Ashley's POV

I stood there, waiting for an explanation from the two symbiotes. Symph looked to Abi slightly disappointed. "You didn't tell her?"

"Rodens orders..." Abi relied with shame.

Symph rolled his eyes and turned back to me. "Ok, I will be the one to answer your questions, with or without Rodens permission. The answer to your question is that a Nightmare possessed that filly for whatever reason, they've been getting smarter and their actions are becoming more and more unthinkable to downright cruel. Since my father or my uncle were unable to appear to destroy the monster I was sent in by my master, Roden Godswell."

"Your father? Do you mean Symbol? I thought he only had one kid, Screwball." I was just becoming more confused.

Symph chuckled. "Ah yes, my little sister. You see, I was not naturally born, I was created. My father had become fascinated with the concept of symbiotes and how they were created, so he began to research and test, experiment. During one of the tests when he was experimenting with some symbiote material that he had acquired through the multiverse black market, not as bad as it sounds the salesman was a very nice gentleman named Pete, my father had accidentally cut himself on a piece of broken glass and a drop of blood made its way into the material, in turn creating me."

"Then...why did he get emotional over Screwball and say 'I'm a dad now?'"

Symph sighed and sat down. "When I was created, my father was surprised, but he did not consider me his son at that time, that had to be earned for completely understandable reasons. Don't get me wrong he was kind to me and didn't lock me up as a test subject, he began training me, teaching me and eventually came to terms with his role as a parent. He had more pressing matters to deal with in my early days, the fact that he was separated from his friends and family, not knowing how many survived the battle until a few months later, hunting down the Nightmares and several mental breakdowns, not to mention keeping Xram occupied."

'Mental breakdowns?'

As I was about to ask another question we sensed another portal appearing outside. We all walked outside to see Symbol jumping out of a portal. "Finally, managed to get enough energy to break that damn seal." He stretched a bit before looking to us. "So, what I miss?"

Symph pushed to the front of the group and smiled at Symbol. "Hello father."

Symbol smiled and ruffled the symbiotes hair. "Hey there kid, what's Roden got you here for? I thought you'd be off adventuring with Bill Cipher or getting used to your own Equestria."

"Well, there was a situation that needed taken care of here while you were away and has been dealt with, but it may be just the beginning of something far greater." Symph explained.

"Nightmares?"

"Nightmares."

"What did they do this time?" Symbol asked I a tired tone.

"Possessed a foal."

"Damn, I knew the Nightmares were cruel but tainting the mind of a child, that's something that even they should be ashamed of." He shook his head and looked towards me with a smile. "I take it you've already been introduced?"

I just nodded silently, multiple thoughts going through my head as I tried to process what had happened, like I'm sure a lot of you are as well.

"Good. The wedding isn't for another day or so, we have time to do a few things beforehand." He snapped his fingers and Symph nodded, his body became black and he fused with Symbol, disappearing into his body. "So, what do you want to do for now? Train, explore, play video games?" He asked.

I shook myself and rubbed the back of my head nervously. "Um, I actually wanted to talk to you about something if that's alright."

"That's fine, you wanna talk here or some place private?" He asked.

"I think a little privacy would be good yeah...is uh...is Symph gonna be listening?" I asked with concern.

"No, he's sleeping right now, used a lot of energy just getting here so he needs to recharge for an hour or so." He looked about before nodding over at a mountain. "There's a cave over in that mountain if you wanna talk there. Abi, could you leave us alone for a bit?"

The symbiote pony nodded and began walking towards the cabin. "Alright, I have a few things to do anyway, see you two lovebirds later."

Symbol looked confused. "Wait what was that last part I didn't catch it?"

Abi looked to me and I frantically shook my head. "I said I'll see you two birds later."

Symbol shrugged. "Meh, you've said weirder around my displaced." With that he teleported us both to the cave where we sat down on boulders opposite each other, me nervous about what I was going to ask. "Alright Ashley, what's on your mind?"

I shuffled a bit in my seat. "Well...you see...this is kind of awkward for me to ask you...you don't have to answer if you don't want to! It's just, I've learned certain things since Abi fused with me...and one of those things concerns me."

I saw his smile fade. "And what would that be?"

I took in a deep breath. "Do you...find me...attractive?"

He just stared at me, motionless, silent, no emotion on his face. I started regretting the decision to ask him that. "Um...well...look Ash I...I don't know how to respond to this..."

"Is that...a yes?" I asked with slight hope.

"Uh...Ashley...you're a good person and all...but...no...that doesn't matter anymore..." He took in a deep breath to clear his mind. "Ok...let me put this together a sec." I could tell he was trying to pick his words carefully, either to avoid embarrassment or to avoid hurting my feelings. "I find-" he was cut off as a large shockwave struck.

"Oh what now?!" We both rushed out of the cave and looked down towards Ponyville. "What..."

"The..."

"Fuck?!" We both said at the same time as we looked out at our newest target.

Author's Notes:

Cliffhangers, cliffhangers everywhere

If anyone has time, Symph now has his own story! You can check it out here!