//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Where Are We? 
// Story: Venomous Uprising 
// by Paco-El-Taco 
//------------------------------//

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 The symbiote had withdrawn into Eddie while he was unconscious, thus leaving him on his back with a simple pair of blue jean, black shoes, and a white T-shirt.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.'