“Peter! Wake up!” And thankfully, I did.
“Finally! Jeez, never seen anypony hit the floor harder than that!”
“Eddie? How long was I out?” He scratched his head.
“Maybe about 15 minutes.” I looked up and saw him, and our tour guide, Pinkie,
“Thank Celestia! He’s awake! Hey Fluttershy, it’s ok, he’s awake now!” The spider
tamer, Fluttershy, seemed to be looking awfully guilty, standing just outside the crowd and her head hanging down. She walked over to us rather slowly, her eyes not meeting anypony’s. Sheesh, who could honestly stay mad at somepony like her, anyway? I noticed she had one of the spiders from the tank resting right on the tip of her nose.
“I am so sorry about that, sir. It’s my job to look after all the spiders for Twilight, and I didn’t think little Nancy would cause any trouble when she asked to be let out for a little while… at least she said she wouldn’t… Also, her mama, Sheila, would like to apologize on her daughter’s behalf, since we still can’t find her.” That was when the spider, erm, spoke up? I honestly couldn’t say, what with the short series of squeaks that it was letting out.
“Um… apology accepted?” It gave off one more squeak before going silent again. The tamer finally looked up and gave a small smile.
“Again, I’m really sorry about all this…”
“Well I-I’m feeling a lot better, now, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Pff, I’ll say…” Eddie piped up. I opened my mouth to say something to him when I saw none other than Twilight Sparkle herself making her way through the crowd. Eddie followed my eyes and, for once, he seemed to be at a loss for words.
“Please, if you could all just step aside, I’d like to talk to the pony who was just hurt.” Face to face with her, and everything and anything I wanted to ask seemed to have gotten sick of waiting, and vacated the premises.
“Are you ok? How do you feel? Do you need an ambulance? Where’s Rainbow Dash? She’s supposed to be ready to take anypony to the emergency room if something happened!”
“Sorry Twilight, I’m here! How’s he looking?” That was when the blue pegasus with the rainbow colored hair zoomed in almost out of nowhere. I noticed her eyes were looking a tad baggy.
“Napping again?”
“Yeah, my fault. I couldn’t help it, I just got so bored!”
“Well, now you might have something to do!” This Rainbow Dash pony ended up looking pretty guilty, but I really was starting to feel better, so I figured it best if I said something
“Look, Miss Sparkle?”
“You can just call me Twilight.”
“Ok, Twilight…” I think the fanboy in me was having a heart attack.
“… Look, I think I’m going to be ok. I remember I had a blinding migraine before I passed out, and it’s gone now… I don’t think anyone needs to make such a huge fuss.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Well, if I’m wrong I’m sure she could get me to the hospital in no time at all.” Eddie seemed to finally regain his wits.
”Well, Peter, maybe you’d better head on home, just to be safe.”
“Wait, what? No way! I’ve been waiting all year to be here!” Twilight spoke again,
“Look, Peter, I’d have to agree with your friend. I can tell you’ve really wanted to come here, and I appreciate it, but it might be best if you went home.” Well, if someone who’s smarter than you is telling you what’s best for you, you should probably shut up and do as they say.
Later, after everything was said and done, I found myself hitching a ride home with Rainbow Dash. I guess she felt like she at least owed me that much, even though she ultimately wasn’t needed back at the museum.
“So, are you totally sure you’re feeling ok, pal?”
“Uh, yeah.” I only said it several times before we left, I neglected to add.
“There’s my house, you can set me down on the lawn.” And she did.
“It’s Peter, right?”
“Yes.”
“I can understand how bummed out you are not getting to stay. I mean, it’s not really my thing, but I can get not being able to really talk to someone you’ve wanted to meet for a while (you should’ve seen me at the Gala a while back, trying to get some attention from the Wonderbolts). And yeah, it was pretty obvious it was Twilight. That look on your face when she was talkin’ to ya wasn’t exactly hard to pick up on, even though I just woke up.” And with that, I think I turned just about every shade of red you can think of.
“Well, thanks for the ride…” She gave a simple nod and a smile and lifted back in to the air, but before she took off, she said
“You know, this might not be much in the way of encouragement, but I’m willing to bet you’ll get another chance to talk to her. And sooner than you’d think.” I looked up, slightly confused and asked
“What makes you say that?” She shrugged.
“Don’t know. Just a feeling I got. See ya around, Peter!” I waved as she left, then turned and headed back inside.
By now, Uncle Ben would still be at work, so that only left
“Aunt May? You home?”
“Peter? Is that you?” I heard her coming down the stairs, and when she turned the corner and saw me, the look on her face told me she’d sooner expected the royal sisters themselves to talk in the front door before I’d come home early from a big class trip like today’s.
“Peter, what happened? I would have never thought I’d see the day you came home early! Are you ok? Do you need to lie down? Sit, I’ll get the thermometer!” I told her all about what happened at the museum, the exhibit, the spider, and who it was that sent me home. I left out the nightmare.
“Oh, I’m sorry about what happened, sweetheart. I know not even Eddie was as hyped to be going to that big expo as you.”
“Yeah, but it’s not all that bad, I mean, given who I got to finally meet… brief as that was… And who knows,” Rainbow Dash’s words still fresh in my mind, “maybe I’ll get another chance to talk to her.” Aunt May smiled.
“Always look on the brighter side of things.” She got up and went to make dinner and I went up to my room.
After I pushed open the door and went to my desk to study for the semester’s finals, I felt a weird tug at my left hoof. I looked down and saw some kind of thread trailing back from it, to the door.
“What the…” I saw it, but after today, my head was already sick of anything and everything that had to do with spiders. Rather than risk Aunt May seeing and worrying about what might be going on, I shut the door. I looked at the soles of my hooves and couldn’t think of a thing to say, or how to react. I had a set of web spinnerets at the center of them.
What exactly was done to the spiders in the exhibit? All that tour guide mentioned was that Twilight had been casting different kinds of spells on them. That spider’s bite did something to me, and these spinnerets at my hooves must have just been part of it. I did a quick check at the mirror to make sure I was still pony-Peter, and not spider-Peter. Same number of eyes and legs, that’s a relief. Well, I had a whole day ahead of me to go and figure things out, might as well use it. Aunt May would be busy for a while, so I didn’t think I’d have to worry about her coming to check on me. I decided if I have a spider’s webs, then it’s time to experiment to see what else came from the spider, and the scientist in me was pretty hyped to find out. Quick stretch, a lot more flexible than I used to be, for starters. I put a hoof to the wall beside the window, and felt it adhere to the surface. Once I knew I could climb the walls, I must have crawled around the entire room 6 or 7 times. Once I got tired of that, I tried lifting the bed, frame and all, and had no problem balancing it on one hoof above my head.
As incredible as the discovery of all these new abilities was, I still had a question about it all: “What do I do now?” I only dwelled on the thought for a few minutes when I heard Uncle Ben come home. I headed straight to my desk to look busy, knowing he’d be up to check on me. I heard him step up the stairs and the door opened
“Before you ask, Uncle Ben, I’m feeling great.” He smiled and laughed
“Your Aunt May told me everything that happened. Are you sure you’re ok?”
“I am. Really.”
“Well, if your say so. Come on downstairs, dinner’s almost ready.”
The next morning, before I left for school, Uncle Ben stopped me.
“Let’s talk for a bit.”
“Sure, what about?” He rubbed his chin, I guess thinking about what to say.
“Well, Peter, I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while. Go ahead and sit down.” I did, wondering what it was all about.
“Son, do you know where you’re going in your life?”
“I think I have a pretty good idea, why do you ask?”
“It’s just… You know the whole story of Princess Luna, right?”
“Who doesn’t? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well… I can remember that day she, as Night Mare Moon, escaped from the moon, wound up kidnapping Princess Celestia, all that mess. Things are better between them now, but things were also good between them 1000 years ago, too. That time ended when Princess Luna, in her jealousy, and becoming Night Mare Moon, had forgotten herself. She had lost her way, because of it, and the kind of power she had, a great deal of trouble had been caused by her, and she was banished for it.”
I scratched my head, still confused, “I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with this.”
“Peter, it’s just that, there comes a time in many ponies’ lives where things seem to just go wrong for them for one reason or another, and it can affect them and their loved ones on a grand scale. Princess Luna is a prime example of that. She was not evil. Celestia herself would attest to that. It was things happening to her beyond her control that, sadly, she couldn’t cope with, and she lost her way, lost herself, because of it. It goes to show you that kind of thing can happen to anypony, Peter. Now, you’ve only got 2 years of high school left. I’m sure you realize that, once you’re out, the real world comes into play, and it’s gonna throw you some pretty wicked curve balls. I know you’re a good, brilliant boy, and you’re bound for some tremendous success, but I want you to promise me something here and now: Stay on course, Peter. Promise me that, no matter what it is life throws at you, you’ll never lose sight of your goals in life, and most importantly, never lose sight of yourself. It’s a great deal of power you got, with that incredible mind of yours, and you remember what I always used to say: With great power…”
“There must also come great responsibility.” Words I’ll take with me to my grave.
“I promise, Uncle Ben.” He smiled and gave the kind of warm, heartfelt hug that lets you know somepony loves you dearly.
“Oh geez, I’ve held you up too long.”
“I think I can handle being 10 minutes early instead of 20.” With a chuckle he said
“Yeah, I know you tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so get on out of here, quick!” I turned and headed outside, and I was at the sidewalk when he called out from the porch.
“Peter! Almost forgot to tell ya! I think we’re gonna go ahead and take a long overdue fishing trip this weekend! Sound good?” It had been a while since the last one, and even though I never caught anything bigger than a candy wrapper, there was never a fishing trip I didn’t enjoy.
“Sounds like a great idea!”
“Alright! We’ll discuss trip details when you get home! Have a good day at school, son!” I returned the well-wishing and went on my way. I never actually got to school that day, and we never got the trip we were looking forward to.
Now, I was originally planning to head for school, but the flyer I saw on the way was what threw that intention out the window. It was an ad for some big wrestling competition being held down at the lower east side of Manehattan. They were offering a hefty amount of money to anyone who can stay in the ring for three minutes with their best guy. We didn’t have much going for us as far as cash went, so I took this as the perfect opportunity to help put a little more in the bank. After all Uncle Ben and Aunt May had done for me throughout my life, this was the bare minimum, least I could do in return. The ad said they were looking for ponies with good, colorful costumes, so I galloped over to the old costume shop we used to stop at for every Halloween. I looked up and down the store for just the right costume, but none of the ones I saw really called out to me. I went around maybe 4 or 5 times before the old clerk at the desk finally spoke.
“You looking for anything in particular?” I didn’t feel the need to hide anything, so I told him what I had in mind. He looked at me like I just said I could talk to oranges or something, but paused to think for a moment, and went into the back room.
I waited for just a few minutes, when he came back out with it. It was a red and blue, full body costume, complete with a cover-all mask with blank, somewhat menacing white eyes.
“This and the other ones like it haven’t exactly sold very well, but I figured it might suit your needs well enough.” I took a moment to give the suit a good, in depth look, and knew that this was exactly what I needed.
“It’s perfect! How much do you want for it?” He paused for a second and simply smiled.
“Just go on ahead and take it. It’ll be my wishing you good luck with that little tournament you’re looking to get into. Celestia knows you’ll need all the luck you can get…” I figured hey, that must be a good sign, and besides, I knew something about me that he didn’t, anyway. I stuffed outfit into my backpack and booked straight out the front door.
It was about an hour later that I managed to get the building the competition was being held in. It was packed full of ponies looking to see some good fights, and the line for the sign-ups wasn’t too bad. Quick bathroom trip to slip on the costume and I was happily waiting in line soon enough (I completely forgot to see if it fit before I left the shop, so I lucked out that it did at all, I think. It was kinda tight, though). When I got to the desk, the lady there had a look on her face like a puppy was about to be stampeded over.
“Yes, I am seriously going for it.” Not saying a word, she simply shook her head and gestured for me to put my name down on the list. With that, I went to wait with the others waiting for a shot at the champ, Crusher Hogan.
Once it was my turn to go up, I was actually fairly nervous, and that announcer riling up the crowd wasn’t helping.
“Aaaaaand another one bites the dust! Crusher is just absolutely unstoppable today! Is there nopony who can stand up to this monster of a stallion!?” Funny he should say that.
“Perhaps it is the next challenger! Perhaps it is the pony standing behind me, right on the other side of this curtain! Perhaps he is the one who can survive the impossible!” He leaned over to the curtain to talk to me.
“What’s your name, buddy?” Uh-oh, I hadn’t thought of anything yet. All I could give him is the first thing that came to mind.
“Er, uh, the Equine Spider?”
“… Really kid? You’re gonna go out there calling yourself that?”
“I uh, I guess?”
“That is just… beyond terrible.” I didn’t argue, plus, he actually did me a favor when he called me up.
“And now, for your viewing pleasure… I present to you all… The Spectacular… The Amazing… SPIDER-MAAAAAANE!” On that note, I stepped out into a chorus of boos and hisses. I wasted no time as I made my way to the ring, my head held high, muttering to myself “I’ll show them… I’ll show all of them…” When I stepped in, Crusher wasn’t the least bit intimidated.
“Ha! Are you serious with this, kid?”
“As a heart attack.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll go easy on ya, just because I’m in a generous mood.”
“By all means, go ahead, if you think it’ll make me go any easier on you.” I wanted to goad him into really putting in an effort to hurt me, if only because I wanted to see the look on his, and the audiences faces when I put him down for the count. The taunt seemed to do the trick, probably because a big guy like him felt insulted for a little guy like me even thinking I’d have to go easy on him. The cheesy grin on his face faded pretty quickly, and he came right at me.
Just before he could reach to grab me, I did an easy somersault up and over him, with a simple smack at the back of his head. He came back around and tried it again, but I grabbed onto one of his hooves and used his momentum to flip him on his back. Before he could get back up, I lifted him up over my head, balancing him on one hoof before tossing him up several feet, and stepping aside to let him hit the floor with a loud smack. The crowd was just going berserk, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. I was getting into the spirit of it all, and turned away from Crusher so as to face the crowd and get them to cheer me on something fierce. I was only at it for a minute or two when this bizarre tingle in my head kicked and I could somehow see in my head what Crusher was about to do to me. He had gotten back up when I wasn’t looking, and managed to get a hold of a chair, looking to bash me at the back of the head with it. Before he could even get in close, I whipped around, put both front hooves forward and shot two streams of web at the chair, using them to yank it out of his grip and grab it myself. Holding the chair in my teeth, I leapt to the side of him and, before he could turn, I webbed his left legs together and tripped him up. I got in close, poised to give him a good couple of whacks when he cried out “Alright, I give! You win!” The referee called it, and put my hoof in the air, declaring me the winner. Being the winner of something like that for the first time in your life, you tend to feel a strange sense of unreality, like what you just accomplished didn’t really happen. I have to tell you though, what came soon after was something I wish had never happened at all.
“That’s it? The ad said-…”
“Three minutes to survive in the ring with my best pony. He gave in two.”
“So that gives you the right just give me a dinky little bag of chump change?” What can I say? He was a money-grubbing, two-bit crook, plain and simple.
“This… this isn’t right! You can’t do that, I won fair and square!”
“Says you. I don’t know how you did it, but I know you did something to rig that fight with Crusher. There’s no way you could’ve pulled off what you did without some kinda trick. You probably had some unicorn friend of yours out in the crowd helping ya, for all I know! And besides, it’s my money, I’ll do with it as I please. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to kindly get out of my face!” Without another word, I left the manager’s office, thinking my own hateful thoughts and barely acknowledging the stranger brush by me.
I was almost to the elevator at the end of the hall when I heard the shouting. I turned to see a gruff, rather mangy looking pony with a knife in his teeth and a plump bag hanging from his neck, running down the hall from a security guard, and the lowlife who ripped me off.
“STOP HIM! HE’S GETTING AWAY!” I understood the situation completely, and politely stepped to the side, letting him onto the opening elevator. Before the door closed, the thief looked over to me and simply gave a grateful “Thanks!” The guard kicked the elevator door and turned to me yelling “What’s wrong with you, you little idiot!? You couldn’t have tripped that little punk or something?!” He turned and headed for the door to the stairwell, presumably to cut the thief off at the lobby. The fight promoter simply looked over at me, some blood trailing down the side of his head, and gave me a bit of a death glare. I simply looked straight back at him and gave a smug smile and a nod. Soon enough, the elevator came back and I made my way out.
It was just after sunset that I had made it home. I was somewhat nervous at what Aunt May and Uncle Ben would have to say to me, since I didn’t doubt that they got word from school that I didn’t make it in, and getting in this late wouldn’t help matters. When I finally broke away from those thoughts and looked up, I saw there were several police ponies outside the house. I couldn’t help at chuckle to myself, seeing how far they’d apparently gone to try and find me after they got word. I went up to two of the cops out front and asked what the problem was, as if I didn’t already know. Turns out I didn’t.
“Sorry kid, but it’s none of your business, just go on home.”
“But I live here with my aunt and uncle! Where are they?” They looked at each other rather nervously, and the other one spoke up.
“You might want to have a seat on the porch, there…” I did as he said. This wasn’t about the fact that I was missing for the whole day. My heart was beating like a war drum, my thoughts racing at what might have happened.
“Officer, please just tell me what happened!”
“Please just remain calm, son. This may be hard for you to hear…”
“What happened?” It was then that I could hear Aunt May in the house. She was crying.
The officer sighed, and then he told me.
“Your house was broken into, just a couple of hours ago. There was a bit of a scuffle between the robber and your uncle… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your uncle has just been murdered.”