• 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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9. Preparations

The four princesses gathered in a private conference room, making sure the doors were locked and insisting no guards remain inside. Once they were alone, Celestia sighed and said, “Twilight has learned something very unsettling about the Life Aura Center.”

“The Life Aura Center?” Luna asked. “Hm, I always did get a bad vibe from that place.”

“But they've done such great work and saved so many ponies' lives,” Cadance said. “Surely we can forgive some... minor unsettling practices?”

“This is definitely not minor,” Twilight replied. “In fact, this is one of the most horrifying things I've ever encountered, and that's saying something. So...” She took a breath. “First, I'd like you to meet Venom.”

Understanding the seriousness of the situation, Venom presented himself much more carefully than he had to Celestia, simply sliding his head and neck out from one of Twilight's shoulders and raising his head to about the same height as hers.

Luna stared and Cadance looked both disgusted and intrigued.

Twilight held up a hoof, briefly rubbing it against Venom's chin, though also using it to turn his head about so they could get a better look at him. “Venom, I'd like you to meet Luna, the princess of the night, and Cadance, the princess of love.”

They awkwardly waved, and Venom said, “Yes, the other two princesses, fascinating. Twilight thinks highly of you.”

“It talks?” Luna wondered.

“Yes, he's quite capable of equine speech,” Twilight replied. “From my understanding, he can learn any language his host knows.”

“What is he?” Cadance asked.

“In one word? An alien.” That got surprised gasps, and Venom smiled smugly. Twilight continued, “He's from a distant planet. His race is called the Klyntar, but when on planets like ours they need hosts to survive. So right now, I'm letting him live in me. Don't worry, he's not hurting me, it's a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.”

“Mutualistic, not parasitic,” Venom emphasized.

“Yeah, don't call him a parasite, he doesn't like that.”

Luna sat forward, her gaze intense. “Are you sure you can trust him?” Pain and regret flickered in her eyes, and Twilight realized she was thinking about how she was possessed by the Nightmare that turned her into Nightmare Moon.

“I can,” Twilight said softly, wanting to put her at ease. “We share my body and he likes me, he's not going to take control. He can't make me do anything I don't want to do.”

“I was told that too, by the darkness that warped me all those years ago.”

Twilight nodded. “I understand. But Venom isn't like that. I can see into his mind, I can feel his motives. He means me no harm. He's devoted to protecting me now. He relies on me after all, and if he tries to take control, he knows I can fight him. Here, let me show you just how much we trust each other. Venom, can you leave my body?”

He gave her an incredulous look, and she could hear him thinking that he would greatly prefer not to.

“Please?” she asked. “Just for a few moments.”

He sighed, and his body moved through her and out along a foreleg, gathering at the end of her hoof. He glanced back at her, then stretched out some tendrils and latched onto the table, pulling off of her and plopping rather suddenly to the table.

“Oh, that's attractive,” Cadance remarked.

Venom looked like little more than a big pile of black goo in this state, and he twisted himself around to look back up at Twilight. Even without being connected to him, she could just feel his exasperation.

Luna leaned in to examine him, and said, “Can he talk like this?”

A tremble went through Venom's body, and he lifted a pseudopod out, seeming to shake it back and forth.

“Not in any way we can understand,” Twilight said. She felt strangely cold without having Venom joined with her. Her mind was almost unbearably quiet, and despite having the other three princesses with her, she felt lonely. Has she really grown so used to the alien's presence after only a day? She looked at Luna. “So, he has entirely removed himself from my body. He has no influence over me like this. And I will still say I trust him. That he won't hurt me, and that I am fine with him sharing my body. You can be assured that if he ever did try to take over, I would make sure he regrets it.”

Venom reached up an arm, forming a hand and flipping her off. She stared at him with outrage while the others just exchanged confused looks.

“I only saw that gesture a few times in the human world and you already figured out its meaning?” she demanded of him. “Rude!” She batted at the hand, pushing the finger down, and he booped her nose. “Okay, come on, before you suffocate.”

He gladly leaped back into her skin, and warmth flowed through her veins as he connected back to her mind and his weight pooled around her neck, his head popping out and taking on its usual shape.

“Isn't it fascinating, the things humans can say with their hands alone?” Venom commented. “My kind could learn a thing or two from that.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and explained to the others, “The gesture he made is one humans use to um. Let's just say, insult each other.”

They nodded, and Luna said, “If you trust him, I trust him. I just want to make sure you're okay. I don't want him doing to you what the Nightmare did to me.”

“I'll be okay,” Twilight assured her. “Now, where were we...”

“Perhaps you could tell them what you told me,” Celestia said. “About where he came from, and what the center is doing.”

Twilight began pacing. “Right. A small team of his people crash-landed here months back and were captured by the Life Aura Center. And what they've been doing with them is horrific.”

With Venom's help, she explained what Blazing has been using the symbiotes for, how they wanted to be able to use them to cure all that ailed ponykind, yet the symbiotes kept killing their hosts out of hunger.

They told the princesses everything they had told Celestia and then some, and once they were done, there was silence for a good several seconds.

Then Luna jumped up, slamming her front hooves on the table. “So then what are we waiting for?! We need to get to Manehattan and put a stop to this immediately!”

“Patience, sister,” Celestia said gently. “I understand, it's awful what's happening in the center, but we need to be careful. Blazing Aura is very dedicated to his mission and if Venom is to be believed, he's willing to do whatever he has to to keep experimenting with the symbiotes. He will kill anypony who interferes. We'll need to bring our guards with us. And unfortunately, we'll need to arm them with guns. Make a show of force, and tell Blazing to step down. We need to do this quickly, but we need to do it right. We have to follow the laws ourselves, after all.”

“So when can we get out there?” Cadance asked. “The longer we wait, the more ponies are suffering in that horrible lab. Our subjects, who we swore to protect, are dying in there.”

“I know,” Celestia sighed. “We'll save them. Them, and the symbiotes. I need to get some guards together, do some research, but then all of us can go to the Life Aura Center, likely early tomorrow morning. We'll go in, arrest Blazing, and search the facility. And when we find the underground lab, we'll have all the evidence needed to convict him and everypony involved with the experiments. It's just... heartbreaking to imagine what his test subjects must be going through. Scared, alone, with these strange aliens that are slowly killing them.”

“And Blazing's scientists don't always watch us the best they should,” Venom said. “One of my brothers ended up having to separate from a host after its body rejected him, but I guess everyone was out for coffee or some shit, because no one came to move him into a new body or one of the low oxygen containment chambers they had made for us. So he asphyxiated right there on the floor, unable to get out of the cell. It was disgusting. An agonizing way to die.”

Twilight frowned and patted Venom's head. He growled, and she saw his memories of the event. Though he wasn't exactly attached to the others of his species, he was still upset to see one of them die like that. He slid into her hooves, letting her hold him.

“We'll do whatever we need to,” Cadance said, standing. “I'm so sorry for what you had to go through in there, Venom. Maybe your motives for coming here were deplorable, but that doesn't mean you deserved to starve and go through all those tests. I want to help you. We all want to help all of you, and get you back home. And maybe, if along the way you decide you don't want to conquer our planet, that would be great.”

Venom snorted, and Luna said, “I'm not worried. If Twilight already managed to convince him not to conquer us, I'm sure we could convince the others not to.”

“At the very least you'll be able to get them to never want to come here again, so I suppose that's a win,” he replied.

“It's sad that the first aliens we've made contact with have been treated so terribly,” Cadance said. She approached Venom carefully, and while he first leaned back from her, he allowed her to pet his head and down his neck, curiously feeling where he joined with Twilight. “But we'll make things right. I promise.”

He looked at her curiously, then took her hoof. “Thank you.”

Talk turned to planning out the arrest of Blazing, and subsequently, how they were going to tell Equestria about all this and apologize for letting it go on right under their noses.

Why do you need to apologize, you had nothing to do with it, Venom said privately to Twilight.

I know, but ponies trust the princesses to protect them from harm. So if it's found out that something bad like this is happening, we just apologize anyway. No one truly blames us but it's sort of a custom. It shows our compassion.

That's fucking lame.

They finally decided to go their separate ways, after agreeing to meet up at the Manehattan docks early tomorrow morning. All four princesses would show up to the Life Aura Center with their best royal guards, and Blazing would be brought to justice. They had hope that he wouldn't even try to fight when he realized all of them knew the truth.

He's not going to give up that easily, Venom whispered as Twilight said goodbye to the others and headed out.

I know, but we need to have confidence anyway. Even if he does fight, we can stop him.

That appeased the other, who seemed to purr. Of course we can. We decimated his security yesterday, though I really wish you would have let me kill them. But no matter. They'll be weak tomorrow, and we'll take them down. We'll free my brethren, get them home, and we can focus on more important things.

More important things huh? Like what?

Like building strength. Becoming more powerful. Becoming a superhero like you wanted, perhaps? Really, whatever you want.

I'd like that.

As would I. Now, since we still have the rest of the day before bed, what would you like to do?

Twilight considered. Then teleported back home. I kinda want to spend more time getting used to that muscular form you can cast around me. Think we could practice with it, do some exercise, maybe, I don't know, fight some criminals?

That got Venom's interest. I'm up for any of that. As long as we eat to keep our strength up for tomorrow, of course.

Of course. Well, why don't we start with going out into the Everfree and working on our strength by breaking trees down, then we can perhaps find a bad guy or two to take down, alright?

Now you're speaking my language. Let's go.

They flew out to the Everfree, and once they were alone, far out in the forest, they transformed, becoming huge and muscular. Birds took to the air and bugs scattered trying to get away from them, and they laughed.

They bounced through the forest and tested their strength by first stomping through trees that have already fallen. Their hooves smashed through easily, and then they slammed their body through a living tree. They broke the trunk apart, and even when the tree fell on top of them, they were able to easily kick it aside and watch it roll, before it came to a stop against a few other trees.

They laughed, and Twilight wasn't sure how much of this was Venom and how much was her. But then, she didn't need to know exactly. They simply moved as one, throwing tree trunks and ripping boulders out of the ground, seeing how far they could kick them. They ran and flew, never seeming to tire. Twilight listened calmly to Venom's thoughts the entire time, and he did the same, communicating with her quickly and silently as they worked together to move their massive, dangerous form. Their conversation wasn't entirely focused on what they were doing, though. They also talked about how tomorrow might go, and their future plans together.

They ran more slowly, and looked down, growing sharp claws from their hooves. Then they jumped up and latched onto a thick oak tree, running up it and settling onto the highest branch that could hold their weight, surveying the forest.

Out loud, they said, “We truly are the perfect symbiote. Both of us are strong, but together, we are unstoppable.” They ran a hoof against their chest, sighing with content. “We are so glad to have met Twilight.”

With some effort, Twilight shook her mind free of his, though she still spoke through their shared mouth. “And I'm glad to have met you. It's crazy, but I'm glad you bonded to me. We're going to do such great things together.”

“That we are, Princess.” Venom gathered their legs up under them, eyeing the ground far below, then jumped. They hurtled downward, using their wings only to control the fall, and crashed through branches before landing with a thud that seemed to shake the ground. There was no pain at all, and they were soon running again, jumping up and down with joy.

Twilight realized with some surprise that he was happier than he could ever remember being in his life. All because of her sharing this with him. So she smiled, and shared in his happiness, the two of them gallivanting through the forest without a care in the world. Everything might go terribly wrong tomorrow, but today was good and they were going to enjoy it.

They used their tail to obliterate a log, and upon leaping over a hill they came upon a stream. Immediately their thoughts went to food, and they trotted up to it, leaning down to watch as fish swam just below the surface.

They licked their lips and dove in. It only took a few seconds to grab a huge trout and swim back up, using their tendrils to pull themselves out of the water and rest on the shore, examining the wiggling fish.

“We're going to eat this, aren't we?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Venom replied immediately, and crammed it into their mouth headfirst, taking off half in one bite. “Finally, something alive!”

Twilight briefly felt bad for the fish, but Venom needed to eat too. She still teased him, though. Really, we ate an entire chicken and you're still hungry?

The chicken was great but it was dead, he explained, having to use thought since their mouth was occupied with tearing huge strips of meat from the fish. Which was definitely dead by now, as Twilight pointed out. Yes, well, it wasn't when I took the first bite and it's still super fresh, which is the best way to eat!

They laid back as they ate the rest of the fish, eyes closed as they just savored it.

Once they were done, they kept resting there for a while, sprawled out on their back with their wings open, enjoying the warm afternoon. Even with all that running and ripping things apart, they were wide awake and full of energy.

“You're happy here, aren't you?” Twilight said, though she knew the answer.

He wrapped their forelegs around themselves, sighing out. “Yes. Very happy. Your world is beautiful. I want to stay here more than ever. With you.” After a few moments, he said, “Our heart just started beating faster. Twilight?”

“Oh, nothing. Just uh, thinking about tomorrow.”

“Yes. Tomorrow we'll take down Blazing Aura, hopefully have a nice battle with his guards, and then we can free the symbiotes for good.”

“Right. Everything will go smoothly. We have nothing to worry about.”

They nodded. They idly turned the fish's tail fin over in their claws a few times, then dropped it into their mouth and sat up. Venom spoke to Twilight with thought, I get the feeling you would rather rest than go after any criminals tonight.

Yeah, she admitted. We can do that one day, but right now, we shouldn't make any rash decisions. Let's go home.

Very well. Flight or teleportation?

Let's fly. But um, not like this.

I know. The black slipped off of them, fading back into Twilight's body, though Venom remained as much in control as he has been. They spread their wings and headed home.