• Published 14th Oct 2018
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The Symbiote - SpyroForLife



Twilight Sparkle investigates the Life Aura Center at Celestia's request, but what she finds there is far more than she expected.

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8. Trip to Canterlot

Twilight and Venom had hoped to at least be able to relax for a bit and do some reading, but that plan was quickly ruined. Because it was only minutes later when the O&O game was interrupted by Spike belching out a letter amid green fire.

He caught it and gave it a curious look. “Oh, Twilight, you got a letter from-”

Twilight dove across the room and snatched it, doing a roll when she hit the ground and sprinting out with it.

“Great hustle!” Discord yelled after her, while Spike and Big Mac exchanged bewildered looks. “Now where were we? Oh yeah, I rolled a twenty.”

Spike sighed. “Of course you did.”

Twilight didn’t open the letter until she was in her room with the door safely locked behind her. Her heart was pounding as she unfurled the scroll, and Venom stretched his head out to read along with her. They could tell it was very hastily written, with stray splotches of ink along the paper.

Dear Twilight,

Your letter about the Life Aura Center deeply shocks and concerns me. I would like to speak with you immediately. Meet me in my study in Canterlot as soon as you can.

Your friend,

Celestia

Twilight turned it over a couple times just to make sure that was it, then stuffed the letter into her saddlebags and pulled them on. She then grabbed her notebook and the binder full of info about the center, stowing them too. “Alright, Venom. We’re going to Canterlot.”

“Field trip!”

“Yeah, now could you please hide until we get there?”

“You got it, oh I can’t wait to see the look on her face when I pop out. You think I should pop out from between your eyes? Or maybe from inside your mouth. Oh! I could burst screaming out of your chest and you could scream too! Haha!”

“Or we could do anything else. Seriously, just don’t come out until I tell her about you.”

“And you’re sure she won’t tell anyone about me?”

“Quite sure, I’ve entrusted many secrets to Celestia. It’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Venom sank back into her body, and Twilight teleported to Canterlot and trotted into the castle. The guards let her in, quickly showing her the way to Celestia’s study, though she’s been to it so many times she could probably get there blindfolded. She thanked them for their help anyway, and waited for them to return to their posts before pushing the doors open and hurrying in.

“Celestia?” she asked.

Celestia stood, using her magic to close the doors and lock them. She pulled the curtains across the windows and lit several lanterns to provide light, then gestured for Twilight to come over. Twilight nervously approached the desk, and Celestia came around to hug her. “Are you alright?”

Twilight relaxed and raised a wing to hug her back, nodding. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“Your hornwriting was really shaky, I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay. Now please, have a seat so we can talk about what you found out.” Celestia sat in her large chair behind the desk, and Twilight sank into one in front of it, sighing and resting her elbows on the desk.

“It was. A lot,” Twilight admitted.

“Sounds like it. Aliens? I’ve never heard of anything like that before. But you say Blazing Aura is using them in experiments, and not only that, but you’re bonded with one of them?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. The stallion I tried to save, Rock Break, was infected with one of the aliens, named Venom. Venom knew his host was dying, so he jumped to me to save himself. It’s only because of him that I wasn’t found out, and I was able to escape.”

“I see. And you said…” Celestia looked down at the letter, which she still had spread out on her desk. “This creature is still with you?”

“He is. Would you like to meet him?”

Celestia blinked, then said, “Well, if he’s really responsible for saving you, I want to thank him.”

“Alright. But please don’t panic, he can look a little creepy when you’re not used to him.” Twilight silently told Venom it was okay to show himself. But do it slowly and carefully-

Venom surged out of her body, forming an entire torso, arms, and head in seconds. “You’re welcome, Celestia!”

Celestia scrambled backward, horn lighting up as she tensed, and Venom burst into wild laughter.

“Hah, that’s the second princess I’ve scared the shit out of! Two more to go!”

Breathing hard, Celestia sat forward, clutching her chest. Twilight rarely saw her so frazzled. Annoyed, she admonished Venom. “Was that necessary?”

“No but it was fun.” He moved to hover next to Twilight’s shoulder, connected to her by the usual strands of liquid, and Celestia looked between them. She took a breath and composed herself, the magic disappearing from her horn.

“You’re… Venom?” Celestia asked.

“I sure am.”

Celestia stood, moving carefully around the desk so she could get a closer look. “I see what Twilight meant now. You are bonded to her, aren’t you?”

“Down to the cellular level. Molecular, actually.”

“And you’re not hurting her?” He shook his head, and Celestia looked over at Twilight. “He isn’t, is he?”

“No,” Twilight confirmed. “In fact he’s able to keep me from feeling pain I normally would. He’s enhanced my muscular strength in several regards, such as lifting weights, running, even flying. He helped me escape the Life Aura Center through sheer strength alone. We fought our way out and didn’t get a single injury.”

“Incredible. This is unprecedented. Mind if I?” Celestia held out a hoof, and Venom gave her a suspicious look, but Twilight reached over to touch his arm and nodded. So he did too, and Celestia curiously felt his chest, and down to where he connected to Twilight. “Do you have to stay in contact with Twilight?”

“Yes. I need a host to survive here. Otherwise I can’t breathe the air here. I can certainly form my own body separate from hers, but I must remain connected by at least a small strand. I could separate completely for a while, perhaps. A few hours, maybe a day. But I would quickly lose strength. Luckily, Twilight has been a very accommodating host!” Venom wrapped himself around her and nuzzled the side of her face. She grimaced at his slimy texture against her cheek, but gave him an affectionate pat anyway.

“Hm.” Celestia sat in the chair next to Twilight's, picking up another sheet of paper. “I actually got a letter from Blazing Aura telling me about a break-in they had last night, but nothing of value was stolen. Guess he didn't want to be honest, since then he'd have to explain about Venom. No wonder this letter is so vague... he wasn't vague about wanting more guards though. I was just about to follow up with him when I got your letter.”

“Wow.” Twilight accepted the letter from her, but it wasn't very specific about what happened. It just advised Celestia to keep an eye out for a pony with impressive shapeshifting and other magical capabilities, along with the aforementioned request for more guards. She set the paper aside.

“I'm glad you wrote when you did. So, how exactly did you two escape?” Celestia asked.

“That’s an um…” Twilight cleared her throat. “Interesting story. So, when Venom bonded with me, he was able to completely cover my body in his… skin, I guess, I still don’t fully understand what he does. But we basically became like this.” She got up and stepped back, and in seconds had grown into that monstrous creature they had become back at the center. Celestia’s eyes widened, and she clearly had to resist the urge to back away.

Twilight smiled at her in an attempt to show that she meant no harm, then remembered how wide her mouth was now, just how many sharp teeth she had. Perhaps smiling wasn't a good idea right now. With a guttural voice that was as much Venom as her, she said, “We turned into this. I was completely unrecognizable. We fought off the guards, Blazing got away, and we went to the first floor. They put up a barrier spell to keep us from teleporting out, so we had to fight. And like I said, Venom makes me stronger. So we physically fought our way out. Kicking, throwing ponies, it was… it was a rush!” Venom began speaking along with her. “We took down all those armed guards! Just us, no one else, we were badass! And then we broke through the window and hauled ass down to the ocean and swam to shore! They weren’t able to chase us and so far they have no idea it was Twilight, hahaha!”

Celestia stared at them for a few moments. Then she nodded and tapped the floor anxiously with a back hoof. “I see. Wow. Sounds like it was quite an adventure.”

“It was, you should have seen us! We showed them what a symbiote with a strong, healthy host can really do. They’ll regret ever imprisoning the Klyntar.”

Uh, Venom, I think you’re freaking her out.

Really? I would expect your rulers to be less pathetic than that.

Twilight huffed and wrestled control back, changing back to normal. “I’m sorry if I worried you, but I’m okay.”

Celestia looked her over, and said, “No, I wasn’t worried. I’m just trying to get used to all this. You’re bonded to an alien that can change your body, and Blazing Aura is using more of those creatures in his tests, it's a lot to be concerned about.”

“I understand. So, the symbiotes can heal ponies, but in return they need food. And Blazing’s patients are fed pony diets. Which are lacking in certain chemicals the symbiotes need. So they end up starving and having to eat the organs inside their hosts to survive. Which inevitably kills the host, and they just get moved to a new one and it starts all over. Blazing is not only torturing his patients, he’s torturing the symbiotes themselves. We can’t just stand by, we have to put a stop to this.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes, of course. So this is what Blazing has been hiding. No wonder he didn’t want me looking around.” She looked Twilight over, and Venom poked his head out. “Venom. Your people are actually aliens? As in, from another planet?”

He smiled. “Yes, Princess.”

“How did Blazing get a hold of you? How did he even discover you could heal ponies? I want to know the whole story. Then we can start working on taking him down.”

“Oh, it’s quite the story. You see, I’m part of a team that came to Equus as part of our routine scouting of possible new planets to... inhabit. But the solar system here is quite different from what we expected, the magical control over the celestial bodies actually threw off our ship’s guidance, and we crash-landed. As soon as we opened the doors and let in the outside air, we realized we wouldn’t be able to survive in this atmosphere for long. And our environmental regulator had been damaged in the crash. We were prepared to call for help and hope whoever came to get us from our planet would be merciful. Let’s just say we aren’t well-liked.”

Twilight couldn’t help but snort at that.

Venom continued, “But then Blazing showed up. We had crashed near your city of Manehattan, and some of his scientists had seen us come down with that big telescope they have on the roof.”

“Right, the Life Aura Center used to have a section for astronomy research before they devoted themselves entirely to medical work. They felt like they would get more done if they narrowed their research.”

Venom nodded. “Yes. So they sent their security and some scientists out to see what happened. And once they saw what we were, they decided to keep us to themselves. They were very quick, didn’t even leave time for the public to figure things out. They just roped off the area and ran everyone off, said it was a meteor and they would be taking it in for study. A few weeks later they released false studies of a meteor as a cover, but that’s not important.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Twilight commented.

“We had no idea what to make of you creatures at first. But we knew we would need to bond with you to live, and we went for it, planning to use hosts long enough to fix our ship and get out of here. But we were already so weak from trying to survive in this atmosphere. The first of us to try a bonding ended up picking an incompatible host and killing them. We desperately seized whoever we could, but there were only ten of us and fifteen of them. Those who remained quickly captured us via magical means we didn’t understand. We had never encountered magic, had no defenses against it, could barely figure out how to work our host bodies, which fought back against us and made it even more difficult. We were all placed in solid, unbreakable containers and taken to the Life Aura Center. I’m proud to say we did a lot of damage along the way. But in the end we were subdued and they figured out how to hold us. Blazing, having seen the way our hosts healed from injuries, was intrigued and decided he could use that. And so, he began testing us on ponies afflicted with various diseases, and many of us just gave in, doing what we could to survive until we could escape.”

Twilight frowned at the memories. “I’m sorry. Though… heh, they really caught you that easily?”

Venom gave her an annoyed look. “Normal technology, we could fight back against. Magic? We had no clue what to do. Seriously, I had managed to get a decent host, this big stallion that was part of their security detail… and before I could even attack, I was being shocked by this magical… thing and picked up off the ground, held completely immobile! Tried to stretch out my body to attack, they put a bubble around me! Ugh, didn’t help that my host didn’t want to attack his friends so he was resisting everything I tried to do. The whole thing was just a clusterfuck.”

Celestia made a face at the language, and Twilight shrugged. Celestia began pacing. “So, Blazing was able to bring in your entire party. What did you come here for, exactly? You said you were looking for worlds to inhabit, but in what way?”

Venom started to answer, and Twilight said, “Be honest with her. If you aren’t, I will be.”

He growled, and said, “My team’s mission is to find new worlds and conquer them. But not all of my race is like that!” he said quickly, when Celestia looked concerned. “My group just has a different ideology from the rest of the hive mind. And well, Twilight here has sort of convinced me that I don’t gain much from conquering this place. But I don’t want to leave the rest of my brethren to suffer. I still want to free them. And their hosts, I guess.”

“So you came here to try and take over the planet, and got defeated by magic?” Celestia smiled. “That’s adorable.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. So, here we are. Needing your help to take down Blazing.”

“The center still does great work,” Twilight said. “We just need to free the symbiotes and get rid of Blazing, so we can make sure they’re conducting research in a legal, ethical manner. They don’t tell any of their subjects what they’re going to do to them. They just infest them and hope for the best, and even if their illnesses are cured, they suffer and die anyway because their symbiote starves and turns to eating them. The Klyntar are very different from us. They’ll do anything to save themselves, even if it means killing innocents.”

“You’re not wrong but way to make us sound like the assholes.”

“Considering why you came here, you kinda are,” Twilight replied.

Celestia picked up a piece of paper, spreading it out on her desk. “I’ll need to summon Cadance at once. Then we’ll talk to Luna. We’ll get this taken care of. It may be a few days, we want to strategize and be sure of exactly what we’re up against, but then we’ll go in, arrest Blazing, and let the symbiotes go. Provided, of course, that they leave quietly without hurting anypony.” She gave Venom a sharp look.

“After what we went through here, I doubt they’ll argue with that. Though our ship’s busted so we gotta hang out until it’s fixed.”

Celestia stared, then sighed. “Of course. I’ll make sure you get what you need to fix your um. Ship.”

“And we’ll need compatible hosts in the meantime,” Venom added.

Celestia began writing her letter to Cadance. “Fine, if you find ponies willing to host you, and you promise not to completely enslave them, or eat them, you can stay in them as long as you need.”

“Awesome. My teammates will be thrilled. But you know, I doubt the Life Aura Center will let us just walk in and arrest Blazing. They might attack us.”

“Attack four alicorns? I doubt it.”

“You may be powerful, but any of you can die. They have guns. And there are a lot of them. They seem willing to do anything to keep the center going. Some might be swayed by loyalty to the crown. Others are more loyal to the money. So, if they do attack, Twilight and I will be ready to fight. I hope you are too.”

“I don’t like fighting, but I will if necessary. We’ll be fine. I and the other princesses have been through far worse.”

“Sure.”

Twilight was quiet for a bit as she watched Celestia write. Then she said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more while I was there. I was just so overwhelmed trying to save that stallion, then Venom bonded with me and next thing I know they’ve got me at gunpoint trying to figure out who I am… we just kinda panicked and attacked them.”

“You panicked maybe, I was completely sure of what I was doing.”

“It’s okay, I’m sure it was stressful,” Celestia replied. “Thank you for going in there though. Now we know we need to take action, and I’ll be justified in demanding to see all of their facilities.” She looked at Twilight more closely, and said, “Did something more happen? You seem upset.”

Twilight took a deep breath, and Venom rubbed between her withers to reassure her. She met Celestia’s eyes and said, “Before I started better cooperating with Venom, he had a lot of the control. He… we killed somepony. It was awful, we… bit his head off.” She shuddered.

Celestia looked at her silently for a bit. Then she came around to wrap her into a hug. Twilight nestled her face against her chest.

“I’m sorry, I never wanted to kill anypony, we were just so desperate to escape and Venom was hungry and it just happened before I got control. I didn’t kill anypony else, but that one…” She shook her head. “I know he was cruel, has hurt the patients there, but… I don’t think he deserved what I did to him.”

“I do,” Venom said.

“It’s okay,” Celestia replied. “You’re so pure of heart, I know you would never harm anyone who doesn’t deserve it. But… sometimes, regretfully, you have to use force. You were saving yourself from ponies who wanted to hurt you. You did what you had to. Obviously I don’t want you and Venom to go around attacking random ponies, but if you’re defending yourselves, I can’t judge you too harshly.”

Twilight nodded, sniffing as she tried not to cry.

“If it’s any consolation, once I got my teeth around him he died pretty quickly,” Venom said. “I did it fast. Instant annihilation of his brain, haha.”

Celestia glared at him, and he just gave her a toothy grin. But then he began glancing at Twilight, groaned, and sank back down to hug her too.

Her ears perked and she gave him a surprised look.

“Don’t read too much into it, your misery is making me miserable, so stop it,” he said.

She wiped her eyes off and straightened. “Okay. I’m okay.”

Celestia stroked between her ears, making sure she was okay before going back to her seat. She finished the letter and sent it with magic. “I marked this as urgent, Cadance should be here soon. Let’s go get Luna.”

Twilight stood, and Venom disappeared back into her as she followed Celestia out. They were just reaching Luna’s room when Cadance ran in, out of breath.

“You called, Princess?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you for your quick response,” Celestia replied. “This requires all of our attention.”

Cadance looked at Twilight curiously, and turned her attention to Luna’s door as Celestia knocked on it.

It took a few moments for Luna to answer it, and she was in pajamas when she did. “Mm, what is it…” She trailed off when she noticed Twilight and Cadance, who gave awkward waves. She looked back at Celestia, much more alert. “Sister?”

“Sorry to wake you, but there's a serious situation we need to discuss.”