The Parasite

Pinkie pulled her van up into the parking lot outside Sunset's dorm building and said she would wait here for Twilight. Twilight agreed and got out, Venom going under her skin as she did, and the others wished her luck. She headed into the building. It took her a while to remember which room was Sunset's, but luckily Venom was able to remind her. She knocked on the door and waited.

Footsteps approached the door and then Sunset called, “Who is it?”

“It's me, Twilight,” Twilight answered, then quickly added, “Princess Twilight.”

There was silence for a moment, then a quiet, “Oh. Why are you here?” There was a noticeable tension to her voice.

“I want to talk to you,” Twilight said, placing her hands on the door and leaning in.

“I'm busy,” Sunset replied.

“It'll only be for a few minutes. Please, this is important. It's about what happened. With the murders, and... Twi.”

After a few seconds, there was clicking as the door was unlocked and swung open. Twilight was immediately struck by how empty Sunset's eyes were. She looked almost emotionless.

Heart aching, Twilight stepped into the room. “I'm so sorry to hear about what happened. I know how close you two were, and for her to be taken in such a horrible way...”

“No point being upset over it,” Sunset said dismissively, turning and walking back toward the couch. “It happened.”

Twilight frowned. That wasn't the response she was expecting. She wanted to consult Venom for his opinion but he had suddenly gone silent and almost seemed to retreat from her mind, the way he did when he became caught up in his own thoughts. She didn't like that. “Sunset,” she said, following her to the couch and sitting next to her. “Do you want to talk about it? Bottling up your feelings isn't healthy, it's okay to grieve, it's healthy...”

“I'm fine!” Sunset snapped. “You all keep trying to get me to 'open up' but I don't need that, I can take care of myself!”

Twilight was taken aback. This wasn't at all like the Sunset she knew. The others were right, there was seriously something going on with her. “We're just concerned about you, we're your friends, so we want to help you. You haven't talked to me in months, even with everything that's been going on. Sunset, please.” She moved closer, taking Sunset's hands, willing her to understand how worried she was. “Talk to me. Don't you care about Twi's death?”

A dark feeling swept through Twilight as Sunset growled, flinging her hands away and jumping to her feet, showing her teeth as she snarled, “You want me to open up? Of course I care that my best friend died! But I don't want to feel anything, I don't want to think about it, but the only way I can deal with it is to block off the pain! And if I block off every other feeling too, fine! I don't want to think about what happened, it hurts too much! So go away and stop talking to me about it!”

Twilight's eyes widened at the outburst, Sunset's voice had taken on a very sinister quality as she ranted, and before she could reply, Venom was suddenly screaming in her mind, BACK AWAY. BACK AWAY AND GET THE HELL OUT.

Startled but compelled by the urgency, Twilight stumbled to her feet and backed away. Sunset advanced toward her, fists clenched, her eyes narrow and hateful. “I'm s-sorry,” Twilight stammered, continuing to move away. “I just wanted to check in on you... look, I'll leave you alone, just please keep in touch? We could really use your help against that monster, because it's not just a monster, it's one of the symbiotes I told you about before, we think it's-”

“I don't care!” Sunset pushed her the rest of the way out and Twilight stumbled and landed on her back, shocked at the strength behind that shove. The door slammed and locked.

Heart pounding, Twilight scrambled up and ran back downstairs, feeling Venom shifting and winding with tension below her skin. As soon as she was jumping into Pinkie's van, Venom shot up out of her body and shouted, “That was him!”

This was met with stunned responses and Twilight understood what Venom meant immediately. “Carnage is bonded with Sunset?” she demanded. The others gasped as Venom confirmed it.

“Light Touch must not have been a good match for him,” Venom said. “He abandoned him, likely killed him. And somehow... somehow made his way into Sunset. Usually it takes me a while to identify the presence of another symbiote within a host, but Carnage... I can always feel Carnage's presence. I knew immediately.”

“Why is Carnage in particular so obvious to you?” Twilight asked, feeling discomfort from her partner.

Venom didn't answer right away, instead looking at the horrified faces of the others and muttering, “We must begin thinking of a plan to deal with him immediately, no doubt he has grown powerful in his time here...”

“Venom!” Twilight said firmly and his gaze snapped back over toward her. “You know something. Look, we need as much information about Carnage as we can get. We've always been open with each other, haven't we? So why are you hiding this? Please, tell me.”

With a pained sigh, he replied, “Alright. Carnage is my spawn.”

This was met with shock and confusion, especially from Twilight. Her eyes demanded answers and he had no choice but to explain, not wanting to keep it from her any longer.

“A long time ago, Riot needed more Klyntar for his team and urged some of his subordinates to spawn some more. This wasn't such a big deal for us. Reproduction is asexual and can be done fairly quickly, though we only have so many opportunities to do so and it takes time before we can do it again. I was one of the ones who spawned for him. From me came Carnage, who I also provided some useful traits I had picked up from previous hosts, to ensure his strength. He never knew life outside the team. Riot quickly instilled savagery in him beyond even his own. I allowed this. How could I not? It wasn't my place to interfere, and unlike your kind, we have very little attachment to our spawn. In fact... I feared him. Didn't want to get in his way. Even now, it's not uncommon for young Klyntar to turn on and consume their weaker parents.”

Twilight had never expected to learn all this. She had so many questions but now was not the time. “So you're Carnage's progenitor. Alright, we can discuss that later. Now I just need to know. Can we beat him?”

Venom let out a low growl as he considered it. “We may be able to only because of how very powerful you are as a host. But then, Sunset is very strong as well from what I see of her in your memories.” He decided to use thought to add, And you may not want to tell the others, but Carnage consuming the human Twilight, with all her magical ability, will have only added to his power.

That's what Twilight was worried about. Out loud, she said, “How do you think he got a hold of Sunset? Why would she bond with him?”

“She's gone bad again!” Rainbow shouted immediately.

“Rainbow!” Pinkie admonished her.

“I really thought she had changed for the better, but maybe the temptation of power was just too much for her,” Rarity said.

“Come on, you can't mean that,” Spike spoke up.

“I don't wanna believe it either but if she is attached to that creature, she's responsible for all this mess,” Applejack said.

“We don't know the whole story though,” Fluttershy protested. “Venom said Carnage could put her under his control. We should just ask-”

The human women and Spike spent several moments arguing and talking over each other while Twilight just sat there with her head in her hands, taking in a deep breath to get over her irritation before firmly saying, “This is our friend you're all talking about like this! I know Sunset would never go back to the darkness. She's changed for the better. Yes, Carnage is bonded to her, and he's a murderous psychopath. But that's not who Sunset is. There's a very good chance that once Carnage came here, he found out about everything you guys have done with your magic and picked one of you as a target because he wanted a strong host, and Sunset was who he went after. I don't know what he said to convince her, but it doesn't matter now. He's bonded to her and with the way she just talked to me, I know now he's taken total control of her body and she can't stop him.”

The others fell silent, exchanging guilty looks. Fluttershy softly asked, “So you guys... really can completely control someone? And not let them do anything?”

“We can,” Venom confirmed. “Even if our host's will is strong, a stronger symbiote can still keep ourselves in charge. It's an awful thing to do to a host, though. It's traumatizing. We'll need to separate Carnage from her but she may never be the same afterward.”

Twilight thought back to how traumatized Blazing Aura had been once he was freed. It made her shudder. “Be that as it may, we have to rescue her. Let's not waste any time. We need to come up with a plan for getting Carnage out of her body so we can kill him without hurting her.”

“You said you killed one of them before,” Rainbow said. “How did you do it?”

“We didn't do it alone,” Twilight replied. “We had Celestia and another symbiote named Scorn to help us too. But we worked to wear Riot out until we were finally able to hold him still long enough to pull him from his host. The symbiotes have the ability to extract each other from their hosts, you see. We got them separated and once Riot was alone, he was much more helpless. Symbiotes can't survive for long on alien worlds without a host. So with him separate from Blazing, Celestia used a powerful fire spell to pretty much burn him to death.”

“What an awful way to go,” Fluttershy said.

“Man, the pony version of Principal Celestia is hardcore,” Pinkie commented.

“So I'm thinking, we find a way to get Carnage pinned and unable to attack long enough for Venom and I to make contact with him, and then Venom can just pull him out and I can use a fire spell of my own to...” Twilight trailed off as she felt a very telling apprehension from Venom and she turned to look at him.

“About that,” Venom said, more sheepish than Twilight has ever heard him. “Carnage has a resistance to fire. I had gained it myself from an old host but... passed it along.”

“What?!” Twilight demanded, exasperated. “You got fire resistance from an old host and then just gave it away?!”

“I was still Riot's lackey back then, I just wanted to make a super soldier to serve our cause, don't yell at me!”

Twilight rubbed her face. “Okay. I guess fire is out. Please tell me he's not also immune to high-pitched noise.”

“Nope! He'll still be harmed by the same range of noise I am.”

“Oh good. So we'll need a sonic-based weapon. I may be able to create a spell that'll hit him with a high enough frequency at such volume that he'll be completely incapacitated. Maybe he'll even be shaken right out of Sunset without us having to pull him out. But to use a spell like that I'll likely have to lure him back over to Equestria...”

“Sorry to interrupt, but if it's sound you need, I might know the perfect gal,” Pinkie piped up. “We can ask Vinyl Scratch!”

The others nodded and murmured that it could work, but Twilight shook her head. “I appreciate the suggestion but I don't want to endanger Vinyl. I don't want any of you to be in danger. Venom and I can take on Carnage.”

“No ma'am, we're not letting you do this alone,” Applejack replied.

“Yeah!” the others chimed in.

“I'm not alone, I have Venom,” Twilight said.

“Darling, I insist you allow us to help you,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, that's what friends do!” Rainbow added.

“We've always got your back!” Pinkie enthusiastically honked the van's horn a couple times, earning her some scowls from people outside. “Oops.”

Twilight smiled. Despite the awful tragedy they had faced, they were strong and more than ready to help her. “Well, maybe I could borrow Vinyl's equipment and use it myself to lure Carnage in, that way Vinyl's not in danger... though looking at you all, I'm thinking... what if we instead use the Elements of Harmony? The way we defeated the Dazzlings?”

“Could we do that without Sunset?” Fluttershy asked.

“I'm not sure. Back in Equestria, Sunset isn't needed to use the Elements. But things are different here. The magic manifested differently, formed seven Elements instead of just six, and I actually have a theory that the element of Magic in my world split into both Magic and Empathy on this side, with Twi getting one and Sunset getting the other. But I think our bond is great enough that we can all use the magic without her. We're going to have to. We're doing this to save her. Perhaps we can call upon the magic within her to help her break free and fight right alongside us.”

They agreed that it could work. After further discussion, they decided that they would combine the ideas. They would borrow sound equipment from Vinyl and use it to weaken Carnage and destabilize his grip on his host. At that point, Twilight and the others would use their magic to deal the finishing blow and rip Carnage right out of their friend.

“And when Carnage is out of Sunset?” Spike asked. “How will you kill him for good?”

Twilight chuckled. “Don't worry. Venom and I know exactly what sort of death he deserves after everything he's done.”