//------------------------------//
// Chapter 20: A Slithering Pain 
// Story: Venomous Uprising 
// by Paco-El-Taco 
//------------------------------//

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.