, "Ladies...mares first."

Luna giggled a bit, then started speaking, "The night in which that thing entered your dreams, and you two fought it, I could tell a few things about your dream before having entered." Her tone became concerned as she continued, "I could tell instantly that something was manipulating it, and I doubted it was the symbiote. I could feel strong emotions essentially radiating from it, that of depression and sadness; and though I didn't notice it at the time, I could tell your dream was a memory, a memory that thing used against you." She shook her head at that prospect before continuing, "So I must ask, if it is alright, what exactly was that memory of yours?"

Eddie didn't know if that was something he was fine with sharing, but he supposed it was his only way of getting an answer to his question. So, he took in a breath as he began explaining, "Well, princess, I used to be a journalist. Still am, but different company. I worked for one of the greatest ones, the Daily Globe. Keep in mind that I worked my way up to have become a journalist, and I loved the job. I could go into detail about it, but I'll keep it short. Sometime there, a serial killer known as the Sin-Eater..." Eddie paused as he looked at Luna in puzzlement. As soon as he said serial killer, Luna's breathing abruptly paused as her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk to the size of nails. She looked like a deer staring into the headlights of an approaching car that would bring about its death.

One of Eddie's brows raised as he asked, "Princess, are you okay?"

At hearing Eddie's voice, Luna shook herself out of her stunned state as she mumbled, "Yes, sorry about that." She then looked over to Eddie with shock clearly plastered across her face. "Equestria has had some murderers in the past," she spoke that last part like it was the most hated thing in the land before she continued, "but serial killers are especially rare, thank goodness. It's just hard to imagine something as large as that just simply popping up."

Eddie scoffed as he said, "Keep in mind that were I come from, it isn't a magical utopia with rarely any threats. Always at somewhere at some point is something big going on, probably bad as it is most of the times."

"But surely it can't be all that bad. I'm sure those criminals and killers are stopped before they could go on some spree."

Eddie huffed as he replied, "Unfortunately there are some pretty insane and almost unstoppable forces out there that want nothing more than utter chaos. If you ever want to know what a mass murderer is like, I could tell you all about Carnage." Before the princess could voice anything in, Eddie waved of the sidetracked conversation with his hand. "But we're getting off track. Anyways, a serial killer called the Sin-Eater started showing up and going on an erratic killing spree. Well, one day, I got a letter from a man who claimed to be the Sin-Eater. I didn't believe it at first, but after talking to him, he convinced me. He wanted me to write 'his side of the story' and such. Cut forward a few days later, nearly everyone wants me to publish the news, and I do. Once I do, it becomes a hit immediately. One of the highest selling articles, I felt like the happiest man alive for those few hours."

He then frowned as his tone shifted to a more solemn one. "But then, my boss called me to his office. At first I thought it was gonna be something nice, like a congratulations. Instead, he laid the news on me that the guy who contacted me was the delusional neighbor of the real Sin-Eater. As a result, I was fired and had to pack up my office." He sighed as he continued his rant. "I know it might not sound that bad, but that was my career that I enjoyed. Not to mention, everything else just went downhill from there... as well as papers being printed all over of 'Eddie Brock something something wrong'."

Luna just sat there, staring at Eddie with a sympathetic look. "That does sound terrible."

She tried to think of something else to say, but Eddie looked back at her as he said, "Alright, my turn." Luna was hesitant, but nodded her head for him to go ahead, and without hesitation, asked, "When I was in that thing's grasp in my dream, it told me a couple of things. It said something about you being committing treason at some point," it wasn't lost on Eddie on how Luna's face contorted into one of an anxious one, but continued nonetheless, "so I have to ask. What is it that you did, if the thing was telling the truth?"

The princess was silent for some moments, as she repeatedly opened her mouth to speak, but shut it as if she thought what she was going to say would not suffice. The princess gave in with a sigh, and looked back at Eddie as she began, "I suppose it is only fair." Eddie awaited, and even the symbiote gave its attention to her as she began her explanation. "I don't know if your planet's sun and moon work similar to Equestria's, but here, my sister and I control them. Celestia is responsible for raising and lowering the sun, and I am responsible for raising and lowering the moon, as well arranging the stars of the night." She stopped when she saw both of Brock's brows shoot up his face and look at her with a dumbfounded look. She looked at him with puzzlement and tilted her head as she asked, "What?"

Eddie shook his head as he mumbled, "Just magic." He waved her hand at her as he said, "Sorry about that. Please, continue."

She nodded her head as she did just that, "Well, my sister and I have been doing this for a long time. But it wasn't until roughly a thousand years ago that problems started surfacing from me." Eddie and the symbiote were both shocked to hear of her age, but remained silent to hear the rest. "Ponies back then adored my sister and her day, but it wasn't so with me and my night. I always tried to make beautiful nights with the stars and moon, but the ponies then always saw the night as something to fear, to hide from, to resent. Since I am the bringer of night, they began to resent me for that as well. It was a slow process, but I began to grow jealous of my sister and how the ponies adored her. So I tried to get the ponies to love the night like they did the day.

"At first I was rational about it. I tried to convince my sister to have the nights last longer, made the nights even more magnificent, things like that; but, it still didn't change much. My sister only saw me as jealous, and the ponies still feared the night. So instead I tried to suppress the feeling, bury it down. I managed to do it at first, but over time, the feelings became stronger, and new ones were introduced. I began to feel anger and rage towards my sister and all the ponies who resented my night.

"At one point, those emotions just became too much, I developed hatred towards my sister, and I did something I still regret to this day." She took in a large breath as Eddie and the symbiote remained silent. They figured they knew where the story was going to head, but they didn't want to interrupt. "I was able to develop a powerful form of magic, magic that changed me into something else. My sister came to the throne room the day I didn't lower the moon, and before her I transformed into another entity: Nightmare Moon.

"I... I attacked my own sister, tried to destroy her. She didn't fight back, she tried to tell me that I wasn't myself, that we could fix this, but I didn't listen. I gave my sister no choice... she used the Elements of Harmony on me, and I was banished on my own moon for the next thousand years." She closed her eyes and took in a few more breaths, and Eddie was about to tell her she could stop if she wanted to, but continued before he could. "It was only a few years ago I came back. My sister and I embraced each other with open hooves, and we swore to each other to not let something like this happen ever again. The rest of the ponies, however, still saw me as Nightmare Moon, the bringer of eternal night. I was practically rejected by my own kind. Thankfully, they saw that I was not the same mare as those many years ago, and they even embraced my night." She spoke the last part with a bit of warmth, but her crestfallen face quickly returned. "There isn't a day that I don't regret what I did, and I wish I could take it all back, change it."

Luna looked down at the street below, lost in her memories. She was brought out of it when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder, and looked over to Eddie in slight surprise when she saw his face had a slightly stoic face, but was soft and understanding. "Princess, I don't know if I can exactly relate to that experience, but I do know what it feels like to do something you heavily regret. That is something me and my other can both relate to."

The symbiote was trapped in its own thoughts as a new odd and complicated emotion introduced itself to it. As soon as Luna said that she was rejected by her own kind, it felt an odd connection to her. Memories were brought up of how the Klyntar race banished it because it wasn't a lethal parasite that killed its hosts like all the others. It thought it was better to grow a bond with a host, to keep them alive and work with one another. Because of that, the Klyntar race banished it in order to keep the gene pool clean. That day and recent times, though, the Klyntar race were more of a peaceful race that kept their hosts alive, but in the Venom symbite's time, they were parasites that drained their host's adrenaline as a food source, killing them in the process. The hosts never rejected them because the powers were like a drug, something they just couldn't give up because they were addicted to it.

The symbiote felt a similarity of the situations. Luna was rejected by her own kind for awhile just like it was. The symbiote felt it could understand the pain Luna went through, and felt bad for her because of it. Then the symbiote got really confused. How could it feel bad for a pony it doesn't even like? It figured that with all those complicated emotions going on, it could figure them out a time after that.

The princess looked to Eddie as a small smile adorned her face. "Well, at least there are some who know what that feels like." She stood up and began to trot off, but not before looking at the silent symbiote and speaking, "And a worst of wishes to you, whelp."

The symbiote exited its thoughts with a scowl and glared at Luna. It really didn't care about names, but being insulted by one it definitely didn't like was something it didn't enjoy. 'Stop.'

Luna giggled as she feigned confusion with a tilt of her head. "Stop what, whelp?"

'Stop calling me whelp!'

Luna rubbed a hoof to her ear as she barely held in her laughter, as she continued in mock confusion, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear, could you repeat that, whelp?" She snickered as she saw one of the symbiote's eyes twitch, as well as raising one pointed talon at her.

'Stop. Calling. Me. Whelp!'

"Oh, sure thing... whelp!"

Luna fell down in laughter from the look of frustration that was on the symbiote's face. The symbiote didn't like Luna before, but it really didn't like her then; but, as if a light bulb lit up above the Klyntar's head, it grinned as a plan came to its mind. It spun to Eddie, who watched the whole ordeal with bemusement, and spoke over Luna's laughter, 'Eddie! Females sensitive to age, right?'

Eddie looked to his other half in puzzlement, but answered regardless, "Usually, yeah, wh--"

Before he could finish, the symbiote spun to the laughing Luna as it shouted, 'Stop laughing, grandma!'

The effect was instantaneous, as Luna abruptly stopped laughing and her eyes snapped open. She looked over to the symbiote and clarified what it had said, "What did you say?"

'Age finally caught up to your hearing?' Despite the symbiote's limited emotions and topics relating to it, there was one thing it gained from Earth, and it absolutely enjoyed it, especially to its fullest extent.

Revenge.

It's scowl had transformed into a grin at the sight of the baffled Luna, and took advantage of her silence with, 'Old people tend to have slower thought process, must be what's taking you so long to respond.'

Luna could start to feel a burning feeling within her, as well as to choke out the symbiote if it was possible. She could've let the first dream encounter go and to have forgotten about it. She could have moved past the locked door prank. Perhaps even have tolerated the symbiote to a certain degree. But when it called her old, that is where it crossed the line.

There are things you never say to a mare, and calling her old, even is she is, is one of them.

She narrowed her eyes as she spoke in a low tone, "You have done something no sane pony or thing would. Prepare yourself, symbiote, for this... means... war."

The Klyntar grinned at her like a little devil, as it said, 'Fine, but could I go first? Oldies take too long.'

Eddie looked between the two with a tired look and a sigh, as he lowered his head into his hand as he muttered, "You two bicker more than an old couple," After a couple seconds passed, his eyes snapped open, and he looked over to see the Princess of the Night giving him a harsh glare, though the symbiote chuckled at Eddie's unintentional insult. He raised his hands in front of him in defense as he clarified, "Now, I didn't mean it like that."

The symbiote snickered as it spoke with blatant amusement, 'Good comparison... because pony princess is very old!'

The princess turned her glare to the blasted alien, as she shoved her face into its own, speaking with contained wrath, "You are going to find yourself in a bloody mess one of these days. You should prepare for then."

'Fight me!'

"Whoa, whoa, hang on a minute!" Eddie stood up as he shook his head with furrowed brows and a heavy frown. "I just got an attack in my dream last night! Hell, I barely had any uninterrupted sleep since I got here! And I have a feeling my mind is going to be your little battleground or something, so could I get a couple of nights as a grace period, please?"

Luna looked over to Eddie as she rolled her eyes. "Relax, Eddie. Nothing that bad is going to happen." She began to trot to the edge of the building as she glared at the alien with a "Take these days to prepare, you'll need it."

'Take the days to get a good cane, helps travel for elders.'

She chose to ignore that comment as she spread her wings to take off, but heard Brock say, "Farewell, princess."

She turned back to Eddie with a smile as she spoke, "Please," she flapped her wings as she took off from the building, leaving the two, but not out of earshot as she finished, "call me Luna."

It was well into the night at the city of Fillydelphia, to the point at when almost all citizens were in their homes and sound asleep. The streets were small in capacity of ponies when compared to daylight hours, and only restaurants, pubs, and bars were occupying a sufficient amount of ponies to stay open that late. It was quiet all around as well, only with the tips of hooves connecting to the ground making any noise.

In one of the many apartments, in one of the higher floors, were two mares within the living room of it. The room was quite spacious, it held a sofa, a coffee table next to it, a television mounted on the wall, and various other furniture pieces one would expect to see in an average home. One of the mares was a steel grey colored unicorn with a flat purple mane and tail to accompany it. She was sitting on the sofa, reading the papers with a cup of coffee next to her. Another mare entered the room from the kitchen, bringing out a tray of hay fries on her back. She was a light yellow pegasus with a curly black mane and tail.

She hopped onto the sofa next to her friend as she placed the tray of food between them, grabbed a remote and switched on the television. Her friend thanked her as she picked up some of the hay fried with her magic and began to chow down on them.

They sat there doing their own activities for a few minutes, until the unicorn peeked over the top of her papers to her friend, and spoke, "Hey, Lantern?"

Said pony diverted her eyes from the television and onto her friend as she replied, "Yeah?"

"What do you think of that thing?"

The pegasus rose a brow and looked at her confusedly, something that was not lost on the unicorn. She showed her the cover of the papers as she pointed her hoof to it, "That thing. I think it's called Venom or something." Sure enough, the pegasus saw Venom on the front page, all with his carnivorous teeth and that lashing tongue of his.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you think of it and all that stuff."

"Well first off, I'm pretty sure that thing is human, but I don't know about the other part. And from what I've heard, he sounds pretty good to me. Why do you ask?"

The unicorn shrugged as she looked back to her papers with a, "I dunno, just something that's becoming big."

The pegasus hummed and returned to watching her television for the time. Sometimes, the unicorn would peek over her papers to glimpse at the television to see what was on. At the third glimpse, she noticed something odd out of the corner of her eye. She put her papers down as she looked to her left, only to see a wardrobe against the far end of the wall, sitting next to all the other furniture.

That would seem like nothing at all, but that wardrobe wasn't something she had seen in her friend's home before, and she had been there enough times to memorize the layout of it. It didn't concern her, she figured that her friend had likely gotten a new wardrobe some time before that day. She looked back to her friend as she asked, "Hey, Lantern?"

The pegasus looked over to her friend again with a, "Yes?"

The unicorn pointed to the wardrobe with a hoof as she asked, "When did you get that wardrobe?"

"What?" The pegasus was puzzled, but puzzlement became bafflement when she looked over to where her friend was pointing to see a large wardrobe. "Uhh... I never got a wardrobe... especially for a living room."The mare hopped off her couch and slowly approached the wardrobe with weary steps.

Her friend called out from the couch, "Well, do you think somepony got it for you as a surprise present or something?"

The pegasus didn't divert her gaze from the wardrobe, as she mumbled out, "I don't think so...." She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but something about that wardrobe, other than the fact she had never seen it before, felt wrong. It was as if every instinct in her told her not to go near it.

She paused as she stood only a meter away from it as she narrowed her eyes. Even her friend seemed slightly worried. But with the raising of her hoof and one push, she pressed her hoof against it, and to her relief, nothing happened. She exhaled a breath she didn't even know she was holding in as she looked back to her friend with a chuckle, "Honestly, I don't know why I was so cree--" Her sentence was cut off when she felt something slithery and tight wrap itself around her throat and yanked her back, causing her to gag. Her friend gasped and could only stare with wide eyes as she saw what they thought was an ordinary wardrobe suddenly shift into a great many purple tendrils that sprawled around the floor and in the air. She would have screamed, but one of the appendages shot out and wrapped itself around her throat and pulled it to her friend in the mess of wavering tentacles.

When the tendrils unexpectedly loosened around their throats, they both screamed at what they saw and what was happening. They couldn't see all the details, but what they could scared them even more. A number of the same, dry, slithery, dark purple tendrils, both big and small doing various motions across the room. A pair of large claws that were hovering dangerously close to them. The scariest to them, something that looked like a face, but was so alien at the same time. It looked almost like it was made of bone, but below it was a large, gaping maw that was supplying amounts of a dull golden liquid that was drooling out of its maw.

The beast was still for only a few seconds, until it started to bring its claws down on its victims, the talons shredding into their skin of their midsection. The mares cried out in agony even more, but the beast didn't let up.

The prey struggled against it, but they always did that. The alien enjoyed it a bit, actually. It could have killed them right there on the spot, or have gone for a more silent approach to keep the indigenous sapient creatures away from its meal. The point was only proven when there was a rapid knocking on the door opposite of it, as a male voice shouted, "Hey, what's going on in there!?! Are you all right!?!"

The alien let one of the suffering animals call out, "Please, Help! T-t-there's something in here and it's killing us!"

The alien wanted the ones outside the door to hear, but didn't want them in. It used one of its smaller tentacles to wrap around the knob of the door, keeping the ones from coming in, even if they slammed themselves against it.

One might have wondered why it bothered to do all of that and instead dig into its meal. The thing about that alien is, is that it is not just a mere brute like most predators are. It is clever and crafty, and even had brute strength to accompany it. Like it had just done, it could assume the form of harmless objects such as furniture, and wait for its prey to bring themselves to it. It had done the same technique on many other worlds, and it never failed.

Its kind could almost instantly learn the languages of other worlds through unknown methods, giving them the advantage in tactics. Its kind didn't have a name or label like others, just that they were known apex predators; however, most races called them whatever their language would translate to of "One Who Eats".

They were given that name because they could eat any animal or plant, nothing was poisonous to them, and they rarely dealt with threats. That certain one, as well as many of their kind, had certain tastes in food, just like any other creature. Most of them, however, enjoyed one food the most.

Symbiote meat.

Something about the flavor was just so excellent, so fresh, so unique, especially accompanied with a symbiote's host. That one had eaten many symbiotes with their hosts, and it was the alien's favorite meal without a doubt. The taste was even greater if it was a symbiote that was bonded with their host for a long time.

So when the alien was wandering the depths of space for its next meal, it was surprised when it sensed a symbiote on the planet it was close to so far out from most star systems. The alien was quickly eager, though. Even if it was just one symbiote, it would breach that planet's atmosphere for its favorite food.

Despite how large the alien was and how easy one like it could be spotted, it easily crawled along the rooftops with the cover of night without having been spotted. The first thing it did was assume the form of common furniture as it prepared itself for learning the world's language.

After it did, it had learned through news and the indigenous race that the symbiote and its host had taken the role of a hero. Some of them didn't like it, others trusted him, but the alien didn't care. If the symbiote and its host saw themselves as heroes, then it would be simple to get them.

It turned its sight back to the animals below it. They were a bloody mess, they couldn't scream simply because they didn't have the energy to. The alien could hear many concerned voices on the other side of the door, and could feel them trying to break it down. Obviously, they wouldn't be able to with it holding the door up, but it would let them in soon after that. The prey below it weren't symbiotes, but the alien hadn't had a good meal since it had arrived on the planet, and decided the two animals below it would be a sufficient meal.

As for the mares, they were battered, slashed, bruised, and nearly broken. They had lost the ability to scream at some point when the thing above them continued to shred them with its claws. They did, however, have enough energy to widen their eyes when the beast brought its jaw to their faces, and opened its mouth to reveal to them their terrible fate.

The ponies on the outside of the apartment door were in the dozen by then, most of them confused and scared by the screaming they heard, the odd noises from the inside, and how the door wouldn't come down, even when the strongest of them gave it their all to bust it down. They all stopped with wide eyes and labored breaths when they heard a sickening crunching noise from the other side, followed by a loud crashing noise like 'Kttrrshhh!' Finally, the ponies were able to bust the door open and take a look inside. The first ponies to have entered immediately regretted their choice, as they brought a hoof to their muzzle to try and hold down their meal.

Some weren't so successful at that, and released vomit at their hooves. Before them was broken furniture sprawled out, but that wasn't what caught their attention. Across the room were the two mares, shredded into to the point they could hardly be recognized, and what looked like their heads completely torn off and nowhere in sight, the fresh blood spilling out of and around their bodies. The ponies screamed and galloped back out, but the ones who stayed and diverted their gaze from the bodies dropped their jaws when they saw the far end of the wall completely busted through.

As the ponies immediately rushed for help, one pony on the street below the apartment wobbled down the empty road until it heard the loud crash. The stallion was a green earth pony. A green, very drunk, earth pony. He looked up with bloodshot and blinking eyes as he saw something that made him question if he had too much to drink that night. Above the buildings and in the cover of the night, was some large creature. The back was made of a number of tentacles and tendrils, the midsection had two skinny arms out of it with large claws that were being used to grip the edge of the skyscrapers, and what looked like odd horns on the head that were curving. The pony stared a bit longer at the disappearing form, until he shrugged and wobbled his way back home.

The alien continued to slink across the rooftops without a sound. It had to admit, those animals, ponies, tasted great. Not symbiotes, but still something to remember. It didn't need to crash out of the wall, it could have found a quieter way out. It could have enjoyed its meal without the ponies screaming or others trying to converge on it, but that was the point.

If the symbiote and its host were protectors like the alien heard, then it would not have taken long at all for the heroes to come and clean the mess when word would get out. The alien was sure that its prey would try to fight it, just like all the others. That was fine, it had a way of easily dealing with symbiotes. The alien did not know how long it would be until its meal arrived, but it could wait. A predator like itself was a patient one.

Soon after, the "One Who Eats" would have its meal.

Author's Note

Hey guys! So in the last chapter a lot of you thought it was gonna be Carnage. Well, if it wasn't obvious already, it's not. Sorry, didn't mean to trick you into thinking it was him. But hey, the story is still far away from an ending, and many surprises are in store!

So tell me, what did you think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading our comments!

Chapter 15: From Predator to Prey, Hunter to Hunted

"So, what's the situation we've got?"

"It appears to be the same from the past couple days."

"Again?"

"Yeah, bodies nearly crushed, slashed, and... well, headless, to put it simply."

The two ponies in the city of Fillydelphia were in an alleyway at the time, except that one was not ordinary, at least not at the time. The entrance and exit of the alleyway was blocked out by yellow tape that read, "Do Not Cross" in a bold and black text. Royal guard ponies were stationed around them, about four to each. Usually, only two were required, but given the circumstances of the situation that had happened, more were needed for safety. Citizens from the outside would try to take a peek, especially those who were working for the press, eager to take photos with their cameras and such.

The ponies in the alleyway were undergoing a crime scene. There were the ones collecting certain samples and snapping photos for evidence, those who were keeping sharp eyes out to see if they could spot anything that might have given them clues, and the detectives that were trying to asses the situation.

One was a grey earth pony, a stallion wearing a black suit with a short, combed mane. The other was a red mare, a unicorn with a long and blonde mane, and both were to their own devices on the situation.

The stallion took in the image that was presented before him. The alleyway was thin, only about six meters wide, with red bricks making up both walls that were belonging to two skyscrapers. His attention, though, was caught on the more unnerving details. On one side of the walls, bricks were broken off and shattered, like a deep gash in the wall. He also noticed a dull brown-yellow stain on both walls and even the ground itself, that were spread across in streaks as though a foal were playing with a hose in that alley. There was a dumpster, though it was not were it would usually be at. No, it was on its back with all the trash spilled out of it not far from the center of the scene.

The main attraction of the scene, though, was more gruesome and disturbing than the others. Right in the center was a chalk outline of a pony without the head, and the hooves and body were drawn out with the lines sharply curving in, barely resembling a pony. Being handled by two ponies in hazmat suits was a white plastic covering over a thin metal sheet that was holding the unfortunate deceased victim. Though their expressions were covered by their suits, the detective could tell by their movements that dealing with a corpse, especially one like that, was not something they could stomach all too well. Next to them were different sized trays, tubes, and bags, all collecting various samples from the scene.

He could see some of the victim's intestines in some of them, though he figured that those had something on them that might have been able to give more clues about the eerie situation. The others were filled with small bits and pieces of anything near or around the odd stains. Some ponies were around the stains trying to figure out exactly what it was, or where it might have came from.

He took cautious steps toward the bag and stopped right in front of it. He looked over to the ponies in the hazmat suits, they nodded, and he slowly brought his hoof on the cover and reluctantly peeled it back so only he could see the inside. The detective had to suppress a gag as he jerked his head away. After a few seconds, he finally forced his sight back into the bag.

Inside the bag was was the victim of the scene, a stallion, where the neck abrubtly ended with no head. He noticed that it did not appear to have been sliced off, but as if something had torn it completely off. The hooves and barrel were bent inwards, like somepony tied ropes around the stallion and pulled with all their might. Deep gashes and wounds were decorating the corpse, a clear sign that something had attacked him.

The detective pulled away from the bag with a shake of his head as he trotted back to the other detective. With a sigh, he tiredly said, "Same thing, never gets less gruesome. This has been going on for what, a few days now?"

The other detective nodded her head as she confirmed, "Eight cases so far of civilians being decapitated in a brutal manner. Odd and unidentified marks of the same yellowish substance. Slight destruction around the area, all of that."

The stallion pulled out a notepad from the pockets of his suit, then looked over the notes he had recorded. After flipping through some pages, he looked to his partner with, "Well, at least with more of these, we know some more of what could be causing this."

"Could it be something from the Everfree?"

"Unlikely, it's too far from here for its inhabitants to just wonder out. Besides, I don't know anything in there that could've done this."

The mare sighed as she informed him, "The local police have reported the same thing for ponies nearby. They heard him screaming, odd noises that sounded somewhat like growling, and nothing. They tried to exit to the back alley doors to see what was going on, but something was blocking it. Only when he presumably died did the doors give in and they rushed out to see his corpse."

"I just don't get it," the stallion brought a hoof to his chin as his eyes narrowed in thought, "I mean, this thing is clearly a capable predator of sorts, so a pony doing it is out of the question. Its gotta be some other animal, but why does it do all of this? I doubt the slight destruction was caused by the victims."

The mare shrugged as she offered, "Perhaps that's its way of showing dominance?"

The stallion shook his head with an, "I dunno, but there is some good news, though." He flipped through some notes as he continued, "Police have suspected that this might be tied in with the attacks that have been going on lately. Not to mention this is unlike anything they've ever dealt with before. So, they've requested some aid from Canterlot. Some of the royal guards will get here to check things out, see what they can do. We might be seeing one of the princesses themselves, depending if these killings keep up; they don't tolerate that sort of thing."

The mare nodded her head with, "Yeah, whatever this is, we all could definitely use some help stopping it."

As the ponies below spoke to each other, they were completely oblivious to something perched on one of the buildings that made up the alleyway. Its claws gripped the building as the thing's head bent below, listening in to the ponies. That thing was the alien, the one who had eaten the dead pony's brain and head from below, as well as all the other mentioned ponies. The alien licked its teeth in anticipation; everything was going to its liking.

More attention was being brought to the city. The local authorities were of no concern to the alien. They might have had an odd energy, magic, which helped them in many areas, but they weren't sufficient to tracking ones such as itself down. As for a princess, what it assumed to be a ruler or some higher power of the land, could possibly have been coming. It didn't think much about the princess, though. If anything, a princess could be an appetizer before it would have its main course of symbiote meat and a host.

Satisfied with the information, the alien spun around and dragged its tendrils along with near silent strides as it searched for a good hiding spot until it would become hungry yet again. The ponies had various flavors, the alley one having been a dull flavor, but its disappointment was drowned out by the juicy, sweet, watery, guarantee that the alien would have its meal.

"Wow... actual bio-organic webbing, just like a spider's...." Twilight stared in awe at the small patch of black webbing on a glass dish before her on a table as she continued jotting down notes.

"You scientists sure have a lot of fun with so little." Spoke the buff man across the table, who held a filet sandwich in his hands as he took a bite out of it. He swallowed as he looked from the fish to the curious alicorn across the table, who was fondling with the webbing within her telekinetic grasp. "I thought ponies were herbivores, but...." Eddie raised a hand with the filet sandwich in it, shaking it lightly to emphasize his point.

Twilight stopped examining the webbing to look at the human who had a raised brow. She saw the sandwich, and she waved a hoof as she returned to studying to strand of webbing below her. "Fish are an exception, sometimes. I don't usually eat them, but Fluttershy has a ton for her animals. It's a good thing I had some, though. Otherwise, you'd have to hold over on salads and such."

They were in the dining room again, with Spike outside for his day off of doing chores. Eddie hadn't done much, he stayed inside the palace for the couple of days he was there. He was either in his room resting or thinking, or in the library of the palace and browsing through the books. He wasn't much of a reader, but he did find himself a bit curious of the land of Equestria. He had learned of other creatures that were thought to be mythological at Earth, locations with names like puns he simply ignored, and other interesting information.

The times he was outside was for simple strolls through paths and the edges of Ponyville. The ponies of the town still had mixed feelings toward him, all gave him plenty of space like he had the flu on him. Eddie did not care much. In fact, he thought it was a nice break from the public issues at Earth. While his name was somewhat known, it was overshadowed by other higher powers, and the police usually didn't have Venom as their number one priority to deal with. When he was in public, people wouldn't know about the symbiote within him, and he could do all his daily needs.

If police and authorities were after him, though, then he would hide and lie low until the police moved on to threats that were of real concern to innocents. He and his other half could fight the cops, but that would not have done good. The police were still innocent, and if they killed an officer of the law, the cops would be on their tails for longer periods of time. So being in a place where Eddie did not have to worry a bit about police coming after him or someone out for revenge brought comfort to him. He still wanted to return to Earth, no doubt. Equestria was not a place that had grilled steaks, and Eddie and his symbiote really liked grilled steaks, and pretty much all meats for that matter; and though magic had its uses, he preferred human technology in the end. He knew it might have taken awhile until the princesses found some way to Earth. He figured they were more concerned about the smoke attacks during the time, which he understood.

Eddie did not see much of the other mares as well. Most of them were up to their jobs or duties, but Pinkie Pie seemed to have been a different case. He would notice that sometimes she would stare at him from a distance, trying but failing to suppress a grin. She had something planned, that was for certain.

As the two were up to their own tasks, they heard the pattering of foot steps quickly approaching. Twilight looked up and Eddie turned his head around to see a panting Spike jog in with a scroll in a claw. He dragged his feet to Twilight as he managed to say in between breaths, "Letter from... princess." He handed her the letter as she picked it up with her magical grasp while raising an eyebrow.

"A letter from one of the princesses? Why would they send one of these?" But when she looked up she saw Spike already exiting, and waving a claw and a mumbled good bye before heading back outside. She shook her head with a sigh as she unrolled the scroll and glued her eyes to it. Eddie watched with increasing curiosity as he saw Twilight's various expressions. First, her eyes widened as her pupils receded to a much lower size. Then, her brows shot up with a loud gasp, as she started to mumble the rest of the letter to herself. When she finished, she put the letter down on the table and shook her head, rambling about, "Oh no, no, no, no... this isn't good."

Twilight seemingly reread the letter again as if she hoped she had read wrong. After a moment of dead silence, Brock finally spoke up with, "Is everything alright, Twilight?" He knew something was wrong, but he was curious as to what the problem was. His brows furrowed a bit as he followed up with, "Is it the smoke again?"

The alicorn kept her eyes directed at the paper before her but answered with, "It's Fillydelphia... there's been--" she gulped as she choked out the accursed word, "murders. Multiple of them." Eddie didn't respond, so Twilight took that as a signal to continue. "According to the evidence collected, police ponies suspect it wasn't a pony or other sapient race, but some sort of animal, one they haven't seen yet and have no idea about it."

Twilight was still appalled about the death of the ponies while Eddie and the symbiote were discussing among themselves. 'Should ask her about it, Eddie. Help innocents, be heroes.'

'I don't think we're needed for this. If it's just some animal, the police here should be able to find that thing and stop it.'

'Still best to ask more details.'

Eddie supposed there was no harm in that, so he did just that. "I know this isn't my business, but could you tell me some details about these killings?"

Twilight flinched at the word 'killings', but complied as she looked up at Eddie with worry etched over her face. Her tone matched her expression as she said, "Well, to put it in a way that I won't lose my lunch, the victims were headless, as well as many cuts in their bodies, and some even bent inwards." Eddie listened intently to the information given to him. It sounded like an odd animal indeed, but he was about to pass it off as some other mythological creature from some place far away from the city of Fillydelphia. He would have done just that, but his entire body paused as Twililght gave off one important detail. "It was also reported that there was an odd liquid substance stained on the areas around the scenes, possibly the saliva or dribble from the creature itself."

It came to Eddie swiftly. Ponies with no heads, with the brains having been likely eaten. Tears likely caused by claws. Dry stains like colored saliva. Eddie looked over to his right as he thought to his other half, 'This sounds like a symbiote, but...'

'How could one get here?'

'Well, if it is a symbiote, it must have bonded with a lunatic or taken control of some animal.'

'If it's a symbiote, need to stop it!'

'Hold on. We suspect its a symbiote, but it could be something different. Still, we need to be sure....'

Twilight had taken notice of Brock's silence, so she looked up from her letter again to see the man staring at his shoulder, appearing to have been lost in thought. She tilted her head in confusion as she asked, "Uh, Eddie? Are you all right?"

The man's gaze drifted to Twilight as he spoke with a brooding tone, "My other and I have a guess of what this killer might be."

"You do?" Twilight was surprised, she didn't think Eddie would just have an answer for that, especially when it was so soon.

He nodded as he clarified, "With what you said, it sounded like the ponies who were killed and had their heads torn off got their brains eaten, as well as the head. Claw marks all over their bodies, and some liquid you think might be the drool of this thing. From my experience, it sounds like you've got a symbiote on your hooves."

Twilight's eyes widened upon hearing that and nearly shouted, "What!?! B-but how could another one have gotten here? What if--"

"Twilight." Eddie interrupted, having placed his food down by then. "I said might. I could be wrong, it could just be another animal or something."

She seemed to have calmed down a bit by that, but she asked Eddie after she slumped back into her seat, "Okay, it might be just an animal. If it is one of these symbiotes, though, well... what exactly do the bad ones do?" she looked to Eddie curiously, awaiting an answer.

Brock brought a hand to his chin as he looked down in thought, speaking on his thoughts, "If it is a symbiote, its one of the more wild ones. It either bonded with some crazy pony or a weak-willed one, possibly some other animal. Then, it might have went around feasting on the brains of the victims."

Twilight took the information into her mind, thinking it over and all the possibilities. Eventually, she spoke up with, "Assume it is a symbiote. You know more about these things than anypony here, what would be the best thing to do about it?"

Eddie exited his thoughts, and looked to Twilight, asking, "Well, you said none of the ponies saw this thing?" when she shook her head, he continued, "Again, if it is a symbiote, it sounds like a sneaky one, one that doesn't want to be found out. They can remain hidden if they really want to be."

"Well, how would one go about finding it?"

He looked down to his shoulder again, as the alien within him spoke optimistically, 'Can do it, Eddie. Could track it down.'

'Again, we don't know if this thing is a symbiote.'

'And if it is?'

His other half won out the debate with that. While Eddie still was not sure if it was a symbiote, the risk was too great. He and his other had seen many times what a crazed symbiote-enhanced person could and would do, and he knew the ponies have never faced a threat like that before. He looked over to Twilight, some uncertainty leaking in his voice but continued regardless, "If this is a symbiote, we could find it." He saw the confused look on her face, and kept up with, "Me and my other have a sort of... sixth sense, so to speak, when it comes to other symbiotes. Its led us to symbiotes before, and if this is one, we could track it down."

Twilight sighed as she looked down at the paper again. Assuming the killer was bonded with a symbiote, they would have had trouble defeating it. Not only did ponies know almost nothing of symbiotes or their capabilities, but if she were to base the rest of them off of Venom's capabilities, she did not like their chances. She did not want to bring Eddie out for something that might not have existed, he and his symbiote had already been through some action during their stay in Equestria; however, if it was a symbiote in Fillydelphia they were dealing with, then they would need help to track it down.

She finally looked back to the patient Eddie with a small sigh, saying, "We don't know what this is, and I don't want you to have to go to Fillydelphia just on a hunch. If it is one, though, well-- I can't just wait for more ponies to die until this thing is discovered. If it is what you think it is, and you're willing to make the trip, then I could send a letter to Celestia about this, and then get us there as fast as possible; though, it still might be awhile."

Eddie stood up from his seat as spoke with certainty, "Twilight, if this is a symbiote that we're dealing with, it'll be over quickly."

She responded by quirking a brow with a curious, "How so?"

"I've been bonded with my symbiote far longer, and mine's already more powerful than the average one." Eddie began to exit as he turned his head around and called, "I'm guessing you'll need Spike for the letter?"

Twilight's downed expression had turned to a smile by then as she levitated a sheet of blank paper and a quill, and began writing. "Yes, I do. Oh, and Eddie? Thanks. Thanks to your friend, too."

"It's not a problem at all. We'll get this situated." With that, Eddie went searching for Spike.

He and the symbiote both thought it was a symbiote they were going after. They thought it would be a minor situation to deal with, something small for a change. They thought they would go to Fillydelphia and out without trouble.

They were after an alien, all right. But not another symbiote.

They were prey unknowingly going after their predator, one who eats hosts and their symbiotes.

"Good news. Princess Twilight Sparkle is coming soon, and she's bringing some help."

"What kind of help?"

"That human. The letter said he might have a way of tracking this killer down."

Two police ponies were trotting up a flight of stairs inside of the police headquarters of Fillydelphia. They were on their way to one of the upper floors of it. When they reached their floor, they entered through a set of double-doors into an office area. There were cubicles in a uniform position with only a few decorations in and out of it. The color scheme was a bland one, consisting of only whites, grey, browns, and blacks. The floor was carpeted, and the far end of the area were glass walls and doors, leading to meeting rooms. On both sides of it were cabinets, counters, papers, and various other utensils among them.

As they were trotting to one of the cubicles, one of them asked, "The human? What's he going to do?"

The two entered the cubicle, the curious one waiting at the edges, while the owner of the cubicle entered into one of his filing cabinets and started to shuffle through the organized files and papers within it. "Apparently, he might have a way to track it down. Oh, and it's suspected to be something called a symbiote."

The stallion tilted his head as he said, "A what?"

The other pony pulled a file out the filing cabinet, then turned to his pal as he answered, "Some weird alien goo, that's all I know. You'll have to ask the human about it if you want to know more."

When they trotted back out, the curious one looked around to notice they were the only ones on that floor. He turned to his friend with a, "Hey, Cane? Where's everypony else at?"

Cane looked to his friend with a file in a hoof as he answered, "Either working on these recent cases outside or they're in a meeting in the briefing room. We should head down there, actually."

He nodded his head as they continued, but his stomach rumbled in demand to be filled all of the sudden. Cane looked to his friend with a huff and an amused look as he quipped, "Hungry, Cannon?"

Cannon answered with a chuckle, changing his sights from the doors to the vending machine at the far wall. Without answering, he went over to the vending machine and readied up some bits. Cane sighed and shook his head, but followed with a light smile regardless. As Cannon browsed through all the food choices on the vending machine, he muttered, "Well, I could go for something. A pony's got to eat when they're hungry, pal."

Cane approached from his right as he drew out some of his own bits. "Yeah, I could probably get a snack or something, too."

"I will eat as well."

Both ponies jumped up startled, and zipped their eyes from left to right to identify the voice. When they found nopony, Cane shouted out, "Who's there!?! Show yourself!"

Both ponies continued to look around, but they were glued to place when they heard a voice from the vending machine reply, "I'm right here." Both of them shot their sights back on to the vending machine, only to yelp as the sides busted and exploded into a dozen or so wriggling tendrils that shot out towards them. They could only scream and shout for help as the purple tentacles and tendrils wrapped all over their forms, the alien's jaw leaking more of its golden saliva all over its prey and the floor. It crushed its victims with glee and joy, for it had heard them speak the news.

The symbiote and its host were going to arrive soon near that time. The alien would then have its long awaited meal, but it only had to wait a bit longer for the prey to have come to the city. It who eats would be waiting patiently.

"Is that Fillydelphia up ahead?"

"It is. Though, we obviously can't look around once we arrive." Eddie and Twilight were gliding across the clear blue Equestrian skies in a small carriage being pulled by a pair of royal guards. The city Eddie was peering at was indeed Fillydelphia, the city coming closer by the second to them. Twilight was fidgeting nervously in her seat, but she tried to maintain a calm exterior upon herself. Eddie was not nervous about the murders like the princess next to him was. No, he only stared ahead with a look Twilight couldn't identify, but he was thinking about much. He thought about how to handle what could have been a symbiote, and what to do. Each Klyntar seemed to have their own unique ability, sometimes two. Nearly all could shape shift, some more than others. He wondered if the possible symbiote could have some unique ability, and if so, what it would be.

He then thought about the killer being something other than a symbiote. He thought it to be possible that it could have been some odd Equestrian creature, as that was a likely possibility to him; but then he thought about other creatures. Perhaps it could have been something from Earth, he thought. 'Unlikely, Eddie.' Spoke the one who could read his thoughts like words on a page. 'We were brought here by special circumstances. No other thing could come here from Earth.'

Brock lightly nodded his head in agreement, and was so lost in thought that he didn't know they were in the city until the wheels of the carriage touched down on one of the streets and rolled along, until it finally came to a stop. He brought his head up and looked across the streets and buildings, noticing the abundance of the police ponies and a handful of royal guards. The ponies appeared on edge and nervous, mainly with the fact of the killings.

Twilight shuffled in her seat as she slowly stood up with her heart beating just a little bit faster, and motioned across the city with a wave of her hoof. "Well, welcome to Fillydelphia...." Twilight would normally greet a pony, or in that case a person, to a new place with enthusiasm and eagerness, but she couldn't bring herself to summon up those bright emotions with the dread that coated the area. Eddie picked up on her nervousness immediately, but he opted to climb out of the carriage and take care of the threat as soon as it could have.

The ponies on the street looked to and mumbled about Eddie, but he and his other were focusing on trying to track what they thought might have been a symbiote. Twilight was looking around for the best place to observe first. They were brought out of their thoughts when a pony hollered from the sidewalk they were on, "Princess! Princess Twilight Sparkle!" Both the man and the princess looked across to see a royal guard galloping over to them, his attention focused only on Twilight Sparkle. He stopped directly in front of her as he stood firm and straight, quickly speaking in a sturdy tone, "Your highness, I have news for you. It's a good thing you got here when you did."

Eddie stood at the side and watched the two ponies with interest while Twilight internally hoped that the news the guard would deliver would be good. Her hopes broke like a shattered window that was broken by a boulder, when the guard said, "There has been another murder, not too long ago, in fact. It took place in one of the office floors of the police headquarters." Twilight's legs slightly wobbled as her ears folded back against her head. She was always down heartened when she heard of a tragic death occurring to anypony, especially if it was murder. Fortunately, Equestria rarely ever had killers inhabiting it, and if so, they were contained quickly and effectively. She had hoped that would have been the same case with the Fillydelphia killer, but she had doubts. After all, if it was a symbiote-enhanced pony, it would be trouble. And if it was something else? She hoped Eddie and his symbiote knew what they were doing.

The guard turned his curious gaze over to Eddie, where his sight met with the guard's as well. Looking back to the princess, the guard asked, "Is this the one you told us about in the letter? The one who could help?"

Twilight shook herself out of her weary state, then looked back to the guard with, "Yes, this is the one. Could you take us to the... scene?"

The guard nodded with an, "Of course, your highness. Follow me." With that, he turned around and trotted at a brisk place towards the police headquarters. Twilight quickly followed his lead, but Eddie was walking a bit behind as his other spoke to him.

'Not right, Eddie. Would have sensed another Klyntar, by now.'

Eddie's brow furrowed as he thought back, 'Something does feel off... we'll have to see what it is, though.'

"Oh... dear Celestia, what could have done this?" Twilight took the scene before her with eyes that wanted to look away, to close, to look anywhere but the two shredded corpses before her, but just couldn't. The office was completely trashed. Cubicles were broken down, cabinets were busted, chairs were thrown askew, supplies torn and scattered everywhere; it was an overall mess. But, like all the other cases before, the dead ponies were the gruesome highlight of the whole display. Like the other victims, the heads were crudely torn off, as if something bit them off like a dog would a dog toy. Deep gashes were all over the two bodies with cracked and bent bones being exposed. Blood stains were around the two, but there was streak of blood leading away from them. The trail traveled from the two bodies, across the center of the room, and then to the stairwell where the doors were busted, clearly from the inside.

Twilight could barely hold her meal down, and finally diverted her eyes and screwed them shut. Eddie, however, was not like Twilight during that time. The symbiote was wrapped around him like another layer of skin, giving him the body of Venom. His face was left exposed, though, with only a few small worming black material sticking around his face.

He was knelt right over the two bodies, taking in their forms with his unblinking, unflinching eyes. His expression appeared blank, though with a frown and furrowed brows adorning his face. But inside, emotions were battling on another. And not all were his, the symbiote was the same as well. The symbiote felt anger towards the killer, to what might have been another Klyntar. It wanted to avenge the two ponies and the other victims. Eddie felt sorrow toward the two before him and the other innocent victims who were brutally mauled. Both of them, though, were resolute in dealing with the killer as soon as they could. He muttered under his breath so only he and his other could hear, "I'm sorry this had to happen to you, something so... unfair. But I promise you, we will get rid of this threat once and for all." Whether they would just catch the killer or deploy lethal tactics would be seen later.

The office floor was devoid of life other than the princess and the buff man. The police had already gathered their data and Twilight requested them and the royal guards to scavenge the city for the murderer, as the killings were then getting far too frequent. Twilight eventually spoke out, "So... do you sense this thing, at all?"

Eddie got up as his head turned to the wall closest to the corpses. "No, not a thing." He spoke absentmindedly, mainly because an odd, dull, gold liquid splayed on the wall and floor took his attention. At first, he thought it was saliva or dribble from another symbiote. But he thought otherwise when he brought his large and black arm to the glop, and dipped a clawed hand slightly into it. His eyes widened and his mouth became slightly agape when an odd feeling entered to the hand that was in it. No more than five seconds of physical contact with the odd liquid did his hand start to feel numb. He lost the sense of touch with it soon afterwards as well. He quickly retracted his arm and held it in front his face, inspecting the dull liquid on it. His other spoke to him wearily, 'Feels odd, Eddie. This doesn't belong to a Klyntar, yet I felt it before.'

"Where? Who or what did it belong to?" Eddie questioned quickly. If it wasn't a symbiote, then he wanted to know what exactly it was as soon as he could. He doubted it was an ordinary pony who was responsible for all the killings.

'Don't know yet. Need something more than this to identify our killer.'

Twilight waited for their conversation to end. Having had Eddie as a guest to her palace for some days, she got used to him talking to himself, or rather, his other half. "Do you have any clue of what did this or where it's at?"

Eddie turned and looked at her as he shook his head. "It's probably not a symbiote, but that's all we have right now."

"Then, what could it be?" She dreaded the thought of what kind of monster it might have been.

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

With that information, the princess released a tired sigh and drooped her head a bit. She thought of the next best thing to do, and when she did, she looked up at Eddie with, "Okay, lets go back to the city. I'll check with the guards to see if they have anything new. You do whatever you can to help track this thing down." Eddie nodded, and the two went to the stairwell and back to the city.

Eddie and Twilight were just on the outside of the police headquarters with a dozen or so royal guards and police ponies accompanying them. The police had put up police tape around the entrance and sidewalks around the headquarters, seeing as there was a scene that had occurred there not long before. The princess was discussing with some of the higher ranking officials of what the next course of action should have been. Eddie, at first, was just standing in the sidelines and thinking with his other of what the whole big thing could be. Eventually, though, he figured it best to see if there was at least some sort of witness that could give him more details on the killer. He turned to the nearest officer and called out, "Excuse me, officer?"

The pony who was called was an earth pony, who had an intense coat of indigo, a thick black mustache, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a pair of flashing red and blue lights. He was startled when the silent man suddenly called out to him, but he composed himself. He, like the others working with him, were informed of the human, Eddie Brock, also the one known as Venom. He didn't know how he would have helped, but he did not deny the extra help; it was clear they needed some. He looked up to the man, replying to his call, "Yes, sir? How may I be of help?"

"Was there anyone who's seen this thing at all? Any sort of witness?"

The officer shook his head before replying, "Afraid not. The only sort of witnesses we have are the ones who heard 'em. They're pretty much the same for all: loud and weird noises, busted area, all that stuff."

Eddie was upset that there was no eye witness, but he pressed on regardless, hoping that any of the ponies at least saw something. Eddie's face almost appeared pleading, asking one more time, "There wasn't any sort of eye witness at all? Nothing?"

"Heh... well, there was one. Problem is, it was reported by a pony who had large amounts of alcohol in his system."

While that did not sound like the best of witnesses, Eddie would take it. "What did he say?"

The officer brought a hoof up to his chin while looking down to the ground in deep thought. After only a few seconds, he looked back up at Brock and delivered the description, "Again, the pony was seriously drunk. But, if you wanna, know, that's fine. He said something along the lines of it being huge." His tone switched to one of amusement rather fast as he accounted more of the pony's so called description. "Stallion said it had something like tentacles on the lower half of it, really long an thing arms on the midsection with claws at the end, and a head with something like horns on it." The officer finished with a hearty chuckle as he commented, "Honestly, it's crazy on what alcohol can do to a pony. That thing sounds more like some sort of retarded octopus or something."

Though the officer dismissed the description as crazy nonsense, Eddie and the symbiote did not share the same thoughts. The officer turned to discuss some other matters with his partners, but the man and the Klyntar were having uneasy thoughts about that description. To both of them, it sounded oddly familiar, like something they had seen before. 'Whatever it is, it's not another symbiote.'

Eddie turned his head to his left shoulder, his face plastered with signs of concentration and deep thought. 'But what is it then? It sounds so familiar... yet I can't put my finger on it.'

They were cut off from their mental talk when Twilight approached Eddie with a look of concern and a shake of her head. Eddie put his attention to her when she sighed and spoke with a hopeless tone, "We've been trying everything, but still no closer than from the start. Not even a description of what it looks like."

"Well, there was one description."

Twilight gave off a dry chuckle, speaking in empty amusement, "You mean from that drunk stallion? Police have looked into him as well, and he's been known for his drinking habits."

"Well, that's the thing." Eddie spoke in a slightly more serious tone, as he continued, "Even though it came from a drunk pony, me and my other almost recognize it." Twilight's sour mood and state immediately shot up and straight to attention and stared at Eddie, practically mentally begging for more details. Eddie brought a hand up to halt the torrent of questions he figured would be coming from her as he quickly stated, "It's nothing solid yet, but we're trying to think of what it is."

Twilight nearly shouted as she brought herself closer to the man in a begging tone, "One of you two have got to remember it, and soon! This information could be really useful, and we could use it!"

Eddie held up a finger as he looked down, mumbling, "Just give me a moment."

While Eddie was thinking and Twilight was waiting with barely contained patience, the symbiote was on something else. It began feeling something with one of its many senses, something oddly familiar. It thought that a symbiote had shown up, but its senses told it that whatever it was picking up was something else. The symbiote always had basic instincts and senses equipped with it just like any other animal. One of them being the sense to detect others of its kind. And one of those basic senses were coming into play, one that the symbiote hadn't felt in a long time, one it had hoped to never have to feel or sense again. Whatever it was picking up, the symbiote was certain of one thing.

The thing was a predator, and it was quickly approaching. Another emotion unwillingly brought itself into the symbiote, one it has rarely felt in its long existence: Fear. True, absolute, unbridled fear for its own and its host's life. They were in danger, it knew that much.

'Eddie, not safe here. Need to leave.' Eddie was surprised when he heard his other speak in a panicking tone, one he rarely heard at all.

'What do you mean?'

'Something is coming, and fast. It's not a symbiote, something is out for us. Eddie, we need to leave now!'

"Calm down, there's nothing around here. It's just us and ponies right now." Eddie spoke sternly, but also a bit soft for his other.

Twilight looked at Eddie confused, and asked, "Eddie, what's wrong? Is something... the... matter...." Twilight trailed off at the end, with her eyes looking past and behind the confused Eddie, at something that baffled her. Other guards and police ponies who looked that way stopped what they were doing and stared wide-eyed at the thing. A thing, a creature of sorts, crawled out of an alleyway many blocks back, and was using its dexterous arms and claws to quickly climb on the side of the building. Straight towards them.

Eddie was oblivious, but the symbiote was panicking more than ever. It even extended tendrils out of Eddie's body and wrapped around him in a blink of an eye, forming the body of Venom, but with Eddie's face still exposed. Brock was caught off guard by the action, and was about to demand his other what it was doing, until he heard the screams and shouts of ponies on the streets and around him. He saw civilians, guards, police, and Twilight look straight up and behind him, either screaming or just staring with a bewildered expression. It took only a second for Eddie to realize a threat of some sorts was inbound, and willed the symbiote to finish the transformation, morphing them into Venom.

Twilight gasped sharply when she realized that the thing was not heading towards them, but directly and straight towards Venom. Before she could warn him, the beast, to her surprise, shouted out with glee, "Yummy!"

Venom's eyes stretched up as a sudden shocking feeling of dread washed over him. All the killings, the ripped off heads, how said killer was never caught, they knew then. It was not a symbiote who did it; it was one who eats them. And that one was right behind them. Venom quickly spun around and shouted, "What the--!?!" He was interrupted when a many thick tendrils constricted themselves under his arms and around his torso and legs, then all but jerked him upwards in the tight grip of the beast.

Most of the ponies on the street screamed and backed away, and those who didn't could only stare at the beast with fastened breaths and looks of fear and panic. Twilight, too, could only stare at the thing that she then knew was the killer.

"I am called 'One Who Eats'." Spoke the creature in surprisingly fluent Equestrian. It was hoisted on the side of one of the taller buildings of the city, one claw punctured the wall of the building, the talons gripped firmly in it. Venom was firmly held in the grasp of the tendrils, though he tried to break out of the grip, the alien was strong enough to hold even the Lethal Protector. The alien had him held up just below his face, and finally, the ponies got a good look at the murderer.

It was without a doubt tall, perhaps around ten or fifteen meters in height, larger than a house. The lower half of the body consisted of one, two, or perhaps even three dozen large, long, slick, thick, rough, red-purple tendrils, each single one performing a precise action by the will of the alien. The top half consisted of many different parts. The torso was also large and protruding in the front and back. What made it different from the other aspects of the body was the fact that there was long, thick, brown hair covering it, with some hairs standing astray from the rest. Sticking out from the left and right of the torso was a pair of long, thin, skinny arms that were also the same color as the tendrils. They appeared so thin compared to the rest of the alien; it was like there was only skin around the bones and no flesh. The skin didn't even wrap around sets of bones, just single bones, so one could see where the bones would be in the arm. In contrast, the arms ended with large sets of claws, five talons to each one. The talons themselves were made up of long, sharp, curving bones unlike the rest of the arms.

The most attention-drawing feature, however, was the alien's face. Where his neck ended, the alien's exoskeleton formed its face, a dull yellow shade for the bone material. The bottom jaw was large and wide, protruding past the top jaw, where the left and right sides formed a pair of tusks bending outward and above the top jaw from the same exoskeleton that made it. Between the two tusks was a row of razor sharp teeth that could shred into anything: including symbiotes. In the enormous mouth was a large red tongue with the same dull and golden liquid drooling off of it and out of the alien's awaiting maw. The top jaw was an opposite of the bottom one, bending inward and a smaller one with fewer teeth. The face was slanted inwards, and on opposite sides of the top jaw were two hollowed out areas of the exoskeleton that housed large, bright, green eyes with black pupils and black rings in the eyes. If one were to focus on the eyes, something quite obviously shown would have been noted: Hunger. Absolute hunger.

Behind the eyes sockets was a pair of antlers --similar to goat antlers-- that curved out then back in before coming to a small point. The back of the eye sockets curved out and thinned out from the face before sharply dropping down, then curving back up; it was an odd set of horns. In between the horns and eye sockets was a chain-link of bones, like the vertebrae and spines of some animals such as humans, that trailed above the head before bending below it and behind his torso, ending in a small but sharp bone that could jab and stab whatever the alien wanted it to. Behind the exoskeleton of the face was the rest of the head, a pod-shaped part that stuck outwards and had to small antennae sticking out of it like that of an ant. It was also colored a red-purple like most of the body.

"Or as it translates into your language, a Xenophage. And what I eat," the Xenophage brought the struggling Venom a bit closer to its face before stating loudly, "is symbiote meat!" Venom grunted as he tried to wrestle the offending tentacles off of him, but he could not as the Xenophage, faster than any of the ponies thought one like it was capable of reaching, scaled up the massive building with its claws to pull itself up with Venom in its grasp.

Twilight was the first pony to knock herself out of her stupor from the sight of the beastly predator that took Venom as its meal. She released a sharp gasp as she recounted the alien's words of eating symbiote meat, and immediately knew that Eddie and his symbiote were in trouble. She turned to the guards as she shouted, "We have to stop that thing before it does what I think it's going to do!" The guards that were pegasi responded by spreading their wings and took off after the Xenophage, followed by Twilight. The unicorns and earth ponies opted to gallop to them and try to keep up the best they could.

The alien slunk onto the roof of the tall building with quick strides of its claws, gripping the edges of the building to boost himself forward. Before the alien could get far, Venom finally broke free from the bundle of tendrils around him with an aggressive shout to accompany it, "You wanna eat so much? We'll give ya something to chew on!" Some of the tendrils were still wrapped around his legs, but he was not as hindered in movement and mobility as he was before.

The alien ascended another building as he forced the wicked webslinger on the ride, though he turned his head back to regard Venom, "Ah, you are a strong one indeed! That will just make you that much more delicious!" As Venom was being quickly dragged up by the tendrils, he used one arm to try and pry off the remaining tendrils and the other arm that was prepared to connect a thread of webbing to the head of the Xenophage.

Before he could do either of those, however, a massive claw shot out and grasped his chest, causing him to grunt. The alien paused from scaling the windows of the large skyscraper as he brought the Lethal Protector higher up before unleashing more tentacles that constricted around his limbs like bundled up wires and cords. "Of course, I have ways to stop that." Venom continued to struggle against the tendrils, but he briefly paused when he saw the Xenophage tilt his head back until it was parallel with the ground. It then opened its massive jaws, and Venom saw in the back of his throat a deep orange and red glow that was getting brighter by the moment. Venom didn't have time to react when an intense and bright golden liquid blasted out of the alien's jaws, like a fire hydrant spraying water, directly onto him.

The shot was powerful enough to force Venom back further into the grasp of the beast with a painful, "Aaarrrrggghh!"

"That, my main course, will keep you down awhile. Now," the Xenophage returned to his task of scaling the skyscraper, with only a few tendrils wrapped around its prey, more loose than before. "Let us find someplace more private, without these ponies to interfere."

Eddie and the symbiote didn't even resist the few tendrils wrapped around them, because the couldn't. The liquid that the Xenophage blasted them with was a special neurotoxin that completely and effectively paralyzes any symbiote parasite it comes into contact with. Because the Venom symbiote took a full blast head on, it was immediately rendered unconscious. However, it was still wrapped around Eddie, but they were not one at that time. Eddie's face struggled to see through the mouth of Venom as he tried with all his might to get out of that predicament. But that was the point of the neurotoxin. It left the host aware of everything around him, but he was severely hindered by the dead weight of the knocked out symbiote. If Brock wasn't so strong, he might not have been able to move at all. Eddie even felt trapped, almost. He didn't feel like he usually did when he and his other were Venom. No, at that moment it felt like he was wrapped tightly in a wet straight jacket. What had him worried, was that he was nearly powerless to do anything but try to struggle. At that moment, the predator that was Venom became the prey.

Author's Note

The Xenophage:

Hey guys, sorry this took a couple of weeks to get out! Christmas vacation and all. Speaking of, I hope you all had a merry Christmas! This story should be returning to its regular schedule, so there's that. Well, what did you all think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 16: A Gracious and Glorious "Thank You"

Eddie and the symbiote weren't in the greatest shape at that time in Equestria. Not only was the symbiote out cold, but it was constricted around Eddie and hindering him from almost any movement; that plus the Xenophage dragging them across the rooftops only added on that problem. The Xenophage used its massive claws to gain a strong hold on each roof before launching itself to the next with a restricted Eddie being tugged by the arms and ankles by a few eased tentacles around him, though he was sure that the tendrils weren't going to drop him anytime intentionally.

With great strain, Eddie brought his arms up to the unwelcome tendrils around him and tried to gain a grip on them and pry them off. While he did achieve a grip on them, he did not have the strength or power to remove them. He was taken by surprise when he was nearly hurled as the alien took a sharp and unexpected turn into a wide street, though they were still at roof height. "I must admit, I did not expect to find one such as you all the way out here," The Xenophage coolly called back to its meal without a glance as though they were nothing but a dish to be served. "It was a pleasant surprise when I discovered you here."

"Screw you!" Eddie shouted back angrily. He and his other have fought a Xenophage before, and he really did not want to have to face another. Plus, his top priority was escaping the clutches of the predator that was swinging him around, not to have a casual conversation.

The alien paid no mind to his meal's banter, but he did crane his head back when he heard the flapping of multiple wing beats. Not far off, he saw, was a squadron of pegasi royal guards with spears readied in their hooves and in hot pursuit. The alien had faced local authorities on many other worlds, and the ones who tried to pursue it to capture or kill it clearly failed at the task; it would be the same for those ponies. Looking forward again, the alien calmly spoke again, "I had worked my way to earning you," When the Xenophage came across the next building that would have been used to boost itself, it suddenly rammed its claw into the structure, causing Brock to tilt his head up as best he could, then it quickly retracted its claw which held all sorts of debris: glass, stone, wood, wire, metal, all sharp and dangerous. "I'll have to work some more."

As the pegasi were closing in and preparing to use their spears to thrust them at the beast, its right arm shot behind it and past Eddie, the talons simultaneously releasing their hold of the building materials. When the guards all saw a hailstorm of debris fly right at them, they all had panicked reactions. Some tried to halt and brake their flight, some tried to veer this way and that way, and others raised their hooves up to bring at least some protection to them. All of them had looks of sheer terror on their faces, and all of them were struck by the debris. Their clean white coats and feathers became large stains of deep red as the glass shredded and tore into their skin. Their armor proved ultimately useless as stones and metals, coming at them at great speeds, burst through their armor and busted them up well; some bones were broken in the process. Their once graceful and perfect wings appeared as a crumpled up sheet of paper that was unfolded once any of the debris came into excruciating unbearable contact with them. They wanted to scream and shout, of course; but too many objects, big and small, were hitting their faces like bullets from a machine gun.

All of that happened in the span of only a few seconds, and, like a flightless pigeon falling to the earth, the pegasi found their brutalized forms plummeting to the cold, hard, Fillydelphia streets. All the while, Brock was staring at the whole scene, shocked and stunned at the few seconds of what happened to the innocent guards. He couldn't see past the razor fangs of the unconscious symbiote around his face, but he knew that the chances of those guards having survived that fall in their state wasn't a very high one; even if they survived, they would have needed immediate medical attention. He had to kill the Xenophage, that was certain for him; but there were only two ways to go about that at his given time. He could, by luck and chance, wait for some more royal guards that were capable enough to fight the alien as he could help as best he could, assuming the alien did not eat him by them. That option was not likely to him. The other was to wait out the effects of the neurotoxin. It had been many years since he and his other came across a Xenophage on Earth, but he remembered that the effects didn't last long, only a minute or two. Of course, the Xenophage could always have just blasted him again.

Between the two options, though, the second was the most likely. He would have to do everything in his power to keep the alien occupied, though that was easier said than done.

The alien continued with its snatch to propel itself forward into someplace with no interruption, until, up ahead, it saw a large group of ground ponies on the street, both with horns and spears. It was, of course, an attack to try and stop the massive beast. The ponies must have mistaken the Xenophage for a brainless brute, for it would not fall for something as simple as that. The alien made a quick and sharp maneuver into a gap, just large enough for it to fit in, between two buildings. It then slunk over the roof of the nearest building, the creature moving across with mad and dexterous tentacles.

After a few leaps and slinks across more rooftops, the alien came to an immediate stop upon one of the taller buildings of the city. He was not being followed by any of the ponies, so he thought that the roof was a great spot for a quick, but certainly memorable, juicy meal. The alien then stood tall on his tendrils, leaning over his struggling prey, who was pinned down with minimal effort. An open and drooling maw graced the beast's face as it was coming closer to its food. When its jaws almost consumed its prey, a bright and instant purple flash ignited to the the right of the Xenophage. Not a moment after, a large and thick purple beam of steaming hot energy connected to the side of the alien's face, stopping him from finishing his paralyzed meal. Instead of being knocked back, shouting or screaming, or even wincing, the alien sighed, annoyed an unfazed, with those two details being clear when it spoke, "What is it now?"

The alien turned its head towards the direction the blast came from, Eddie having craned his head with some effort to see as well, to see the shot's origin. To the great relief of Eddie and minor annoyance of the Xenophage, a few yards off, stood Twilight Sparkle with a dozen pegasi guards around and above her.

She had teleported herself and the guards on the roof to catch it by surprise and stop it, though she was a bit unnerved when one of her more powerful blasts only annoyed the beast before her. Regardless, she stood her ground with unwavering confidence and determination. She shouted in what she thought was an authoritative tone to the Xenophage, "Release him now, you beast, and face justice for your crimes!"

The desired effect did not happen, and the alien gazed down at the ponies before it with apathetic eyes before speaking up, "Crimes? Ah, yes, those of your kind who served as bait to bring my prey here. It is wrong to you, perhaps, but it was a good method to use for me; they did their work. As for him, I will not forfeit him so easily."

Angered by the alien's downplay of the ponies and refusal to release Eddie, she spread her wings and shot above the roof before releasing a barrage of laser shots from her horn straight to the Xenophage's face. The guards took that as the signal to attack, and followed the princess in the air, readied for a fight. Though Twilight was powerful with magic, Eddie knew that, if she kept a frontal assault like she was doing, it was only going to lead to a defeat. He shouted out, hoping his voice would reach her ears, "Twilight! that won't work, you need to try something else!" Indeed, for not only was the Xenophage's exoskeleton highly durable, it had no pain receptors in them, giving it the edge in combat. The alien brought up many of its tendrils and an arm above itself as it spoke out again, "You see? even your great defender knows how futile this is."

The Xenophage made no immediate movement to stop the pegasi with spears soaring right at him, as well as the bolts of magic from Twilight's horn. When the guards came close, they assumed they where in for a swift victory, possibly mortally wounding the alien in the process. Their overconfidence, however, proved to be their downfall. For though the tendrils around the alien were stagnant then, they immediately zoomed outwards to intercept the unsuspecting guards. The tentacles came far too fast for any of them to react to properly, and thus they were all stricken and batted out of the air. They all were whipped back and into the concrete roof, some so hard as to even leave cracks and dents. When the alien viewed the defeated pegasi, it couldn't help but chuckle at how poor the land of Equestria's military were; the guards had confidence, but not the skill or strength to back it up. The alien's chuckles ceased when he noticed that a certain alicorn princess was not lying among the defeated before him. His answer to where she was came in the form of a sharp and thin beam cutting through the edge of his right shoulder, causing a streak of red blood to squirt out of it as soon as the shot came.

Though the shot gave some pain to the Xenophage, he still stood motionless and erect as though the shot did nothing to him. He tilted his head up above and to his right to see the princess hovering in place, that same look of aggressive determination adorning her face, as she stated loudly to punctuate her point, "You've harmed enough innocents, even gone as far as ending their lives, and you did all of that just so you could devour him," she pointed her hoof to the trapped Eddie. "I've seen lots of ponies and others do many terrible things just so they could benefit for themselves, but never killing. What you're doing is wrong, and I will stop you." She finished with a cold tone.

The Xenophage, like the first talk, remained unwavering and motionless. It questioned her, "Wrong? Is it wrong of the lion for feasting upon a simple lamb? Is it wrong of the spider for catching an ignorant fly in its web? It doesn't matter to me what your moral is. I, like every other life, eats. And I will do many things those like you would consider evil to obtain my favored food. And to me, the ponies were just bait. You, however, are simply a fly in the way." As he finished, two tendrils shot out toward the alicorn to bat her down to the roof like the others. Unlike the others, though, Twilight disappeared in another flash, avoiding the twin tendrils. She reappeared in another flash on the left of the Xenophage, where she unleashed a powerful bolt of magic to strike its chest.

The Xenophage, however, was prepared for the shot, for it brought up its left claw and used the back of it to block the shot. Even more of the the tendrils snaked out and rushed for her. Instead of teleporting, Twilight summoned up a small purple transparent barrier around her, that was violently knocked back and cracked as the tendrils made their mark. Her small bubble shattered upon impact with the roof, where her body impacted roughly against it, causing her to yelp from the pain. The Xenophage raised its right claw in the air before clamping its arm on the spot the princess was at, the talons sinking into the roof; but no pony flesh. The alien sighed as he brought his left arm to block another shot from the princess. Finishing her would take a few seconds more than most others, he thought.

The Fillydelphia street was scattered with ponies on all sides, save for a wide circumference in the center of the street. The ponies on the outside of the circle dared a peek at what was within it, but regretted doing so soon after their eyes fell on the center. Its perimeter was blocked by some police ponies keeping the citizens out and only allowing the medical ponies in it. The third types of ponies in the circle of the street were ones trying their absolute hardest to grip onto their waning lives.

The pegasi guards who were brutalized by the debris ruthlessly thrown at them by the alien were lying on stretchers and being treated the best they could by the medical ponies. The staff would have loaded them into a carriage and taken them to the Fillydelphia hospital as fast as they could, but many of the guards suffered wounds that had to have been taken care of immediately. The medics were able to take care of most of the wounds, temporarily, at least, but some of the more unfortunate guards had to bear physical damage that was not so easy to take care of. Wings barely hanging onto their joints, long and deep gashes, chunks of flesh torn off, and various other wounds that could be fatal in not taken care of right away. Those guards were groaning from the constant waves of pain that flickered across their fragile bodies, a constant reminder of how close they were to death.

The concentration of the medics was broken when a voice, almost sarcastic like, spoke out, "Ouch, that looks like it hurts. A lot." The medics were going to respond to the crude interruption with aggressive commands to leave them to their work, but when they turned their heads to see who spoke, their eyes widened with all the anger leaving them soon after into stunned silence. The police ponies jumped in surprise when they heard a voice from inside the circle that did not belong to any of the medics, after all, nopony got past them. Yet, it appeared that an unwelcome guest was in there.

One of the police ponies jumped around while angrily shouting, "Hey! Nopony but the medics are supposed to be he--!" His speech was cut off by his own stunned silence upon the figure within the circle.

The figure responded to the officer with, "Oh, come on. You wouldn't even let little old me in?" The figure, as if he was oblivious of the guards' pain, grinned at the shocked looks on the ponies' faces. He furrowed his brows and rolled his eyes when one of the injured moaned loudly from the pain that erupted in his body again. "Jeez, you don't have to sound like a baby to get help, you know. But, being the nice guy that I am, I'll personally take care of your problem." As the medical ponies returned their focus to the wounded guards below them, a click was heard around them, then a quick and white flash erupted, and suddenly, the guards found themselves in one hundred percent working condition.

Their once crumpled wings were returned to their former state of elegance and grace. Their bloodied and shredded bodies were again restored to a healthy and pristine condition with all of the blood stains gone. Their destroyed armor, which was lying close by, returned to their bodies in their natural golden and shining condition; it was as if the guards were never struck down by the alien. Everypony their stood perfectly still, though their hearts were racing at the display. The guards, once they realized they were no longer in pain, took long and doubting gazes at their pristine forms. As if they were checking if it was a mirage, they all slowly brought their hooves down their bodies, and were even more confused when they felt none of the wounds that were there moments before. Everypony, including the guards themselves, stared at the once heavily injured guards, wondering how all the wounds could have been fixed so easily.

The figure looked left and right at the ponies, waiting for them to say anything, but they all stayed in silence. He furrowed his brows again with a huff, before muttering, "Gee, not even a thanks?" He sighed and shook his head before speaking up, "Fine, but I'm looking for some beast that was just here."

Finally, one of them was knocked out of their stupor, and questioned, "Beast?"

"Oh, you know, just the thing that beat these guards and has a certain human and a..." The figure mulled over the missing word in his thoughts, until he shouted out, "Symbiote! Yes, a human and a symbiote! I wanted to visit them sooner, but this is the perfect opportunity to show them how thankful and gracious I am! So, where'd they go?"

The figure awaited with an eager grin, and one of the perplexed ponies pointed a hoof in the direction the alien went with its prey. The figure looked to the pointed direction and spoke with glee, "Perfect! Oh, I can't wait to see the looks on their faces!" Another click resonated, and the figure disappeared from sight.

The ponies blinked, before one of them spoke, "That thing is in for one heck of a ride." The others nodded in agreement.

Another tendril slammed against the purple barrier, forcing it back into the roof yet another time. Like the last time, the barrier erupted with a violent smash, and forcing the purple pony within to slam against the roof as well. The Xenophage did not bring a claw down that time; it knew exactly what to do to be rid of the pony.

Twilight, having thought that a claw would have smashed her, quickly teleported away. She reappeared in the air above and a bit away from the Xenophage. She was lightly panting, scrapes and bruises covered her body from being repeatedly slammed down on the roof.

At first, Twilight had a slight advantage against the Xenophage due to her ranged magic and smaller form, but the alien had quickly adapted to her tactics. He knew that whenever she teleported she would appear to the opposite side to try and fire a laser at his skin, but he would either evade the shot or block it with one of his claws. The alien noticed, though, that all of her magical abilities were originating from the horn on her head. And since she was in the air, and had suffered some injuries, he had her right where he wanted her.

Twilight was running out of ideas of how to take down the beast before her. She had hoped that more guards would have popped up by then, but none had arrived; though, the beast seemed to understand her attack patterns, she supposed that was why the fight did not last too long. Then, the alien did something she hadn't seen it do before: it gave off a small smile. While it did not, perhaps, mean anything, it did concern her for what the Xenophage was thinking. It was then that she saw the wire-like and bone-chained material protruding from the alien's head arc up, slink around its head to face her, then violently shot off straight towards her like a chained knife.

Twilight yelped as she made a quick flap of her wings to dash to her right. The deadly stinger at the end zipped past Twilight's head, making her heart race all that much faster. Right when she thought she avoided certain death, her right hind leg surged with an unbearable amount of pain as the stinger pierced straight through her leg. Her wings jiggled randomly as she cried out, falling down to the roof. Unfortunately for her, the Xenophage was not done with her. The stinger was still pierced through her leg, and the chained appendage whipped back up with the princess in its grip, before mercilessly slamming her back down onto the roof. The Xenophage repeated the process twice before the stinger yanked itself back out of her leg.

Twilight struggled to even move as she lied in the cracks of the roof which managed to hold under the barrage of her body being slammed against it. The Xenophage then lurked over to her, and contemplated to himself whether he should finish her or carry on with his catch. Before he could have thought much further on the subject, he felt something sharp dig into the tendrils holding his prey. He spun his head around to see his prey leaning up and digging one of his symbiotic clawed hands into one of his own tendrils, spilling out the blood.

Eddie had been waiting during the fight, waiting for his symbiote to wake up. While the fight did not last that long, it was long enough for his symbiote, despite being unconscious, to regain some movement and energy. Though he was not at one hundred percent capability, he was not so hindered as before, and had some fight back in him. He had hoped that Twilight could've lasted until the symbiote was fully conscious, but when the Xenophage brutalized her with its stinger and stalked over her, he had to act.

"Take some of your own medicine, jackass!" As Eddie finished, he brought his other clawed arm up, gripped the bleeding tendril, and, with all he could, ripped the chunk off from the rest of the tendril. Soon after, a massive claw pinned hook down, and he was forced to stare up at his predator that was staring down at him with an expression he couldn't read; if he had to guess, he'd say it would have probably been anger.

"Injuries inflicted upon me will only be temporary," It then raised its other claw, the talons gleaming in the light of day as if to show off the savage fury that was about to come. "Unlike the ones about to be done to you." As he finished, he viciously brought down his claw upon Eddie's chest and the symbiote, shredding into him and his other. It brought its claw back again and repeated the process, though the alien intentionally kept Eddie alive. Symbiotes and hosts always tasted better as live food. It was careful not to dig too deep, but continued to hack and slash the man and the Klyntar as a message of who was the predator. When it was done, the face of the symbiote was ripped off, and gashes ran deep across his chest.

The Xenophage relented from his assault as he figured that would keep his prey down in his bloody mess. He began thinking on whether to eat the symbiote then and there or retreat to some other secluded location. His solution came as a low whistling sound, slowly escalating to a higher noise. Curiosity piqued, he dipped his head over the edge of the roof, and saw his escape: Some form of locomotive rolling its way from the inner city, continuing out of Fillydelphia. The contraption was very long, seeming to have no beginning or end. Not to mention its top was covered in pink with different strands of color all around it, and had a caramel-colored crusty material lining up the sides.

The alien did not care how odd the machine looked, he knew that it was heading out of the city and that it could accommodate his large form upon it. Yes, that was it. He would have his meal on the go. Gripping his claws on the edges, he leaped off of it with Eddie and the symbiote wrapped up in some more tendrils than before, and graciously landed on the roof of the vehicle, which proved to be sturdy enough to hold the Xenophage.

Eddie, through the pain of being torn into, did notice one thing. While the Xenophage landed with a loud clang onto what he assumed was another train, his landing was actually soft; he even bounced back up once before coming back to the cart. The next thing that popped to his senses what the material of the cart actually felt like. It wasn't metal or wooden, it felt like something much more tangible, even smooth and crinkly. Though he was far more concerned about the alien that was going to eat him, he spared a quick glance at the material, but when he looked, his sight was fixed on what the material was, even in his shocked state he knew the material.

The pink substance was indeed very soft, and even bent and cracked when Eddie lied upon it, but not like that of concrete or stone. And below the cracks peeked out a light tan solid that didn't appear much more firm or harder than the pink material. Littered around on the top were small colored tube-like objects that were anywhere from six inches to a foot in length. All those items combined together appeared as something edible, something anyone or pony could recognize, something Eddie knew as, "...Doughnuts?"

Before he could question the oddity, he snapped his head back up when saliva hit his chest, and saw the Xenophage with a wide open maw, jaws ready to feast. The Xenophage lowered its jaws closer and closer to its prey, until, suddenly something zipped onto its face. Eddie squinted his eyes, not to help see, but to make sure what he thought he saw he actually saw correctly. What attached to the side of the alien's face was, to Eddie's disbelief, a regular glass cup, with chocolate milk inside of it, and a cupcake on fire on the back of it. And in the drink, the milk appeared to be sizzling, bubbles forming in and about, shaking the glass.

Right as the Xenophage was about voice its irritated state yet another time that day, the cup suddenly erupted, followed by a large and fiery explosion that hurled the Xenophage off of Eddie and nearly tossing it off the vehicle as it fell down on the edge. "Hey! Didn't you read the sign? No hitchhikers, no hobos, and eating guests is not allowed!"

Eddie just lied on his back, stunned at what had just transpired. He tilted his head when he heard approaching footsteps and heard a huff, followed by a disapproving, "Really, no one has any respect for rules these days. My apologies, you two. Well, one of you is awake, anyways."

Eddie and the symbiote had encountered many odd and and flat out weird things in the past. Hell, they even once uploaded themselves to the internet to fight Carnage, because apparently symbiotes could do that somehow. But the thing that was before them was way up there on the list of 'weirdest things', probably a contender for the top ten as well. It looked like the scientist who made Frankenstein decided to make another monster by sewing on as many different animal parts as he could. A hoof here, an antler there, wings and legs, feathers and fur; it was completely unorganized. The figure only got more bizarre when it grinned down at him with a toothy grin, then lowered an arm that ended in an eagle's claw to him, unfurled and held out. "Need help, buddy ol' pal?"

Eddie stared at the odd creature and his appendage, before uttering, "Who the hell are you?"

The figure emitted a faint gasp as he smacked his forehead with a lion paw, dragging it down his face before replying, "Oh, of course, how silly of me. Where are my manners?" The creature gripped Eddie's arm with both lion paw and eagle claw, pulling him up before continuing with a wide grin while rapidly shaking his hand, "Discord, Spirit of Chaos, here to help you with your problem!"

Brock, having gotten past the shock for the most part, was about to speak, when an intense bestial roar erupted from the scorched alien to their left as it picked itself up with its arms as it leaned in and looked over to Eddie and Discord. The left of the exoskeleton was completely charred in black dust, and cracks began to form along it as well. Its left arm was also a shade deeper of black from the scorch marks, heavy burn marks all around. Angered by yet another interruption, the alien charged straight after Brock and Discord. Whereas Brock took an offensive stance and prepared for a fight, confident that the symbiote had enough energy and was almost awake to take the beast down, Discord merely rolled his eyes before raising his eagle arm and snapping his talons.

In an instant, Eddie found himself along with Discord outside the Everfree forest, with Fillydelphia nowhere in sight. The Xenophage appeared soon afterwards, though it crashed headfirst into the ground. Eddie looked around with wide eyes as he tried to comprehend, "What the... how...?"

Discord raised his lion paw in the in front of Eddie's face as to shush him, as he began, "I know, I know, you're probably really confused right now, but let me explain. You've met Fluttershy by now, the nice little pegasus, Element of Kindness, and all that good stuff." Eddie was half-listening, his attention cast on the Xenophage that was pulling itself out of the crater it formed, before it shook itself and charged straight towards the two again.

Eddie pointed a talon out at the upcoming beast, shouting, "Not now! We've got to--!" Again, Discord only raised his eagle claw before snapping his talons again. That time, a large portal was brought into existence next to the charging Xenophage, where the same doughnut-train from before was hurled out of it and was rammed right into the side of it, abruptly stopping its charge and hurling it back with the train near the woods, even throwing the alien into some trees.

Discord continued with his jolly attitude, ignoring the pure dumbfounded look on Eddie's face, "Anyways, she's a great friend of mine, and I'm probably her greatest friend. Basically, she means a lot to me." Eddie slowly looked back and forth between the wreckage of doughnuts with the Xenomorph and the Spirit of Chaos before him, the furrowed brows and dropped draw, accompanied with a staggering expression, never having left his face. "So when I heard some things from this forest tried to harm her... well, I'm sure you can imagine how I felt. But when I heard some creature, something called Venom, saved her life? I was overjoyed! I mean, I would have saved her, but I was at a casino in Las Pegasus." He looked from left to right before leaning in to whisper in Eddie's ear, "Don't tell Fluttershy, because I'll never hear the end of it, but I might have a slight gambling problem." He pulled his head back as he continued in a happy tone, "I knew I had to show him my gratitude somehow, but not only did I learn that he was not only one, but two different entities, but also the first human, you, in Equestria and some new species of creatures called symbiotes?

"I couldn't just give a decent chaotic thanking, I had to go overboard to really show my gratitude! I was alone for days, trying to think of something good enough for you two, but nothing came to mind. But! Not to long ago, talk was spread about some monster with Venom in its grasp, possibly to kill him or eat him! I knew then that, not only was this the perfect opportunity for my little chaotic intro, I could give my thanks to you two for saving my dear friend and return the favor! Consider it a 'thank you' gift!"

Eddie looked at Discord, various emotions having flowed through him after Discord's talk. But, after the initial shock finally wore off, his face calmed as he stated, "Best fucking thank you gift, hell, any gift I have ever gotten."

Discord clamped his paw and claw together with a grin, "Perfect! I know I have done wonderfully, then."

Just as he finished, a loud rumbling was heard from the carts of doughnuts and trees as the Xenophage erupted from them with a massive roar that echoed across the skies. It scanned from left to right, until its gaze fell on the two again. It charged again, though it was watching for any movements from Discord's eagle talons, knowing that he was capable of outstanding magic. Discord rolled his eyes and frowned as he prepared to snap his talons, but was stopped when a clawed hand grabbed his arm. He looked over to Eddie in confusion, who was glaring at the beast ahead of them. "Thank you, I probably would've been a goner if you didn't show up. But it's time me and my other make this thing pay; then, we kill it." Despite not being at full potential due to the neurotoxin still having some effect on the symbiote, Eddie was confident that he could go up against the Xenophage, especially since it itself was wounded. Plus, the symbiote was already slowly stitching back the wounds caused to Eddie. He then charged after the beast to meet it head on, Discord looking at him with raised brows.

"Kill it? You mean, not making friends with it?" His expression became relieved as he sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, I thought you were going to pull a Celly there for a moment. Go and get 'em!"

The Xenophage saw its prey charging at it, foolishly believing he could take it on in a fight; its food was practically delivering himself to it. It charged on with even greater speeds, finally able to get its meal. Right when they were yards apart, Eddie raised up his left arm, and, with some difficulty, shot out a thick wire of black webbing onto the Xenophage's face. He used the same arm to yank as hard as he could, propelling himself off the ground and towards the alien's face. The alien tried to raise up a claw to block the black projectile, but Eddie was already too close and fast, and, curling his right leg back, he kicked it out as it connected to the cracked side of the exoskeleton, bursting straight through it and the face, causing streaks of blood to shoot out. Its main defense penetrated and flesh torn into, the Xenophage screeched and reeled back as Eddie fell to the ground with a grunt.

The Xenophage brought a claw up to the shattered side of its face as it wriggled back away, thinking of how that could have possibly happened, how the prey could have succeeded in landing such an attack. Discord appeared next to Eddie in an instant and clapped, merrily speaking like a tune, "Bravo, bravo! I haven't seen such brutality in Equestria since... well, its been awhile. Point is, it's been too long since there's been a good fight." He looked over to the Xenophage, who was beginning to try and shake the pain. "But now, now is the time to finish this. I could just send it in a pit of lava or something for giggles, but that's not quite as fun. Any suggestions?"

Eddie smirked, as he spoke, "Oh, I think I know one you'll like. Killing it the same way me and my other did the first one."

"Oh? And what was it?" And Eddie told him, all the while Discord's grin grew more sinister and bigger. "Oh, I like that a lot."

The Xenophage stood there in agony, thinking of where it all went wrong. First, he had complete control of the situation, dominating his prey and all the ponies who came his way. The next, some odd creature shows up and begins beating him, even the symbiote and host fought back. He even considered retreating to live for another day. He might have done that, if a voice didn't taunt him, "Hey, ugly? Are you gonna fight, or are you going to be a baby about your boo-boos?" That was the last straw for the alien. It looked down to see Venom looking back up at him in a fighting stance, mocking the predator.

The beast narrowed its eyes as it shouted, "We'll see how much fight left you have when you are without a head!" With great speeds, the Xenophage dove down with an open jaw, and chomped with full force at Venom's neck, ripping the head off, as the alien swallowed the delicacy whole. As it traveled down his throat, though, he couldn't help but notice the odd taste; it didn't taste sweet or juicy. In fact, it tasted rather tart.

"For an intelligent alien, you guys can be dumb asses at times." The alien snapped his head up, and his eyes widened when he saw The host with the symbiote around him, perfectly fine save for the unconscious symbiote and some small gashes that were being knitted back together.

"I'll say, that was almost sad to watch. No, not really, it was hilarious." The odd creature appeared next to the human, chuckling at him. "Oh, don't worry about the flavor; there's a nice aftertaste that just explodes in flavor." The hint wasn't unnoticed to the alien, and it brought its claws up in a panicked pace as it gagged, trying to get the food out.

It was in vain, as there was an immediate eruption originating inside the Xenophage. A bright yellow glow peered through the skin before breaking from its bonds in an inferno all around the place, though Discord summoned a bubble around himself and Eddie. Fire and heat were joyfully bouncing out and further away. In perfect contrast from the intense fiery glow, black and charred bones stood out; and it wasn't just bones from the exoskeleton. The skin and hair was consumed in the flames and blast, leaving only the bones and what was left of the blood and saliva. The glowing light, like a miniature sun, receded back and into the nothing it was from. A low whistle resonated from the blast, and smoke danced up in the air around the dead beast. And the only thing that remained there were black bones with blood and saliva dripping off the bones and decorating the soil below.

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry this one also took so long. I had to do a lot of school work, as I am going on a cruise for a week in a few day. Because of that, the next chapter won't release somewhere between two weeks and around a month. I'm sorry for how late these chapters have been releasing from their schedules, but I do have good news. After I get back from vacation, and I have all the work mess sorted out and release the next chapter, this story should, hopefully, finally, return to its regular schedule. But please, leave a comment. I enjoy reading them!

Chapter 17: Not the Megaphone...

The man and the Spirit of Chaos stood as the bubble around them vanished in a flash of light. Before them was the former predator, nothing but charred bones and various, yet minor, other substances. Both were happy with the results of the defeated foe, but Discord's jovial spirit was replaced with a sigh, as he complained, "Oh, Celestia's going be upset at me for this."

Eddie looked over to Discord curiously with a, "How so?"

"Well, even though this thing tried to kill you, and probably other ponies, she'll be cranky that I ended the thing."

Eddie looked back at the deceased Xenophage, as he asked, "Well, how else were you supposed to stop it?"

Discord raised up his eagle claw as he started, "Let's see... turning it to stone, teleporting it somewhere, or, admittedly not my specialty, with the magic of friendship."

Eddie blinked in confusion as he looked back at Discord with an adjacent expression. "... I don't think the... 'magic of friendship' method would've worked in this scenario."

Discord nodded with, "Sometimes friendship doesn't quite cut it."
Brock was about to continue before he was cut off from pain flaring in the gashes that the unconscious symbiote was slowly healing. He clenched his teeth and held his stomach with eyes screwed shut as he leaned over and groaned from the pain. Discord's brows rose as he stated, "You don't look so good."

Eddie managed to get out, "Nngh... not helping. My other could get this fixed, but..."

"Your other?" Discord took only a moment before he realized who Eddie was talking about. "Ah, yes, that symbiote in you. Well, no need to fret, Eddie ol' pal, I'll get 'em up in a jiffy!" As he finished, he snapped his talons with a wide smile as another small, yet bright flash erupted from the snap. Having looked right at the flash, Eddie quickly brought his other arm up as he tried to blink away the effects of the flash with some annoyance for no warning of the flash, but he didn't voice it. Discord saved his life, and it wasn't a big deal to him. Once he felt his vision was well enough, he removed his arm away from his face and looked over to see what Discord had done, but his eyes went wide at the sight that was before him.

There, in a small floating bed in front of Discord and under covers, was the slumbering symbiote in humanoid form. Discord analyzed the Klyntar before him with a curious look, noting how it was even slightly snoring and drooling, with eyes lidded to near-slits. He hummed in thought before speaking, "Sure would be rude to just wake the guy up." Eddie had no response as he remained in his stunned stance. He didn't know if Discord somehow conjured up a mental projection of the symbiote to see, or if he literally summoned it out of his own body, and in form as well. Eddie still felt his other within him, so he figured it must have been the former option. Discord lightly tapped the symbiote, another surprise to Eddie that Discord could make physical contact with it as well. He lightly shook the symbiote as he gently called, "Wakey, wakey, Symby, you're not dead."

Eddie continued to stare, not having spoken a word, and was still trying to comprehend Discord's magics and interactions on the other. After a few more tries of gently waking the symbiote, Discord was getting impatient, and decided to pull out the big guns. "Well, I tried it the nice way..." He then spawned a megaphone into existence in his lion paw, and held it over the sleeping form of the symbiote. Brock's eyes widened as he held an arm out, nearly shouting, "Wait, wait, don't--!"

It was too late, however, as Discord shouted into the microphone and onto the symbiote, "Wake up! You're not dead yet! You have to get up!"

Having just gone through slumber, only to suddenly be awoken by loud sounds, the symbiote responded in its own appropriate way-- by screeching in confusion, bewilderment, and, of course, pain. 'Skkrriiieeeeehhh!!!' Some tendrils formed and wavered from the noise as it instantly leaped out of the bed, fumbled in the covers, and landing in the ground in a heap. It fumbled around in the covers before aggressively shredding through them with its claws. Once the Klyntar was free of its confines, it swiveled its head around while lying on the ground, trying to figure out what was going on. The last thing it recalled was taking the blast from the Xenohpage before it fell into unconsciousness. Being outside, both outdoors and out of its host's body, drove even more panicked confusion through its mind.

In fact, the first thing the symbiote noticed was that it woke up in humanoid form that was not of its doing. Though the alien was not thinking about it at the time, the microphone's loud sound at point blank surprisingly didn't hurt all that much; it felt like nothing more than a sting. Finally, the symbiote asked to no one in particular, 'We... we're not dead?'

It was then that the symbiote noticed the draconequus standing over it with a megaphone in paw, and received, "No! You are very much alive!"

The second set of highly loud noises sent the symbiote into a frenzied panic, as it thrust its left arm up with a snarl and the black claw busted the megaphone into pieces as the symbiote looked up at its attacker with the edges of its eyes twisted and curled, prepared for battle despite the many questions it had.

Brock saw his other half in a viscous, frenzied state, and knew he had to calm it down. "No, symbiote, don't!" Eddie shouted as he hurriedly stepped over to the two and behind the Klyntar. "He's on our side!"

The voice of Eddie broke the symbiote's hostility in an instant, causing it to twirl its head around in surprise as the pair of large white eyes looked at the man. 'Eddie? Where are we? What happened?' The alien within wearily glared at Discord. 'Who's this?'

Discord, during the Klyntar's assault on his megaphone, only glanced down at the broken tool with a disappointed look, not noticing or ignoring the symbiote's clear aggression, only muttering, "Aw, that one actually lasted awhile." Once he heard the rudely awoken alien ask who he was, however, he gladly took that as his part to introduce himself to Eddie's other half. He slunk over to the other side of the symbiote while draping his lion arm around the stunned, yet cautious Klyntar, bringing it up about eye level with Discord. "Glad you asked, Symby! I am Discord, Spirit of Chaos! And," He brought his head closer with a proud smirk, "The one who saved you from that squid-thingamajig."

Any thoughts the symbiote might have had on attacking Discord vanished at the last statement. Its confusion was spread across its face, and when Discord saw, he chuckled as turned so he and the alien were facing what remained of the Xenophage. Its eyes rose in disbelief from the sight of the dead predator. The Spirit of Chaos grinned triumphantly and arrogantly as he continued with a jolly voice, "Oh, but there's no need to thank me. It's my way of repaying you for defending Fluttershy; she's the one who counts." Discord's eyes traveled to his left at the sound of a cough. He saw Eddie with one brow raised accompanied by an inquisitive look. Discord was silent for but a moment as he caught what Eddie meant. "Oh, and those other ponies, too... I guess. I actually wouldn't have minded seeing Applejack or Rainbow getting beaten up a bit; those two have such overconfidence in themselves."

'Really saved us?'

Eddie broke in the conversation, confirming the truth with, "He did. He came in on some train made of... doughnuts."

"I do like dramatic entrances."

Eddie waved an arm, showing off the land around them. "Teleported us here, then made one fiery finisher." He nodded his head towards the charred bones. While the symbiote was somewhat weary of Discord, it lost the hostility toward him, replaced with gratitude. "But, I want to know," Eddie stepped closer to Discord with a curious look. "How can you bring him out here and touch him at all?" The symbiote, who was still draped in Discord's arm, looked over to him as well, curious at how he managed such a thing.

"So, you want to know, eh?" Discord placed his eagle arm on Eddie's shoulder, as he put his head between the two, adopting a serious look, and whispered, "...magic."

Eddie sighed in mild annoyance as he pulled his head back, muttering, "Yeah, that's how everything here works, doesn't it?"

"Pretty much." Discord saw the change in his expression, and decided to at least fill in some details. "Well, if you want to know exactly what I did, it's simple." Both Eddie and the symbiote were listening closer as Discord continued. "I found out that Symby here speaks to you through thoughts, or telepathically, if we're being technical." He turned his head towards the symbiote's. "So, to wake you up after that alien was dealt with, I just summoned you here as your own mental image. Difference is, I'm able to interact with you like any normal guy!"Eddie supposed that was the best answer he was going to get, and the symbiote was content. "I do have one question for you, though."

'Me?' it was a little surprised but didn't stop Discord from asking.

"Yes. Most don't like it when I use a megaphone right in their faces, but you really had a bad reaction to it. What's that about?"

Eddie tensed a bit, and he could see his other slightly stiffening as well. Due to the symbiote before them being another mental projection, and with it actually inside Eddie like always, the sound from the megaphone did little to no harm to it. Being awoken by the sounds a point blank, however, still gave the symbiote quite a surprise. They both knew that the symbiote's weakness of extremely loud sounds was knowledge that none of the ponies or anything in Equestria knew, and they wanted to keep it that way. They weren't mistrusting of Discord by any means, perhaps the symbiote was still a bit unsure, but they didn't want that kind of information landing in the wrong hooves.

"Let me guess, just not a morning kind of guy?" Discord asked once he noticed that the symbiote had no immediate response. Thinking that answer to be appropriate, the Klyntar nodded with a thin mouth. He shrugged with an, "Alright, then. Oh! and," Discord began to snicker as he pointed a talon at the symbiote, who was relieved that he hadn't furthered his questions of the reaction to the megaphone. "That reminds me, fantastic job with Luna! I wish I was there to see all that you've done!"

'With what?'

Eddie sighed as he asked with dullness in his voice, "You're not talking about this feud between those two, are you?"

"Oh, I most certainly am!" Discord looked back at the curious symbiote as he continued, "It always is a blast to mess around with the sisters, but you? The way you got on Luna's nerves at Canterlot, the way you screwed with her in the dream realm, and, though simple, calling her on her age? Symby, you are one spectacular, gooey guy! You know, you and I should really prank her hard some time. I think we would make an excellent duo at that!"

The symbiote's previous caution was washed away as it looked on at Discord with confusion, its voice matching its expression. 'You... support this?' There wasn't any caution in its voice, but genuine curiosity.

"Well, yeah! I always enjoy a good laugh and all jokes. Besides, ol' Lulu probably deserves it for something."

Eddie's rose a brow with, "Lulu?"

Discord chuckled some more before he continued, "Oh, yeah. She hates being called that by anypony other than Celestia."

'Good to know...' Said the symbiote as a toothy smile embraced its face. It looked over to Discord with the same smile, pointed a talon of its own at him, and said, '... you're neat.' The symbiote wasn't too sure of Discord at first, but the alien was finally won over. Despite the initial reaction with the megaphone, it realized that Discord still saved it and Eddie from its predator. Not only that, but another that enjoyed messing with the annoying pony princess, Luna? The symbiote was sold on Discord being a great guy. Plus, the alien didn't mind being called "Symby."

Discord, upon hearing what the symbiote said, looked to the sky with a pose, acting humble as he said, "I aim to please."

"Wait," Eddie said as he looked over to the draconequus, confused, with, "How did you find out about the dream incident?"

"Simple. I kept on bothering Luna until she told me what black and gooey here did."

"Something tells me you two are gonna get along just fine."

Discord nodded with, "Well, now that everything's settled, how about I send us back to Ponyville? I might stop by Fluttershy's, and I'm sure she would be pleased having you two over."

Before the symbiote could respond or Eddie having thought about it, Brock's eyes widened with dread as he shouted out, "Oh, shit!"

The symbiote immediately asked what was wrong, but Discord took it the wrong way. "Hey, visiting Fluttershy isn't bad at all!"

"No, not that!" Eddie approached Discord as he grabbed his shoulders and nearly shouted again, "Twilight! We fucking forgot Twilight! She might still be up on that roof, bleeding half to death!"

Discord's eyes widened as he muttered, "Oh, yeah... I honestly forgot about her...." He pulled away from Eddie and the symbiote as he called over his shoulder, "I won't be too long!" And with a snap of his talons, accompanied by a flash of light, Discord vanished.

"What is he--?" Eddie was cut off again as another surge of searing pain erupted from the gashes from his torso, causing him to clutch it as he knelt over and took sharp breaths. The symbiote, having just noticed Eddie's condition after all the oddities that had occurred, reacted effectively, as its physical form within and around Eddie began rapidly stitching and fixing the wounds back together, up to the point where the gashes were replenished again. After releasing a breath of relief from the pain, Brock spoke up, "Thanks, pal."

'Bonded, Eddie. Take care of each other.'

Eddie thought that Discord went to help Twilight, so he and his other opted to wait around. It wasn't long until another flash of light popped out of nowhere, bringing one Spirit of Chaos. Discord walked up to the two, a calm look adorning his face. "So," Eddie began, "Is she alright?"

"She's fine; it's funny, actually. I went to the roof where she was at, being attended to by medics and such, and oh boy, was she surprised once her wounds up and disappeared. She saw me, started asking things all hysterically, wondering if you two were okay and such. I explained what happened, and everything was fine. Well, until the point when I told her that that thing was killed.

"She was freaking out and became mad, saying things like," His head, to the surprise of Eddie and the symbiote, morphed into Twilight's head, and his voice mimicked hers perfectly. "Why did you kill it when you had other ways to subdue it!?! Even if it has murdered innocents and almost Eddie, there were better ways to go about it! Yada yada yada, stuff, stuff, and more stuff!" His head shifted back into his usual one, rolling his eyes with a huff. "She doesn't realize that sometimes drastic measures have to be taken in situations like this."

Eddie nodded in agreement as he looked over to the remains of the Xenophage. "Even if it left Equestria, it would've gone to other worlds and preyed upon the defenseless." He looked back to Discord with, "Other than that, anything else happened over there?"

Discord hummed as he recounted. "Well, apparently she, after I assured her that you two were alright, has to stay at the city longer, see if some ponies were injured, calculate the damage, stuff like that. Also, at some point, either she or a squad of guards are going to come her to secure what's left of that." He finished the last part by nodding to the pile of bones and blood. "She said she would probably be busy with all these tasks, and knowing Celestia, she's probably going to lower the sun not too long. She wanted to ask questions to you about that thing and more, but I told her you two were probably a bit taxed already from the whole thing, so she requested me to take you back to her palace."

'Good, must return. Must rest soon, Eddie. Learning more about this dream realm....'
While Eddie looked over to the symbiote with a questioning look, Discord snickered as he added comically, "Well, I hope you use it well."

Eddie shook his head, though with a small smile, and, "It's like you two have a serious grudge against Luna or something." He looked to Discord as he spoke, "So, I guess you're just gonna teleport us back now?"

"Actually, I was thinking of something... else." Both Eddie and the symbiote looked at the draconequus with confused looks before Discord snapped his talons. After the inevitable flash of light appeared then disappeared, Eddie's eyes widened and the symbiote's perked up once they noticed they were standing on a pink cloud gliding across the forest they were just next to. Their surprised states were then accompanied by confusion once they looked across them. There was a brown wooden table, Discord in a chair across from them, two more chairs on their side, and covered dishes strewn about it.

"Discord, why are we up here, and why...?" Eddie paused as he sniffed the air, detecting a scent he never thought he'd smell in Equestria, never thought he'd be so happy to smell again. The symbiote, too, detected it via Eddie's senses, immediately recognizing it with a savage grin.

Discord lightly chuckled at their reactions as he explained, "Well, you see, three things. One: I haven't had dinner yet, and I doubt you two have as well. Two: We are indeed flying to Ponyville, but I want to spend this time getting to know one another better. I'm sure we each have exotic stories to share. Third: Normally I can't do this out here, not because it's illegal, but because it's looked down upon by ponies and some other races. But," Discord pointed his talon at Eddie. "You eat meat," Then the symbiote. "You eat meat," Finally, he pointed at himself. "I eat meat, and though it isn't actually real in order to respect the races these are similar to, I believe you'll find its taste just like the originals."

The pans covering the dishes levitated off the plates to reveal the glorious goods within them: meat. All in their righteousness, there they were, foods that nopony would be caught dead eating. There were cheeseburgers with bacon, ribs with barbecue drizzled over them, buffalo wings with buffalo sauce, and, perhaps the most alluring, one of the largest steaks ever, sizzling in its tray. "So," Discord began, even though he knew he had them based on how their eyes glued hungrily to the food, "would you two like to join me?"

The symbiote, its eyes never leaving the meat, placed a claw on Eddie's back, before its mental image seemed to have been sucked into Eddie, like sand being sucked in a vacuum cleaner. Eddie took a seat as he looked at Discord with an apathetic look. "Well, Discord, it's official." Brock and his other desired the food greatly, but they though they, especially since the symbiote would have been just a mental image, could use a stronger pair of chompers. Skinny laces of black lines ran across Eddie's head and rapidly converged on his face, when a thin line appeared, opening up in a massive jaw packed with dagger-like teeth, two white eyes popping up, hunger clearly shown in them.

"You've won us over." Venom spoke with a large grin that he almost always wore.

Discord released a hearty laugh. "Well, what are we waiting for?" He spoke eagerly. "Let's dig in!" And with that, the Spirit of Chaos and that most Wicked of Webslingers began their feast.

The sun would be lowered soon after, he knew. With that draconequus and human gone, he could claim what he really wanted -and he had to be fast before Twilight Sparkle or any other pony arrived at the site. For days now, he had been observing the alien -Xenophage, he believed it called itself- in Fillydelphia, and he was quite impressed by what he saw. A patient, intelligent, powerful predator. He watched the Xenophage do its various things in the city: morphing into common furniture, killing and devouring ponies, all that and more.

At first he thought that the ponies of the city were the alien's prey, but it turned out they were cannon fodder to lure in its true prey, Venom. He was very impressed but also excited, for he thought that, perhaps, he could have used the Xenophage for his own. What truly captured his attention, though, was the golden substance that the alien shot from its maw at Venom and the effects it had on him. The liquid seemingly, instantly, weakened Venom greatly, hindering the human, to almost no power. He thought for sure that the Xenophage would have eliminated Venom, which would have been great. One possible threat down, then he could have dominated the Xenophage to obey its will, greatly helping his plans.

Unfortunately, the eagerness and joy got killed off thanks to that idiotic draconequus. He couldn't have interfered lest he be spotted, so he was forced to watch. While he was sorely angry and disappointed, he found himself confused and curious when the human and draconequus were speaking to a third member that wasn't there... or perhaps he couldn't see. During their conversation, he heard bits of "symbiote" and Eddie's "other half". He was beginning to think there was more to Venom than what he initially thought. After all, that black creature within the human's mind was still unexplained to him.

During that moment, however, it mattered not. He drifted over to the corpse of the alien, analyzing it. It was a shame there was no revival spell to use, especially since what remained were only bones and blood. Something caught his eye, though, something he was looking for. It wasn't much, only a few ounces of it perhaps, but valuable to him nonetheless. The same golden liquid that reduced Venom's ability to fight. He still wasn't sure if he'd have to get rid of him later, but if he had to, there was a chance he could replicate the effects of the liquid before him. Perhaps it couldn't be replicated perfectly, or not at all, but even a small bit would be an advantage.

With that thought in his mind, he gathered the liquid and hurried off towards his hideout.

"... And that's how we all stopped the changelings some time back."

"What happened to this Chrysalis?"

"Oh, she refused to join the rest of the changelings and their new ways, so she retreated into the Bad Lands."

"Don't you think she might come back for revenge?"

"Pfft, she can't do much without her army anymore, so I doubt it." Discord reached down to his plate to grab a handful of food, but only the plate and crumbs came to his sense of touch. He looked across the table and saw that Venom, too, had finished -devoured- all his food, using his tongue to clean the crumbs on his teeth. Looking at Venom, he spoke in a curious tone, "Speaking of 'where are they now?', what happened to those Life Foundation symbiotes you were talking about?"

"All the hosts died awhile back, and as far as I know, their symbiotes died not too long afterwards. Only my symbiote and a few more remain on Earth." Venom's face also adopted a similar curious expression, as he asked, "And what about this Starlight pony? We haven't seen her at all since our first night at the palace."

Discord shrugged his shoulders and replied, "She just might have been out of Ponyville for awhile; you might see her sometime later." Discord looked at the land around them, spotting Ponyville approaching them. "Ah, here we are now." He looked back at Venom with another smile. "Well, you two, it's been one interestingly fun day, I'd say; unfortunately, this is where we split paths." The draconequus stood from his seat as the cloud slowly hovered above the palace.

The Lethal Protector stood, as well, with his own grin, and spoke, "Yes, it has been. Until we meet again, Discord."

When they were above the palace, Discord waved his paw with, "Tata!" And vanished in a flash of light. The moon had already risen by the time they arrived at Ponyville, and nearly nopony was out on the street, and those that were didn't notice the wicked webslinger stretch down from a long strand of web right in front of the doors to the palace.

The symbiote unraveled and withdrew into Eddie as he made his way to his room. He didn't see Spike anywhere, but he figured he was asleep. The events of the day taxed him, so he had no desire to stay up much longer. He went into his room, prepared for sleep, covered himself in covers, and shut his eyes. It didn't take long for sleep to overtake him, though he had a feeling that if Luna showed up, the Klyntar would have something in store for her.

Princess Luna was wandering around in the dream realm, having already gone a few hours into the night. The dreams of ponies had been calm ones that night: few nightmares, mostly good dreams, and the such. She couldn't stop worrying, though. Earlier that day, her sister received a letter from Twilight Sparkle, explaining the situation that was beheld in Fillydelphia. Apparently, Twilight said that both Eddie and the symbiote thought the murderer to have been another symbiote. Luna and Celestia had awaited in eagerness and anxiousness for a report.

They were both baffled at Twilight's next letter, which did not arrive until late in the day, and what was described in it. Some alien predator hunted down Eddie and the symbiote, and possibly would've had them for a meal; fortunately, Discord arrived on the scene and took care of the predator. And by 'took care of', killed it. Luna couldn't disagree with Discord's method, for it got rid of a predator that murdered innocents, and would have likely continued if left alive. Twilight and Celestia, however, did not seem too pleased about it.

Their thoughts didn't concern her at that moment, though. No, at that moment, she wanted to go to Eddie and the symbiote to make sure they were indeed alright. Yes, even the symbiote... though she did think it was also a good opportunity to get payback at it for calling her old. She flew over the realm, stopping here and there to aid a pony entrapped in a nightmare, coming up to Ponyville. She swiftly landed on the ground and slowly trotted to where Twilight's palace was in the waking world, noticing only two doors there at the time. Relief swelled in her when she saw that one of them belonged to Eddie's, the other one Spike's. Luna figured that Twilight must have stayed in Fillydelphia for one reason or another. With Eddie slumbering, she knew that both him and the Klyntar were alright.

That knowledge in mind, she sighed in relief, until a mischievous smirk adorned her muzzle. Perhaps, she thought, it was a good time to strike back at that little, black, wretched Klyntar. Nothing cruel, just something enough to where she'd laugh some. She sauntered over to the door, taking careful steps, as she believed that the symbiote might have been behind the door, thinking it could pull a fast one on her.

"Sneaking, Luna? Can't sneak on me." The immediate and unexpected voice from behind her caused the Princess of the Night to yelp, startled, and bounce up in the air while twirling around in a bit of a panic. Her eyes widened in disbelief as the symbiote before her stood with narrowed eyes and a not-amused frown. "Not very princess-like."

The princess shook her head as if she was trying to clear the shock from her mind. Still with a look of unconstrained disbelief, she nearly shouted at the one before her, "How are you even here!?! Nopony should be able to walk among here without my magic! How are you able to exit Eddie's dream!?!" It was true, for as long as Luna had ventured the dream realm, no creature, save for the Tantabus, was able to exit their dreams into the realm at their own will. Only those with Luna's aid could do so, and yet the alien in front of her managed to do what was considered impossible, without magic, no less.

"You forget, Luna," the symbiote started, as if what she said was ridiculous , "I'm not a pony. I can do many things, and learn so much more. Been only some days, but solution was simple." As it finished, a round and smooth tendril flicked up from the heel of the symbiote's foot, catching Luna's eye. Her sight followed the tendril, twirling all around the ground, until it looped around and into Eddie's dream, the door having been cracked open to allow the tendril passage.

The irked princess sighed in frustration as she brought a hoof to her face while shutting her eyes, trying to drive away the stress that was building within her. "You mean to tell me, that what took me years over years of training, with the most complex and complicated of spells, might I add, to be able to roam the realm of dreams, only took you days to figure out, and all you had to do was stretch yourself from a dream to here?"

"Yes."

Luna groaned audibly as she finally met the symbiote's eyes, speaking dully, "I think I really hate you right about now."

"Now you know how I felt earlier." It looked across the landscape, spotting the doors to what it assumed to be entrances to other ponies' dreams. Luna quirked a brow when the Klyntar strode past her with a look she couldn't figure out. "All dreams are connected here? You manage them?"

Momentarily taken back by the symbiote's change of attitude, she slowly followed behind, as she answered, "Well, all the dreams from those resting in this world, yes. And I do assist anypony enduring a nightmare, or helping when they may need it. That's how it has been for centuries with little to no disturbance in this realm."

The alien looked around its shoulder, repeating, "Centuries?"

Luna stopped firmly in her tracks as she glared at the symbiote, speaking directly, "Do not even think of calling me old."

To that, the symbiote turned to face her, tips of its eyes risen and a thin-lipped mouth. It responded rhetorically, "What's the average life span of a pony?"

Luna, again, was taken aback by the sudden question, but hesitantly answered with a failing glare, "Well, around seventy years, but--"

"Said you are over one thousand years of age. Is that true?"

She felt herself faltering even more, forcing out the answer, "Well... yes, but--"

"By a standard pony's age, you are very much old." Before Luna could give off a remark, the symbiote shook its head with a huff, speaking again but with some agitation in its voice, "Shouldn't feel offended, age shows you've lived long. I am old by both human and pony standards. Might even be older than you."

Luna scoffed as she walked next to the symbiote, the both of them continuing along, glaring some into each other. "You sound like you've done so much in your life. Might you indulge me on your 'great' experiences?"

The symbiote understood the sarcasm laced in the question quite well, but it answered truthfully regardless. "Been to many worlds, bonded with different hosts, seen numerous civilizations. I Have always practiced Klyntar traditions and culture, all relating to my kind and hosts, sacred bonds, sacred to us. Only some time ago, though, did I devote to defending innocents with a host. Glad that host is Eddie, too." Luna was a bit surprised at an honest answer like that, but she could only listen more as the symbiote turned its head to face her, a large frown and harsh glare on its face. "Can't remember everything, but I know I've done and experienced many things, both good and bad. And you? Caring for dreams, yes, but what else?"

Slightly shocked at first, Luna looked ahead with a dignified expression and spoke as if she were humble. "Oh, you know, I'm only the co-ruler of Equestria, bringer of the night, and a defender of Equestria."

"Oh, yes." The symbiote chuckled as it strode past Luna. "Can't forget about the great princess Lulu, not at all."

At that moment, Luna's breath was hitched in her throat, wide eyes accompanying the visage. She stuttered between anger and surprise, "H-how... who told you that!?!"

The symbiote looked back at her with a victorious grin, with, "Discord is a great pal indeed."

Luna muttered under her breath, "Discord...." Of course, she figured, he'd help the symbiote in anyway to get at her for entertainment. She fumed to herself, the symbiote's small giggles and chuckles feeding the fire within her. That fire was extinguished when she spotted a familiar door to a certain pony's dream. The mischievous smirk she wore awhile back returned again as an idea lit up in her head. She hid that smirk the best she could as she turned to the symbiote with, "Say, I'm curious, have you ever, oh, I don't know, had your own party?"

It was the Klyntar's turn to be taken aback by the unexpected change of attitude, but it answered, unsure of Luna's intention, "No. Been to parties, but without knowledge of others, and did not celebrate in anything."

"Not even back at your world?" Luna continued with hidden glee, though she held some curiosity at the fact the symbiote apparently never had its own party. She might have felt pity, if it didn't go for the low blow.

The Klyntar shook its head, still with uncertainty, continuing, "Not part of Klyntar tradition."

Luna enveloped the suddenly startled symbiote in her aura of magic with a sinister and excited grin. "Oh, I know just the pony that can fix that!" With her hoof, she flung the door open, tossing the symbiote in, following inside with an eager grin soon afterwards.

After disgracefully landing in a heap, the alien scurried to get up, taking in the new scenery before itself. It appeared that both it and Luna were then indoors, in a bright, large, wooden room, with colorful balloons and streamers all around. Plenty of decorations lit up the place, and there were even chocolates! The symbiote's gazing was interrupted when a cheerful humming echoed off the walls, resonating with the room. Its eyes enlarged in surprise when it spotted the pink pony, Pinkie Pie, hopping around on her tail around the room while holding a red ball on the tip of her muzzle with her usual grin.

"Pinkie Pie, my friend!" The Princess of the Night's voice rang across the room stopping Pinkie in mid-bounce. She quickly turned her head over to see Princess Luna and a skinny creature that resembled Venom but wasn't him. It took only a moment for her to figure out just what that creature was, as she gasped loudly and rushed up to the two with a grin.

"Princess Luna!" she turned to the stunned symbiote, grabbing it by its shoulders and shaking it rapidly, "you must be the symbiote! Oh, I have so much stuff we could talk about or do! Oh this is so amazing, I could just--!"

Pinkie's rambling ended when Luna abruptly put a hoof on her muzzle to quickly silence her. "Yes, yes, that's good, but," She quickly mimicked an expression of sympathy and pity, her tone matching said feelings. "This poor, poor creature, has lived a long time, perhaps longer than me, but not once in its life did anypony ever throw it a party... not even a single birthday party."

"What!?!" The Klyntar, who was already confused by then, was in for another ride, as the pink pony pulled its face to hers, as she spoke in a broken whisper, "Is it true? Not a single party?"

"No...?"

Pinkie looked as though she were about to let loose some tears of sympathy for the symbiote, and Luna felt bad at that moment for upsetting Pinkie, but her demeanor stiffened as she stood on two legs to be closer to height with the symbiote. She had a determined look, because that is what she felt. That statement settled it for her; she was going to give the poor little symbiote the best damn first party ever. "Listen here, nopony should ever have to live a life with no parties, and I'm going to make double-extra-sure that you get an epic one. To prove it, I'll Pinkie Promise!"

As she was going through the motions of the Pinkie Promise, the symbiote looked back at Luna with suspicion and narrowed eyes. She was already at the door, however with a chuckle but not before calling back. "Oh, and Pinkie! He can be a bit shy, but this is for his own benefit, so don't let him leave until he tells you exactly what you want to know. Farewell!" With that, the Princess of the Night left, though she couldn't quite close the door due to the symbiote's tendril stopping it from closing.

The symbiote looked back at the pink party pony, who had inched up to its face with a large grin. And it looked back, too, stunned, unsure, and uncomfortable, even. Aside from Luna and a few others, Pinkie is one of the few that the symbiote actually ever had any interaction with that wasn't a host. "Sooo..." She began, leaning closer. "What flavor do you like more: vanilla or chocolate?" The symbiote would soon afterwards understand how all this was part of Luna's revenge.

Author's Note

I hope you all all are, did or will have a nice Spring Break! I'm about to enter mine, and I should finally, finally, be back at a regular schedule, at least not releasing a chapter a month anyways. Well, what'd you all think? Please, I enjoy reading your comments, they help push me to write!

Chapter 19: The Frustrations of the Past

The day was calm and content, with everything and everypony going around like another usual day. Ponies were strolling around, shops were set up and doing business, and other various things. It was around noon Equestrian time, and many ponies were out to grab lunch. In Twilight Sparkle's palace, things were going normal for their residents, as well. In fact, a certain human with his other was sitting on his bed, hands brought under his chin, staring at the wall across from him, and just thinking.

It had been some few days since their encounter with the Xenophage and meeting Discord, and things were pretty subtle since then. Of course, as soon as Eddie had awoken in the morning the following day, an anxious Twilight had bombarded him questions after question once he arrived at the dining area. He managed to calm her down and confirm to her that he and his other were perfectly healthy. She, too, told him she was fine when he had asked about her leg. Apparently, the guards had secured the remains of the alien, and, via carefully loading them into separate cargo crates, flew it back to Canterlot for study. Twilight told Eddie that, despite having been a major threat to ponykind, the Xenophage coming to Equestria marked a big day for the ponies. Even though Eddie and the symbiote were technically the first aliens, they came by some odd means from another dimension. The other alien, however, coming from space, proved that there was indeed life beyond their planet. Astronomers and scientists were sure ecstatic.

During the days between then and there, nothing noticeable went on. Eddie didn't go out too much, remaining inside the palace, where he would either be in his room or in what he'd call the palace's living room, reading the Equestrian Papers. The only interactions he had were with Twilight and Spike in the palace, Luna in hadn't visited his dreams since he experienced an old memory, which the symbols was fine with. And, as always, the symbiote. He found it weird, though, that his symbiote was able to traverse the dream realm, something that, as far as he knew, could only be done by magic. But it didn't shock him like it did Luna, he knew of all the exotic and odd things symbiotes were capable of.

When his other had told him that it would sometimes visit Pinkie's dream when he was asleep, he asked why, and it told him, "She can make odd things occur, like Discord." He didn't quite get it, but didn't question further. After some days passed after that, the two shared a thought, brought up by Eddie, of what would happen back on Earth, both assuming they'd find a way back.

No doubt that their discovery of the new dimension would warrant much attention. Granted, stuff like that has happened before, almost frequently, but it was still something big. Earth and Equestria might have peaceful talks, or some communications. Their primary concern, though, was what would happen to them. Both Brock and the symbiote were well aware of their reputation back on Earth, and after coming back from Equestria, they doubted that major authorities -hell, maybe even the damn Avengers- would remain content and still with Venom back from a completely different world that was peaceful. They knew that the results would likely be them being tightly locked up to put it simply.

They thought on it for awhile, even when Eddie sat on the bed, staring at the wall, but his focus not on it. 'Would they separate us?' the familiar voice of the symbiote filled its host's head.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they tried." Replied the buff man. "And with all of this happening, they'd chase us down until they get what they wanted."

'What would that be?'

Eddie shrugged, looking down to his feet. "Answers, maybe. What they'll really want is you." Eddie sighed as stress began to build up within him. He stood, and began slowly pacing around the room. "Whether it's to destroy you or contain you, it's not gonna be good."

'Won't let that happen, Eddie.' The symbiote growled that part out, defying all who would want to break the bond, even if they were Earth's mightiest.

Eddie huffed, stopping his pacing and leaned himself against the side of a wall. "I appreciate your conviction, but this is something huge, bigger than us."

'Fought many things bigger than us before. Came out on top.' The Klyntar replied with defiance.

Brock shook his head, replying, "You don't get it. If it'll be like I think it will, we can't just fight it out or even hide. They'll just keep coming." His stress only built higher when he felt a rising heat in his head that was intense and demanding... and it wasn't his.

'Why? We are not monsters like they think. We have been doing good for much time. Why won't they see that!?!' Tired of milling about, he walked over to the bed and plopped his back on it. While it was odd to him about his other's behavior at first, he, too, understood the frustration of it all, even agreed with it. He couldn't blame people for being skeptical and afraid of them due to their checkered past, but it really agitated him at times at how almost nobody acknowledged or ignored what they have done for good, or for being -or at the very least trying to be- heroes. But no, they refused to look back from the past.

More of that fiery anger swelled within Eddie, only difference, that was his own. His empty stare morphed into a glare, directed at those who wouldn't see them for who they were, what they were trying to be. "Because these goddamn people only look at the past and won't move from it... and they don't do second chances, apparently."

It was a moment like that where their bondage truly shined to its most absolute. Their bodies weren't the only things that merged, but also mind and soul. Both of their sparks of anger fused into one, both so similar that they had to combine. The sparks became flickers, then flames, then uncontrolled fires, and finally unyielding infernos. Why couldn't the people at home trust them? Why did so many heroes have to attack them? The human and Klyntar would try to talk to them, try to convince them that they are on the same sides, that there wasn't a need to fight, because Venom didn't do anything wrong in those scenarios. No, they all came to fight because they all thought he was just as crazy as before, they thought that Venom was the same from so long ago, and they wouldn't listen to a word. Was nothing they did proof enough? That they've changed, and wanted to redeem themselves? Apparently not, it appeared.

Wherever that pent up rage came from, Brock did not care. All he knew was that he was tired of having to evade the police, getting stuck in fights with heroes from past grudges or prejudices, and never being able to escape his past reputation. He was sick of it all, and needed to pent at least some of the wildfire within him. His hands tightly clenched into fists, begging to hit something to unleash their fury, as he sprung to his feet again. He quickly strode to the center of the room while his head twitched to left and right, looking for anything at all to let loose on. Hell, even the damn walls would do.

Before he could have annihilated any physical object, he paused in puzzlement when he felt the blazing rage becoming less and less. His rage was still wholesome and demanded to be enacted upon, but he only took a second to realize that it was his other's anger melting away into something else. While he felt its anger go away, it wasn't replaced by anything much better, either. In fact, he was distracted from his own emotions when the symbiote's emptiness managed to garner his attention. It wasn't an emptiness as in nothingness, but of despair and sorrow. 'Will it ever stop, Eddie?' His eyes widened from how the alien within him sounded, from how it transitioned from unbridled fury to a sense of despair... hopelessness. The same hopelessness they both felt before and didn't want to feel ever again. 'Will they not stop from trying to remove me? How would we stop them? How could we avoid it? Don't want to be separated again, Eddie, don't know what to do...'

Forgetting about his boiling anger for the moment, he tried to reassure his other, but he knew he couldn't. Those were the exact things he asked himself, wondered, and pondered upon as well. He didn't know if he was frustrated or scared that he couldn't find an answer to such questions. With trepidation, he replied in a low, "I don't know..."

That same hopelessness left a bad touch on him, and he wanted to remove it from the symbiote, but he knew that to do that, he would at least have come up with something that satisfied both of them, something he couldn't do then. 'I don't want this, Eddie... I... I'm afraid of what will happen.'

Eddie lightly closed his eyes, dipped his head, and sighed. His muscles loosened and relaxed, fingers unfurled,
and he took in a deep breath. He exhaled with, "It's fine... I'm afraid, too." He opened his eyes again and turned his head to where the bathroom was. He entered the bathroom, turned on the sink, and rinsed his face off with some cool water. When he finished, he looked at his reflection in the mirror to see a man who didn't know what to do with himself, lost and not where he belonged. All of those actions took the steps to cease his anger, until it was nothing but sorrow. With that, came his own understanding.

He knew that people and heroes of Earth had every good reason to be mistrusting of him and his other. They had made many mistakes they thought were right at the time but couldn't have been more wrong. It was the heroes duties to ensure that everyone was safe, including the common, idiotic crook who deserved to live, too. He knew that they would want to bring him in for their past crimes. As for the public and innocents, well, he was mainly painted as a villain due to his old rivalry with Spider-Man, a hero who wasn't one to his eyes long ago. He and the symbiote saved and protected many innocents during that time, but they saw Venom as a killer lunatic for his fierce aggression against many, and they weren't completely off about him and his other being a little crazy.

They both had done a lot that a hero would do since their reunion, because they drove to be heroes and defenders of the innocents; but, they still had a long way to go and much to prove if they, more so for Eddie, wanted to be redeemed and forgiven. Brock knew it would be a long way, but he was determined to reach the end. Besides, he and his other defended innocents not for the sake of being forgiven, but because they are innocent and don't deserve evil's torment. It comforted him, knowing that there were indeed those out there who saw the two for who they truly were. There was the tribe of dinosaur people who lived in the sewers who saw them as saviors. Some heroes who were convinced gave them, albeit reluctantly, a chance to do good without their interference. And, the one that brought a small smile to his lips, the ponies of Equestira... for the most part, anyways. He was well aware of how some of them felt about him and the symbiote as Venom.

While he didn't feel "all better", he certainly felt more calm than before. The symbiote, though, was still strayed in its worries, and Eddie could feel it. Another thought that troubled Eddie was that what if they weren't able to get back to Earth. He sighed again, striding out of the bathroom, muttering, "I need to clear my head. We both should, actually. It'll help us think this whole thing through."

'Could swing. It always helps you and I.' Brock found himself agreeing with the idea, for it was indeed true. Like how a person would take a walk or how a pegasus would fly to think, swinging for them was their ticket for clear thoughts, even if Ponyville wasn't a city and had shorter buildings. Still, they were tall enough to where it could be done without disturbing the citizens on the streets.

Nodding, Eddie exited his room into the hallway, walking down the long corridor towards the entrance. "This'll be just what we need."

Air whipped around him as he soared higher in the into the sky, above all the buildings that he zoomed past at great speeds. When he reached the apex of his ascent, he began to descend to the ground that came closer and closer. Instead of panicking or being terrified, he looked for a good vantage point on any building or structure, and saw a rather tall one, at least compared to the others, with metal beams reaching out from four corners of the building at the very top. He fell below it, just far enough to gain another good swing.

When he felt he was at the right position, he raised his right arm, and with a 'thwip!' a thick, black wire of webbing shot out from the white square on the back of his hand and stuck to the metal beam. With the webbing attached to both, he felt the web become taut when it reached its maximum length, and so he swung under and over the building before releasing his hold, soaring back into the air again with great speeds.

Venom had been swinging to nowhere in particular in Ponyville for a little bit, and both his halves were easing up, though their thoughts were still active on what to do once they were back on Earth, and other things they thought about in the palace. The ponies had noticed the wicked webslinger not long after they began, and different reactions were given about. At one side -luckily for Venom, the bigger side- were the positive ones.

Some smiled, some waved up to him, some pointed him out to others, and some called out to him, whether they were cheering him on or asking if he could land and talk to them. Then there were the others, the ones Eddie knew weren't too fond of him and the symbiote as one. They glared at him and muttered under their breaths, taking him for an evil monster that only appeared to be a hero to betray them at one point.

Normally, Eddie wouldn't care about that. In fact, it was a big upgrade from Earth since the majority of them were for Venom. But, still a bit frustrated from the thoughts of before, he was angered at those who saw him and his other as monsters. Humans on Earth had legitimate reasons to harbor mistrust and negativity towards Venom, but what did he do in Equestria? He hadn't wronged any of them and yet some thought of him as a beast that would betray the trust given to him. It didn't matter, though. He would still defend innocents regardless of what he thought of them and they of him.

The pegasi that were in the skies looked at him in surprise, likely from the fact that a flightless creature could reach to such heights from ground level. Perhaps Venom would have acknowledged the ponies calling to him, or the on looking pegasi, but both host and alien were delved too deep into their thoughts to do so. Eventually they neared the edge of town, but instead of swinging back in, Venom soared yet again in the sky, furthering himself from the town. Despite the height of the fall, the Lethal Protector landed on both feet without a struggle. He found himself on a field of grass with a stream of water running perpendicular from him. For some reason he felt compelled to go over and look in, so he took steps towards it. When he looked down at the stream, he of course saw his reflection, albeit a bit distorted from the running water. The only thing different about his usual appearance was that he wasn't grinning that wicked grin of his, but instead his lips were splayed thin, exposing all his teeth.

He continued to stare, both Eddie and the symbiote thinking of their future. Swinging had provided a calmer state, but they still had concerns and worries once they would reach Earth again. Brock reminded both of them that, so long as they stick to the right path, things would be better. It might take awhile, they knew, and they doubted it would be easy, but not an unreachable goal. The thought eased them some, though some uneasiness still lingered around. The symbiote in particular was lost in the gaze of the water.

Ever since it first became Venom with Eddie, there was always someone or something out there that wanted to break their bond, and such a thing would put it on the defensive. Not from the pain, (though it was highly painful), but from what would be taken from it: the host. Hosts weren't just company or something to occupy. No, hosts were apart of symbiotes, they defined who they were, gave them care in an uncaring universe. Being separated, even if temporary, could be an absolute hell.

Venom stared into the stream still, completely lost in its unending picture, the thoughts continuing. "Aaaeeiiiiihhh!" His head snapped upward at the shrill shriek in the direction from where it came from. His eyes arced upward when he saw Fluttershy's cottage past the stream a bit of ways, undoubtedly coming from the yellow pegasus herself. Ditching their prior thoughts, that most Wicked of Webslingers leaped across the stream and dashed over to the cottage.

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry this chapter was a little late. I know it is a bit short compared to the usual length, but the next chapter(s) should be... interesting, at least. Anyways, what 'd you all think? What do you think will happen next? Please, I enjoy reading your comments!

Chapter 20: A Slithering Pain

They didn't know what they would find at the cottage. Was Fluttershy in danger? If so, from what? Those were thoughts that cycled through both their minds as they raced over to the cottage as Venom. Though it was a bit of a distance, they were fast enough to cover it in good time. Their predicament became stranger, however, when they didn't see a yellow pegasus anywhere in sight when they were only a few dozen yards away from her home. She could have been inside, but given how loud her scream was, she was surly outside.

Once Venom was reached the front yard, he halted to a stop. The mare was still wasn't in sight, and so he hollered out, "Fluttershy! Where are you?" His head spun left to right, but she still wasn't anywhere nearby, it appeared. "Where is she...?" He mumbled under his breath as he walked around the house, inspecting anything that might have left a clue as to what happened. Nothing seemed out of place, except for the missing pegasus.

When some noise did come from the back, his head spun in that direction with narrowed eyes. Venom peeked his head around the backyard of the cottage, but the sight that greeted him was both relieving and odd. The animals were there, yes, but they were all either squeaking, hissing, growling, or emitting their respective animal noises. With all their frantic movements and shuffling, they seemed scared or worried. To Eddie and the symbiote, it looked like they were somehow communicating, talking even, to each other. Some were sitting and some were pacing, but they all had the same shaking look in their eyes. Too confused about all the animals' behaviors, the wicked webslinger didn't speak, only watching them with some disbelief; the fact that animals in Equestria were nearly sentient and could practically communicate with others was still a bit of a surprise to Eddie.

Venom brought his head back from the corner and brought a sharp talon to his chin as his eyes and mouth thinned in thought. Fluttershy was nowhere nearby and the animals were acting odd. Well, their behaviors were already a bit weird, but that was something really strange. Perhaps they knew where Fluttershy was? Before he could ponder on it more, he felt three quick taps on his foot. He quickly looked, and a puzzled look adorned his features when he saw a small, white bunny at his feet. The bunny looked serious, not having a concerned look like the other animals in the back. He waved his paw a few times before hopping off and away from the cottage.

Venom only stood still and stared in confusion at the small animal. When the bunny was a few yards off, his head perked up before spinning around back at Venom. He sighed with clear frustration before squeaking in annoyance. When the bunny saw the wicked webslinger only arc an eye in confusion at his antics, he rolled his eyes before pointing to him then back at himself repeatedly. The message was becoming clear, and Venom took a guess. "You... want us to follow you?" The bunny bobbed his head up and down, glad that Venom finally understood what he wanted. Venom took a step forward, still a bit puzzled. "Does this have to do with Fluttershy?" At that, the bunny's head bobbed even faster before he hurriedly hopped off. "Lead the way, then." He said before following the bunny.

They didn't go too far off from the cottage until Angel stopped in front of a small tuft of scurried dirt. Angel hopped on top of it and turned to Venom, bouncing on it, making erratic movements with his paws, trying to relay something to him. He hummed in thought before speaking up, "Was... Fluttershy at that spot?" He was rewarded with Angel eagerly nodding his head yes before he bounced off it and across some more grass that had kicked up dirt on it. Venom followed with slow steps, inspecting all the tufts of kicked up dirt in the ground. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots; Fluttershy scrambled along that path, likely in a hurry to wherever she went to. He stopped when Angel stopped in his tracks, so he looked up to see where they were at. His eyes curved at the tips in bewilderment at the sight of the location before him, the same place where both Eddie and the symbiote spent a few nights in.

"What!?! Why would she go in there!?!" He nearly shouted, pointing at it with a hand before looking down at the bunny, urging him for answers. Angel flapped his arms up and down, then twitched them in erratic movements, then balled up his paws before rubbing them against his eyes, and then pointed to the woods. He looked at Venom expectantly, waiting for him to nod or something to confirm he understood. Unfortunately for him, Venom couldn't quite decipher the message. His eyes sank as he thought about it, guessing, "Did she fly in here?" The bunny shook his head left to right, and tried again with the same movements, only a bit more exaggerated. Again, though, the wicked webslinger tried, "Did... some other pony come in here and she went after them?"

Angel pinched his forehead and sighed, before trying yet again. Eddie and the symbiote, though, were more concerned about Fluttershy being in the Everfree than why she went in there. Before Angel could continue, Venom cut him off with, "We don't have time to figure out why she's in there is she if actually in there. She is in there, yes?" At that, Angel nodded. "Then we'll figure out the why later," he looked back to the woods, beginning to move towards it, "but we're going to get her back here." Angel smiled and managed to give him a thumbs up with only paws, causing Venom to wear his usual grin. "Don't worry, we'll find her." He began to enter the woods, looking for any tracks or something to tell Eddie and the symbiote where Fluttershy went. Taking more steps in, he muttered, "She'd better have a good reason for coming in here."

'No tracks here, Eddie.'

'The ones from before led to here.'

'Hasn't been any sign in awhile, though.' They both had been venturing through the Everfree for a few minutes since their departure, but they hadn't encountered anyone, thing, or pony along the way. Though, that was likely because the creatures of the Everfree still remembered Venom from all those weeks ago. Better for them, at least, so they could stay focused on their task at hand. While Fluttershy left no clear tracks in the forest, she left signs of where she went, such as more scratched up dirt, broken branches, or oddly scattered leaves from nearby branches. They called out for her a few times, but no one answered. They traveled by foot, not running, but in a rapid speed walk so they wouldn't miss any tracks she might have left. Though, the symbiote was right: there haven't been any tracks left by Fluttershy in awhile.

"Why would she go in here? Her screaming from earlier made it clear that something must have terrified her."

'Saw something, maybe? Decided to follow it?'

"I doubt it. We both might not know her very well, but I think it's enough to know she isn't the brave type of pony."

'Maybe she--?' The symbiote stopped mentally speaking upon feeling something wet at its feet. They both felt it and stopped to look down. Due to the darkness of the forest, Venom knelt down to get a closer look at the little puddle. Eyes narrowed, he used a single talon from his claws to dip it in, then raised it in front of his face for a closer look. Yes, it felt like and looked like it, that familiar red substance: blood.

"Blood, but..." Venom looked back down at the small puddle, too small to have come from any serious injury. "Is it really Fluttershy's blood? It could just be an animal's."

'Does it lead anywhere?' asked the Klyntar. They both looked up, and though not very distinguishable, some small driblets of blood were caked along the ground, leading deeper into the forest. Having no other lead or other sort of tracks to follow, they continued along the trail. Not even after a few yards did the drops of blood space out more and more, becoming less and less, becoming even more difficult to track.

When the trail became less, though, they noticed a few feathers scattered about. At first, they thought the feathers were Fluttershy's, but upon a closer look it revealed them to simply be plain brown. 'Feathers from a pegasus, maybe?' suggested the symbiote.

"Maybe if we..." Venom brought his hands around his mouth and called out, "Fluttershy! Fluttershy, where are you!?!"

"Huh!?!" Both surprised and relieved that someone answered,Eddie and the symbiote waited for them to continue. "I-is somepony there?" With a timid tone like that, and the softness to it, it could have belonged to only one pony.

Deciding to use a voice she was probably more used to, the symbiote's tendrils retracted from Eddie's face as he called out again, "It's me, Eddie!" He looked all around, but Fluttershy was nowhere in sight. "Where are you? Why are you even out here!?!"

"Oh, it's terrible!"

"Just stay where you are!" the black tendrils morphed back around Eddie's face, leaving Venom to speed towards the source of Fluttershy's voice. "We're on our way!" The human and Klyntar could only hope Fluttershy wasn't in some lethal situation. Did some animal attack her? Was she injured? Was that odd smoke on another attack? It was that last thought that drove them at an even greater pace, and one final push through thick foliage into a small, dimly lit clearing revealed that the yellow pegasus was laying down on the grass. What Brock and his other saw was really... absurd.

In the center of the clearing, Fluttershy sat on her haunches, perfectly healthy and bearing no wounds, injuries, or scratches, with a brown bird laying against her belly. She turned to Venom, a bit spooked out by his figure at first but calmed when she realized it was him. She looked at him with a gloomy look, speaking in a sad voice, "It's bad alright..." She looked down at the small bird scrunched up at her side. "The poor thing broke his wing."

Venom was dumbfounded, to say the least. "You... what?"

Oblivious to his shock, she continued to speak softly, "I was in my home when one of his friends told me." She looked back down at the small bird, looking at the crumpled up wing with a makeshift bandage loosely wrapped around it. "I think something must've hit him and he crashed on the ground. Oh," she shuddered a bit before continuing, "he was even bleeding a bit, too." She looked back at Venom, but she widened her eyes a bit when she saw his face contorted in to some odd expression she couldn't read

Both his eyes were thinned and curled, almost not believing what Fluttershy had just told him. He slowly spoke, sounding unsure of what he was saying, "You came all the way in here to... treat a bird?" She nodded her head, still oblivious to the whole notion of it, at least to Venom it was. "Even though there could've been anything out here that might want to attack you, you venture-- alone, with nothing but bandages, not even a weapon to defend yourself, into these woods... for a bird...."

Again, the context of what Venom was trying to say was lost on Fluttershy. In fact, she was more stunned that Venom even implied she should have brought a weapon with her. "W-weapon!?!" She said as if such things were cursed artifacts. "Why would I even need them?"

"What do you mean 'why'!?! The predators here!"

"Oh," Fluttershy's features became a more understanding one, explaining, "I don't need or even want a weapon for them. So long as nopony bothers them, they usually won't bother you. And if they do come out, they're almost always upset about something, so if you just show them some kindness, everything will be fine." She finished with a small smile, believing her reasoning to be correct.

Venom just stared at her, his mouth thin and eyes flat. "... The first thing that happened to us when we got here was getting attacked by those timberwolves..." He countered flatly. Fluttershy's smile dropped at that, and she remembered that, unfortunately, there were some that you had to be a bit more stern with. "And then a manticore attacked because I woke it up, so my other and I had to deal with that as well."

"O-oh, well..."

"Did I forget to mention how they all attacked Ponyville not too long ago?" Venom crossed his arms across his chest, still finding Fluttershy's reasoning to be absolutely ridiculous. "We certainly remember."

"Well... yes, sometimes they're just aggressive like that," she couldn't argue that, she knew. Though she still saw no need for any weapon. "But I would have been fine, I would have used 'the Stare' if I had to."

If Eddie couldn't have heard any more absurd and ridiculous things at once, he would have reached his breaking point. "... You try to stop animals by staring at them?" He tried to make sense of it, but was unable to.

"Well," She fidgeted uncomfortably as she avoided eye contact with the flabbergasted Lethal Protector. "It doesn't always work..." She took a quick glance back sheepishly, and felt like she might have done something wrong when Venom brought his head into one of his clawed hands, releasing a long and tired sigh.

After an awkward silence passed, Venom looked at her with a bit of an annoyed expression. "Christ, Fluttershy. I heard you scream all the way from the stream in town; we both thought you were in actual danger."

Both her brows shot up, then she spoke apologetically, "I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to get you worried..." She shifted her gaze back down to the bird, "but I couldn't just leave the little guy stranded." Eddie and the symbiote are not bird haters by any means; they just don't give an ordinary animal their protection like they would so others. After all, that bird was just another part of the food chain. Though, Eddie supposed that was not entirely true for the animals of Equestria. As they have shown before, they garnered some intelligence and appeared almost sapient, unlike the mostly instinctual animals at Earth.

Venom noticed how downcast Fluttershy was, and decided it was time to exit the dreaded forest. "If you can carry the bird or get it to follow you, we'll lead the way back. We're not too far from the edge of the forest."

"Oh, okay." She responded in a happier tone, glad to be exiting the forest where she could properly treat the bird's wing. And an added bonus of absolute protection escorting her out of the forest, though she hoped that no animal would come out to attack them. Not for Venom's, her own, or even the bird's sake, but theirs. She only witnessed him in battle a few times, but that was enough to know that he is a brutal fighter.

Fluttershy carefully lifted and maneuvered the bird onto her back without hurting his wing, though he started to panic when he saw Venom, who was keeping a lookout, and she calmed him down, quickly telling him that the wicked webslinger was not an evil monster that would eat them. When she got that done, she looked up to Venom with a smile, accompanied by, "Alright, we're ready to go!" The Lethal Protector nodded, and turned to go with Fluttershy behind him. Before he took one step, he heard her call out, "Oh! And Eddie and... um, sym...bay-ote?"

Venom turned his head back with an eye curved upward in curiosity. "Yes?"

She rubbed a forehoof along her other leg as she looked away meekly, peering at him from the corner of her eye. "I just wanted to say..." She slowly pulled her sight back at his face as she built up more confidence, "Thanks. For coming in here for me, that means a lot to me, it really does." She smiled warmly up at the Lethal Protector.

Any impatience or frustration Venom might have had was extinguished by her words, and he couldn't help but give a reassuring grin at her. "If you, or anyone are in danger and we have the power to save them, then know that we'll be there. Besides, we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if an innocent died and we could have done something to prevent it." He beckoned her to follow with a talon to follow as he took the lead in the woods. "Come, it's best we get back to your home."

"We'd better hurry, too," Fluttershy said anxiously while shuffling closer, keeping near the Lethal Protector. "Not only do I have to take care of this poor guy's wing, but... it's a bit spooky in here." She finished timidly, her eyes on alert for anything that could be perceived as danger and feeling shivers now that she realized how deep she had really gone into the Everfree. Following the trail Fluttershy had left on her way in the forest, the company began their trek back to her cottage, hopefully with nothing popping out at them, she thought.

Unfortunately, she might have just jinxed herself with that thought, as not even a minute after following the tracks, trees just barely within their vision creaked and swayed as something pushed by them and near where the trio were at. "Maybe whatever it is is just passing by...?" The pegasus weakly offered, more so as wishful thinking. Venom, however, was set in the defensive, his eyes locked on the movements of trees and foliage. The creaking and movements suddenly stopped, and for a moment they had beleived that Fluttershy was right about her suggestion. The pegasus almost had the chance to sigh in relief, but the thundering noise of something large sliding on the ground behind them cancelled that. It startled her into a frightful gasp, spinning around again with her eyes darting into the darkness of the woods, trying to catch sight of what must have been an enormous beast.

Venom slightly raised his arms from his sides and he unfurled his claws, preparing for what was to come. He scanned the trees and places where the environment was being forced aside to make way for whatever it was that was getting closer by the moment. "Get behind us." He warned Fluttershy, who complied without hesitation. Making sure the bird was secured safely on her back, she scooted herself right behind him. Each time the trees rattled or the bark creaked out, she could feel fear grip her like an icy hand on the back of her neck. They could faintly make out a large and continuous shape in the background, like a giant log moving along. The shape vanished in the darkness of the woods, however, leaving them to rely on their sense of hearing.

Then nothing.

All the dragging and racket came to an absolute stop; no trees swung or creaked, no branches cracked or snapped, and not another noise rang out. The silence was so sickeningly eerie that it just might have been worse than the constant booming noise around the three. The wicked webslinger was not about to take any chances, though. He took a few cautious steps ahead, eyeing to his left and right with sharp narrowed eyes.

A drawn out growl accompanied by trees being ripped aside was his only warning as a massive set of jaws, packed full fangs, on the end of a green scaled body rammed out of the opening straight towards the Lethal Protector at speeds akin to a car speeding on a highway. Venom only had time to spin around in bewilderment before the giant creature rammed into his torso with its snout. "Gyaaah!" He cried out as the creature ruthlessly forced him back further like he weighed nothing. His back was forced to pile through trees and foliage until he came to an abrupt halt when the beast's snout embedded him deep into a large boulder.

Fluttershy was lucky enough that the giant beast just missed her, though she fell over from the scare and how fast the thing zipped past her with the bird scrambling behind her before chirping in fright like a windup toy set on repeat. She groaned while blinking her eyes to regain her focus, and it didn't take long at all for that to happen. She gasped and stared in horror at the enormous snake that was looming over Venom, no doubt of it having a killer intent.

The Lethal Protector stumbled out of the boulder with a hand placed on his head as he moaned in pain from the assault. He looked ahead to see the underbelly directly in front of him, the belly leading up in the air and towering over him with a massive set of jaws and a pair of gleaming red eyes that glared at him like a person would an intruder. Before Venom could go on the offensive, the beast widened its mouth and hurled its jaws down at him with great ferocity, scooping him in it before the snake reared its head back up in the air. It started to squeeze its teeth and jaws together, expecting to gain a quick meal.

Its eyes widened in shock when its jaws met stubborn resistance, being pushed back with great force. Inside the mouth, the wicked webslinger had his back, shoulders, and arms against the roof of the mouth while his legs pushed against the beast's tongue. A deep growl released from his throat as he spoke, with some difficulty, in agitation, "I'm getting real tired of something trying to eat you and I." He lowered his right arm and brought his hand close to his face. The claws on the hand wavered like oil before merging with each other, becoming an arm with a sharp spike at the end that was begging to pierce something. His lips curled into a wicked grin on his face before he looked to the roof of the mouth. Then in one swift motion, he plunged his spiked arm into it.

The spike punctured through the roof and bone above it like a nail drilled into a board. The effect was instantaneous. Shrieks of pain echoed out from the snake's throat as it began thrashing its head around as if it was trying to shake off the pain. Venom stuck in the beast's mouth, though. He brought his left hand down before sinking his claws into the roof of the mouth as he continued to relentlessly carve and dig with his spiked arm as though the roof was a pumpkin.

Fluttershy had taken the bird and herself back to the edge of the clearing for safety. She looked on in anguish, not knowing what to do. Normally, she'd try to talk to aggressive animals to help calm them down, and it usually worked. Given that the enormous snake charged Venom head on, seemingly ate him, and was then in extreme pain, she doubted that the snake was in any mood to talk. Though, she did feel a little bad for the snake. Yes, she understood Venom's anger, anypony could be furious when something tries to eat them. She just wished there was a less violent solution to the problem.

In the next moment, the snake jerked its head near Fluttershy's direction before opening its maw and spitting out a stream of blood carrying Venom covered in the same substance. He was thrown back at too great a speed to recover in time before his back slammed against the trunk of a wide tree, cracking it from the impact. An "Oomph!" was forced from him before he fell down onto his hands and ankles. He shook his head before looking up, only to see the pissed off snake charging at him like before. Reacting quickly, he shot up his left arm from his side before a line of webbing zipped out of it and latched onto another tree. He yanked himself off from the ground, narrowly evading the beast as it rammed its head and body straight through the tree.

Despite how thick the tree was, the snake's momentum was not hindered even as it dragged straight through it and began a wide arc through the foliage to circle back around. Venom was sticking to the tree he webbed himself to with his hands and feet, facing upside down and keeping a steady eye on what he could see of the snake and and tumbling of the woods around it. When the snake finally straightened out and dragged on full speed, the Lethal protector prepared himself for the oncoming attack. The gigantic beast repeated its pattern of charging straight towards the wicked webslinger again, coming out of the foliage and into the clearing straight after him.

When the snake reached to the center of the clearing, however, it pulled off a quick and surprising maneuver when it lifted its tail and lower body while it spun itself on its upper body, swinging its tail in an arc like a club. Venom's eyes perked up when he realized what exactly that tail was aiming for. He leaped off the tree right as it was batted in half by the beast's tail, shattering it into numerous branches, twigs, and bark. When he landed on the ground on all fours, the snake tried to strike its target yet again by bringing its tail down on him.

Venom was aware of this, though, and stood up before he quickly brought his arms up over his head and stopped the tail in its tracks. Despite catching the tail, he found himself struggling to push against it as the snake kept on applying more pressure. He growled out from the struggle they were in, but slowly, he began pushing up against the massive tail. Right when he thought he had the snake, the tail suddenly jerked up high in the air before slamming back down on him again, barely avoiding being cemented in the ground by blocking with his arms, though he was pushed back further down, the ground cracking from the pressure. It appeared that the snake tired of having to keep this up with the wicked webslinger, so it raised its tail a bit while shifting it away from him, only for it to swing at Venom. He was unable to counter the attack, and was swatted from the ground with a, "Gaah!"

Flying and twirling through the air, Venom managed to fire two strands of webbing on the ground to brake his flight before he landed on his feet. An angry hiss echoed through the clearing as the snake zoomed right after him yet again with an open maw. His eyes narrowed as he muttered, "Not this time..." That time, Venom brought up both his hands and squirted patches of webbing that zipped across the air andcovered the beast's eyes, effectively blinding it. He then jumped to the left of the oncoming beast, who hissed out more in anger in confusion. Before the snake passed by him, he brought up his claws, and, with that same old wicked grin, watched them grow longer and sharper. They even gleamed in some light as if they were signifying how deadly they were. Then, when the snake began to drag past him, he unmercifully plunged his claws deep into the snake.

Immediately, the snake screeched out from agony, but Venom showed no signs of stopping, as he kept his claws sunk in while the snake continued to slither by. He felt each single talon shred past the flesh and chalk off bits of bones before the snake finished its pass. By the time the snake charged past Venom, there were ten, noticeable, deep, bloody gashes along its side. Blinded, wounded, and in deep pain, the snake did what any animal in those conditions would do: it entered a frenzied state.

It whipped its tail all around while slithering in random direction, trying so hard to kill the Lethal Protector. While it came nowhere close to actually hitting Venom, seeing as he wasn't in striking distance, the snake was able to cause a storm of rubble by striking different objects this way and that. The smaller trees were easily uprooted by the beast's tail and went sailing in different directions, making the area that more dangerous than it already was. Venom raised his left arm and morphed it into a round shield and used it to block a small tree heading his way like a spear, shatterering upon contact.

The snake continued its frenzy by frantically striking around at all directions, though Venom still wasn't within range of the hits. With its tail, it struck a boulder into the air, soaring past Venom. He wasn't concerned about it as it didn't even come close to hitting him, and he was about to finish the beast off... until he heard squawking. His eyes widened as he spun to the direction of the noise. At the edge of the clearing, he briefly saw Fluttershy toss the bird away in a panic before the same boulder came crashing down on her.

Despite all the chaos happening all around, he felt time slow at that moment when he saw her body undoubtedly get crushed. Though the snake kept on angrily hissing or screeching and debris kept getting kicked up, the sound of crushed bones rang out above all else. The boulder rolled off, but the damage was already done. Even from the distance between them, Venom could see her crumpled form across the field.

Then, both Eddie and the symbiote felt great amounts of regret and guilt. They should have been more focused on her safety than on the snake, they thought. They shouldn't have been so reckless, they thought. And they should've known that all that debris flying around was bound to get her hit, they thought. That wasn't the time to think what they should have done, they knew. They wanted to go straight to Fluttershy, hoping, wishing even, by some stroke of luck that she still drew breath.

They knew that there was still one threat to get rid of first if they wanted to do that, though. So they turned back to the snake, no longer wearing a grin on their face. The beast was still striking around, unaware of what it had just done. Wasting no time, Venom dashed straight toward the beast. When they were close enough, they leaped into the air and landed on the beast's head. The beast squirmed around even more, but Venom stuck on without much trouble.

That most Wicked of Webslingers joined both hands together before they literally joined together as one limb. Where his hands once were came a sharp end that continued to sprout out until it was at least the length of Venom himself. He raised it up in the air, then swiftly plunged it through the snake's head, piercing the skin, then skull, and finally the brain within. The snake shrieked louder than ever for a few seconds, before it receded down to a croak, a low moan, then silence. Its wriggling ceased, then it laid stiff and still.

Venom removed the spike out of the gaping hole, disjointed the spike to reform his usual arms, and jumped back down on the ground. He looked as his work for only a second or two before turning back to Fluttershy and sprinting her direction, all the while desperately calling, "Fluttershy! Please! Please be fine..." When he got to her, he crouched down with a worried look, observing the condition she was in. Fortunately, her head appeared untouched, save for her bloodied forhead and shut eye, but the same couldn't be said for the rest of her. One leg look crumpled up like it was forced back as far as it could go, another appeared shattered as if the bones inside were nothing but broken glass. The other legs were bent at incorrect angles as well. One wing looked like it was about to be torn off from her torso, the other bent and folded beyond recognition. Her very own torso was in the worst condition, no doubt.

Her backside was nearly flattened, and visible bone and flesh poked out. Her upper body didn't fare too well, either. Blood was leaking all around her, especially with her cracked rib cage visible as well. Both Eddie and the symbiote felt the greatest relief in the longest time when they saw her chest rise. Slowly, raggedly, and not much, but raised nonetheless. "Fluttershy..." They looked at her with sad eyes, regretting yet again how they could have let this happen. An eyelid opened up, before it slowly and weakly brought itself to look the Lethal Protector in the eye.

She stared at him for a bit with that eye, before she barely pulled off a small smile. "Ven... Eddie..." She croaked out, the weakness of her voice stinging more than the attacks the snake pulled off on Eddie and the symbiote. "It's alright... both of you... it's not your fault..." She wheezed through her mouth, the struggle for oxygen increasing by the second.

Venom gently placed a hand on her head, solemnly speaking, "No, we should have been more careful... we--"

'Wait! Eddie! Know what to do!' The symbiote shouted in his head with glee, hope sparked in itself. Eddie was all ears; after all, in Fluttershy's condition, she wouldn't have made it to a hospital, especially considering how far away the Ponyville hospital was.

Fluttershy kept on looking at Venom with genuine sincerity, trying to convince both halves that what happened wasn't their fault. She got a bit curious, though, when he looked away, seemingly listening intently to someone or something. At one point, his eyes shot upwards and a gleeful grin took over his face. It didn't last, though, as his eyes narrowed and his mouth thinned, looking uncertain. "It could, but... last time you did this, she..." He tilted his head like he was looking at Fluttershy out of the corner of his eyes. "... I know, I'm sorry. I know things have changed. You have to take care of her and watch over her, Lord knows she's not a fighter."

He looked at her again, this time with a much calmer face, one trying to assure her. "Listen to me, Fluttershy..." Venom's face unraveled into a swarm of tendrils, lowering down to the neck, exposing Eddie's face. "You'll make it out of this, healthy and fixed. She felt something odd crawling on her head, like thousands of little ants at once. It was then that she noticed that the black mass of Venom started to slide and crawl off of Eddie's arms and legs onto her. "My other, it can help you, heal you, rid you of the pain..." Her eye widened in shock when she saw the oily substance form tendrils that gently gripped at everything apart of her they could grab, slowly covering her up. "But this will only work if you let him..." She looked panicked, almost scared, as well. Her eye darted across her form, only able to watch the black goo take over her form, but Eddie reassured her. "Trust me, he only wants to help you, but you have to allow it. Embrace him, let him flow through you. Bond with him. It's for your own good."

She didn't know what was going on, but if Eddie said it would be alright, then she knew it would be fine. Too fatigued, her eye lid began to droop, her damaged body rendering her unable to stay awake much longer. She felt dozens of the tiny tendrils wrap and grip around her, covering every inch of her body. Surprisingly, it covered the wounds without causing much pain. She looked into the forest, trusting in the symbiote. The last thing she saw before she passed out were more of those tiny tendrils around her eyes wrapping around them and linking together.

Then, she fell into a deep slumber.

Author's Note

Hey guys, I'm really sorry it took so long to get a chapter out. Had Finals a bit ago, so I had to study for those. Fortunately, Summer Vacation is here and school is out! I still have work to worry about, but these chapters should be coming much sooner since school is out of the way. I hope you all are having a great Summer so far!

Chapter 21: Dark Dealings

Knelt over the black mass in the woods was Eddie Brock, who was keeping an eye on the very thing. Though a battle between two mighty competitors broke out just moments prior, all was silent in that section of the Everfree. The whooshing of low wind crept by them at a slow pace, disturbing only the grass on the ground. He wasn't focused on anything at all but what was before him, though. He had a responsibility, and he'd be damned if he screwed up and failed. So he kept a keen eye on the mass below him, the thing that was working to heal the wounded pony within it.

The symbiote was covered around Fluttershy as though oil was spilled on top of her, covering her completely. Parts of it were splayed on the ground below her such as loose tendrils or small puddles that hadn't quite attached completely yet. They were signs of a fresh bondage between a symbiote and host. Fortunately, symbiotes were capable of healing and repairing damage to their host's bodies. Brock wouldn't be standing there and would Fluttershy would have been long gone by then if they could not.

They were relatively fast, too. Depending on the wound, the healing would either take a few seconds or a few minutes to fully heal the host body. Given that Fluttershy was heavily wounded, added with the fact that the symbiote had just joined with her, Eddie figured that it would take a bit before she would be up and running again. He would stay by her side the whole time, that was certain. He wouldn't let anything interrupt the symbiote or harm her, for he could still put up a fight with just himself.

The bird from before stood next to Eddie, feeling uncertain of what was to come. It no longer cared about its broken wing, almost forgetting about it. No, his only concern was for the pegasus, if she would be alright, because the bird had no idea what the black stuff was supposed to do. So the only thing he could do was wait, and so the two of them stayed near Fluttershy.

Eddie took a glance at the bird from the corner of his eye, sensing the thing's discomfort. He turned his head towards the bird as he spoke, "She'll be alright. Trust me, she'll make it out of this." He looked back at the symbiote-covered Fluttershy before continuing, "Then we can take care of your wing." At that, the bird felt a little bit less anxious, and they continued waiting.

"Amazing."

Eddie spun his head around while reaching for a thick branch with one arm before standing on the defensive. The bird quickly waddled behind him as he looked around the woods and shouting, "Who's there!?! Show yourself!"

"Be careful what you wish for, Eddie..." Brock had his eyes on a sharp lookout, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly where the voice originated from; it sounded like it came from all directions at once. His eyes caught movement to his right, so he spun that direction and gripped the branch like a baseball bat, ready to strike at whoever was to come. In the darkness of the woods, he saw a shape emerging, but as it got closer, he realized there wasn't something coming out of the darkness coming-- the darkness itself was coming closer.

Eddie's eyes widened while muttering, "Oh, shit..." It wasn't just darkness, but black smog crawling out of the foliage and carpeting the perimeter of the clearing. The same black smoke that had terrorized ponies and had launched an assault on Eddie's mind circled around the clearing, trapping them within it. At the edge directly in front of the small group, a mound of smoke and smog rose from the ground, about as tall as Eddie. Then, a rough shape sprouted from the top, with flickers of smoke wrapping around to concentrate the shape. It was roughly rectangular and looked outward, about a foot or so in their direction. A gap split between the base of the rectangle and further around the edges to the sides of the shape, smoke leaking into the air from the corners of both sides.

By the end of it, Eddie could recognize it as a rough, incomplete outline of a muzzle from a pony, only featuring what could be called a mouth with nothing more to it. That same chuckle that Eddie found himself hating more and more erupted all around, the "lips" of the head roughly matching and synchronizing with movements of actual lips. "Missed me, Eddie?" It asked, mocking sincerity.

"Yeah, I was hoping to humiliate you again." Brock said as he glared at the entity, wishing to wipe that ridiculous grin -at least, that's what it looked like- off the thing's face.

"Such hostility, but why?" The shadowy mound hovered a bit closer to the group, but what worried Eddie was the fact that the smoke on the ground also closing in with his movement. He spoke again with a calm tone, "You know, I had originally thought that you alone were this Venom, a creature with two skins." He shook his head with another low chuckle. "But now? I get it. That other thing in your head along with you are both that creature. And I must say, it is one heck of an organism." It crept closer, ignoring Brock's threats. "So powerful, so unique... I tried to have you under my control..." He spoke the last bit in disappointment, like a kid who couldn't get a toy he wanted.

"Yeah, I remember that." Brock growled out, readying himself for another brawl for the day.

"Yes, I bet you do. Before you came along, I had plans, ways to work past threats, but when you came? You became an obstacle, a threat..." It inched closer again, shrinking the smoky circle around Eddie and the others. "Perhaps you could've taken me on, possibly won, even." The head shifted above, his eyeless gaze going past Eddie and towards the symbiote and Fluttershy. "But now you're separated..."

The cloudy figure began closing the distance between them again, and the ring around the group was only a few yards away by then. Fearing for the safety of Fluttershy and his other, along with the fact that he didn't have many other options, he charged the cloudy figure head on with a rage filled roar directed completely at the dark force before him. "Ha! Eddie, you really are pathetic!" Right as Eddie was about to go for a horizontal strike at the head, a thick ray of smoke erupted from the base of the dark creature and blasted Eddie off his feet and into the air. The smokey appendage came so fast that Brock couldn't even utter from the impact before the smokey beam rammed him into the back of a tree with the force of a rocket.

"Gyaaahhh!" A painful shout forced itself out of Brock's throat. Unfortunately for him, the smokey creature was either really pissed off or didn't get the concept of mercy. The cloudy limb, still holding him by the torso, yanked him from the cracks in the tree right onto the ground below, where his face and chest were forced to bear the burden of hitting it with an audible thud.

The smoke on the ground had parted away to welcome Brock's landing with the ground, as did the tendril finally relinquished its hold on him and returned to the mound of smoke in a blink of an eye. By the end of it, Eddie felt two concerning things: a sharp, flaring an unyielding pain in his left shoulder, and his ribs shared the same problem. All in all, the man didn't feel too hot.

Eddie gritted his teeth with his eyes screwed shut, trying desperately to shut out the pain as he used his right arm to push against the ground and raise himself. He was making steady progress to stand, but the shadowy figure spoke with amusement in his voice as he did so. "Oh, Eddie. Didn't you know? You're nothing without that goo. You're powerless to stand against me." When the man shakily got to his knees and feet, he lifted his head up to see the mound hovering directly over Fluttershy and the symbiote, appearing to inspect the mass by every square inch like he was trying to find something hidden on it.

"Ah, yes." The black figure continued. "This really is a great opportunity here. You and that goo separated, and an Element as well. This really should be taken advantage of." Brock forced himself back on his legs, ignoring the pain the best he could. He thought of what he could do, how he could get himself and the others out of that sticky situation, but a good plan didn't make itself present in his head. It was then that he heard the figure sigh, sounding disappointed yet again. "So I'm hating myself for not taking it."

Eddie froze at his spot upon hearing those words. Shocked, he looked at the mound in disbelief with a tone matching it, "You're... not?" He was relieved that they wouldn't die there, but he still couldn't quite believe that the entity before them wouldn't go for the kill.

"Nope. Not today." Immediately after he finished, the smoke that carpeted the forest floor flew back into the woods, leaving only the dark figure in the center. As the bird hurriedly waddled towards Eddie with the smoke gone, the shadowy figure chanted in an ancient tongue, "Tenebris devoret." The world around both the man and the bird vanished into a cold, empty darkness of nothingness, devoid of anything but them. There was no visible floor they stood on, but yet they stood like there was one.

This took the two by surprise as it would most others. Eddie slowly looked around, trying to find something other than the limitless void all around. He muttered under his breath, "Where are we...?"

"Somewhere private, where we can remain uninterrupted." Again, the voice had no origin, for it rang out from everywhere all at once. "Consider this your lucky day. I have an offer for you."

The man huffed, looking left and right while speaking loudly, "A deal with you is probably like a deal with the Devil."

"I don't know who that is, but fine. Before I begin though, I want to make myself perfectly clear..." Something constricted around Eddie's throat before jerking him up in the air as he gagged and tried to pry the unwelcome thing off. The voice continued, sounding more serious and much more aggressive, "The only reason I am doing this is because I can't kill you-- no, in fact, I can kill you, right here and now. Just one swift move and your neck would be bent in a way it isn't meant to be bent. The same goes for that goo and Element under it."

Brock continued to try and pry the force around his throat off, kicking in the air in hopes of striking whatever was holding him, hitting nothing, unfortunately. "But if I did that... well, there's a chance I'd leave a trace of my magic whether I knew it or not. Despite how idiotic the princesses are, even they wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. Especially now since that ugly oaf of a god is now buddy-buddy with you, it'd be even more dangerous for me. It might fall on chance, but I can't take the risk, not now."

Whatever force held Brock released its grip, and he fell to his hands and knees with a soft thud. He coughed as he used a hand to rub his throat, trying to relieve the stress it went through. "Every thing I do, even right now, is leaving excess energy," the voice sighed despondently, continuing in a matching tone, "and killing something tends to leave a good amount of it. That's the unfortunate cost of my magic. But now," the voice returned to a calmer tone, still having a way of imposing authority, "you understand why I can't do this now. Which leads us back to my offer."

Eddie brought himself back up to his feet, grunting out, "Not interested."

"Just be quiet and listen. You and your pal stop this. Both of you quit the fighting, the saving, everything. You stop interfering, and..." Colors began to seep through the confines of the darkness to Eddie's surprise. They appeared as random splotches of color, like a can of paint was spilled all over the background, streaks racing across the empty canvas and lighting up the atmosphere as much as they could. His brows furrowed when he began to notice that the colors weren't forming just some random splotches or streaks, but that they were making some sort of scenery, some new environment around them. When the colors eradicated the darkness and formed more accurate details, shapes, lighting, along with everything needed to make a realistic picture, Eddie's eyes widened in disbelief.

He found himself standing on an empty street in the center of a city in broad daylight; but that was no ordinary city. It wasn't anywhere in Equestria, but on Earth.

It was Manhatten.

Everything about it was perfectly accurate, from the skyscrapers soaring to the skies and littered alleyways to the smell of gasoline and cracked sidewalks along the streets. The only notable thing that was off was the lack of people occupying the city; there weren't any. No pedestrians inside or out, no cars honking or cruising by, nor was their the consistent sounds that always accompany large crowds in any city. Still, the scenery was so real that it captured Brock with its familiarity.

"... you'll get to go back to your world."

Two columns of white stood across from each other, disconnected. Something broke through them, that was clear. A mistake, one that would be fixed.

Two, small, black strands wired all around them and linked up to the points where they were disconnected. Then, the two strands bridged the gap between the columns, creating a black bar. Now as one, the blackness removed itself from the material onto the next broken area. When it left, there weren't two broken columns, but a single, healthy one.

A fixed rib.

Far from that area was another damaged one, just not with bones. Ripped patches of red mushy chunks scattered around through a sea of a deep red liquid. All that might have poured out through a gap, but more of the black substance blocked it from escaping. Hundreds of small and black tendrils swam through the mess like a vast, polluted ocean, one they intended to clean. When the swarm of black mass passed through, all the red chunks behind them weren't scattered, but they were aligned and connected to one another properly. The red sea surrounding also became cleaner, and flowed in between like rivers just as it was meant to.

Another patch of flesh and blood made fresh and new again.

All over the host body where areas were damaged or distorted, the black mass was there to replenish it. The black mass, the Klyntar, had come far in healing and repairing Fluttershy's broken body. It was so in tune with fixing her that all power, concentration, focus, everything, was dedicated to the task. It couldn't hear or see what was going on outside, but it trusted its true host to defend itself and Fluttershy while it was in the process of repairing her.

Not long after and with the final act of stitching the skin back together, the symbiote finished. The pony still rested, but she was absolutely healed. She would wake up like she did every morning and see another day. The symbiote felt at ease, relieved even. Since that was done, it could return to Eddie and all of them could go back to Fluttershy's cottage and resume their daily lives.

With the symbiote still covered over Fluttershy, multiple tentacles and tendrils grouped together above her before a head with distorted features formed above it. The head looked similar to Venom's, its white eyes peering around expectantly... but its human host was nowhere in sight. That couldn't be, the symbiote knew, something wasn't right. It knew Eddie wouldn't just leave them like that. Also, though it wasn't really too important, the bird appeared missing as well. The symbiote didn't have to look long for clues, for the ground all around was caked in black and grey cinders. Upon the sight, it immediately realized one thing: the entity of smoke was there.

Panic seeped into it immediately. Its head swiveled around in hopes of finding its host somewhere among the wreckage, but only dreadful disappointment greeted it when no man was in sight. Eddie was a strong human, that was for sure, but the symbiote didn't think his chances against a magical entity such as the smoke would result in a victory for him. Desperate to find him, the symbiote began to crawl on the ground in a search for Eddie. It quickly stopped when it felt fur brush against its mass, a certain reminder of its current host. It looked back at Fluttershy's resting form with uncertain eyes.

There was no way that the symbiote could just leave her there, that was for sure. Only question was: should it bring her back to her home first, or search for Eddie? It wasn't an easy one to answer, at least not for the muddled alien. After some thinking, the Klyntar came to a conclusion: it would search around a bit for Eddie, and if it couldn't find him and there was nothing to track, it would bring Fluttershy back to her cottage, then get help from someone who would be good in that scenario.

After all, while the symbiote was capable of many things, it could do little with or against magic. Probably one like Discord, it thought, he was powerful and capable. Maybe Twilight, if he wasn't around. Lots of choices to choose from, but that wasn't the time to think about it, not then.

Having conviction, the black mass of the symbiote receded back to Fluttershy, still covering her completely. Like a bedsheet draped over her, it began tightening and constricting around her. Not choking or harming, just merely tightening around her. The pony just laid there for a few moments, until a hoof twitched. Where her left eye would've been at, a thin white line streaked across it. Then, the line grew, curved, rounded, forming what could be called an eye.

The symbiote had many different species of hosts before, it was time to add a pony to the roster.

The words didn't immediately reach Eddie, as he was still in shock at where he was. His breath was caught in his throat as he studied the sight all around him, finding it to be almost exactly as he remembered it. Hell, he could even make out his shitty apartment in the distance. "But--how did you...?" is all his stunned mind could muster.

Another amused chuckle rang out, that time having a distinct origin. Eddie spun his head right to see a large wisp of smoke flow out of an alley and curl into the air above the street. "I might have only been in your head for a few minutes," a crack formed on the end of the wisp before a mouth formed to accompany the thing's words. "but it was enough to understand basic concepts about you. Not that it takes a genius to guess that you're not from Equestria or anywhere on this world."

The city around Eddie captivated him at first, but he was not about to fall for the smoke's tricks. He glared at the smoke hovered above him, clearly not buying it. "Even if I did believe you, the princesses are one step ahead of you."

That caused the smoke to erupt in uproarious laughter, angering Eddie that much more. "Oh, you poor, naive soul." The voice mockingly said once his laughter died down. "You really think they can send you back?"

"I trust them to do it more than you, that's for damn sure."

"Really? Think about it, Eddie." The head of the smokey tendril wavered closer to the ground, staring into Eddie. "Celestia and Luna are powerful, there's no doubt about that. But the only thing they've used such power for was raising and lowering the sun and moon and Luna's dream walking. Beyond that, their skills are simply lacking in terms of what they could achieve. That also means, unfortunately for you, that they have little knowledge of how to access other dimensions, especially your own. I wouldn't expect them to get anywhere close to unlocking it, if I were you."

Eddie dusted off the smoke's reasoning with a snort, challenging, "And what makes you think you have a better chance at doing so?"

"Oh, I can certainly get you back... unqaim liberi." As he finished, the city around the three started to be replaced by another large splotch of color that stretched in all directions until it covered the city completely, morphing into a new scenery around them. Eddie wasn't too startled by the change-- he knew something would happen once the voice began chanting again. In fact, the area he found themselves in wasn't anything alarming at all. It was daytime in the hoax world, smooth grass below the man's feet with trees scattered around. Not enough to block out the sun, but enough to make the whole area covered in shade.

The slithering smoke didn't say anything as Eddie continued inspecting the scenery around him, trying to find something special about it; after all, the smoke wouldn't have created it if it didn't hold some meaning. Though he recognized it to be part of the edge of the Everfree, he saw no significance to it. He was about to question the lingering smoke, until his mind clicked. Doing another take on the woods with a confused expression worn, he began to realize that the very location he was at was where he and his other first landed in Equestria upon their accidental teleportation incident.

"Recognize it?" The wisp of smoke glided a few yard in front of Eddie, forming a small cloud of the black smog. "Your entrance to Equestria caused a massive surge of energy and magic. I, like many others felt it, even if it was for a brief moment. I came and investigated a few hours after it happened, and though nothing physical was there, plenty was offered in all forms of energy."

Eddie was about to cross his arms, but the stabbing pain in his left shoulder reminded him it probably was not a good idea to use his left arm so much. Slightly flinching, he shrugged his right shoulder with a, "So?"

"So, I dug into the source more." the voice spoke with some irritation, but his voice soon returned to his original tone. "And I found a link of energy, just like the others. This one was different, though. All the others were jumbled into that area, but that certain one led away from the rest. I followed it, but it led nowhere, at least that's what I had originally thought. I could still briefly pick it up with my senses, so I tried something... else."

Brock quirked an eyebrow with, "What do you mean 'something else?'"

The smoke chuckled mirthfully before responding, speaking in joy at Eddie's frustration. "Oh, sorry Eddie, but that's my little secret, mine alone; however, I can tell you the outcome of it." The man, though still annoyed at the smoke before him, remained silent to hear the rest. "Essentially, that lone strand of energy traveled long and far, but not here, not in this world. It soared beyond this existence and into another."

Though he didn't know if the smoke was lying or not, Eddie had to know if he crossed over. "Did you actually go there-- to Earth?"

"No. Though I could cross over, it would have taken a few days, as the same would be for you. It was a curious sight, but it was not at the forefront of my mind at the time. Had I known what came over and what a pain it'd be, then I would've found a way across sooner." Though the smoke raised points that could be valid, Eddie was still hesitant in believing it. The cloud of smoke could see the hesitation in Eddie's face and released an exhausted sigh. "Eddie," it began with dull tone. "I want you and that thing gone, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to kill you. If getting you out of the way means sending both of you somewhere beyond here, then I'll do it."

The cloud inched closer to Eddie, attempting to convince him more. "Think about it. You know about half the population hates you two, you know. Why stay here with ungrateful roaches when you can go back to where you're appreciated? I bet your friends and family miss you, too. Is Equestria really worth it, Eddie? Wouldn't you rather head back to your home? To go rest in your house again and spend the rest of your life there? You can have all of that back again. All you have to do is get your pet and yourself to get out of the way. Do we have a deal?"

Perhaps those words would have convinced some other person, convinced them that home life was better than staying in a land full of ponies. While Eddie and his other undoubtedly wanted to return to Earth, the black cloud didn't account for what their lives on Earth were actually like. Because of that, Brock scoffed as a smirk pulled at his lips. "Yeah, right."

With him clearly not taking the situation so seriously, finding it more comedic even, left the smoke flabbergasted. "What?" He spat out, before furiously roaring, "What do you mean, 'yeah, right'!?!"

Eddie huffed as he jabbed a finger in the smoke's direction, already completely tired of the smoke. "Let me explain some things, pal. Let's just assume I do think you're telling the truth and you can send me back. Well, your little speech didn't do much convincing seeing as how none of those are true." That time, it was Eddie who chuckled and the smoke who was angered by it. He might have even fully laughed, if his damaged ribs would allow it. "You think how some ponies and others think of me here is bad? Please, at least they have the decency not to sick their police or guards on us, 'cause that's what happens most the time back home.

"Friends and family? I have a few friends back on Earth I can trust, and the number isn't huge. As for family, they're either gone or couldn't care less about me, so that's not a huge reason to go back. Home? You mean my shitty apartment that smells like someone died there half the time? Hell, the guest bedroom in the palace is better than my own, dammit!"

The smoke stayed silent, even as Eddie continued. "It doesn't matter, though. None of that would change a thing." He was certainly done with the smoke's game for the day, so he would get his point across clearly. "My symbiote and I protect innocents, no matter where we are or what they are. So until you're gone, we're not headin' home. No deal."

The shadow's voice didn't come at first; it just hovered silently in place. Brock didn't speak a word as well, only glaring at the entity. Finally, it spoke in barely contained rage. "Eddie, I really want to crush you right now. Do you know that?"

"And I want to beat you into the ground right now. Did you know that?"

The cloud flickered with wisps of smoke bulging out as if the thing's anger was about to break out. "Fine." It spat out, "You had your chance, but you spat in my face. Enjoy Equestria while you can, Eddie. It'll be your resting place."

"Not if we find you first." The two stood in silence for a bit, neither one making a move.

"I can't kill you now... but at least I get the pleasure of witnessing you break some bones." Eddie's brows shot up and before he could protest, it spoke in an ancient tongue, "Evanescunt tenebris." Just as fast as the hoax world had come into existence, the environment blended and vanished into thin air, placing Eddie and the bird back into Equestria with the smoke no longer in sight.

Problem was, they weren't standing on solid ground. Transported dozens of feet above the tree line, they both could only stare at the ground with trepidation as gravity took hold an viciously yanked them back down. The bird tried to flap its wings, but the one broken wing would not allow any escape. Brock gritted his teeth and braced his arms over his face to prepare for the impact that was to come.

Exhaustion and lightheaded, that was what Fluttershy felt. At least, that's what she could feel once she could think again. Even then, she couldn't think clearly, like her mind was fogged. She was in a state similar to being half awake, being able to see and hear around her, but not really able to recognize or comprehend them like she would normally. In fact, her mind kept on drifting to what she was doing and trying to figure out what was going on as well.

All she could see was herself moving through the Everfree at a steady pace, looking at the ground and surrounding trees from time to time. That didn't feel odd. What did feel off, though, was that she didn't really feel herself moving around. It was more like her body was on autopilot, or something else taking the wheel and moving around.

Her mind wandered back to what was going on, trying to understand and comprehend. She knew she must've blacked out or fallen asleep at some point, but she couldn't quite recall when she came to. Suddenly, flashes streaked across her mind. No, not flashes, images. She saw images in her mind, images in the Everfree, though they were brief and somewhat difficult to make out. First she was in a small clearing, caring for a bird. Then, Venom arrived, but he seemed upset at her. His mouth was moving, but no noise came out. After that, they all walked through the woods until an enormous snake ambushed them, one that Venom fought. Finally, looking up as a massive boulder descended upon her.

It was just a dream, she thought. There was no way she would actually survive something that heavy crashing down on her. Her mind relaxed and softened, knowing that she was just asleep. The sight before her confirmed that assumption very much. An outstretched hoof was gripping a timberwolf by the throat, lifting it in the air. Many things were wrong about that image that she could tell immediately. First and foremost, she would never treat an animal like that, no matter how misbehaved they were acting. Another thing, that was clearly not her. The hoof holding the poor animal was nearly all black with only a white streak breaking down the leg parting the black.

Another weary factor was the anger she felt. That might not of been too weird, if it was hers. She could feel it like it was, but she could distinctly tell that the raw emotion did not belong to her. She must have been looking through the eyes of another pony, she figured.

The timberwolf itself looked down at the pony with a mixture of anger and fear, both growling and whimpering. Fluttershy of course felt sympathetic towards the wooden wolf, and hoped that the pony she spectated would feel the same. Unfortunately, she didn't feel any sympathy within the pony, and her heart dropped when the hoof hurled the timberwolf next to a tree, smashing the hoof straight through its head. The sheer act alone caused her to gasp loudly, one that the pony made.

Her mind froze. She had just gasped, yet she could feel the pony doing the exact same like the pony was her. That act and realization must have sprung something in her head, because she could use her senses again. She felt the ground like she was standing there. She smelled the aroma of the woods as if she was there. She heard the brushing of leaves and grass as if she was standing right at that very spot.

She was having a vivid dream, she hastily thought. No way was she really there, she tried to convince herself. As if to disprove her argument, whatever force controlled the body vanished, and she felt herself within the body... surely not her body. Upon realizing this, she nervously raised a forehoof to inspect it. It was the same, the pitch black hoof with a single white streak flowing down it. She took a shallow breath as she also felt some force tingle within her, something around and inside of her.

She felt like she was in some sort of material, but that same material felt like it was raveled and weaved into her as well. Then, her eyes widened as the rest of the memories flashed in her head. After the boulder had hit her, she barely clanged onto the last of her life as Venom knelt down by her and looked at her with sorrow. Then, he talked to himself before the black mass that made him up crawled off Eddie Brock and onto her. She remembered, in her panic, Eddie told her it would help her, that she would be fine.

Dread struck her like a wrecking ball when she finally realized she was definitely not dreaming. Panic didn't even begin to describe how she felt then. After a few seconds of some rapid inhaling and exhaling, she began looking around for a source of water. She needed to confirm her suspicions, even though they were already clear as day. Luckily for her, she spotted a small pond near some foliage to her left. She wasted no time rushing straight towards it, darting past the bushes and braking right in front of the water. Normally, running through bushes would leave some marks, but she didn't feel a thing; in fact, the bushes broke against her as she pushed past them.

She was breathing hard, not from tiredness, but of what she was seeing in her reflection. That pony in the water couldn't have been her, for it looked almost nothing like her. The pony in the reflection was tall and large, almost about the height of Princess Cadence. The pony had a mane and tail in the style of hers, but they were a shiny white instead of the usual soft pink. The rest of the body was the same inky black that she had found on her hoof, only it wasn't a coat of fur, but appeared glossy and almost gooey. The wings had sharp features as well, looking more like a raven's than a pegasus' wings, and with the tip reaching the pony's flank. Three features stood out the most to her, however.

One: where the pony's eyes should have been were blank, white, rounded and curved crescent shapes, somewhat resembling eyes themselves. When her eyes shot up from the sight, the white patches simultaneously shot and curved up, accurately resembling her surprise. Secondly, where the pony's mouth should have been, well, there was none. The black skin went over it like it was never there. Finally and most notably, a large, eye-catching, brightly white spider on her torso.

The design was similar to Venom's, finally telling her what she recalled truly happened. The spider's body was emblazoned there, proudly displaying itself with its two sharp fangs above its head. The abdomen ran down between the pony's legs. The bottom legs streaked down onto the pony's forelegs all the way down to the tip of the hooves. The rest of the legs ran along the sides except for the top two, which angled sharply above the joints of the wings. The legs that ran along the sides also sharply curved up onto the pony's back, where she assumed there was another white spider with a similar pattern.

She had trouble believing it, but she knew that pony was her. All of that was a lot to take in for her, leaving her to mumble out, "O-oh... my..."

'Fluttershy.'

Said pony must have jumped at least ten feet in the air with a startled scream that broke the surrounding sounds of the forest. Barely landing straight, she began to look around in a panic for the source of the voice. "H-hello!?!" she called out, hoping to Celestia whoever it was didn't have bad intentions. "Is... is somepony there?"

'Not some pony.'

"Aaah!" Fluttershy spun around again, trying to find whoever was speaking. She couldn't pinpoint exactly where it came from, yet it sounded so terribly close to her. All she could make out of it was that whoever it was, or at least sounded like, was male. "Who's there!?!" she cried out.

'Don't need to be scared, Fluttershy. Does this help?' Out of the corner of her eye, something black snaked around into the air and in her line of sight. The black tendril before her ended with a pair of sharp, white eyes and a pair of chompers to accompany it, which certainly didn't comfort Fluttershy one bit; instead, the thing's face caused her to turn tail and dash away with a speed faster than a professional athlete, all the while screaming her head off. Her heightened speed and physical attributes went by unnoticed to her, as she was more concerned about getting far away from that creature. Perhaps she would have been more rational, but she had already been through so much through one day, and a mare such as herself could only handle so much in a short span of time.

She galloped through foliage and plants alike, pushing past to get, hopefully in the right direction, back to her cottage or at the very least out of the Everfree. As she was galloping, she felt her left hind leg pull back like it was tied to something, promptly halting her run and causing her tumble into a heap. She scrambled back up to resume her escape, but the same hind leg was held on by something, making her unable to flee. With trepidation, she looked behind herself to see a thick, black, wire-like line morph from her leg and wrap itself next to a nearby tree trunk.

She trembled, feeling like she had nowhere to go, no place to hide. Then, to her surprise, she felt something sliding down her barrel, face, and legs at once, with something peeling off of her. She gasped at the sight of the black material uncovering and sliding down her torso and legs before pooling onto the ground. She was relieved but also confused when she saw her normal buttery fur where the black substance once was, but she didn't think much on that as the black substance spilled onto the ground, forming a small puddle.

The puddle grew larger to her discomfort, and before she knew it, the puddle pulled itself up and formed into the shape of a skinny torso with two, lanky arms that linked into the pool below it. To finish it off, a head formed at the top, sporting a pair of milky white eyes and a mouth. She heard the voice in her head again speak slowly, 'Don't be afraid, it's only me.'

By then, the pegasus was both confused and spooked, but her eyes lit up when she realized just who the voice likely belonged to. "Are you... symbiote?"

'A symbiote, yes.'

Fluttershy felt the greatest relief from that, loosening her muscles and and effectively calming her. She felt a bit silly, even. The symbiote was obviously with her just by looking at herself, so it was a given that the voice belonged to it as well. "Oh, thank Celestia!" She shook her head with a sigh before looking at the symbiote before her with a small smile. "I thought I was in danger for a moment there."

'Fluttershy, something I must tell you.'

"Um, sure-- wait." She looked at the alien inquisitively, asking, "Where's Eddie? Or the bird?"

'Yes... about that...'

One second. One, long, blissful, merciful second. That was the amount of time Eddie received after awaking of feeling sweet nothing. Every nanosecond went by slowly, and for a moment, he thought he was fine. One second, however, is not a long time. Once it ended, everything in his body crashed like a massive train wreck. His muscles, bones, everything, screamed out in agony, including himself.

He barely cracked his eyes open but shut them immediately when colors and light assaulted his eyes, too much for his head to handle or comprehend at the moment. He panted, taking shallow breaths to at least keep himself awake. He wasn't thinking about his other, or Fluttershy, or what had just happened. His mind was only focused on the pain screeching along his body, demanding to be taken care of. He dared move his right arm an inch, testing his capabilities. It wasn't as bad as when he initially awoke, but he doubted he would be up and walking any time soon.

After a few minutes of laying there, he slowly cracked his eyes open again. That time, he better handled it and began opening them all the way. Looking up, he saw tall trees all around with broken branches scratched trunks with some blood littered around, no doubt where he had crashed through. Gasping for air again, he closed his eyes as he realized he was stuck there, trapped in the blasted forest. And with another blissful moment, he fell unconscious again.

He briefly regained, barely, conscious again, but he dared not open his eyes yet again. Though the pain echoed across his body, he could roughly make out a noise coming into earshot. He heard four, heavy footsteps come closer to him. Then, he heard something sniffing him, before whatever it was gently gripped his legs before dragging him across the ground. Eddie didn't have to time to react, as his mind slipped into darkness again.

"What!?! Oh no, no no, no!"

'Bad, really bad. Couldn't find him while you rested.'

"Both of them!?!"

'Who...? Oh, yes, the bird, too.'

"Wait, aren't you worried about the little guy, too?"

'... No time to linger, we must continue our search.'

The symbiote had just told Fluttershy what it saw when it finished healing her and what it though might have happened. They both agreed that something terrible must have happened, that was for sure. Having encountered the smoke and its lackeys, she dreaded what it could be doing to the two or where it could have taken them. What worried her the most was that neither the Klyntar or herself had a clue of their whereabouts. There was no trail, no clear destination, nothing. For the while that the symbiote had been wandering the woods, it found not a single trace of where the smoke went to.

Though she had a bad feeling that Eddie or the bird weren't anywhere near them, she didn't want to give up in case they were. What if they weren't, though? That was the question which shook her most. Because if they searched the wrong place, and it was too late to come to them.... She didn't want to think about that, so she hoped, almost prayed, that they were alright, or would be able to hold out until either they or somepony found them. "Okay then," she started out, "which way do you think they are?"

'Don't know, haven't been any signs.' That served to only concern the pegasus more, but the alien continued, 'Been traveling through woods towards your cottage, could find help if we can't find him-- them.'

"Oh, good idea!" Even during the unsettling case they were on, she lit up at the idea, so she pondered, "Maybe Discord could help?"

'Hope so, but for now...' the mass of the symbiote which had removed itself from Fluttershy began to move back to her, linking and morphing on her to her surprise. Feeling herself covered completely again, she briefly thought about the concept of an alien parasite living within her. The sentence alone would deter, disgust, or creep out a lot of ponies, especially her on a normal day, but she didn't really feel that way.

Even if she never somewhat knew the symbiote or was saved by it, she still didn't feel violated with it living in her. It never felt uncomfortable to her when the symbiote was raveled around her or in her, but more like a warm sea flowing inside her that reminded her she was never alone. Instead of feeling something invading her, she felt something protecting her with its substance. All of that had to to with her being linked to the symbiote, in a way. Was that the bonding Eddie had told her about? He explained it the best he could to her at some point, but she didn't quite get it. Then and there, she was starting to, but there had to be more to it.

'...we should continue.'

Fluttershy shook herself out of her haze before she spoke with conviction. "Right!" She nodded and trotted, keeping a steady pace while looking out.

Though she knew they were on a mission, she had many questions for the symbiote. Such as how it was able to completely heal her body, especially in the course of just a few minutes. She had completely forgotten about the wounds for a bit, so remembering them again came to a surprise on how she was perfectly healthy at the time. She was just about to thank the symbiote, until they both heard rustling bushes dead ahead of them.

She paused and stood still, cautiously watching as a wooden leg popped out of the bushes. Her nerves settled down when the creature revealed itself to be only a timberwolf. The animal stood a few yards in front of her, growling as it stood in a defensive stance. Where Fluttershy saw a creature that was possibly hungry, upset, or anything she'd love to help with, the Klyntar saw a nuisance in their path.

Lighting up at the opportunity, she spoke to the alien within her, "What do you think's wrong with him?"

All she got in response was a cold, 'Don't know and doesn't concern us. It is in our way.'

"Now, now," she gently berated, "there's no need to be rude to the poor guy. There's a simple way to take care of this little problem."

'I agree...' Cold intentions swelled in Fluttershy's head, but they were not hers.

She spoke contently and certainly, ignoring those thoughts in her head. "All we have to do is..." she raised up a hoof like she was about to point out an answer. The two answered simultaneously, "Comfort him!"

'Kill it.'

Her eyes shot upwards as her figure froze on the spot, comprehending what the alien just said. As for the symbiote, it was smart enough to know that the answer it gave probably wasn't a good one for its pony host. Too late for take-backs, though. "What!?!" She shouted out, shocked to the core. Apparently, the whole display seemed a bit odd to the timberwolf, as it tilted its head and looked at her like she was crazy.

'...With kindness. Kill it with kindness.'

She had a hard time believing the alien, and its lie was caught when she looked over to her raised hoof, only to see six sharp spikes jutting from the base. She interrogated the symbiote with, "Then what's that!?!"

'A... backscratcher...' A wave of anxiety hit Fluttershy's head, but she recognized the feeling immediately: lying. She rarely ever lied, and if she did, it usually was for the best, so she knew how it felt. She could feel it in her just like it was her doing it, but she knew better. Just like her thoughts and emotions were visible to the symbiote, so was its.

"Your lying! I can feel it!"

The Klyntar knew the gig was up, so it resigned with, 'Fine, I did think of killing it.' It continued with distaste, 'Forgot about how much of an animal lover you are.'

Briefly taken aback by this, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and questioned, "What does that mean?"

The symbiote was blunt with its response of, 'You're too soft for your own good.'

"No, I am not!" Before things got too heated, Fluttershy paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again, speaking softly, "Listen," she began calmly, to which the symbiote remained silent, so she assumed it was listening. "I know sometimes you and Eddie had to... kill". That word alone may as well have been the plague by how she felt just by discussing it. "And I bet that other timberwolf gave you no choice as well."

She paused in mid-speech, hoping that was actually true. She was afraid of the answer she might get, but she needed to know. "Y-you did do it because you needed to, right?" She hesitantly asked.

'Thought it was necessary, yes.'

"And when you say necessary, you mean you gave it a chance and tried a less... violent method first... right?"

'It had a chance to live before it attacked,' it firmly stated. 'It gave up that chance when it tried to pounce us.' Fluttershy, though disheartened by the answer, didn't want to start up another argument, especially at a time like that. One thing that kept on bothering her, though, was how it became apparent that the Klyntar seemed uncaring towards other animals and creatures. 'We're wasting our time, look.' And she did, and she found herself a bit surprised to see the timberwolf no longer standing in its spot. She spund her head around and yielded the same results as well.

"Where--?"

'It doesn't matter.' The symbiote cut in, 'We need to go now. Need get back to your cottage and get help, fast.'

"Right..." She picked up on a faster pace through the woods, knowing that the symbiote was right about where they needed to be and what to do. Still, she couldn't help but feel despondent. She knew the symbiote meant well and saved innocents, such as how it saved her.

She just wished it had the same sentiment for animals as well.

Aches, aches all over his body, that was what entered his senses first. It wasn't as bad as when he awoke for the first time, but he wasn't going to attempt to move much any time soon. The second thing he felt was something soft under him, definitely not the cold ground of the outdoors. His hearing shortly picked up again, and all assortments of noises were around to give him a killer headache. He groaned, wanting nothing more than to return to sweet, sweet, slumber.

A consistent tapping on his cheek, however, ceased that notion to his irritation. He tried to ignore the small jabbing, but he patience soon gave away when the tapping simply didn't stop. Good thing his right arm -at least from his elbow to his hand- worked fine, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to swat whatever was annoying him away. Whatever it was must have been small, because he felt it sail away from him. He briefly heard chattering, like something was frustrated, but it was not his concern. A content smile stretched on his lips as he began to feel sleep overtake him yet again.

A part of his mind listened in to the noises around him, and he heard heavy foot steps clambering towards him. Normally, that would warrant concern, but he was too tired to care. Oh, well. Nap time. Sadly, a torrent of ice cold water splashing across his face killed the mood.

Eddie's head jerked up as he spat the water out of his mouth. After a few moments of spitting, coughing, and taking a gulp of air, he squinted his eyes open. As fast as the water splashed his face, the haze around his mind vanished and he was fully awake. The first thing he saw was a large bear standing on its hind legs and holding an empty bucket over his face. The look on the bear's face told him that he was likely annoyed.

"Where...?" He quietly mumbled, turning his head to look around. His eyes widened in bafflement at seeing the familiar living room of Fluttershy's cottage. "What the...?" He looked down to see himself laying on the couch of the room. What stuck out more was that he wasn't wearing a shirt, but bandages were professionally wrapped around his left arm to form a sort of arm cast, along with warm, wet clothes covering parts of him that were heavily bruised, ripped, or any other form of harsh damage taken. Rapid tapping sounds to his right diverted his attention to its source to see a ticked-off bunny with crossed arms and with one foot constantly tapping the surface of the table it stood on.

Eddie was confused by all of that, and a frustrated bunny only added to it. His face cringed when he though that Angel was probably the one he swatted away. "Uh, sorry about that." He said awkwardly. Angle snorted before shrugging his shoulders, though still wearing his frown. Eddie took that as a sort of way of saying he forgave him, but was still peeved. He tried to sit up, but the bear's paw swept down to gently, but firmly, keep him down in place. The bear shook his head at him, telling Brock that it wouldn't be wise to get up.

Though he wanted to at least sit, he understood that his body might not have been up to the task at the time. So he opted to ask the obvious question of, "How'd I get here?" To that, the bear proudly patted his own stomach. While a bear dragging a man through the woods would usually end badly, Eddie was grateful that this bear was in the woods at the time. He nodded his head in appreciation with, "Thanks."

Angel began squeaking before hopping on the edge of the couch and pressing his paw into Eddie's arm, seeming to demand something. He was about to question what Angel wanted, until his eyes shot up upon realizing one thing: neither Fluttershy nor his other were present. "No... shit!" His sudden outburst startled both Harry and Angel, but he slightly sat up and rattled on before they could do anything. "Fluttershy-- we found her," Both animals dipped their heads in after that, listening much more intently after that. "We were walking back, 'till some giant snake attacked us. We killed it, but Fluttershy..." He looked over at the two and spoke solemnly, "She got hurt, bad."

An unsettling silence filled the room, and both Angel and Harry stared wide-eyed. Eddie continued, but steadily got faster and more hysterical. "So to save her, I joined her with my symbiote, and things would've been fine-- if it wasn't for that damn smoke. I-I don't know if it did anything to them-- it took me somewhere, I don't know where, but it looked just like back on Earth! He tried to cut me a deal, that if we didn't do anything, he'd send us back home. I told him to fuck off, he got pissed, and the next thing you know, I get dropped off a couple hundred feet in the air!"

By the time he finished, Eddie took large sums of air to calm his nerves while the bunny and the bear looked at each other, nodding their heads in silent agreement. They looked back at the bewildered Brock with looks he'd call 'aggressive determination.' Angel blew air out of his mouth while waving his paws around, then Harry raised a fist and punched it into his open paw, growling menacingly while doing so. Brock got the message, and he looked at them, dumbfounded. "You're gonna try to actually fight the smoke?"

They both nodded their heads with arrogant smiles. Eddie sighed and shook his head despondently. "Appreciate the fighting spirit, but that's easier said than done." Angel rolled his eyes and waved him off, like he was saying, 'nonsense.' Harry began walking towards the door, to which Eddie half-shouted, "Wait-- you're not really going to... guys, I'm serious!" Angel patted his arm as if to reassure him before hopping onto the floor to join his bear-ally. "He's not even there, anymore! We need to focus on finding Fluttershy and my other!"

For better or for worse, Brock got what he wanted when the door suddenly slammed open, causing Angel and Harry to jump back a bit. "Sorry for not knocking, Fluttershy, but this is important!" Hastily spoke a feminine voice before a unicorn rushed in past the two stunned animals. Whoever it was, was preoccupied carrying and levitating a variety of books, papers, maps, and multitudes of other documents. Her face was blocked from Eddie's view, but he could see the rest of her features.

She had a very light-purple coat, almost to the point of being pink. She had a cutie mark depicting a glimmering star with a blue wisp wavering from it. The mare also had a purple mane and tail with a single turquoise stripe streaking through them.

Eddie didn't speak, not because he did it intentionally, but because he simply didn't know what to do at that moment. So, like Angel and Harry were doing, he stared at her, his mind too flabbergasted to think of what to do. "I know it's been about a month," she sounded eager as she continued, "but the trip was worth it!" She trotted right in front of the table before she began sorting through her various items. "'Cause guess what I found!" Eddie's mind fumbled for anything to calm the room once it would get from bad to worse. Unfortunately, he drew blanks. "I got a..." she levitated the items around her away a bit, showing off a mare with an excited grin for a brief moment. That grin was shattered upon the sight of Eddie. "a..." All of the objects within her grasp fell to the ground once her magical hold ceased.

Brock looked over to Angel and Harry, pleading to them with a look to help out with that awkward situation. Unfortunately, they were just as startled as he was. Getting desperate and wanting to kill the silence in the room, he fumbled from his mouth, "So, uh... can you help a guy out?"

Author's Note

Hopefully a long one makes up for the long wait.

Update: NOT CANCELLED, please read

Author's Note

Hello everybody. I know it has certainly been some time, nearly two years since the last chapter was posted. You might have forgotten all about Venomous Uprising since then, and now that you're reading this, you're probably wondering where the next chapter has been and what this update means. Well, that's what I want to talk to you all about. This story, this passion project of mine, to put it bluntly, has really gone down the gutter. Let me explain.

I think I mentioned this in the first chapter, "A Poisonous Battle", that this is my first story I wrote. I, like many other authors on their first project, was very eager to begin. If you were here since the beginning, you might recall how frequently I updated chapters, about once every other week, which was more than what I was pumping out during the later portion of the story. I was able to keep this up because I knew what the first "arc", I suppose it should be called, was in detail: Venom winding up in Equestria, (duh), and slowly progressing their way to Canterlot, all the while facing trouble on the way. People enjoyed it and I had fun, as any author should with these stories. After that, things got tricky.

I had a vague idea of what the ending would look like and my beginning was set, but I hadn't a single thought of what to put in between. So, I forced myself to write to produce better ideas. In other words, I was shitting my way through the story, and I think a lot of people caught on. Some things seemed like good ideas at first, but then I realize, "wait, what does that have anything to do with the actual story? Where is this heading? What purpose does it serve?" Questions like that. It got to the point where I scarcely uploaded because I didn't have fun anymore, but I kept at it because of those of you who liked this and want to see it to the end. Plus, I know I'm not the only one to get irritated to find a good fic cancelled or on permanent hiatus so many times.

I did this too much to a point where I essentially wrote myself into a corner. That's not the only issue, though. I've reread some parts and recall some others... just to remember how cringey some of what I wrote was. Not just those awkward moments, but OOC bits from some characters, pointless filler, an antagonist who I think was pretty smart at first but just became dumb for plot convenience, (don't you just hate it when that happens?)
A lot of other things bothered me that I'm sure many of you noticed through your reading.

I'm able to catch onto a lot of my mistakes from this story now because, even though I've been absent from this, I've been learning and practicing writing in other areas, and not to sound arrogant, but I've gotten a lot better in general. Not just with grammar, but how the writing relates to the actual story and many other things. And although it might've taken a bit to improve, you guys are the ones who gave me the push I needed.

To those of you who liked this story, thank you for your encouraging comments. They are the things I always look forward to the most when publishing a new chapter, and gave me more encouragement to keep going. You reminded me of my strengths and told me why you liked, or even loved this story.

To those of you who offered criticism, no matter how soft or harsh, thanks for calling me out on my shit. I'll admit, it was hard at first reading criticism, not because of an ego or anything like that, but because it was a truth about how much I was still lacking in overall quality. You took the time of day to tell me what I was doing wrong instead of ignoring it. I read them and sincerely took them in, and because of you my writing began to improve; perhaps not in this story but later on with my writing in general it sure did.

You all are the best, truly, you are.

Now, I know how this update may sound like it will end, but incase you didn't notice the all-caps title of this one, this story will not be gone, and I mean that in two ways. As I said earlier, I wrote myself into a corner, and pushing on would only further dampen this story, so instead I will start afresh. I won't make the same mistake I did the first time by starting too early with no clear plan in mind. I'll at least have the reboot thought out a few ways before beginning it. With a plan and greater skills than before, I'm confident that this reboot will be much better than its original counterpart. I can say this already: don't expect it to be the same story as this one; in fact when it starts, you'll probably notice some major differences right off the bat. I'm sorry if that disappoints you because you liked the original story and where it was heading, but trust me, the thoughts I have now already trump the mess that would have been.

Secondly, this story will continue to remain, even when the new one starts. This if my first ever fic, and despite its flaws and it being a reminder of my poor skills when I started, I love it and all the fun memories I had with it. It is a testament of a rough beginning, yes, but a beginning nonetheless. For those who enjoyed this, reread to you heart's content.

Now, that being said, just a few more little things I want to tell you. Firstly, I don't know when I'll start the new Venom story as I'm currently working on another project elsewhere, (I can't multitask multiple stories like some other people can) and will have to plan the story. So, if you are interested in reading it when it does release, keep this story in your "tracking" group if you haven't already. I will release a final update with a link to the new story when it does come out.

If you have any questions, I can answer to the best of my ability. In the meantime, I'm gonna try and survive this apocalypse we're all in. Again, thank you all for taking your time to read my story, comment your opinions, and checking on this update even after so long. Take care out there and try not to become infected, lest you want to see if Covid-19 will transform into a zombie virus.

Update: NOT CANCELLED, please read

All in the notes below:

Prologue: A Poisonous Battle

New York City, a rather busy place 24/7, where walking is faster than driving, and people are on the more rude side of the scale. Today, however, was not an ordinary day, though those days happen frequently. It was taking place in a packed street at night, where people were either running like bats out of hell, or staying at a safe distance to watch. People here really enjoy the action.

"I want that suit back!" The person who angrily shouting was covered in a large, million- dollar, radioactive-powered armor. The armor was thick, with green plating, and sharp, smooth curves. Midway along the elbows were large, golden, heavy pinchers, ones that someone might associate with lobsters. His top half of his face was covered with more green armor, but there were two orange, hollow eyes, as well as short, but sharp fins on the back with a brass color. But what stood out the most, was the large tail on the back. It was colored in a stripe pattern as the same green on the armor, and a dark, steel-like grey, with the end sporting a large, intimidating stinger.

This was Mac Gargan, or more commonly known to others, the Scorpion. He was currently battling a great foe who wielded something Mac greatly wanted back. The Scorpion would usually be a scary sight, but he could barely compare to his opponent.

"We are happy together, bonded. We cannot be separated. Eddie has fully embraced, and the symbiote will not choose you again." Spoke a voice that sounded like two voices overlapping, a bit deep, and gravelly. This being was large, as large as the Scorpion, perhaps larger. It was nearly all black, an inky-black, darker than the night itself. It had large, defined muscles. The hands had large white squares with round corners on the back of them, as well as the fingers ending in sharp claws, perfects for hacking, slashing, and impalements. Emblazoned on the chest was a great, intimidating, perfect-white spider, where when the legs ended, the pattern continued on its back. The most notable feature, however, was the face; the face, that people everywhere recognized.

It had a jaw packed with sharp, crooked, carnivorous teeth that could bend metal with a single bite. Saliva was always dripping out, but this saliva was a neon green, and pure toxic, that could burn at a touch. A long, curving, twisting, red-pink tongue hung out, and like so many other aspects of its body, ended at a point. Right above were two white patches, that twisted and curved, for a most menacing look. Those two things could only be described as its eyes. Despite the oddities, the creature was grinning, almost smugly.

This creature is not one, but two creatures. Eddie Brock, a body-builder and ex-journalist, and an alien parasite called a symbiote, or Klyntar, as their kind is called, bonded long ago because of the same hatred they shared for a certain web-head. One hated him because he practically ruined his life, and the other because he rejected it and tried to destroy it. But when the symbiote covers Eddie with itself, they become better, faster, stronger, with all the abilities of Spiderman, and more. They make a third being that exists because of their bond. Some call it a living nightmare, others say it is poison to Spiderman, but most just call them Venom.

Venom and the Scorpion were currently duking it out for one thing, the symbiote. Mac Gargan was able to track the symbiote where it is now, and ambushed Brock to gain the symbiote, for he once was attached to it, though not quite bonded, and wants that power again. Eddie would have been tackled, but as if the symbiote had eyes on all sides that could see, it warned Brock they were in danger, and to dive backwards. By that point, Brock learned to do what the symbiote said, then to look to see what is coming. He successfully dodged the Scorpion's ambush, and the two had a quick stare-down. The symbiote never really liked Gargan as a host, but had to stick with him during the time. Eddie, on the other hand, has fought this mad-man before. By that time, people were already screaming from the sudden attack, and were backing away from the man in weaponized-armor. The failed attack didn't deter Gargan, however, and he pointed an arm at Brock while shouting, "You have one chance to give me the suit, or I force it to come out!" The symbiote merely said with disgust, ( though only Brock could hear, because it has not taken physical form, thus speaking to Brock through thoughts)

'I only joined you in hopes of defeating, possibly killing Spiderman. But you couldn't even do that. I am bonded with Eddie, nothing can change that.'

Eddie smirked at what the symbiote said, and muttered, "Damn right..." He merely gazed at Gargan and said, "You want it?" The symbiote then came seemingly out of Eddie, then covering him in black tendrils, that almost looked as smooth as liquid, and poured over him, consuming him in shadows. When the symbiote finished covering Eddie, they were now much taller, and muscular, and definitely scarier.

"Come and get it..." finished Venom, with a grin, as if they were eager for a battle.

As of right now, though, Gargan shouted in anger and frustration, and sent the sharp tail zooming towards Venom, to pierce them. Venom was too fast, however, and caught the tail with both hands. "We will enjoy this!" Venom shouted with glee, as he swung the Scorpion onto the road, and then threw him over his shoulder into the corner of a brick building, having that portion crumble down onto Gargan. But Gargan immediately burst out of the rubble with a shout of rage, before charging Venom head on. Venom brought his right arm forward, and shot webbing out of it on to the Scorpion's chest piece, connecting them. The powers of Spiderman were things both Eddie and the symbiote were grateful for having. Venom then brought his arm with the web connected to it back, causing the Scorpion to fly forward. Venom brought its fist back, and swung up with great strength and speed, upper-cutting Gargan in the gut, denting and cracking the armor in that area.

The Scorpion landed on a taxi cab, busting it in due to the weight of the armor and the rate which he was falling. Gargan grunted and tried to get back up, but Venom beat him to it, gripping its left hand on Gargan's arm, and lifting him up before bringing its right fist back to punch Gargan square in the face, sending him soaring in the air. But before Gargan could so much as cry in pain, two more thick string of web connected to him, one on the chest, the other on the helmet. Venom yanked him back at speeds faster than the Road Runner running from a certain coyote, and rammed its fist where it previously landed. This time , Venom broke through the armor on the chest. When Gargan landed on his back, he tried to get up, but shots of webbing coming from Venom, restrained his movements.

Venom looked down at Gargan, with that same wicked grin, and taunted "You really don't have much stinging power in you, huh? Did you think you could beat us? Alone, nonetheless?" Gargan roared in rage, and used his tail to knock Venom off. Venom stumbled back a bit, and looked on as the Scorpion roared

"That belongs to me! you abandoned it!"

Venom hissed, then said, "Eddie left us, but he came back, we bonded. The symbiote does not like you Gargan, you were merely a means to defeat Spiderman, but you failed at that."

"Who? Me? Aw, shucks. You guys are making me blush under the suit." Both the Scorpion and Venom looked up to their right, and on a lamppost was the man of the conversation, a mix of red and blue, with a black web design, and small black spider symbol on the chest. Gargan moaned in displeasure.

"Not you..." Venom had removed the sadistic grin with a scowl, accompanied with narrowed 'eyes'.

"What are you here for?"

"Well, y'know, maybe figured you guys would want to get a pizza or something," Spiderman summersaulted and landed on the road, and glanced at the two of them "But really, stopping this all before a mess really occurs." Mac Gargan scoffed.

"Says the one who always manages to break everything on those 'missions' of yours, and you wonder why the public hates you."

"Hey, you know what, you can go and suck-- gah! Just maybe bother explaining what is even going on?"

Venom then said, "Stingers here wanted the symbiote back, but he fails to comprehend that we will not separate."

"Heh, says you," the Scorpion tensed up before replying "My friend said not to use this unless necessary, but I think this is one of situations." It was at that moment that Gargan disappeared in a purple flash.

"W-what where'd he-" before Spiderman could finish that sentence, Gargan appeared right behind him, whacking him with his tail, sending the web head sailing, into a cart, busting into it and landing in a heap. The civilians that were watching each had a shocked reaction on what just occurred.

"How did he do that?"
"Did he just teleport!?!?!"
"Meh, I've seen weirder things on a Tuesday."

Gargan then appeared in front of Venom, dishing out a right hook, followed by a tail whip that knocked Venom down. Venom hissed, and tried to retaliate, but Gargan disappeared, quickly reappearing behind him, and thrust his stinger into its shoulder. Again, Venom tried to grab the tail, but the Scorpion disappeared again, only to show up in mid-air for a swift drop-kick that sent Venom into a wall of one of the buildings. The Scorpion appeared before them again for another strike, but was interrupted as Spiderman swung into his back, causing him to trip forward and into Venom's grasp. Venom was quick enough to chomp down on the left shoulder, and without breaking a sweat, ripped that part of the armor off, making the left pincher unstable, while electricity and radiation was flowing out of the gap.

Gargan cried out, more of shock than pain, and quickly teleported himself a few yards away from the spider-beings. Gargan shouted out in rage, "You cannot stop me!" He quickly teleported behind Spiderman, and kicked him forward, while teleporting to the left of Venom. Venom, however, was faster, and gave Gargan a hard elbow-blow to the jaw, causing him to trip backwards. Venom leaped, hoping to pounce him. But the Scorpion teleported out of the way, next to a car, where he struck it in an arc that would launch it at the black being. Venom quickly shot a string of web from each hand, swung the car around itself, before launching it at the Scorpion. Scorpion tried to teleport, but at that moment, Spiderman delivered a hard right hook after sneaking on him, staggering and distracting the Scorpion. It wasn't long, but long enough to where the care hit him square on the chest, busting the armor even more and causing him to fall back.

"You know, for a scorpion, you really suck at stinging your targets." Spiderman said as a joke, though a bad one at that. Gargan slowly rose up, scratches and wounds on the armor and himself, but he roared in defiance to terrible defeat. Yet again, a purple flash, and he disappeared. Brock thought 'If we can't hit him in a certain area...'

'...Then we will just have to hit everywhere at once!' finished the symbiote eagerly, ready to finally take care of this annoying pest. Eddie and the symbiote morphed black, sharp spikes to sprout all over themselves, right as Gargan teleported in front of him. Four spikes made their mark, one in the right shoulder, two on the thighs, and one straight through his left leg. "Yaaaauugghhh!" Shouted Gargan in pain.

Gargan tried to teleport, but all that came were sparks. "Brock... you didn't have to do that." said Spiderman in a rather stern tone than his usual quirky one.

"We did not know where he would pop up next, so we attacked everywhere at once, with something that would keep him down, something you seem to lack, Spiderman." Venom grinned down at Gargan's pain like a mad man. Gargan tried to teleport again, but this time sparks of purple electricity started to form along his body.

"Uhh... pal, you all right?" Asked Spiderman with concern at what was happening. All of a sudden, the electricity, quickly formed above the Scorpion a spinning purple sphere. " Oh that can't be good..."

As if on cue, the ball of energy quickly started sucking nearby objects: trash, leaves, litter, small things. But then it quickly grew bigger and more powerful, as if it were a black hole. Trash cans started to go, people were screaming, now actually fleeing instead of sticking around. Venom looked over it curiously, "What's this?"

Spiderman quickly webbed Gargan out of range, as he said, "It must have something to do with his teleporting, but when you did the spike-thingy, you must've bust something, causing THIS." Venom was about to get out of the zone, not wanting to go God knows where, when a sudden loud rumble, similar to that of thunder, accompanied the dramatic increase in size of the sphere, pulling Venom. Venom quickly dug his claws into the ground, shooting webs at a building to slowly, but surely, pull himself away.

"Eddie!" shouted Spiderman from a safe distance next to the defeated Scorpion from a safe distance. Spiderman quickly shot web strings of his own to pull Venom away, much faster than before. Venom was about to exit the danger zone, when he noticed, as objects flew by him, some civilians STILL stuck to watch, one of whom was recording the whole thing on his phone. A young girl, about a teenager, decided to take a few steps over, and examine the whole zone in which the purple malfunctioning-teleporter. The normal environment and the zone in which almost everything was being sucked was quite easy to tell the difference at first, and decided she had enough, and backed up. But with another thunderous rumble, the field grew larger, sending her screaming in.

Spiderman was too busy helping Venom get out to notice until he heard her scream pierce the sound the almost-black hole. He gasped, and was suddenly struck with sorrow, as he realized he failed to save a life, if only he had noticed.

But a man and a parasite did.

Eddie and the symbiote did not even know this girl, or why she stuck around, but seeing her, an innocent, in such fear, screaming to their death, ( both figuratively and literally ) drove an instinct to save her. Venom might be considered the ultimate foe to Spiderman, a hero, but they both valued innocence, something taken from them both, and would go at great lengths to defend them. Without even thinking, Venom released their left hand, severing the hold on one of the webs, and with great speed and accuracy, caught her with a shot of web. Venom brought its arm back, and with strength that would make the Hulk proud, launched her to Spiderman. "Catch her!" Shouted Venom.

Spiderman was shocked and overjoyed, that she had been saved by Venom, And released the hold on his right web-shot to catch her with his own webbing. The webbing landed right on her stomach, and with the combined strength of Spiderman, and the momentum she had when Venom threw her, was able to pull her out. People would be cheering, if some were still there. Spiderman placed here down and shouted "Get out of here! NOW!" She nodded rapidly, and sprinted the other way.

Spiderman's joy was short lived, as he saw Venom slowly getting sucked in the bundle of sparking energy. "Eddie!" Shouted Spiderman, as he tried to web Venom, but the swirling sphere merely sucked it up, as it had gotten stronger.

Venom's hands were about to be forced out of the ground, but before that happened, he said, "Do not worry! We shall return!" Both Eddie Brock and the symbiote spoke with total confidence in their voice, as they were ripped off and sent into the sphere, seemingly disappearing. The vortex continued for a couple more seconds, before it erupted, and collapsed in on itself.

Spiderman just stood there, staring. Eddie might not have been the best person, but he did not deserve this fate, Spiderman had failed him.

'Wait.' thought Spiderman, 'If it was originally a teleporter, Eddie and all the other objects had to have gone somewhere, its the only reasonable explanation!' Spiderman looked out in the distance with newfound hope, as he made a promise to himself, one he would not break.

He would find Eddie Brock.

The symbiote has existed for a long time, possibly thousands of years. It had bonded with hosts who were noble and caring, and those who wanted to cause genocide. It had helped saved thousands, and has helped slaughtered just as many. It had been to and seen millions of civilizations, all with one goal in mind, to survive. So, the symbiote had seen a lot in its life. But where he and Eddie were or currently going through, was something the symbiote knew only one phrase, by the humans, that could describe it.

Pretty fucked up shit.

The symbiote and Eddie were going through what seemed to be a tunnel, but constantly changing colors, though a white, almost glowing circle at the end, if there even was one. Pictures and images of odd people and others constantly flying by them. A sponge with square pants, a rather annoying orange, some black guy with a red and glowing sword. 'Huh,' thought the symbiote 'This must be what that "weed" is like.' Fortunately for Eddie he was unconscious, ( though they were still Venom) and did not have to experience a headache.

What felt like minutes, but really just seconds, the white spot came closer, and was glowing, so much so that it became nearly blinding, until there was a loud 'Bing!' when the light decapitated, Venom found themselves in a forest, with the sun high in the sky, and blowing breeze, the symbiote knew they were not in New York, and only thought, 'Where are we?'

Twilight Sparkle was having a picnic with her friends, which included two earth ponies, two pegasi, a unicorn, and a dragon. They were currently by the lake, and just having a nice time. The rainbow-maned pegasus, with a cyan colored fur, named Rainbow Dash, flew up to Applejack, An orange pony, with blond hair, and sporting a hat one would find with a cowboy. "Hey, AJ," exclaimed Rainbow Dash enthusiastically, "Hoof wrestle?" She asked as she held out her hoof with a cocky grin. Applejack shot her own grin, "yer' on."

Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn with a light purple coat, with an even darker purple mane, shook her head, but smiled at her friends antics. "You two always did get pretty competitive." She was about to take a bite in her sandwich, when she sensed something...off. She felt some magic which she has never even felt before, and it felt powerful. Spike, a baby dragon, noticed Twilight just sitting there, staring at nothing, "Uh, Twi, you all right?"

Those words shook Twilight out of it, and she responded, "Yeah, yeah, just... never mind, I just felt a bit off. Lets get back to enjoying our meal." Spike just shrugged and went back to enjoying themselves, assuming it to be nothing.

Oh, how he was so wrong, for a being like no other has entered Equestria.

Author's Note

Hey guys! This is my first story, so sorry if it feels a bit off. If you are wondering why I sometimes refer to Venom as "them, they, themselves, etc." Is the same Reason Venom calls themselves "we, us, our" Both Eddie Brock and the symbiote make up Venom. Please, if you notice anything wrong, leave constructive criticism, but don't be a jerk about it. What are your thoughts and opinions, and what do you think is going to happen? Let me know below!

Chapter 3: Hello Manehattan

As Eddie trudged along, he began to wonder if other mythical creatures could exist here. It was, after all, full of magic apparently, and while Eddie didn't have a lot of experience with magic, he knew it could do a lot. The symbiote, having seen much before, told Eddie what to possibly expect. 'No matter what, always remain calm. Unless they try anything, it is important to remain calm.' Eddie nodded in agreement, keeping an eye out for anyting that might be indigenous and intelligent. As they neared, they began to notice more of those colorful ponies coming their way. They thought that perhaps the locals would be around, so the symbiote advised to try to see what the locals are like before confronting them. Eddie quickly ducked under some brush, and waited to the mysterious locals that had to have been near these quadrupeds.

It was another group, perhaps a dozen of them, but no signs of any other species around. While Eddie was still searching from the cover of the brush, the symbiote noticed something odd about these ponies. 'Eddie! Look, look at the horses. They are different.' Eddie fixed his focus on the group of ponies. At first, he did not see anything so special, other than the odd coloring and marks at their rears. But then, he noticed some of them were just with four legs, while others had wings, and others horns. Now that Eddie thought of it, perhaps the others earlier had some too.

Eddie thought to himself and the symbiote in puzzlement, 'Are those... unicorns and pegasi?' Eddie's brow knitted in confusion, wondering how many other bizarre creatures could be here, when he and the symbiote both heard something unexpected; talking, from the ponies.

"Business has been rather nice, lately," spoke an old stallion, "I think I may take the day off tomorrow." Eddie's eyes grew in surprise, as he was listening to confirm if these ponies actually talked.

"Oh yeah, its that season where ponies can't just get enough, I tell ya'."

The symbiote broke out of its silent state and stated the obvious, 'Eddie, these are the locals.' Eddie, after the initial shock passed, assumed this shouldn't have been that big of a surprise, as that griffin earlier spoke English, and was clearly sapient. Eddie's breath then caught, as he realized something.

"Those ponies from the forest... they saw us."

'They saw us, but not you.' Eddie sighed in frustration, as this would certainly make matters more complicated. He thought that those ponies likely went to a town, or at least away from them, and told others about what they saw. Listening to his thoughts, the symbiote pointed out, 'Depending how well their story, if they told, was taken, these ponies out here could have heard. We should go ahead undetected to find out.' Eddie figured this was the best plan for now, as to see if the locals knew about them or not. So when the group of ponies passed, the symbiote consumed Eddie in the same dark ooze, turning them into Venom. Venom made a quick dash for a small building, before jumping to it and leaping to the side of a skyscraper. While it was rather noisy, Venom made sure to be quite while crawling up the side of the massive building.

They both assumed that the winged ponies could fly, so they checked the sky and roof before coming on top of it. The symbiote questioned, 'Where would we find a source of knowledge where none of these ponies would be around?' Eddie knew the answer to that one rather easily, and went to the edge to look around the city. Venom saw ponies doing various things, just like that of a human. Chatting with one another, the small ones running and playing, some trying to sell their products, and other things in an average city. Eventually, Venom spotted the intended location, and so with silent leaps across rooftops, Venom crawled down a red brick wall into an alley. No ponies where in here, and Venom stayed in the shadows. The symbiote was curious why they went here, and asked, 'Why in an alley, Eddie?'

"Because," Venom webbed some newspapers, crumbled, ripped, and some in decent condition, "People, like the ponies here, throw 'yesterday's' news away, and alleys are always full of trash."

'Ah, genius, Eddie!' Though they were convinced they were well hidden, they used one of their more stealth-based powers, camouflage. If a pony were to peer into the alley, they would only see some trash, a dumpster, and bricks; if they peered into the shadowy end, they would only see a brick wall, and they wouldn't know that a beast was blending in with that wall. So, convinced that they were hidden enough, Venom started to read the papers. 'Hopefully we will find our next clue in here.'

"Indeed, we shall read on, see what these ponies are like."

Rainbow Dash was soaring high in the sky, searching below her like a spot light. No matter how thorough she was, she could not find a human or a horrendous black beast. She was above the edge of the Everfree, already way ahead of the squad sent to search this side. Sure, the two could be in the forest, but all the trees are too thick to see anything, and she would rather not go inside. And so with sharp eyes she kept on look out, hoping to see anything to relieve her from the torture that is boredom.

Her thoughts varied on these two, one who practically scared the crap out of a group of ponies, the other talked about among the princesses and by the guards, (the princesses decided it best to keep the information of a human in Equestria secret for the time being, as to not stir the ponies). The cyan pegasus didn't exactly trust this beast despite Twilight's reasoning. While she wouldn't attack it on the spot if she came across it, she would make it known that she would beat it to the ground if it tried anything. As for the human, Twilight told her about them, and they seemed pretty nice. She would remain cautious still, but she would trust this human more that the beast.

After a while of flying, the pegasus decided to take a quick break, and came to rest upon a cloud, letting her heart rate slow down. She was only there for a couple of seconds, until a gruff voice gasped, and spoke in excitement, "First a human, now the Element of Loyalty? My pals are definitely not gonna believe me on this." Rainbow Dash looked down to see a griffin staring up at her, and despite having never met this griffin, soaked in the pride like a sponge in a bath.

She grinned, and said cockily, "Yep! The one and only! Rainbow Da-- wait! Did you say human!?!" She quickly flew down to the griffin, and stared waiting for an answer.

"Well... I doubt you're gonna believe me, but I saw a human! We just stared at each other for a bit, before he asked me where a city was!" Rainbow quickly grabbed his shoulders with both hooves, and spoke hysterically at speeds that could rival even Pinkie's speech, "Where!?! Where did he go!?! This is really important!" The griffin slowly grabbed both hooves and lifted them off himself, while replying, "I'm pretty sure he's heading toward Manehattan, not too far now, actually."

"Thanks mister!" Rainbow Dash was about to take off to Manehattan, but stopped as her mind was in conflict. Should she go now to get the human and possibly black beast, or go back to get the guards and her friends. While option one would be faster, she would be alone in case these two proved to be hostile, whereas option two would give her lots of back up, but the human and creature could have moved on by then. Suddenly, her face lit up with an idea. "Hey! How fast are you, pal?"

"Pretty fast, why?" Rainbow then hovered in front of him to eye-level, and spoke with conviction, "I need you to do me a favor." The griffin was flabbergasted, surprised that an Element of Harmony required him to do a task.

"What is it?"

"I need you to fly to Ponyville as fast as you can! Get Princess Twilight and tell her what you told me! Tell her I sent you! This is really important!" The griffin smiled and nodded, happy to do three odd things in one day.

"You got it!" And like that, the griffin took off like a rocket to the direction of Ponyville, intent on telling Twilight Sparkle the news. Rainbow, on the other hand, looked off into the direction of Manehattan, arched her back, and shot of across the sky. She was determined to find these two, the human at least, and would make it to the city as fast as she could.

She thought to herself, 'I don't know who you are or what the other thing is, but one way or another, you're coming with me.'

Both Eddie Brock and the symbiote absorbed some useful information in the time they were reading. Through some ads and small stories, they found out this land was called Equestria, which Eddie scoffed at. They also found out that this world had princesses. How many was unknown, but at least they knew that the government was a monarch. An old atlas revealed some other big places, such as Fillydelphia, Ponyville, and others Eddie shook his head at for the odd names. But what stood out the most, was the capital, Canterlot. They now had a location to go, for surely the rulers would reside there, but they did not know which direction. Then again, they recalled that griffin telling them that the rulers were in the opposite direction which they went, so perhaps that was where it was at.

'Now we have a place to go, but we should determine if we should make ourselves known sooner or later.'

"Revealing ourselves sooner could help ease the population for when we confront the leaders..."

'While waiting could avoid any possible trouble at exposing ourselves.' Venom threw the papers in his clawed hands away, eyes narrowed while thinking on what to do; they had time to do it after all. Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, followed by screaming. Venom's eyes grew in surprise, and looked to see the ponies out the alley were running away from something. "What's happening?"

'We should get to the roof, see what is going on.' So Venom scaled the red-bricked wall, until he made it to the roof. When he got to the edge, his eyes widened again. Below across the street, there was a gaping hole on the front of a bank, with ponies in odd suits coming in and out; in with empty sacks, out with golden coins, likely the currency, filled to the top. These ponies had on grey, steel-like armor covering their chests, backs, and ankles. The faces were covered with grill-masks, making them unable to tell who they were. They had spears, as well as maces with spikes adorned all around. The most noticeable pony, was a slightly larger stallion, gimped in what looked like retro-space gear. He had a smooth, navy-blue suit, with lights around the collar, though the function wasn't clear. He had a helmet with a black visor, unknown like his comrades. The largest detail, however, was a large turret on the back, that fired thick blue beams that exploded on impact.

The stallion fired a shot at the street, scaring off the ponies even more, while shouting in joy, "If you want to be unharmed, I suggest you flee!" He then followed with another shot to the fleeing ponies. Venom was shocked at first, then angry.

The symbiote shouted angrily in Brock's head, 'Thieves! No good thieves!' Venom narrowed his eyes, and prepared to go, before the symbiote spoke up again. 'While I would normally agree with this choice of action, we would be exposed as fighting ponies, even if they are being thieves.' Eddie hated to admit it, but the symbiote was right. They debated what to do, until they noticed white ponies, mostly stallions, adorned in gleaming golden armor, swarming from both sides of the street.

Venom's face lit up, as he said, "Ah! This must be like the police! The noble guardians, I suppose we are not needed to intervene." The guards held firm glares as they charged the thieves, spears raised, into combat with them. At first, the guards were pushing them back, due to their superior training. But the large blue pony laughed, and fired off other blue shots, but these ones looked like blue lightning bolts, and struck two guards as it electrocuted them. The two were sizzled, and merely fainted from the experience and pain.

The blue pony started to make derisive comments towards the guards, "Come on! At least make this a fight!" With the numbers of the guards dropping, the thieves started to push them back and beat more of them. Venom grew concerned at this show, seeing the noble guards going down. Eddie and the symbiote were still trying to decide what would be the best course of action.

'I want to help them, but what will this do to us? Besides, I think more guards are coming.'

"Perhaps, but..." That thought was stopped as Venom saw something that caught his breath. While the civilians deserted the streets, a small one, a foal it was called, watched from afar. It was a colt, dull grey coat, smooth red mane and tail, and no mark. He was watching with sorrow as the guards were being overwhelmed. But his attention was on one guard in particular, one who was pushed to the ground by one of the thieves. The colt suddenly dashed towards him, with tears stinging his eyes.

Venom was shocked, but before he could do anything, any future questions were answered when the little colt shouted, "Dad!" The guard took his gaze off the thief, as the thief did as well, and saw the approaching colt.

While the thief was confused, the guard's face took one of fear, and shouted, "North Star! What are you doing!?!" The colt came a few yards from his father, before a thief blocked his path with a spear leveled at the colt's throat. The guard was distraught, still pinned to the ground, and shouted, "Go back to your mother!" The colt backpedalled, the thief seemingly letting him go, before he bumped into a blue hoof.

The colt spun around and looked up to see the gaze of the pony who wrought so much destruction in a short span, as he stared back through the blank gaze of his helmet. The blue pony then looked at the father, then back at the colt, and chuckled. He suddenly grabbed the colt by the back of the neck, and hollered to the other guards fighting, "Look here! Put down your weapons, or the little one gets it! I know how much they love to squeal!" The guards weren't paying much attention, until they heard the little colt's scream. They turned and saw a hostage in the grip of a mad-pony. Fear was evident in their eyes, for they could not risk the life of an innocent, especially that of a foal, and realized that this was a battle they had to forfeit. So with a few grunts, sighs, and other gestures of annoyance, they dropped their spears. The blue pony saw this, and laughed more. The thieves still had their weapons trained on the guards, ready to strike at any sudden move.

The father, however, shouted with rage evident in his voice, "Let him go! He didn't do anything to any of you!"

The blue pony glanced at him, and replied, "A rebellious type, eh? I like your style. But, it appears that because of your fit, the son will have to pay for the sins of the father." The colt went wide-eyed, and squirmed for all he was worth. The father tried to charge him, but three thieves held him back, as the blue pony charged up his laser-weapon. He shouted with glee, "Does anypony else dare challenge me!?! Who would!?!" The father's world was crushed, he could not bear to see his son harmed like so, or worse.... The colt was now leaking tears, afraid for his life. The guards watched with rage, fear, and sorrow, where the thieves watched with their gazes blocked by the grill-masking.

That may have been the end, but before the blue pony could fire, a black, thick, string-like wire, shot on his face. Before he had time to question what this was, he was launched off his hooves, into a large black fist, that sent him rocketing into the wall of the bank. The guards gasped, the thieves were taken aback, but the father and son were great full. The ponies looked to the moaning pony, slowly to what did this. What the saw made some of the thieves rapidly pace backwards, gasp, or even scream. The guards went wide-eyed, their breath caught in their throats. The blue pony shook himself out of the wall he was sent into, growled, and looked up, shouting with rage, "Who did this!?! Who wants to tangle!?!" When the blue pony eventually spotted what did this to him, he went completely silent, with a chill down his spine.

One of the thieves broke out of their flabbergasted state, and screamed, "M-monster!" Before galloping off.

The black creature known as Venom took a step forward, with narrowed eyes, mouth curled into an un-amused position, spoke with anger clear in his voice, "We do." The simple words caused more gasps to arouse, ponies of both factions slowly backing up, and some thieves galloping off, where one even fainted. The blue pony was to stunned anything, and was forced to listen. "As for who we are?" Venom took another step forward. "We are Venom."

Venom brought an arm up, and shot a black web string at the blue pony, pulling the pony towards himself. Venom caught him with his other hand around the chest, as his glare bore into the pony's. "You would dare harm an innocent like that? Including these noble guardians who protect them? We will put an end to this." Venom chucked the pony into a crowd of thieves. They all screamed before they were knocked down by the blue projectile. Cracks and dents were blatant across the pony's suit. He quickly regained his senses after his initial shock, and growled. He looked at the other thieves, and shouted, "Well!?! Kill the thing already!"

A rather brave thief nodded, and threw the spear straight towards Venom's chest. Venom merely sighed, and back-handed the spear in flight, shattering it. The guards stared in awe, fear, curiosity, and uncertainty, while the thieves took multiple steps back. A group of three decided to charge the living nightmare at once, maces swinging overhead. Venom just stood there and waited for the strikes. The three jumped at once, and landed three consecutive strikes on the white spider on the beast's chest. They started laughing at first, thinking that they had mortally wounded the thing, but then they looked up at the creature, to see it was clearly unfazed. They then looked down at their maces, noticing they shattered completely. They gulped, and looked back up at Venom.

Venom taunted with, "Guns never worked anyways, what could maces do?" Before the three thieves could go anywhere, Venom shot webbing out of the back of his clawed hands, grouping them together. They grunted and struggled, but to no avail. Venom then grinned, eyes wide in eagerness, which greatly scared and worried the three thieves. He lifted them up, swung them around himself, before launching them at another three that tried to sneak along to buildings to ambush him, but quickly met their ends on that plan as they were clumped together. Venom shot more webbing to keep them their and stuck. "You should consider yourselves lucky, we used to do much worse to those like you."

The blue pony was getting more irritated and angered by the second, and shouted, "Enough of this! I shall end you myself!" He then released a hail of rapid-fire lasers, all aimed for Venom. As they hit, Venom couldn't help but laugh as he charged through the hail completely unharmed and unscathed.

"Ha! Your toys are very entertaining, mind if we show you ours?" The blue stallion didn't have enough time to dodge, as Venom rammed into him with is arm, bursting the front half of the suit completely, even breaking the helmet. Venom then gripped both hands around his throat, squeezing. "Not so tough without your special toy, huh? We wonder what we should do with you." By this point, all the thieves scrammed, and the guards got on their hooves, keeping a distance from the Lethal Protector.

The symbiote spoke within, 'We should simply web him up. Any more and it might label us as "bad" among these ponies.' Eddie agreed with this, but to put emphasis on their hatred to those who seek harm among innocent, Venom punched the blue pony square in the face just hard enough to knock him out. Venom then webbed him to the side of the bank, and thought what to do next.

The guards were still shocked on what just happened, but one spoke just loud enough, "Wh... what are you?"

Venom turned to him, which caused some to back up, and replied with that same grin, "Like I said, we are Venom." The guards were too busy having their eyes glued to Venom to notice the little colt slowly approaching him. Venom noticed and looked down, "Is there anything you need? Do you acquire assistance, or have suffered any wounds?"

The colt looked up shyly, and mumbled a barely audible, "Thank you for saving me and the guards, Mr. Venom"

Venom shone another smile, "No need to thank us, no innocent should have to suffer like that."

The father spoke up, "Uh... North Star... perhaps you should leave...Venom...be." He tried to make the hint more obvious to his son. As Venom thought how to go about this, they all heard a brash, female voice from above. "Hey! Leave those ponies alone!" They all looked up to see a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, and a hard glare, hovering in the sky. While Eddie and the symbiote had no idea who this was, the guards immediately recognized her as the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash. Venom rose an eye (like a normal person raising an eye brow) in confusion. "What do you mean? We assisted them."

Rainbow Dash, having just got here, only saw the beast, with guards unequipped with their spears, and it looking down at the colt. Perhaps if she did some reasoning, or saw how the webbed up ponies were thieves, instead of thinking they were civilians, she would have known that this creature saved the guards. However, she wasn't really known for any much thinking or reasoning, so what she saw at first, and what it looked like, she thought it was so. She quickly zoomed into the face of the beast. Seeing the large, razor sharp teeth, the long tongue dripping what she assumed was something toxic, and those odd curved eyes made her not-so-confident, but she would not let fear hold her down. "Yeah, sure! Now that I know what you really do, I can pummel you into the ground!" She finished by pounding her fore hooves together.

Rainbow was mentally preparing for what may be one of, if not, the greatest battle she would be in with this creature, and how she could defeat it. While she was doing that, Venom stared dumbfounded.

The symbiote spoke, 'It should be expected that some civilians would not trust an interloper, her behavior is to be expected. But as far as we know, she is still innocent, lets try not to humiliate her too hard.'

Rainbow grew impatient, and with a huff, charged the thing's chest. As she made impact, she withdrew from the pain in her hooves. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!" After shaking her hooves, she noticed that the creature was not even fazed by her attacks, and knitted her brows in anger. "Oh, so you think you're all though, huh? I'll sh--" she was interrupted as a small patch of black webbing shot from Venom and covered her mouth. She tried to speak and shout, but the webbing refused. She was too distracted by this to avoid another web shot, this one attaching her left hind leg to the ground. Her face grew red in anger, and she used her front hooves to try and pry the black webbing off, only for those hooves to get stuck too.

Venom turned and left, while calling, "Don't worry, those webbings will dissolve in an hour or two, just have to be patient." The guards merely watched the whole ordeal with dropped jaws, the colt giggling on how an Element of Harmony was getting humiliated so easily. "We would help you guards with the fleeing thieves, but we have somewhere to go." By this time, some locals came to check on the battle, and had the same reactions as the guards and thieves upon seeing Venom. Venom brought his left arm up, and shot a web-line to a tall building, and yanked himself upwards, swinging and webbing across buildings.

The guards stared to where the creature that called itself Venom left, wondering if they should be doing something. One spoke, "What was that?"

"Apparently something known as Venom."

One simply glared at that direction and spoke with some irk, "I don't trust the hero act its putting on." Some nodded in agreement, while another spoke.

"Well, it did save us, the colt, and defeated some pony-villain." The rest nodded in agreement to that one, while the former asked in almost mock-tone, "So what, we just got saved by a super hero? Grow up."

"Well, we were attacked by a villain, that was super to the rest, making him a super villain, so..." The former simply groaned and shook his head. The others went to help Rainbow out, but the father was on a different opinion. He didn't know who or what that was, but it saved his son, and defeated a big threat to them swiftly and easily. He didn't know what the thing's motives were, but he had one thought, "It.. he... is good in my book."

Eddie was lying in a train cart, specifically one where luggage was stored. After some swinging as Venom, they both noticed the train leaving towards the general direction of Canterlot, and thought it best to hitch a ride, undetected, of course. Eddie was getting tired, so he made a make-shift bed from the luggage, and closed his eyes. As he was drifting to the world of dreams, he snorted as he remembered where this train was going along the way.

Ponyville.

Author's Note

Hey guys! What did you think? What do you think is going to happen next chapter? Please, I enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 18: Pink Priorities and Spider-Strangling

"Flavor?" The symbiote stared at Pinkie, who was staring back in anticipation with a wide smile that shone bright like the environment around them. It was dropped in Pinkie's dream just a moment before, and Luna had left, likely to attend to other dreams around. It also didn't understand why the pink pony asked an odd question, and thought that returning to its host's mind was best; besides, it didn't like the look on Luna's face before she left, a look of wicked humor, and knew that meant some sort of trouble for itself.

"Yeah! Like icing on a cake!" Pinkie replied with a rapid nodding, as though she was a foal on a sugar rush.

The symbiote looked back at the door with apprehensiveness, in the direction of Eddie's dream. It was more concerned about returning to Eddie than it was about a party. Having made up its mind already, the symbiote turned to the door, calling back without regret, "Must go back to Eddie." Before it reached the door, however, a pink buzz zipped past the symbiote, ending with Pinkie Pie, standing on her hind legs and blocking the door with a frown and resolved eyes.

She shook her head, saying, "No can do, buster. You aren't leaving until I get every little detail and bit I need to get a party started."

The symbiote, however, did not take kindly to this. A low growl was uttered from its mouth, as it glared at the pony before her. It did not understand that Pinkie wanted to help make it happy, only that she was keeping it from Eddie, and by doing that, separating the bond between them. "Don't try to separate us..." It spoke in a low voice, anger seeping into it. Because Pinkie was innocent, the symbiote would at least try to deter her without force to let it through.

Instead of being worried, backing down, retreating, or anything the Klyntar expected her to do, she brought a hoof to her mouth, giggling into it. She landed back on four hooves, looking up at the slightly befuddled symbiote with another smile. Not a smile of mockery, or of teasing, but a genuine one. "Aww, I see," she trotted up to it, gently placing a hoof on the white spider of its torso. "You don't like being away from Eddie too long, do you?"

The symbiote began to ease up, becoming less stiff, as it explained to Pinkie in an informative tone, "We're bonded. Shouldn't be separated too long."

Pinkie nodded, thinking she understood. "I think I get it, but," She looked up with begging eyes, doing just that, "Can't you pleeeaaassse stay until we're done?"

"Pinkie..."

Before the symbiote could continue, Pinkie bounced up in the air, staying there, as her eyes lit up when she argued, "Besides, doesn't that lead back to Eddie?" She asked, pointing a hoof at the tendril connecting the symbiote to Eddie's dream.

The symbiote had forgotten about that until Pinkie pointed it out, but it was still unsure. "Yes, but--"

Again, Pinkie would not relent. "So even if something did happen here or in actuality, you'd still be with Eddie?"

"I... suppose, but--"

The faltering symbiote was interrupted yet again by the pink pony, who was leaning in closer to the symbiote with that bright smile of hers. "So don't you think it would be fine if you stayed here just for a little bit? Please?"

"I..." The symbiote was at a loss, unsure what to do. While the pink pony brought up valid points, it still wanted to return to Eddie; however, Pinkie looked like she really wanted it to stay just for a bit, and it could always go back when it pleased. "... suppose I could stay."

Pinkie landed on the floor, only to jump up again with a cheerful, "Yipee!" She then rushed past the symbiote while grabbing its arm with a hoof, yanking it across the room and into a beanbag. Recovering from the unceremonious landing and from the sudden trip of speed, the symbiote looked at Pinkie with a thin mouth and uncertain eyes, as she plopped down on the floor across from it. She reached into her mane and pulled out a notepad and pencil, both at the ready. "Alright," she started, pointing the pencil at the symbiote with an inquisitive look. "There are no wrong answeres here. Just be honest with me. This is for you, after all." After the alien nodded, she smiled with a, "Great! First question: What's some of your favorite types of food?"

"Brain matter."

Pinkie remained still and frozen, not breaking eye contact with the symbiote. She had asked for an honest answer, and one she got. Her stiff face broke into a grin, as she shouted, "Aha! I knew it was something you were in to that stuff! And Dashie said I wasn't taking things seriously when I was pre-planning a party." She shook her head with a chuckle, looking back to the symbiote, relaying, "Unfortunately, that's not really something we can get."

The alien figured as much. It only gave her that answer because she wanted honesty; besides, it wouldn't devour brains of innocents. While the delicious food was not an option any longer, as it was a long time ago, there was one food that had the same chemicals that made up brain matter, providing the next best food. "Chocolate, then."

"Oh! Good choice!" Pinkie scribbled down the answer on her notepad. The Klyntar swelled up with wholesome determination, and perhaps arrogance as well. It was clear that Luna had thrown it in Pinkie's dream to get back at it, but the symbiote had not endured any hardships during that time. It appeared that the pony princess's little plan failed. "Alright, next question!"

It hadn't been long at all since the Princess of the Night left the symbiote in Pinkie's dream. The princess herself had just gotten done vanquishing horrors and nightmares residing in some dreams, clearing out the ghastly corruption. While it wasn't something she would have done if other options were present at the time, leaving the symbiote with Pinkie would undoubtedly leave the alien irritated and frustrated, and she took what she could get.

She was aimlessly milling around the dream realm, waiting for a pulse of somepony's nightmare, or some unusual sorts of dreams that might have required her attention. During her trot, she was surrounded by the usual emotions of slumbering ponies from their dreams: happiness, contentedness, calmness, etc. Such things put her at ease, relaxed her as well, knowing that her subjects were safe in their sleep, bringing a small smile on her muzzle.

While wandering around, a wave of abrupt, raw, and strong feelings overwhelmed the other emotions in the realm and asserted themselves to her. She gasped from the sudden surprise, wearing an attentive face. Another, longer, more consistent wave enveloped her, and she was better able to determine the feelings. Two emotions rung out above all others: rage and eagerness. She grew curious at the odd combination, so she stood there and tried to better determine the exact emotion whilst tracking them to their dreamer. Squinting her eyes, she concentrated on the two raw feeling, digging into them, categorizing the little bits of the remains. Backing up the rage was similar emotions of anger, fury, and surprisingly a bountiful amount of hatred. Backing up the eagerness was joy, happiness, and lots of excitement. While those last three would normally be good feelings, they felt sickened and corrupted by the rage, uneven versions of themselves.

Finally, she synced all those emotions into place of exactly what the dreamer was feeling. During such, she tried to bring up memories of such emotions, seeing if she could better pinpoint what it was. It took only a moment for its identity to ring out, as if it were calling its name with pride: vengeance.

Luna's brow furrowed in thought, for not only was that a rare emotion in the dream realm, the vengeance of the dreamer definitely wasn't light or in a friendly way... all aggressiveness. Right as she finished thinking, her magic practically tugged her in the direction of the dreamer. "This is... odd." She mumbled to herself, feeling worried of what exactly the dreamer was dreaming. She only took a few steps before her eyes widened upon the sight of the door of the dreamer. Lining against the floor of the realm was the dark tendril, whirling around like a loose wire, entering a dream with an adjacent door: Eddie's dream.

More thoughts crossed and dashed through the anxious princess, mainly of what Eddie was dreaming. She had only entered his dreams a few times, but when she did, there was always something new, something exciting, whether they were good or bad; plus, his brand of dreams and memories were very different than that of an average dreamer in the dream realm. She took a breath, stiffening herself.

If he was having a nightmare, she knew it was her duty to cleanse his mind from it. While the feeling of vengeance didn't normally attribute to horror, she still felt it was best to check up on Eddie. There was no harm in it, anyways. With her mettle resolved, she marched towards the door that lead to Brock's mind. Her horn glowed, surrounding the handle of the door in the same aura, and pushed it open the rest of the way. With tentative steps, she entered.

Luna paused once she entered to look around her. It was a calm, still setting, as she appeared to be in an old, large and abandoned warehouse of sorts. Her eyes lurked across curiously, taking in the musky room. Old crates were littered around, support beams around every so often, with dirty windows patterned on the roof. It was dark, but there was enough light to where she could at least see the whole room. Her hooves clanked on the hard and cold concrete floor, as she coughed a bit from the dust drowning the air. She hummed in thought as she looked around herself more. Other than the odd setting, there was nothing too unusual. There was no sight of Eddie or anyone else, yes, but that was it. Deciding to play it safe just in case, she called out, "Eddie? Are you near?" Taking a few more steps ahead, she called out again, "Do you--?"

'Kkkrrssshhhh!'

A loud crash caused the startled princess to jump up with a gasp, quickly swiveling her head in the direction of the noise. "Gaaahhh!" Her body stopped in place as a red and blue suited human flew back from the window above, shards of glass flying in all directions. The human's rapid descent came to an abrupt end as he crashed into some crates, completely obliterating them and rolling like a rag doll across the floor before he came to a stop. Luna cringed at what must have been a highly painful landing. She only took a few steps forward to inspect the figure when he forced himself back up, looking around with his arms brought up in what Luna assumed was a defensive or fighting position.

Upon getting a closer look at the human, her brows furrowed and she leaned her head in, studying his very being. His costume was made mostly of red, save for the deep blue on his thighs, arms, back, and legs. Black lines displayed in a netting pattern was on top of the reds and blues, covering his whole suit. On his face were two white eyes with black lining, similar to Venom's, the main difference being that the suited man's white eyes were a bit smaller and were more round and curved, and lacked the sharp and gleaming edges. What truly caught Luna's eyes, however, was the symbol on his chest. It was a spider.

Instead of Venom's large white spider, the one on the figure was smaller, and was black, with the legs pointing up and down the suit instead of going across. When the figure turned, exposing his back, she saw a large, fat, red spider on his back. Luna's eyes lit in realization as she recalled this man from Eddie's tale of how he and the symbiote arrived in Equestria. It was the suited hero called Spider-Man.

Before she could observe him further, A large, black figure swooped in from the broken window. He landed on all fours, a short distance from Spider-Man, and slowly and deliberately rose to his full height on two legs, standing taller than the suited hero. With teeth and a grin like that, accompanied with large white eyes and a white spider on the torso, it didn't take Luna long to recognize who the figure was.

The two spider-beings stood across from one another, taking in the other. Spider-Man, despite wearing a mask, appeared both cautious and yet delivered a heavy glare. A look at Venom caused Luna to do a double take, as if she wasn't sure of her first take. He had his usual grin, yes, but something about it was different. Both grin and eyes had a harsher edge to them, much more wicked than they usually were. Sure, they didn't look pretty to begin with, but Luna was still left feeling odd about it.

With the viscous grin of his, Venom taunted, "Surprised, Spider-Man? We came to see you as soon as we could!"

Spider-Man replied in a stern tone, "How did you even get here? You--"

"Did you really think anything would hold us from coming for you and killing you?"

"This is one spider that you're never gonna squash!" As Spider-Man finished, he quickly fired a white trail of webbing from his wrist, connecting it on the white spider on Venom's chest.

Before he could have done anything, the wicked webslinger gripped the web with both hands and forcefully jerked the suited hero off the ground, causing him to sail straight towards Venom. "Such low-grade webbing!" Venom shouted gleefully, bringing an arm back with its hand curling into a fist. Spider-Man, however, had no intentions to be curbed by that fist, so with preternatural reflexes and agility, he grabbed the web with his other hand, flipped himself forward, and delivered a hard kick to Venom's jaw that knocked his head up, sent teeth flying, and had him tumble and fall on his back.

Luna watched the whole thing in complete shock. It didn't take long to deduce that Eddie was experiencing another memory as a dream, but she still couldn't believe what she was seeing. When Eddie spoke of the Spider-Man in his tale, he didn't leave his input on him, but he sounded like they were sort of allies, albeit uneasy ones. Yet, there they both were, Venom having basically flat out said, "We're gonna kill you" and the two spider-beings entered and engaged brutal combat. Luna was aware that Venom had killed before, the victims having been the creatures from the Everfree and taking part in the death of the Xenophage, but she thought it was only limited to animals and those that threatened and have taken many lives, not another hero. She knew it wasn't right to view someone's memory as such without permission, but she found herself unable to leave as the fight continued.

While Venom was down, Spider-Man leaped in the air and landed on top of his foe before he brought a hard right swing into his face, knocking his head back. He punched him again with a left hook, and brought his right fist down again. That right fist, however, was caught by a larger black hand. Before he had time to counter, the arm holding the suited hero threw him off of its body, sending Spider-Man, unable to recover in time, hurtling straight into evenly set up of metal racks. Well, they were even, until his body violently crashed through them. He only stopped when a large crate abruptly halted his flight, again, leaving his suit scratched and scarred as he laid in the scattered bits of wood.

He grunted as he forced himself up again, only for a barrage of black tendrils to swarm around and consume his face. Venom stalked towards the struggling Spider-Man, the tendrils from his raised arm constricting around the hero's face. He was lifted off the ground, making muffled noises all the while. "Hhhmmllkkk!" He blindly waved his arms in a panicky way, until they found the tendrils gripping him like a person squeezing juice out of a lemon. He grabbed them and pulled with all his might to release him, but the invading tendrils proved to be much stronger.

Luna gasped in horror as she realized that the tendrils were covering both Spider-Man's mouth and nose, choking him. She wanted to turn away, to leave, to use a spell to stop the memory, anything at all to stop watching what was happening before her eyes; but, she was stuck there, her body not responding as a cold realization hit her: She was about to witness Eddie and the symbiote murder another hero, all the while wearing that wicked grin. Another dreadful thought came into mind... was that Eddie there the exact same as the one in Equestria? No. She dismissed that thought immediately. Eddie and the symbiote have done more than prove themselves as heroes and defenders of the innocents; she knew they were not evil. They had more lethal methods, yes, but defenders, nonetheless. She could only hope that there was a real good reason for Venom strangling Spider-Man.

The suited hero himself, muffling more, realized that yanking the tendrils off was as effective as pulling a face hugger off one's face. In a desperate last attempt to save himself, he flailed his arms around and shot strands of webs at whatever he could and tossed them around. When he felt a heavy object at the other end of one of his webs, he gripped the web line with both hands and swung with all his might in the general direction of Venom. The wicked webslinger's grin was wiped off his face when a large construction bar slammed into him, knocking him down and forcing him to relinquish his hold on the Spider-Man. The suited hero gasped for large amounts of air to enter his lungs as he landed on his knees. At the same time, Venom jumped back on his feet before looking back at his target. Spider-Man, too, regained composure and glared back at that most Wicked of Webslingers.

Before the two could brutalize each other, however... 'Bam!' The two webslingers spun their heads to the right to see what Luna presumed to have been Earth's police officers pouring in the large warehouse through some doors which they busted to get in. They all collectively and uniformly positioned themselves for what looked like ranged attacks, pulling out metal gadgets aimed right at the two spider-beings. "Alright!" Shouted one of the officers. "Hands where I can see 'em!"

"Hey!" Retorted Spider-Man defensively, while pointing with both hands to his foe. "He's the one who forced me into this, he's Venom!"

Venom slowly shook his head, not at the police or Spider-Man, but to himself. "We mustn't harm the police..." he muttered under his breath. Faster than the hero or cops could react, Venom leaped in the air, flipping himself so his hands and feet caught the roof. As the police opened fire on Venom, he scurried across the roof to the broken glass panel where he pulled himself up and out of. Spider-Man quickly shot a strand of web on the ceiling and yanked himself up, propelling towards the broken glass. Before he reached it, however, a black arm extended out like a battering ram, the fist in the end hammering the hero right in the face and sending him falling back down.

Too curious to where he would have gone next to have stayed in the warehouse, Luna spread her wings and took off with some apprehension. Due to everything playing out as the memory was, nobody had noticed Luna there the whole time. After shooting out of the broken window, she looked around and noticed she was in some large city like Manehattan or Fillydelphia. It didn't take her long to spot the large black figure swinging across streets, quickly putting distance from himself and the warehouse. Taking off after him, she started to pick up on a conversation he was having with himself. "... I know, I wanted to kill him there, too. But we couldn't risk harming an officer like that, or killing them. They are innocent, and innocence is a precious thing. After all... we were innocent once, before Spider-Man shattered our lives." With that, the wicked webslinger swung off and away.

The whole landscape started to waver, like water wavering when something is dropped in it. Then, the whole setting became darker, until all around it was pitch black, the city and figures within the memory no more. The only thing left in the dream was Princess Luna and Eddie Brock. The princess stood, taking in what she just saw, unaware of Eddie's presence. As for the buff man, he was on his back in simple black robes with a blank look on his face. He blinked multiple times and scrunched up his face once he realized that the memory he was reliving was just a dream. Realizing, again, that he was not in his bed, but in a familiar dark setting, he sat up and looked around himself for anything to confirm his suspicions. And it was confirmed when he spotted Luna off a few yards away, hoof brought up to her muzzle and staring into nothing with a preoccupied expression adorning her face.

He furrowed his brows, curious as to why the Princess of the Night appeared to have been heavily thinking. Any disorientation or puzzlement he might have had was vaporized in an instant as his eyes shot wide open with dread. Luna, he figured, had witnessed his memory of an older time, a time he wished to move away from. He was struck simultaneously with intense anger and concern. Both emotions tried to overpower the other, demanding for Brock to follow them. He was angry at the princess for observing him and his memory without his consent. She had done so before, yes, but those times were so she could speak to him, and even then, he was glad she came during his dream about Carnage torturing him. The memory he just came out of, however, was something personal, something she had no right to view.

He was also concerned about her, for what she saw and about what she was thinking. Still unsure of how to approach, he slowly stood on his legs and took even slower steps towards the princess. Echoes of the footsteps reached the princess, her ears swiveling towards the noise while she jerked her head up and put the hoof she had back on the ground. Her heart thumped harder in her as she saw Brock approach her, seemingly weary as well. One look on his face told her that he knew what she saw, and that he, too, was unsure of what to do.

Luna began a small, nervous trot towards Eddie, thinking of what to say to, hopefully, diffuse the awkwardness. Both human and pony were silent, even as they were right in front of each other. Luna kept diverting her eyes from his while Eddie stared at her, but wasn't really focused on her. Eddie was still unsure whether to be mad at her or try to explain the memory a bit so she wouldn't feel worried. The silence didn't last long, as Luna was the first to speak up, bringing her eyes to meet Eddie's. "I... I'm sorry, Eddie. I shouldn't have watched your memory, it wasn't my place." She looked away, trying to think of the correct words to use. She looked back at him when she brought along the first words that came to mind. "It's just... I sensed you were having a peculiar dream, so I came to check up on you. When I came in... I just... I couldn't stop watching." She looked to the ground and shook her head in shame. She then looked back at Eddie's undecipherable face with a more calm, straightened position.

She stood there, patiently, also wearily, awaiting a response. Luna's apology worked, for the anger within Eddie began to recede into a much smaller state, only feeling some agitation for what she did. His muscles loosened as he sighed, dipping his head as he felt more eased. He looked back at her with a softer face than he had before with, "Thanks, Luna. I know you didn't mean to. Just... next time, be more careful about it."

Luna exhaled, removing almost all the anxiousness in herself as she brought a small smile on her muzzle while looking at Eddie. He, too, brought a small smile to his face as well, a sign of no hard feelings. The peace did not last long, as the smile on Luna's face melted, along with the peace that was in the dream. She spoke in a worried tone, "Eddie, I know it is not my place to ask, but... well, that memory...." She stopped as she tried to bring forth a better question or explanation, but none came as fast as she had wanted.

It was not required, however, as Eddie knew what she meant. He frowned, not at her, but at what he knew he'd have to explain. He sighed again, stressed at the situation, before he began, "I know what you mean, Luna. You deserve to know some of it, at least." Luna listened with rapt attention, as Eddie rolled his hand around, his face contorted into a determining expression, thinking of where to start. "A long time ago, me and my other felt... wronged by that guy, Spider-Man. He did wrong each of us in some ways, but not nearly as much as we had originally believed." He scratched his forehead while looking away, continuing. "If it wasn't obvious already, that took place during the time we thought he heavily wronged us." He looked back at Luna, wearing an explanatory face to assure there were no questions about his memory. "Also, during that time, we were... having thoughts and ideas we believed to be good and right. Some were, but most weren't."

Luna was beginning to understand, but, to the unwillingness of Eddie, she still had questions. "I think I see," She answered truthfully. "But if this Spider-Man is indeed a hero, why would you two still want to kill him, even if he wronged you?"

"Well," he started, not wanting to delve much further into the topic, but continued regardless, "we also thought he was a threat to innocents. And before you ask, he's not."

Luna nodded in understanding. She was of course curious and interested in his past, but she knew it wasn't her place to find out about it. Only if Eddie told her willingly would it be fine to her. She sighed, also stressed, for she knew that she would make Eddie more uncomfortable, but had to ask with uneasiness, "Eddie," she began, looking back to his face. "I trust you... and I can count on the symbiote to behave--sometimes-- but I need to know... Would you two kill somepony if you felt they'd done wrong to you in any way?"

Eddie's face hardened, not from anger or madness, but from conviction. "Luna, any doubts you have are going to be put to rest now. Now and before, me and my other had good intentions." His brows knitted together, speaking with an absolute and resolved edge, "But I swear to you, that Venom," he swung his arm across the dream, where the memory of said Venom was. "And the Venom in Equestria are two different things. The one now is not naive or crazy like the old one, because both halves of him have improved themselves and their morals. The worst one of your ponies would receive if they tried anything against us would be a beat down."

Luna looked at him, impressed by his conviction, before smiling up at him. "Thank you, Eddie, that's all I needed to hear."

The buff man smiled, too, before his face scrunched in thought. He looked around his dream, left and right. "Speaking of halves, where's the symbiote?"

To his confusion, the princess chuckled, speaking through giggles. "Well..."

The symbiote knew that Pinkie meant well, it really did. She wanted to throw a celebration for it and Eddie, after all. But the symbiote was beginning to understand something called annoyance, and frustration was becoming apparent. For the whole time they were there, the pink pony would either keep spewing out questions it thought were redundant, occasionally getting off topic and rambling on about something that the alien either didn't understand or care for, especially about something called a "Gummy." Then, she insisted on playing odd games, like "20-million Questions" and such. Right there and then, for instance, she insisted that the Klyntar should join her for a sing-along, her standing while it was still sitting in the beanbag.

"Come on, your turn!" Shouted the ever optimistic Pinkie.

"Can't sing, Pinkie Pie." Responded the dull alien.

"But you'll never know 'till you try!"

"I intend to keep it that way."

"Party pooper."

"Why are you doing this?"

The sudden question caught Pinkie, causing her to tilt her head curiously. "What do you mean?"

"This. All this. Questions for a party, yes, but why? Why throw a party? Telling me about your daily routines? Insisting to play these games?"

To the bewilderment of the symbiote, Pinkie unexpectedly erupted with loud, mirthful laughter, as if the symbiote had said something hilarious, which to her, might have been. The symbiote frowned at the display, something Pinkie caught as she began stifling her laughter. Taking a breath, Pinkie looked at the annoyed alien with an apologetic look, speaking in a tone that matched it, "Sorry about that, I wasn't laughing at you. It's just that your question was funny!"

One of the Klyntar's eyes arced upward in questioning. "How?"

"Because, you silly, gooey alien," Pinkie began as if what she were saying was obvious. "It's clear to anypony that I'm trying to be your friend!"

"What?"

"Yeah! And I think I'm doing a pretty good job so far!"

The symbiote stared at her in complete disbelief, as if she was a lunatic. The thought of such a thing was odd, weird, and likely couldn't happen. That mainly was because in the symbiote's life, it perhaps had a few, if at all, organisms it could refer to as "Friend." Allies, yes, but not many it could consider a friend. It had hosts it was fond of, the only two it could think with fondness being Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. But it did not consider those two just friends, to it, they were something more. A form of symbiotic relationship that could be described and experienced only by a host or Klyntar, hence why such a thing is sacred to the Klyntar race. Outside of hosts, the symbiote barely had any interactions with others. It certainly wasn't friends with others of its kind; they all practically hated one another, such as was deemed by Klyntar tradition.

In that time, Discord was the only recent one that the symbiote had a liking to. It did not mind Pinkie, even if she could get a bit obnoxious, at times, but a friendship wouldn't work. How would it communicate with her? Only Discord and Luna had the ability to communicate with it via telepathic means. And the symbiote wouldn't just up and leave Eddie to join Pinkie. What would they even do anyways? It was clear that the symbiote wasn't quite fond of her special games. It did not bring the alien joy, but it would have to let the pink party pony down. It shook its head with, "Can't be friends, Pinkie."

"What?" Pinkie asked, innocently. "Sure we could! Why wouldn't we be able to?"

"Can't communicate with you outside dreams. Wouldn't know what to do. Don't have much experience with this, either." Technically, it could take physical form outside of its host's body while still being bonded to them, thus being able to communicate, but still, the symbiote saw no point.

Pinkie merely blew a raspberry at those excuses, further troubling the alien. "Maybe not when I'm awake, but in here and asleep, I'm free! You are capable to come here after all, aren't you?" She asked rhetorically.

"Yes..." The symbiote had a bad feeling that it was about to be subdued by Pinkie's logic... again.

"And in here, we could do whatever we want! It doesn't have to be games, we could even just talk and tell stories!"

Trying in one last attempt to win the argument, the symbiote brought up, "Wouldn't make a good friend. Don't know what to do."

"Eddie--"

"Hosts are different. It's something more than a friendship, completely symbiotic." It leaned up from the bean bag it was occupying in, ready to end the dispute. "We are too different, as well."

Pinkie snorted, never losing her smile, retaliating with, "No friends, eh? Then what would you call Discord?" She saw the alien's eyes twist and curve, thinking it was surprise, so she continued with, "I saw him near Fluttershy's, we had a quick chat, and oh boy, it sounds like you two sure bonded. Heh, see what I did there? Because, you know, you bond with things."

The symbiote didn't laugh or chuckle, just stared at her. "... Terrible."

Pinkie rolled her eyes before speaking again, "You probably didn't get it. Anyways, what would you call Discord, then? You two hit it off from the sound of things."

The symbiote's facade began to crack, as it tried to form a plausible answer. "We're strong allies with same interests..." Pinkie rose an eyebrow with an inquisitive expression, forcing the symbiote to continue. "We both like to fool Luna...?" Even the symbiote was unsure of itself, and Pinkie's curious stare was not helping. It frantically sat up with one last attempt. "Meat! Gave me meat! Can't refuse such a thing!"

"So..." Pinkie leaned towards the faltered alien, a small smirk growing on her muzzle. "Would you say you trust Discord?"

"... I do."

"And, even though you just met him today, would you say you're feeling happy when around him?"

The Klyntar's determination to win the battle, or what amount of it it had, was breaking down bit by bit. "He did provoke positive feelings, yes."

"Hmmm..." Pinkie leaned even closer until her face was only a few inches away from the defeated symbiote's. "... sounds to me like he's a friend alright." Pinkie giggled at the symbiote's defeated expression, as it eased back into the beanbag chair. "I might not know what it's like actually being bonded to another all the time or what sort of relationship it is, but I'm willing to bet it has a lot of the basic elements that make up friendship." She eased back a bit, looking at the alien with a patient face. "But another thing about it is compromising. It's all your choice, but maybe if you visited here sometimes, we could find something that we both would enjoy!" The alien didn't know what it was feeling when Pinkie looked at it with pleading eyes, her smile gone. "I know it might not be easy for you, but do you think you could try? Please?"

The Klyntar's first idea was to tell her no, but something didn't let it. Something within itself, the alien realized. It paused, Pinkie waiting patiently, as it realized that another odd emotion was making itself known. It finally admitted it itself, Discord was a friend. He brought positive feelings, including happiness, but a different kind. The Klyntar felt happiness before, but most of the times it was dark, twisted, and malevolent. Such as the times it and Eddie killed those who harmed the innocents in their early days as a Lethal Protector.

The happiness that Discord caused, however, was not that. It was lighter, cooler, a more calm version. It had felt it before sometimes, usually with its two preferred hosts, but rarely from someone who wasn't its host. And then there was Pinkie who, even though the symbiote displayed clear censure towards the idea at first, still wanted to be friends. She wasn't looking to use it for her own or cause harm to it or Eddie, but seemed to legitimately want to be friends. She wanted to know more about it, what it likes, where it came from, all for the sake of friendship.

The idea that she actually seemed to care for the symbiote and wanted to have fun with it brought up that same, odd emotion. There was that light happiness again, mixed with eagerness and excitement. It came to a total surprise as the symbiote realized: it, too, wanted to give the friendship a try.

But that didn't make sense. Its thoughts contradicted from its emotions; yet, thinking back on it, Pinkie hadn't been too bad. Sure, she insisted on doing things that the alien didn't consider fun. Yes, she asked a bunch of questions it thought were pointless at the time. Thinking back, again, it realized with slight shock that those questions she asked, she asked because she wanted to make it happy as if it was a friend of hers. Perhaps, it thought, she thought they already were.

Another feeling came, one that didn't feel good on itself. There was Pinkie Pie, trying her hardest to be friends, and yet the symbiote barely acknowledged her efforts, let alone returned them. Damn, there it was again: guilt. Pinkie said they could still have fun like any regular friends, and she seemed like someone one would call extra friendly. The symbiote didn't know if it could work or not, but it saw no consequence for at least trying. Besides, Pinkie was going all out, why not it? Also, these friendships weren't bad at all, the symbiote thought.

Finally, it opened its mouth, speaking with content, "I would like to try, Pinkie."

No sooner than did it finish did the pink party pony leap in the air, shouting "Yeah, alright!" Rushing up to the symbiote, she dove at its chest and wrapped her forehooves around the startled alien's torso, leaning her head against it.

The symbiote looked down in confusion, unsure of what Pinkie was doing. Was it something relating to friendship? If so, it had no idea what to do, so it voiced its thoughts, "Pinkie, what are you doing?"

"Hugging you, silly! Now you have to return it!"

The symbiote brought its arms to up to its face, looking at them, then back at Pinkie in confusion. It has seen people hug before, but has never done one before, and didn't quite know what it meant among others. So it slowly and hesitantly brought its arms behind the mare and awkwardly wrapped them around her back, locking her in its arms. "Like this?"

"Perfect!"

As they sat there, the symbiote allowed a smile to shine on its face. Luna's plan ultimately failed, for the Klyntar realized from Pinkie that Discord was its friend, and that she might also become a friend. If everything went well, it thought of thanking her, possibly.

After it would have kicked Luna's flank for ditching it, of course.

Author's Note

Hey guys, there's that chapter! I don't really have much to say, other than the usual: What'd you think? What do you think will happen next? Please, your comments motivate me to get on the keyboard and I enjoy reading them!