//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Making New Friends 
// Story: Equestria Girls/Spider-man Book 1: Amazing 
// by Equestrian Defender 
//------------------------------//

The Sparkle family lived in a two story house on the far side of queens, surprising Flash at how close they'd been all this time and he never noticed. The house itself was painted a light purple with a white door, with two flowerbeds on either side of the door that looked like they just had seeds planted. The lawn itself was also very well maintained; no dandelions or crabgrass to be found. Clearly somebody liked keeping their lawn and garden looking nice.

He knocked three times on the door, and was kinda surprised when his Spidey-Sense went off.

The reason soon became clear as the door was thrown open and a purple and green foam dart shot out of the door way, missing his head by a mere centimeter. 

The shooter was a young boy who looked like he was twelve years old, with emerald green hair spiked up into a mohawk. His eyes were also emerald green, with his pupils noticeably thin like a lizard's. He wore a green t-shirt, over which he wore a purple jacket with a unique pattern that made it look like scales. He glared at Flash and said "For the last time, we're not buying any magazines."

Finding his voice, he said "I'm not selling anything. I was invited here."

As if to confirm that, a lady's voice called from the kitchen "Spike! Is our guest here?"

Eyes widening, Flash mentally asked himself why this version of Spike was a human. Either the mirror's messed up on the Equestrian side, or some cosmic being out there really likes to mess with the Spike from that world.

Spike turned his head towards the kitchen and asked "Messy blue hair, matching blue eyes..." He took notice of Flash's attire. "...a really cool looking jacket?"

Another voice, his Aunt May's, replied "That's him."

"Yeah, he's here." He moved out of the way and said "I'm really sorry about that. A couple guys from another school keep coming here and begging us to buy magazine subscriptions for some stupid fundraiser. And they-"

"-don't know how to take no for an answer," Flash finished. "Yeah. Been there. Though I never used a Nerf gun to scare them off." A joking smirk on his face, he added "I usually use my uncle's old laser gun."

Catching onto the joke, Spike replied "Well, sorry. My laser gun's in the shop."

There was a few seconds of silence, before Spike and Flash burst out laughing. Spike then moved so Flash could step inside. He did so, and immediately noticed a lot of pictures on the wall. Spike noticed him looking and said "Yeah, Cadance likes to take pictures."

"Cadance?"

Spike pointed to a picture of him, Twilight, Lieutenant Shining Armor (which didn't surprise him as he did tell Spider-man that Twilight was his little sister), and a woman he didn't recognize standing against a white backdrop, all smiling. The woman had light purple eyes and tri-colored hair of pink, purple, and blonde. Shining Armor had his arm around said woman, and Flash heard Spike say "We got that picture taken when my big brother Shining Armor got promoted to Lieutenant. The lady he's got his arm over is his wife, Cadance. Those two have been married for... Um. Hold on." He turned down the hall and yelled "Cadance! How long have you and Big Bro been married again?"

The female voice from earlier replied "Once we hit July, three years."

"Yeah. The girl with the glasses is my big sister, Twilight Sparkle. She's one of the smartest people I know. She even got an internship at-"

"-Oscorp" Flash finished for him, pointing to a picture of Twilight in her Oscorp lab coat.

"Yeah."

"So, any idea what kind of doomsday device she's working on or-?"

Spike shrugged his shoulders. "No clue. All she says is that she's working with the scientists in the Energy Research Division, so I'm guessing she's trying to make the next Arc Reactor. But from what she says most of it is 'hush hush.'" He put air quotes around hush hush, which basically translated into Twilight couldn't tell you unless she wanted fired.

They both heard footsteps, and turned to see Cadance walking towards them. "Well, I see you've seen my handiwork."

Flash nodded, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Cadance." He then pointed to the pictures on the wall. "These are really nice."

She beamed at the praise. "Thank you. Your Aunt says that you also like photography."

"Yeah. I'd show you but I kinda left my camera back home."

"Maybe next time, then." She then saw Spike picking up the dart from his Nerf gun, and asked "Really?"

"I thought he was one of those guys who kept trying to get us to buy their magazine subscriptions."

"I understand that. But a Nerf gun?"

"Well you guys won't buy me a paintball gun and Twilight won't build me a laser gun."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Cadance burst into a fit of giggles while Spike chuckled. Even Flash cracked a smile. Regaining her composure, Cadance said "Go get the table set up, you silly little dragon."

With a quick nod and a "See you later, Flash." he walked off to the kitchen. Flash looked at Cadance and asked "Dragon?"

"Spike likes dragons. Well, lizards in general but he really likes dragons."

Flash smirked, wondering how this Spike would react if he ever found out that his counterpart in Equestria was an ACTUAL dragon. He noticed a picture of Twilight wearing the uniform for Crystal Prep Academy, with Cadence wearing one of the faculty uniforms, both smiling brightly. "Are you one of the teachers at Crystal Prep?"

She nodded. "I'm the Dean of Students." She saw him looking at the picture and added "Yeah, she goes to Crystal Prep too. And a prime candidate for Valedictorian."

That would explain why no one's seen her around CHS before, since Crystal Prep was on the other side of Midtown. Plus the schools hate each other, so... yeah. "You know, Aunt May and Uncle Ben considered sending me to Crystal Prep."

"Your Aunt did say you were pretty smart. You probably would fit right in."

"Yeah. But then we saw the tuition fees."

Cadance winced, replying with an awkward "Yeah. I've tried to get Principal Cinch to consider lowering them, but..."

She didn't need to finish. Flash Sentry had overheard enough horror stories about Abacus Cinch from Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna. Enough to know that she wasn't a friendly person, and that she pretty much ran her school with an iron fist and a heart so cold that it made a tub of liquid nitrogen look like bath water. 

It made him glad at times that he did go to CHS.

Deciding to change the subject, Cadance asked "Could you do me a favor?"

"Um, sure?"

"Could you tell Twilight that dinner's going to be ready soon? She's working on something in her workshop and she-"

"-tends to get so absorbed in what she's doing you need a stick of dynamite to get her attention" Flash finished.

"Two sticks of dynamite, and yes." 

"Been there with a friend of mine. I'll see what I can do. Where's her workshop?" 





Twilight Sparkle's workshop was actually a medium sized shed in the backyard. The only way you'd know it was her workshop was a keypad next to the double-door that was linked to the electronic lock on the other side that Cadance told him about. Now, some would consider that being a tad paranoid. But Flash had a homemade electronic lock on his room that he used whenever he was working on his web shooters, so who was he to judge?

Since he didn't know the code he settled for knocking on the door loudly. He only had to wait a few minutes before the door opened and revealed Twilight Sparkle wearing a lab coat and electrician's gloves, her usual glasses in place. Her hair was still in its usual bun, but somehow it managed to look messy even with the purple ribbon tying it back. She looked at him and asked "Can I help you?"

Realizing he was staring, he shook himself out of it and awkwardly replied "Uh, hi! My name's Flash Sentry." Seeing her confused look he added "We talked on the phone earlier."

The proverbial light bulb went off and she said "Oh, you're May's nephew."

"Bingo."

They shook hands, with Twilight adding "Nice to meet you. You're Aunt's talks about you a lot."

Flash groaned. "Please tell me she didn't show you any baby pictures."

Giggling, she answered "Well..."

Fortunately he was saved from the embarrassment by a loud beeping from within the workshop, which Twilight immediately rushed to. Seeing the door was still open, Flash figured he may as well go in.

And he had to say, it looked more like a laboratory than a workshop. 

The back wall had several diagrams and blueprints taped up of various machines; some of which were recognizable like different versions of prosthetic limbs and what looked like a video surveillance drone that could fit in the palm of your hand. But a few were a bit more obscure, though he figured Twilight knew what they were. 

The wall to his right had several tools and pieces of equipment ranging from welding goggles to various hammers and wire cutters, as well as a soldering iron. Everything was organized so neatly and carefully that it bordered on O.C.D. Wonder if that's a trait ALL Twilight Sparkles share?

The wall to his left had a large whiteboard that almost reached the ceiling, with a ladder leaning off to the side. The board was covered in various equations, many of which even he couldn't figure out.

In the center of the room were several tables filled with various machine parts and what appeared to be a few prototypes of  the machines from the diagrams, many of which had wires sticking out or missing pieces. One table had a purple and silver laptop with a six point purple star on the outside, which Twilight Sparkle was rapidly typing away at. Without even looking up she said "Please don't touch anything."

Nodding, Flash found himself asking "Where did you get all this stuff?"

"Weekly dumpster-diving, scrapyard-diving, lots of allowance-saving, and a bit of Cadance's paycheck that I plan to pay her back for in the future," she replied. "No... that's not gonna work."

Looking at her laptop, he noticed that a cord was attached to a small metal disk with a few lights on it. "What're you working on?"

"Just a personal project of mine." She pressed a few more keys on her laptop and the disk began to light up, only for the lights to suddenly dim and shut off. "Ugh! Why won't it work?"

Curious, Flash got a closer look at the machine. He turned it over and immediately noticed she hadn't yet put the covering on the back, exposing an Oscorp Power Cell that could fit in the palm of his hand. Not as good as an Arc Reactor, but it'll get the job done. Curiosity getting the better of him he flipped the device over, picked up a screwdriver and began unscrewing the top off. 

Seeing him do this, Twilight quickly admonished "I thought I said not to touch anything?"

Taking the top of the device off, Flash immediately identified the problem. "Your voltage is cranked up way too high."

"What?" 

"It's releasing too much power and overloading your components. It's a miracle the thing didn't just explode."

Twilight quickly pulled something up on her computer and was genuinely surprised to see he was right. "Huh. I thought I had it lower than that." Looking back up at Flash she began "Do you think you could..."

But to her surprise Flash had already begun replacing some of the damaged components for new ones, as well as making sure they were the right ones for the job. After a few minutes he put the whole machine back together, including the casing for the underside, and said "Go ahead and try it now."

Nodding, she activated the disk again. The lights began to glow again, but unlike last time they stayed lit up. Looking over the screen she couldn't help but smile. "It's working perfectly." She then looked up at Flash and said "Thank you so much!"

"It was nothing," he replied, a bit sheepish. "So, what's this thing supposed to do?"

Grinning, Twilight unplugged the cord and typed in a few commands. "See for yourself."

To Flash's surprise the disk began spinning and eventually lift off of the table, before shining a purple light around the room. "It's a... drone?" he guessed.

She nodded. "My Multipurpose Aerial Scanner Drone, or M.A.S.D. (I need a better name for it.) This drone will be able to scan everything in a five foot radius and detect anything from homemade bombs to a five-year-old with a high fever."

Whistling, Flash replied "That's some impressive scanning tech." 

Checking her laptop, she frowned. "Yeah. But I think it's got a ways to go."

"What makes you say that" he asked.

"Well in the last few seconds it's been running its scanner, it's scanned you-"

That can't be good.

"-and you've apparently got some sort of anomaly in your genetic structure."

DEFINITELY not good.

She looked up at him and added "But you seem completely normal. SO, either there's a glitch in my software or..."

She let the sentence hanging, obviously expecting an answer, and Flash weighed his options. 

On the one hand, he could lie to her and say there was nothing wrong with him.

The problem was he was a terrible liar (especially around cute girls) and she'd more than likely go to ask Aunt May and the whole thing would just snowball from there like one of those bad romantic comedies Rarity like to watch.

On the other hand he could tell her the truth and convince her to keep it a secret. This option might put her at risk, but she seemed trustworthy and he seriously doubted she'd tell anyone. After all, he did save her life earlier today.

That option looked to be the best one he could find.

So with a sigh, he said "You have to promise not to tell anyone."

A bit surprised, she asked "Even your Aunt?"

"Especially not her! She's worries about me enough as it is, I don't need to add more to that." 

"Well, okay. I promise I won't tell anyone." 

"Alright. Now close your eyes."

"Huh?"

He smirked. "Just trust me."

Rolling her eyes, Twilight closed them and said "This better be something Amazing, or I just might change my mind about not telling anyone."

"Nope. A promise is a promise" she heard him remark. 

"Sure it is."

After a few seconds, she heard him say "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

She did so, and her mouth fell to the floor at the sight before her.

Flash Sentry was now hanging upside down from the ceiling, suspended by a line of very familiar webbing. The sleeves of his jacket were pulled back to reveal his Web Shooters and the lower half of his suit's sleeves. Grinning, he asked "THIS amazing enough for you?"

She fumbled with her words for a few seconds, before eventually finding her voice. "Y-you're Spider-man? THE Spider-man?"

"Unless there's another web-slinging, wall-crawling superhero in New York City that I don't know about."

"Y-you saved my life. You saved everyone at the Research Center."

"It's all part of the job. Though I will admit I wasn't expecting to fight someone like Shocker." He then looked concerned and asked "You're not going to faint on me, are you?"

Taking deep breathes like Cadence showed her, she shook her head. "N-no no. I just... need to process this for a second."

Releasing the web-line and landing on his feet, Flash said "Take your time. I figured this would probably be a bit of a shock."

After a few seconds, she finally regained her composure and asked "So, the anomaly in your genetic structure. Those are your spider-powers?"

Flash shrugged. "I guess so."

"Are you a mutant?"

Shaking his head, he replied "No. My powers are genetic, but I wasn't born with them."

"Then how'd you get them."

"During a field trip last year, I got bit by one of Oscorps Cross-Species spiders that got loose from its cage."

Twilight nodded at that. "I heard that one of the spiders escaped from containment."

"Yeah, and it bit me. I went to bed that night with a high fever and a little nausea. When I woke up the next morning, I was sticking to the ceiling and walls. I could sense things around me, especially if they were going to hurt me. And I was strong enough to bend a metal pipe like it was Play-doh. As for my webs..."

Flash was very surprised at how easy it was to tell her this stuff. Honestly, the only person who knew his identity (aside from Tony and the other Avengers who weren't wanted criminals) was Thorax. He'd gone to a lot of lengths to keep his identity secret from his friends and his Aunt.

But sitting her, telling all this to Twilight, felt strangely relieving. Almost as if a massive weight had been taken off of his shoulders.

Twilight listened diligently, only asking the occasional question on the limits of his powers or how his Web Shooters and Web-Fluid worked. 

But finally she asked the question he had been expecting, and maybe a little bit dreading. "Why did you decide to become Spider-man?"

With a sigh, he looked at her and replied "Because I messed up. Badly. And I ended up losing someone very close to me."

Looking slightly ashamed, Twilight said "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Flash sighed. "Well, I do want to.

'Back when I first got my powers..."





"What is taking them so long" Cadance mused aloud as she poured the last of the noodles into the strainer.

As she stirred the spaghetti sauce, May smiled. "Knowing my nephew, he's probably being distracted by all of Twilight's gadgets and gizmos. I did warn you he loved that kind of stuff."

A sly grin appearing on her face, Cadance asked "So, they're both incredibly smart, both like science, and they're both kind off socially awkward."

"I think Flash is a little better at that, but yes." Realizing where she was going with this, May smirked. "I think they would make a cute couple. Assuming your husband doesn't scare him off."

Cadance giggled. "Knowing Shining, he would." Looking at the clock, she said "I'll give them another five minutes before I fetch them for dinner." 

Because it's been a long time since Twiley's had a friend, she mused in her head.