//------------------------------// // Trust and Confidentiality // Story: The Amazing Spider-Man: Wrath of the Night // by Themagicspoderman //------------------------------// Twilight was sat at the dinner table with her mother and father, the sound of cutlery clinking against plates and the soft chewing from each person kept complete silence at bay while their conversation remained at a standstill. "So..." Star said eventually, setting her cutlery down as she looked at her daughter with a raised eyebrow. With the short word spoken she gained Twilight's attention but she had hoped to gain the interest of Twilight's father too, easily succeeding in her task. After allowing a brief pause in between her words she continued to speak. "Peter, huh?" Star asked. Though her tone was a questioning one it was clear that it was more of a statement of fact, knowing full well who Twilight had chosen to start her first, and hopefully, serious relationship with. Twilight finished her mouthful of her dinner and set her own knife and fork before slowly wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Y-yeah... you, uh, don't mind do you?" Twilight asked. Star's eyes briefly hovered over her husband, the quiet man catching his wife's glance a second after she had given it before the two parents turned their focus back onto their daughter. "Not at all" Star said with a genuine smile as she tucked her fingers around the bowl-like base of her wine glass and lifted it to her mouth but halting just before placing it against her lips. "But?" Twilight asked, a hard lump of anxiety forming in her throat. Her mother looked at her in the eyes before giving her a questioning glance. "But what?" she returned calmly. "You sounded like you were going to say something else then..." Twilight said as she looked between her two parents with a nervous expression "I'm not in trouble am I?" "No, no, you're not in trouble honey it's just that... well..." Star said in a very unsure tone. It was when she began to falter that her husband stepped in and began to explain clearly to Twilight what Star was having difficultly with. "Twi, your mother isn't against you and Peter being together but she just wishes she and I could've gotten to know Peter a little better before the two of you began courting" Night said with a soft smile. "Dating Dad, nobody calls it courting anymore except old fuddy-duddies" Twilight chuckled as she shifted her broccoli around on her plate with the prongs of her fork, trying her best to avoid making the scratching noise of metal-on-porcelain that her mother despised so much. "And are you supposing that I am one of these aforementioned 'fuddy-duddies'?" Night asked with a smirk. "Going on the fact that you still don't know how to answer a touch screen phone I'm going to say yes to that" Twilight chuckled. "I take offense to that" Night said, crossing his arms with a fake pout on his lips. "Wow, I knew you were out of touch with today's world but I didn't think you were also an enormous wuss" Twilight grinned. The three of them chuckled at the joke before Star took the reigns on the conversation again, getting them back on topic as she had figured out how to word her sentences. "Jokes aside Twilight, your father's right about it" she spoke after finishing her sip of red wine "We're both feeling a little in the dark about Peter because we haven't really had that much of a chance to talk to him since he moved here" Twilight nodded slowly although it was obvious to see that she was slightly disheartened by her parent's views. "Now before you go and sulk in the corner for the rest of the night we aren't forcing you to break up with Peter, at this point in time anyway" Star continued quickly before her daughter's mood soured "We'd just like it if you spent enough time with him here to allow us to just, you know, get to know him a little better is all, Ok honey?" "Yeah, alright" Twilight said as she breathed a secret sigh of relief at the fact she was not forbidden from seeing Peter "I could see if he wants to come here after school on Monday if you guys want to talk to him that badly?" Twilight's parents glanced at each other once more before nodding at Twilight with grateful smiles. "If it'll make you feel any better Twilight, from what I've seen of Peter as of yet he seems like a very responsible and trustworthy young man" Star said. Twilight smiled in kind to her mother's supportive comment before turning to face her father as he spoke to her. "And I don't think he's the kind of kid that does stupid things that'll get him into trouble" Night shrugged before cutting a warm, buttery potato in half and stabbing it with his fork. "This is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done" Spider-Man thought to himself as he used his web to lower himself down into the dark office of police commissioner Darren Eades. The office was a rather large room lined with bookshelves and filing cabinets filled with case files, that from a look into some of the open drawers, were older than he was. At first glance he was unable to tell what kind of security systems they had in the office but seeing as how this was Canterlot's police HQ and this was also the head honcho's office he figured it wouldn't exactly be a tripwire-and-cans setup. The darkness of the room made his sense of sight rather useless as even while his vision had adjusted to the low light environment the lenses of the mask darkened it further. "What in the heavens possessed me to make the lenses out of sunglasses?" he asked himself as he looked around the office slowly "Spider-Man, Spider-Man does what ever a spider can, catches thieves just like flies. needs to make himself flashlight eyes" Underneath the mask he blinked twice before slapping himself full in the face with the flat palm of his hand. "Oh man that was awful he groaned mentally "Someone arrest me now because I think I just violated every law of comedy in existence" After gathering what was left of his comedic integrity off the floor he carefully examined the room, using every extrasensory abilities his Spider-Sense gave to him to find out what would give away his position or alert any types of security in the room or main building. After discovering the security system in the office was rather lack luster he dropped silently down to the floor, throwing the web up to the ceiling and away from immediate line of sight. He knew that if he needed to make a quick getaway and leave the web behind it would take the police a lot less than the web's one hour dissolving time for them to notice it. "Wow, the security in here is about as advanced as..." he thought before stopping again "No, I think I'm still banned from any forms of comedy after that offense against humor I just made... bad Spidey, bad" He quietly made his way over to the selection of filing cabinets and began to look for a date closest to the present. He was looking for any evidence or interview transcripts the police may have created while talking to the supposed leader of the Moon Cult that had been trying to buy a piece of what Spider-Man guessed was Nightmare Moon's armor. If he had given up any evidence or statement that would allow him to track down where this cult operated or where their base of operations was he was going to use that information to try and put a stop to their plans before they could begin. As his extremely dark vision settled on what he guessed was the date of two days ago he attempted to open the filing cabinet with a gentle tug. I really hope this thing doesn't screech when you open it" he thought "I... I can't even make a follow-up joke to what I just said... maybe I should just give up and throw my costume in a trash can somewhere, I'm supposed to be the wise-cracking web-slinger here but right now I'm having the same amount of comedic creativity as a Youtube comment" Upon attempting to open the cabinet he discovered that it was locked. In a moment of pure stupidity he pulled harder for a brief second before a light clicked on in his brain. And then in a moment of pure horror he realized that it wasn't a light in his head, it was a light in the room. "Well, well looks like we've got a bug in our system" a familiar voice said from the doorway. Spider-Man turned around to see Shining Armor standing with his back against the now closed door with his arms crossed. He wore a pair of black suit pants and a white T-Shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his muscular arms. A blue tie hung loosely at his neck with his top button being open. The two looked at each other for a brief moment before Spider-Man spoke up. "In all seriousness I have to say, a black tie would've gone much better with the detective outfit" he said as he held a raised finger in front of his chest. "Am I seriously getting an education on fashion from the guy dressed in the Care-Bear colored spandex?" Shining asked sarcastically. "Hey, you wear your uniform to work and I wear mine" Spider-Man retorted. "And what workforce wears that uniform?" Shining asked as he walked over to the large wooden desk and leaned against it "The Lollipop Guild?" Spider-Man was silent as he felt the sting of his pride being damaged once before but Shining still wasn't letting up. "Besides, the suit looks cheap, the orange eyes don't match with anything else on you and they're way too small" he continued. "Jeez, can we just stop with the fashion onslaught already?" Spider-Man asked irritably "I didn't come here to be lectured by the Guru of Fashion himself" "Fine, but before we move onto a new topic I just have to say, my wife's a fashion designer, if you need a suit that looks like someone with more than three fingers and rubber needles made then you should probably ask her" "Gee thanks" Spider-Man sighed, standing up straight and looking at the taller man. "So, how urgently do I need to arrest you for what you're doing in here?" Shining asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking up at the clock on the wall. "I'm trying to help" Spider-Man stated. "If you think you can help with the investigation then can you please submit a form to the desk during work hours and one of our officers will get back to you within three to six days" Shining said, lacing his voice with even more sarcasm. The two looked at each other for a long second, the clock ticking quietly, before Shining chuckled softly. He clapped his hands together before holding them out at the costumed superhero. "What are you doing in here to try and help us and with what exactly?" he asked patiently. "That guy we busted during the deal with the Russian mob, I need to know what he's said to you" Spider-Man answered. Shining's expression grew serious, his eyebrows furrowing as his blue eyes hardened. "Normally I would tell you about this outright and I'm sure Celestia would too, but if we're seen giving classified information to a lawless vigilante like yourself a lot of good people could lose their jobs and reputations, I hope you can see why we haven't come straight to you with it" Shining said slowly. "Yeah, you guys have gotta keep those shiny medals on your chest as long as you can" Spider-Man nodded "But what exactly can you tell me under the table?" "Unofficially I can say that everything we learn from this guy is put into a portfolio that I was too tired to put in its proper file location last night and that a certain masked vigilante webbed it away in the night" Shining said, placing a brown file on the table and turning back towards the door. "Aren't you going to get hell for this?" Spider-Man asked as he placed his fingers flat on the file, reading the name before looking up at Shining. "Yeah, that's if the commissioner can stand to listen Cadence rant at him for forty minutes about all the things I've done for him and how many uncalled favors he owes me" Shining shrugged. "Is the commissioner a stubborn man?" Spider-Man asked as he looked up at the clock, seeing that it had just gone eleven at night. "Very" Shining nodding. "Then may the heavens have mercy on his soul" Spider-Man chuckled, grabbing the file and leaping back up to the windowsill he had entered through "Thanks Captain" "No problem kid" Shining noted. Spider-Man leapt out of the window, leaving Shining to click off the office light and make his way back to the main floor to continue ignoring the paperwork he was supposed to be filling in.