"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?'