Rainbow Dash, the best young flier in Equestria, self proclaimed fastest there is, sat speechless. She had been outdone by some silent masked pony. How could this have happened? Let’s rewind a bit.
It had all started a couple of weeks ago. Rainbow Dash had suddenly found herself as a resident hero, after pulling off a couple of rather impressive rescues. Needless to say, this went to her head and soon she had droves of fans at her beckon call. Then one day, out of nowhere, a masked pony in a ridiculous get-up swoops in and saves somepony in a crashing hot-air balloon. The Element of Loyalty was clearly peeved, but decided this new heroine everypony started calling “Mare-Do-Well” wasn’t anything special. After all, who could stand up to Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness?
But then it started to get worse. Over the past few days Mare-Do-Well started to beat her at everything, she was more agile, stronger, and now it seemed she was even faster than her. The other times Rainbow pushed aside as mere coincidences but this was the last straw. Nopony is faster than Rainbow Dash. She tried to explain to her friend Applejack as they got together at Sugar Cube Corner.
"Land sakes sugarcube Mare-Do-Well ain't harmin' anyone is she?" The farm mare asked her. Rainbow tried to find a way to counter the statement but continued to just sip her milkshake. "Ah'm sorry that was insensitive of me Dashie." Applejack apologized as she saw the hurt look in Rainbow's eyes. "Now what is it you were sayin'?"
"Well I mean Mare-Do-Well has just done all these cool things and all but she's such a push over. I just-"
"Now look don't you think yer over reactin' just a little?"
"Look it's not.... I mean it is but... this isn't just about Mare-Do-Well okay?" Rainbow said sternly as she left the sweet store leaving a very confused Applejack. That night, after another failed attempt to find out who Mare-Do-Well is, the cyan blue mare decided that a visit to the nearby First Faustian Church of Ponyville would help her clear her mind.
Meanwhile miles and miles above the skies of Equis a meteor was falling and it wasn’t slowing down at all. It’s trajectory placed it not to far from the church.
“Hey there Faust…. you probably don’t remember me, been awhile since I came here after all.” Rainbow chuckled a little to herself as she stared at a mural of a pure white Alicorn with a red flowing mane. “T-the name’s Rainbow D-Dash…. and I c-come b-before you. Humbled…. and humiliated.” Rainbow said as tears started to build up in her eyes. “A-all because one of your subjects thought it would be nice to start a ‘Let’s make Rainbow Dash look like a total loser’ week and i-it’s working.”
The small meteorite crashed into the ground just a few hundred yards away from where the church was. Out of the meteorite trickled a black substance, which to anyone else would look like oil. However it moved on it's own volition and acted as though it were alive. The reason for this was that is was indeed alive. It was an alien being, banished from it's homeworld. The reason being was that it was a mutant among its kind. It rejected its species ways of slowly killing its host organism. For this it was sent off from it's home to spend it's days alone until it died from the lack of a host body.
The symbiote knew not what deity it should thank that its prison had not only been thrown off course from the barren planetoid that was its original destination, but broken upon impact.
The ebony life form didn't want to think of the torment it could have endured if not for its new predicament. As happy as it was to be free it was faced with a problem. It had already been some time since it had been attached to a host and without one it would surely die. As fate would have it, a spider crawled nearby. The alien quickly flowed over to the arachnid and bonded with it. Soon the normally brown spider was now black as night. The symbiote was able to take full control of the arachnid as the animal was not very intelligent aside from instinctual knowledge. It wasn't perfect, but it would do for now until it could find a more sapient host.
The symbiote used its arachnid host to wander around the ceilings of the church, finding itself enjoying the spider's natural abilities. The symbiote decided that it would give it's next host similar abilities, finding them to be most useful. It had seen many potential hosts outside the temple, but none felt right to it. It longed for a kinship of sorts, a being who felt the same pain it did. It suddenly sensed a presence below it. The black nightmarish creature felt something inside the being, a pain that rivaled its own. This was to be its new host. Abandoning the spider, the symbiote quietly trickled down and bonded with its new host.
Rainbow Dash felt something latch onto her and yelled in fright. She backed away from the black slug that tried to grab onto her. She bucked it several times before she tried to fly away from it. She made a mistake, however, by looking back and seeing the slime grab hold of her hoof. She tried yelling out for help but one of it's tendrils had wrapped itself around her muzzle muffling her cries. The being then fully encompassed her and soon her whole world turned black.
The cyan blue pegasus soon opened her eyes to see a black and white landscape before her. All around the mare was nothing but empty space and near desolation. She turned and tried to walk away but found herself unable to move. She looked down to see what stopped her from moving and was shocked to see her hooves held down by the same black ooze from before. And then a raspy voice rang out "Rainbow Dash. We have tasted your anger. Your rage. AND IT IS SWEET! You… are a perfect ally to us." Was what Rainbow Dash heard. At first when it talked to her Rainbow started to panic. "W-what do you want from me?" She asked the darkness in a timid tone to which she heard a demonic laugh fill the strange world.
"What we want Rainbow is for you to have vengeance!" It told her. Rainbow started to think she was going insane but then she saw.... some sort of creature before her. Something that could only be described as a monstrous version of her. She was inclined to avoid it but then saw that it stuck a tentacle on the back of her neck and went through her memories and played them in a way that seemed like a slide show and all that it was playing was.
“Mare-Do-Well.” Rainbow Dash said with the utmost venom in her voice.
“Mare-Do-Well? Yes….. The source of your rage. Remember what she did to you. The shame she brought on to you.” The black voice said as it showed her images of the past weeks. All the adulation and praise the mystery mare got while she was left with nothing. Watching these events unfold again, Rainbow felt her rage grow and build to the point she was grinding her teeth in an all encompassing hatred of the masked mare. It was right she did want revenge. Revenge on the one pony who stole everything from her and ruined her life. One way or another Mare-Do-Well was going down. Her doppelganger was long since gone but the voice remained as it spoke to her again. "Bond with us Rainbow Dash. Mind. Body. And soul!" Rainbow didn't even hesitate when she finally answered the blackness with a dark smile.
"Alright then. Let's make the bitch pay." She replied. The process started off slowly at first as each tentacle latched onto a different part of her body but eventually her whole body was encased in a large black body. With the process finally complete the symbiote fully bonded with the pegasus. "From now on, we are poison to Mare-Do-Well and anypony else who tries to screw with us......... WE'RE VENOM!" A large ebony creature with a mouth full of fangs and large white eyes roared as it crashed out of the church window and escaped into the night.
As the beast left the church, though, the meteor in which the symbiote arrived in suddenly cracked open a little more again and spewed out a red substance that appeared to look like blood. A nearby timberwolf saw the liquid and went over to sniff it. The moment it got closer the substance latched around it’s muzzle and soon took over the creature’s form. Like the other one this symbiote hated using animals but it preferred a sapient host. For now the animals of this forest will do.
Meanwhile in Ponyville Twilight Sparkle was pacing about in the Golden Oaks Library consumed with worry. She knew that what she and her other friends were doing was right but she then started to consider that Rainbow Dash may not have seen it that way. Sure they were doing heroic things now but they hardly considered what she was going through during all of this. After all, she knew the pegasus well enough to know that she didn’t back down easily. Twilight began to wonder if this would even help Rainbow Dash at all or just exacerbate her ego problem even more. She put those thoughts behind her as she heard the sounds of hooves beating on her door. She opened it and four mares were standing outside her library with looks of determination. She nodded as she pulled out a purple and blue outfit with a spot made to fit her hole and she put it on.
“Okay, so let’s go over the schedule. I’ll be uptown from nine o’clock to ten. Applejack should be at the town square from eleven to twelve and barring any incidents Pinkie Pie should be able to swing by downtown from one to three.” Twilight Sparkle said as she showed the time sheet to her friends.
“Okay Twi, just one question. Can Ah switch places with Pinkie Pie? Ah need to be on the farm earlier than that.” Applejack said as she leaned on two legs, eyeing the schedule.
“Um, okay. Lemme see if I can work that around….” Twilight began, levitating a marker to try and rearrange Applejack’s time, but was cut off by Pinkie Pie.
“Wait! I need to be at Sugarcube Corner then! It’s Rumble’s birthday tomorrow.” The pink mare said, earning looks of confusion from everypony else.
“Uh, w-who’s Rumble?” Fluttershy asked, shrinking back a little as she did.
“He’s Thunderlane’s little brother! You remember him right? Little pegasus, grey coat, black mane, no cutie mark?” Pinkie Pie asked, receiving blank stares from Applejack and Twilight while Fluttershy was still trying to place the colt from Pinkie’s description.
“Anyway it’s his birthday tomorrow and I get to be the birthday clown!” Pinkie said, jumping up and down in excitement.
“Okay, I guess then Fluttershy….” Twilight started, but stopped once she remembered Fluttershy was only there for flybys and nothing else. Twilight’s eye started to twitch a little bit. This was not how she planned it at all but she took a deep breath and then changed the time sheet. “Okay so I’ll be out on patrol. The rest of you just…. please make sure you’re in position. All five nodded and then headed out. As the suited mare took to the rooftops, however, a black figure with serrated teeth, long tongue, wicked grin, and a strange spider-like symbol emblazoned on it's chest was watching her.
“We can’t wait to meet you soon Mare-Do-Well.”