//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Never Try To Ruin A Bond // Story: Venomous Uprising // by Paco-El-Taco //------------------------------// 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.