There was something about the organized chaos of the Manehattan Bugle office that he rather liked. Perhaps it was the fact that he could disappear into the hustle and bustle and go about unnoticed, overhearing all kinds of interesting things about the latest news in the city. Then again, perhaps it was something a bit loftier: here was a well-oiled machine dedicated to getting the truth out to the masses. Some of it was sensationalized, some of it was just plain wrong, but the Bugle was still capable of breaking big stories, exposing very bad people and their very bad deeds to the bright light of day. Peter appreciated that.
"Parker? PARKER!"
Peter Parker, a 19-year old unicorn with messy chocolate mane and tan coat with the cutie mark of scientific atoms on his flank, snapped out of his daydreaming at once and looked at who he had been conversing with, which just so happened to be his boss, who was also a unicorn albeit much older with an orange coat, yellow eyes, a buttoned up white shirt with a red tie and on his Cutie Mark was that of a notebook and pencil writing on it. He had black mane with a bit of grey along with a black mustache.
This was the Editor-In-Chief of the Manehattan Chief, J Jonah Jameson, who was currently glaring at him.
"S-sorry, Mr. Jameson, I-I got distracted." Peter sheepishly responding, scratching the back of his head.
Jameson scoffed. "That's all I've get out of you, Parker. Excuses! It's bad enough that I have to endure the existence of that wallcrawling menace running around Manehattan, but to have to deal your 'excuses', really takes th~"
"Mr. Jameson, with all due respect, I thought we were here to discuss my payment for my recent Spider-Mane photos." Peter interrupted with a brow raised.
"PAYMENT!? Have you seen these!?" Jameson yelled, going through Peter's photos and slamming them on the desk. Crap! Crap! Mega crap! Absolute crap! I swear on Celestia's name that you're trying to put me in my grave, Parker!"
'And I'm sure as heck not trying to prevent it' Peter thought sarcastically. "Mr. Jameson, I always dedicate myself to getting these photos for you and I believe deserve to get paid a good amount of bits for them."
"And I deserve a vacation, but ya don't see that happening, now do ya, Parker?" Jameson barked.
Peter sighed. "Uh no sir."
Jameson looked at Peter's photos silently for a minute before finally looking back at Peter. "Tell you what Parker? Get me more quality photos and I just might consider tripling your pay."
He levitating a bag of bits over to Peter, who eagerly caught onto it with a brown aura surrounding it, coming from his horn and placed in his shoulder strapped backpack. "Well don't just sit there! GET ME MORE PHOTOS! GO! GO GO!"
"Sure thing, Mr. Jameson!" Peter said as he quickly trotted out of the Editor-in Chief's office as he waved to his fellow workers who were rushing to and thro, organizing files and delivering reports of the streets.
"WOO!" Peter whooped as he was now swinging through the city and away from the Manehattan Bugle building, now fully suited up as Spider-Mane with his backpack slung over his shoulders.
It all started about four years ago, during a trip to a demonstration about a Neogenic Recombinator bring hosted by Doctor Otto Octavius. A spider had gotten caught in the Recombinator which caused an explosion that landed the poor doctor in a coma. The radioactive spider, having been exposed to its energy, landed on Peter's right hoof and bit him, which naturally gave him spider powers and with some lessons learnt, Peter decided to become a superhero.
And he's done a lot of good for the city. Put a lot of bad guys away.
Which meant that he patrolled the city, no matter what the temperature.
Spider-Mane was swinging around the Manehattan skyline, spinning web after web, as he gracefully landed on the corner of a building rooftop.
'Why is it that there's nothing going on in this city when I have absolutely have nothing going on?' Spider-Mane questioned internally. 'This is Manehattan for crying out loud! Where are all the crazy ponies? Where's all the angry, sweaty, frustrated wackos that are daring to make trouble?'
Spider-Mane sighed before leaping off the rooftop and firing another web. 'I should actually be happy that there's nothing going on. Maybe I should just go home and read til my brain can't take anymore reading. Or maybe I can visit Aunt May and see how she's doing. It's been a while since I tried her delicious homemade wheat cakes now that I think about it. Or maybe~'
"Help! My purse—thief! Somepony stop him!"
The web slinger sighed. 'Well Spidey you asked earlier and now you shall receive.'
So, descending on an elastic thread of webbing, he dropped down to the street below. Early Spring in Manehattan. It was a little brisk, but not cold; most ponies walking on the sidewalks weren't even wearing jackets anymore.
But one mare in a nice (if unseasonable) fur coat was making a real ruckus, screaming over her snatched purse. And the thief, an earth pony, presently sprinting away from the woman, was impossible to miss, since he was well over seven feet tall.
Spider-Mane latched onto a wall and shot a webline towards the stolen purse, yanking it out of the thief's teeth.
"You, my friend, are exactly what I was looking for," Spidey said as he gave the thief a kick to his muzzle. "I was actually scouring through the city for a big bald bully beat the snot out of."
The thief lunged at him, aiming his left hook for him, but Spider-Mane dodged it easily.
"Putting up a fight, huh? Isn't that adorable?" Spider-Mane said he delivered a right hook to the back of the thief's head, rendering him unconscious and soon began subduing him with webbing. "I appreciate the effort, but these whole non supervillain encounters can look pretty lopsided at times. I mean, I fought and chased off an Ursa Major from the city once. So ya might wanna get yourself a new gimmick or something if you want to really into these situations with an A-list superhero like myself."
The wallcrawler leaped over the subdued thief and landed in front of the mare with the stolen purse. "Ma'am, I present to to you, your purse perfectly intact. Ta-daa! Justice has been served and all is good in Equestria, fillies and gentlecolts!"
The mare stared at Spider-Mane in awe before taking back her purse and galloping away.
Oh yeah. That was another thing. While half of Manehattan loves the webslinging hero while the other half hates him. Heck that also stood for half of the Manehattan Police. Obviously the doing of Jameson.
Spider-Mane thought nothing of it after getting used to such reactions since he had been doing this for the past four years. He sometimes wondered if the Bearers of the Elements Of Harmony ever got such reactions like this. Probably not since, he was the only one swinging around in skintight spandex.
"Welp everypony, this has been fun, but I gotta head on outta here!" Spidey began before pointing to the unconscious thief. "Consider this a friendly reminder to those who are looking for ponies such as myself to conk ya one on the head."
And with that, Spider-Mane leaped and swung away.
'You know what? I think I'll just go see Aunt May right now.'
"Those wheat cakes were very good Aunt May." Peter said wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Maybe you should try becoming a chef."
"Oh Peter, your such a sweetheart," His Aunt May giggled. May Parker, a burgundy red female unicorn with a grey mane and tail with the Cutie Mark of a wheat cakes on her flank, was Peter's Aunt and was known around the neighborhood as being the "cool" Aunt on the block. She and the late Ben Parker were what you might call ex-hippies; and so May had quite the stock of entertaining stories from her wild times back in their youth. On top of that, she was hooves-down the best cook in the neighborhood and was also the leader of a homeless shelter for homeless ponies.
"You know Peter..." said May, before the two teens could disappear upstairs, "...I had wanted to ask you… I saw your pictures in this morning's paper."
"You mean of Spider-Mane?" Peter asked. "What about it? He caught those criminals last night."
"Yes," May began, "And I'm very proud of you, Peter, for being brave enough to do your job and get the pictures. And for caring like you do. But actually, I was talking about the other pictures. That Jewelry store robbery, with those nasty thieves. It's so dangerous—"
"I don't get close to the action," said Peter. "Don't worry, Aunt May. I have a great zoom-lens on my camera."
While May did know of Peter's job at the Bugle, she had no idea of his double life as Spider-Mane.
"But, are you sure you need to keep working for the Bugle at all?" asked May. "It takes up so much of your time and~"
"It's Fine, Aunt May," said Peter. "It pays the bill and I'm careful whenever I'm out there. You don't have to keep worrying about me."
"And you know I can't help but to," May said but smiled nonetheless as she walked Peter out the door and kissed on the forehead. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, dear. Come back soon."
"I will!" Peter said as he began trotting away. "Love you!"
"Love you too!" May said smiling as he disappeared around the corner. "Oh, Ben, if only you could see him now."