//------------------------------// // 45. Mirrored Perspective // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------//     For Firestarter, working at a convenience store was a rather dull experience. Almost nothing ever happened in the store, whenever there was something going on it would always be after his shift. Though as the red skinned teen glanced upwards at the convex mirror, he couldn’t help but wish today was just another dull day instead of the one he was likely going to have. “Why couldn’t it just have been my bullies…” He hissed, quickly pressing the emergency button under his desk and, as if they knew what he was doing, the two masked men immediately began walking towards him. “C-can I help you today sirs?” The blonde teen asked, putting up a large fake smile.     The two took out their guns and pointed it at him. “Yeah, you can hand over all of your money.” The masked man in the back walked forwards and took out a plastic bag, gesturing for the teen to put the money in the bag with his gun.     Firestarter gulped, wishing he had his lighter to calm him. He raised his covered arm up and opened the register, grabbing bundles of cash from it and dumping it into the bag.     The first robber narrowed his eyes at the amount. “What is this?” He asked, lifting the bag up. “Do you think this is a joke?! Is this really all you have?” He yelled, pointing the gun at him.     “We don’t really have a lot of customers…” The blonde teen gulped, eyeing the waving gun. Feeling a little braver, he continued speaking. "This is also a convenience store, we don't keep all the money in the cash registers." The robber scoffed. "Fine then, we'll just help ourselves to all the goods you have here." The two masked gunmen starting grabbing all of the items off of the counter and dumping them inside the bag. "Wow. Talk about pathetic," a voice said by the entrance. Looking towards the speaker, everyone saw a figure leaning by the door with his arms crossed and wearing a pure black suit that seem to reflect light with a matching mask that had pure white eyes. The masked man raised an eyebrow and pointed his gun at him. "Who are you calling pathetic? Don't you know that Halloween already passed, kid?" "Why don't you just leave before you get hurt trying to play hero?" The second man said, waving his gun at him. "Sheesh, talk about deja vu," Dark said to Venom. He then looked to the first robber. "And I'm calling you pathetic since you look like you're trying so hard just to rob this place." The robber scowled, cocking the gun. “You sure do like to talk big, kid. Why don’t you just drop whatever you have before we make you regret playing hero.” The second man took a few careful steps forward, glaring at the costumed figure. Dark just looked at them, undeterred. "So, you are just gonna shoot me if I don't walk away?" The second robber chuckled. “Yeah that’s right, and if I were you I would take that offer.” The gunman walked closer to him. “But if you’d like I can just save us all the trouble and shoot you right now since you’re so dead set on playing hero.” The gunman poked Dark with the gun. Dark rose an eyebrow behind his "mask" with it showing a similar expression. "You tired of these guys too?" "Yes." "Okay then," Dark said before immediately grabbing the arm of the closest robber and pulling it to the floor. Before the other one can react, Dark shot a web to his gun and pulled it away from his hand, and finally webbing it to the ceiling. The first one tried to punch Dark, but he simply caught the fist and squeeze it enough to cause the guy to fall to his knees. The gunmen cried out in pain as he glared hatefully at Dark. “What the hell?” He hissed out. “How the hell are you able to do that? You some kind of freak?!” Dark's eyes widened before he narrowed them in anger, his eyes turning red in response with his mask matching. He started growling and let go of the robber before grabbing him by the collar and lifted him up with ease. "What did you just call me?" The masked robber gulped, his eyes widening in fear as he stared at the red eyes. “W-what the hell are you?!” He screamed as he started flailing around in panic. "Tito, calm down," Venom told the Displaced. After looking away for a moment, Dark calmed down before looking back at the thug in his grasp. "Name's DarkSpider." And with that, Dark lowered him before headbutting him hard enough for the thief to knock out. Dark then let go of him and looked to the second one, who was frozen in shock. "You gonna try anything stupid?" The thug shook his head, and got down on his knees, raising his arms up in the air in defeat. “I surrender, just don’t hurt me.” The gunman pleaded. Dark glared at him before pushing him to the nearest wall and webbing him to it. "That should hold you until the cops show up." "We should leave before that happens." "Agreed," Dark muttered, quiet enough so nobody else can hear. With that said, he left the building and web zipped to a nearby roof. Walking around the two gunmen, Firestarter stepped outside the building and watched as the hero left. The red skinned teen continued to stare in awe, even as a number of police cars parked in front of the store. His attention was stolen when a woman with curly red hair snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Uh, can I help you officer?” The pale skinned woman nodded. “Yes we received a signal coming from this store, and from the looks of things it seems like everything is fine…” She looked around the front of the store, not noticing anything suspicious. “Have the thieves already gotten away? And if so, what direction did they go?” The officer asked. Firestarter merely pointed at the store. “They’re still inside.” Her eyes narrowed as she reached for her gun. “Hostages?” He shook his head. “Some guy in a costume came in and beat them up…” He turned back, and scratched his head. “He also covered one of them in some sticky webs, and he was stuck to the walls of the store.” The officer raised an eyebrow, turning towards two other officers, she motioned them to head inside. “So a man in a costume came in to the store as it was it being robbed and stopped the thieves with some webs?” The teen nodded, and the officer sighed. “Alright then, why don’t you go with my partner while I investigate inside.” Following her instructions, the teen walked towards one of the cars, just before her partner can leave, she held him back. “Check in case he’s suffering from a concussion, I’m going to head in.” Not waiting for an answer, Officer Valor made her way inside, her hand on top of her weapon. Seeing the other two policemen gathering around one of the walls, she spoke up. “Gentlemen, what’s going on? Have the thieves been detained?” One of the officers sighed, and nodded. “Yeah, and not by us.” He answered, taking a step back and revealing a webbed up masked man. Valor’s eyes widen as she stepped closer to them. “No idea what it is, it's sticky and we can’t really pull or rip it off.” “Like some kind of web…” Valor whispered to herself, no longer feeling suspicious about the teen’s story. “The other one? Is he trapped too?” The officer shook his head. “Nope, just unconscious.” Just as she was reaching over to touch the webbing, the sticky substance began to fade away, causing her to take a step back and grab her gun. Seeing that nothing bad was happening, she took her hand away from the weapon and took out a pair of handcuffs. “Sir we have a few questions to ask you, but first we need you to come with us.” She told shivering robber. The gunman nodded quickly. “I’ll tell you anything, just make sure that freak can’t find me.” Valor narrowed her eyes. “We’ll see what we can do.” She placed the handcuffs on him. “Take him to the parking lot, read him his rights.” The officer next to her nodded, and picked the gunman up. Quickly turning back, she called out to the leaving officer. “Oh, and bring the kid here, I want to ask him some more questions.” Just as she was about to make her way to the store counter, she noticed a second, unconscious gunman. “Stay here with him in case he wakes up will you? Don’t let anyone touch him until the ambulance arrive.” She ordered the second officer. Taking out her notepad, she began quickly writing a few things down on it. She sighed as her shoulders dropped, raising her head to stare at the ceiling, her eyes widened when she noticed a webbed up gun at the ceiling of the store. With the webbing finally dissolving, she quickly caught the falling the weapon before it can hit the floor, having to throw herself to the floor to catch it. She sighed in relief when the gun didn’t go off, and placed it at the counter. “What the hell is going on here?” Valor asked herself, looking around in confusion. Dark landed in an alleyway after a few minutes of fleeing the store. As he walked down the alley, Venom slipped back into Dark. "You okay?" Dark sighed. "Yeah. Just...really hate that." "Believe me, I know." Dark shook his head as he put on his hood and walked out of the alley. Almost immediately after turning a corner however, he bumped into someone. After taking a step back, he muttered, "You'd think with spider-sense that that'd happen less…" "Tito?" Dark blinked before looking at who he ran into, seeing Sunset Shimmer. "Oh. Hey Sunset. Didn't expect to see you here." Sunset waved awkwardly. “I can say the same thing about you. It's been awhile.” She greeted with a small smile. “So what brings you here?” "We-" Dark started before shaking his head. "I mean, I wanted to check this place out since the last time I was here, I spent the whole time at that concert hall." Sunset nodded. “I see, well the city is a big place and I wouldn’t want you to get lost, so why don’t I join you?” She smiled. “We can catch up as well, I’ve been curious as to what’s been going on in Equestria since the last time we’ve talked.” Dark shrugged. "Sure. Though trust me, I have my own way of figuring out where I'm going. Was able to traverse Manehatten easily my first time." “Well I’m sure using your webs to be able to see most of the city from above has nothing to do with it.” Sunset motioned Dark to follow her as she led them to a nearby mall. “So how's everything back in Equestria?” Dark hummed as he remembered everything since his last visit. "Well Cece and I became Twilight's guards, we fought an evil version of a Displaced, found out Rainbow has a special gene that allows her to control water and heal fast, stayed in Canterlot for the last couple months, met Discord's daughter, I fought a comic book villain with shock gauntlets, gained an adopted daughter, befriended Trixie, met a very experienced Displaced who gave me access to magic and the ability to become a wolf, found out two of my cousins were Displaced and reunited with one of them, went to a convention, fought another villain with robotic wings, bonded to a symbiote, found out an evil organization exists, got my own dragon, fixed my issues in Ponyville, and got a Keyblade." He then stood silent for a few seconds. "Yeah, I think that's everything important." Sunset stood silent for several seconds, feeling a bit overwhelmed from all of the info that was dumped on her. “Uhh… well sounds like you’ve been busy… It's great that you’ve reunited with your family.” She narrowed her eyes a bit. “What was that part about an evil organization? That sounds serious… and dangerous.” Dark sighed. "If they're anything like the versions I know about, extremely. Doesn't help that they know my secret." Sunset turned towards Dark, looking worried. “They know your identity? Do you think they have ponies spying on you?” "Or they had someone present during the fiasco with Nisled. Most of the town saw my face during that, and no doubt some saw me use my powers." "And one member definitely hates your guts." "Yeah, the guy I bit and who we crushed the arm of," Dark responded verbally. Sunset turned towards Dark with a concerned look. “You…. bit and crushed someone’s arm?” Dark blinked. "Right...sometimes forget only I can hear him…" he then shook his head. "But yeah, back at the convention I mentioned. Some guys in that organization attacked me and my daughter and revealed they knew both who and what I was. So, long story short, I fought back. Turned into a wolf and bit the arm of the one who talked. Imagine how painful a bite from a wolf that's 5 feet tall would be." Sunset shuddered. “No doubt it’d be painful, from what I remember a normal wolf can crush bones with just a few bites. Depending on the damage he might have to get a prosthetic if they couldn’t heal it with magic.” She turned away shyly. “Learned about that from a game, wolves were always a pain to fight against, especially in packs.” "Noted. But yeah, he escaped while I focused on someone else. Then a few days later, I ran into him again in Manehatten and he had a robotic arm. I honestly would've died, if not for Venom." Her eyes widen in alarm. “You almost died?! Are you okay? You don’t have any lasting injuries do you?!” She shook her head, trying to calm herself down. “I’m just glad that whoever this Venom guy is he was there to save you… need to thank him if I ever meet him.” "No need since he can hear you just fine." "You enjoy being cryptic?" "Maybe a little," Dark responded, looking away from Sunset as he did so. “What do you mean?” Sunset asked. “You have your phone with you or something? He’s on speaker with us right now?” Dark stopped and then used his spider sense to check that nobody was around before mentally giving Venom the go ahead. A moment later, Venom surrounded Dark's arm for the fourth time that day and turned to Sunset. Sunset’s eyes widen as she jumped back in surprise. “What is that?! Why is it surrounding your arm?!” She asked, nearly yelling. "Sunset Shimmer, this is Venom. He's a symbiote made from my DNA that bonded to me during my fight." Sunset stared at Venom, wide eyed, for a few seconds before shaking her head. “Um, hello.” She waved shyly. “Thanks for saving Dark…” "Not like I'd leave him to die," Venom responded. "Especially after he freed me from being a puppet of Hydra." She jumped again from hearing the symbiote speak. “Sorry, just didn’t expect you to talk.” Sunset glanced between the two of them. “So I’m guessing Hydra is the name of this evil organization? Sounds like an evil enough name.” "Yup," Dark and Venom said in unison. Dark then said, "They made Venom and 2 others and one of them was freed. Luckily it was the good one." "Lucky for everyone," Venom added. “Why would it be lucky that only two of you escaped?” Sunset asked. “Was the other one bad or something?” Dark was about to answer her before his spider sense went off. Reacting quickly, Dark immediately ran off with Venom returning into his body. Dark ignored the Sunset's cries to slow down, allowing his instincts to guide him. Spotting a tall black gate in front of him, he ran past the front entrance and darted to the nearest tree, looking around the area for any signs of trouble. Deciding to go in deeper into the park, he finally caught the sound of people speaking, walking towards the source of the voices, he saw a group of teens surrounding someone with a hood covering their face. He edged closer to them so he can hear them. "P-please...don't…" the hooded person pleaded, their voice revealing to be a female and sounded very familiar to Dark for some reason. "Is that really her?" Venom asked in surprise. 'Who?' Dark asked. But before Venom can reply, one of the crowd members started talking. "Did you think we would just forget?" The largest of them scowled, cracking his knuckles. "You and that little group of yours caused a lot of trouble." Another one cracked his knuckles. "And now that we got you alone, we're gonna give you something long overdue." After that, they all stepped closer and pushed her to the ground. Immediately after that, they all started to hear a growl. Turning to the noise, everyone saw a pair of glowing red eyes, causing the group to immediately take a step back in shock. The creature stepped out of the shadows, revealing it to be a large wolf, standing just a few inches shorter than most of the group. The wolf kept growling as it stepped closer to them before letting out a loud bark. Taking that as a cue to run, the group did so as fast as they could while the wolf chased them for half a minute. Once Dark was satisfied, he returned to the shadows before changing back to his human form. After waiting a few seconds, he looped around so that he approached the girl from the opposite direction from where he chased her would be attackers. Spotting the girl shivering on the floor, Dark slowly walked up towards her. Hearing him come closer, the hooded girI started crawling away in fear. “P-please don’t hurt me.” Dark stepped back on lifted his hands. "Whoa, calm down. What happened?” She stayed silent for a moment before saying, “You don't know?” “I just got here a few minutes ago and heard screaming. How could I know?” She quickly scanned the area around them, trying to see if the monster she saw was still around, satisfied that it was gone she turned towards Dark and gulped. “There was a monster here, it looked like a giant wolf!” She turned away “It was chasing some guys who were here earlier, I just hope it doesn’t come back.” Dark rose an eyebrow and looked around. “Well I don't see any giant wolves. Plus I may not have been here long, but I doubt there are any wolves here.” He then walked towards her and extended his arm. She looked at him for a few moments before hesitantly grabbing it as he pulled her to her feet. “There we go. Are you okay?” “Y-yeah, I'm fine,” she said, sounding confused. “You seriously can't recognize her?” Venom asked. ‘Should I?’ Venom let out a sigh. “You should actually look at her face. Might help your memory.” Dark rolled his eyes before taking a closer look at the girl, the moonlight just barely reaching her face. He saw that she had light blue skin and reddish eyes, and even saw a bit of her hair, which was two different shades of blue. Dark blinked and did a double take when he finally realized who he was with. “Sonata Dusk?” He said without thinking. “Took ya long enough,” Venom muttered. Sonata blinked in confusion. “How do you know my name?” Dark widened his eyes. “Um…” Before he could make up an excuse, they both heard someone call out. “There you are.” The two of them turned to the voice and saw Sunset reach them before putting her hands on her knees, panting. “Uh, you okay Sunset?” Dark asked a few moments later. Sunset nodded. “Yeah… It's just… you're very fast…” “Wait, you two know each other?” Sonata asked. As Sunset finally caught her breath, she stood back up and nodded again. “Yeah. Tito, this is Sonata Dusk. Sonata, Tito.” “We met a few months ago,” Dark explained to Sonata. “My sister and I are from out of town and we ran into Sunset and her friends after we arrived. How do you know each other?” he asked, simply to imply he didn't already know. While Sonata looked away and, to his surprise, looked guilty, Sunset frowned. “Wait, didn't you say-” Dark immediately interrupted her. “Can I speak to you in private?” He asked before grabbing her by the wrist and walking away until Sonata was unable to see or hear them. “Um, you okay?” Sunset asked, confused. “Yeah,” he whispered. “Just rather you not spill that I know about the Battle of the Bands.” “Why not?” “Well unlike Twilight, I'm not pretending to be a student. So some random guy knowing about something that happened I don't even know how long ago? Might cause some questions. Plus that wouldn't explain how I’d know how you two actually know each other.” “We go to the same school,” Sunset said simply. Dark blinked. “Right… Wait, I thought the Dazzlings ran off after you girls beat them.” Sunset nodded. “They did. But they came back a few weeks ago. Apparently without their powers, they have nowhere else to go and after trying for a while, they decided to come back. So me and the others have been keeping an eye on them. Both to keep them out of trouble, and so nobody tries to hurt them.” “May need to try harder with that last one,” he muttered. “Why?” “I saw her getting assaulted by some guys when I got here.” Sunset’s eyes widened in shock. “What?” “Yeah. And I...dealt with them and chased them off before looping around and meeting Sonata. Not gonna lie, I didn't even know it was her until Venom told me to look at her face.” “Guessing you regret saving her then,” Sunset muttered. “Why?” Dark asked, which seemed to surprise Sunset. “Unlike during the Battle of the Bands, she didn't do anything wrong. She was even asking them not to do what they were doing. It's like Twilight said. Without those gems, they're just normal girls.” “Huh.” Sunset then looked over her shoulder. “Maybe we should get back to Sonata. Just in case.” Dark nodded in agreement before walking back. When they saw Sonata again, she was facing two other hooded figures with her back to him and Sunset. One of the hooded figures noticed the pair and said with an annoyed tone, “Hello Sunset.” “Adagio,” Sunset replied. The other one, which Dark figured was Aria, looked to him. “So who's this guy?” “Name’s Tito,” Dark answered. “I'm from out of town and visiting. And you are?” “This is Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze,” Sunset told him, gesturing to each one. “They're Sonata’s sisters.” “So all their names are music based? Okay.” “You never heard of us?” Adagio asked, surprised. Dark shrugged. “Like I said, I'm from out of town and my last visit was months ago and only for a few hours. Sorry if I don't know the names of everyone here.” “So what are you doing here in the park right now?” Aria asked him. Dark shrugged. “I heard some screaming and followed it. When I got here, I saw Sonata.” Adagio rose an eyebrow. “Screaming?” She asked, turning to Sonata. Sonata nodded. “A large wolf came from out of nowhere and chase those guys away.” Sunset rose an eyebrow before taking a brief glance at Dark before looking back at Sonata. “A wolf?” “Well, I think it was a wolf. It large, about as tall as me and had really dark fur and glowing red eyes,” Sonata immediately hugged herself and shivered in fear at that last part. “Those eyes were terrifying…” Sunset cleared her throat. “Well I lived here for years and I can safely say that there are no wolves in this park.” Dark looked at the sky and saw the crescent shaped moon high in the sky. “Well, it's getting late. It was nice meeting you girls, but I best be heading back. Until next time,” he said before heading towards the direction of the school. “I'll go with you for a bit,” Sunset said as started walking beside him. Before they were out of sight, she turned to the trio and said, “See you girls tomorrow.” A little after the pair left, Aria looked at Sonata. “A wolf?” “I'm serious!” “Just sounds ridiculous to me,” Aria replied with a shrug. “Calm down you two,” Adagio said before taking a deep breath. “No matter what stopped those assholes, the important thing is Sonata is okay. So let's just go home and go to bed and worry about it tomorrow, okay?” The others slowly nodded. “Okay then.” With that said, the three of them left the park and heading to their current home. A few minutes after they left however, Sonata said, “Wait a minute…” “What is it?” Aria asked. “Tito said he never heard of us, right?” “That's what he said. Why?” “Then...how did he know my name?” Adagio and Aria frowned. Adagio then looked at Sonata and said, “What do you mean?” “After he helped me get back up, he looked at my face and said my name, as if he recognized me. Even said my last name.” Aria shrugged. “Maybe Sunset or her friends told them. No big deal.” “Then why did he ask how Sunset and I knew each other?” Adagio hummed. “Sounds like something is off about Sunset’s friend.” “A wolf? Really?” Sunset asked. Dark shrugged. “I didn't want to bring any unnecessary attention to myself so I changed into a wolf while in the shadows and chased them off.” “And what's this about glowing red eyes?” Dark sighed. “Apparently when I'm mad, my eyes turn blood red and terrify anyone who sees it. Only exception so far is Nisled and Celestia. So bad that most of Ponyville thought I was a demon until earlier today.” Sunset blinked. “O~kay. Not sure how to respond to that.” She then shook her head. “So why did you run off earlier?” Dark rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry about that. For some reason, my spider-sense alerts me when someone needs help and I'm just drawn to it. This isn't the first time it activates in the middle of a conversation. Can't control it though.” “Sounds both useful and inconvenient.” “That's one way of putting it.” “Wait, you don't know why that happens?” Venom asked. “No. Why?” Dark asked but Venom stood silent. “Don't mean to sound mean, but it's kind of weird seeing you talk to yourself to be honest.” Dark shrugged. “I've been called much worse.” After a few more minutes, the two of them arrived at the school. Dark then turn to Sunset and stuck out his hand. “Well, it was nice seeing you again Sunset.” Sunset smiled before shaking his hand. “You too Tito.” After they let go, he walked towards the portal and said, “Don't be surprised if me and Cece come back soon.” “I'll let the others know.” With that said, Dark then ran to the portal and jumped through, landing in Twilight's castle. After checking himself to make sure he was fine, he left the room. Not two seconds later, he ran into someone again. “Damn it,” Dark muttered. “Oh, there you are.” Dark shook his head before looking in front of him and seeing Rainbow. “Oh. Hey Rainbow.” “What were you doing in there?” “Went through the portal to actually see more of that world.” “Anything interesting happen?” Dark shrugged. “Not really. Stopped a robbery, met up with Sunset, stopped an assault, and met a few...interesting girls. Anything happen while I was gone?” Rainbow shook her head. “No.” Dark hummed. “Well, best go to bed. See you tomorrow Rainbow.” “We going to train tomorrow?” Dark smiled. “I don't see why not.” Rainbow smiled back. “Great. G’night Tito.” With that, she flew off. Dark chuckled as he walked back to his room.