The ballroom was much bigger than Peter had expected it to be. It was easily over ten times larger than his own house and was lavished with fancy decorations as well as an enormous chandelier hanging from the ceiling above the center of the dance floor. The music was played by a complete symphony orchestra that had been hired at the expense of the royal family. There was a general hue of chatter as the guests conversed among each other, someone laughing every now and again to a joke that another rich person had told. Peter had bought a black suit with a light brown shirt and dark brown tie for the occasion and was happy to be wearing it while Twilight wore a simple purple party dress with a dark blue sash at her waist. The two of them were stood talking to an older pegasus who was a history teacher at Canterlot High School for a number of years before she retired. There chatter was interrupted when Shining waved the two of them over from across the room.
"What do you think he wants us for?" Twilight asked.
"Let's go find out" Peter shrugged. The two of them walked over to Shining where they were able to see who he was talking to.
"Princess Celestia" Twilight said with a wide smile. The tall princess turned around to see Twilight and she smiled herself.
"Good evening Twilight, you look lovely" Celestia said with a smile.
"You look great yourself" Twilight said, nodding at Celestia's amazing ball gown. She wore a thick white dress with silk shoulders and puffy sleeves with a pair of white high heels on her feet. Celestia's eyes fell on Peter.
"Peter, you look very dashing" she chuckled.
"Thank you Your Majesty" Peter said with a smile.
"Peter... if you don't mind me asking" Celestia said "Why do you have your school bag with you?" Peter's eyes moved back to look at the bag he had on his shoulder before he chuckled awkwardly.
"Just in case I mess up the suit I've got something else to wear" Peter shrugged.
"Very well" Celestia nodded "Are you two enjoying yourselves?"
"Yeah" Peter nodded "I've never really been to anything like this before, it's pretty cool"
"I'm having a good time too" Twilight agreed.
"Glad to hear it" Celestia beamed "Is Cadence around here anywhere?"
"I think she went over to talk with the Mayor a few minutes ago" Shining said.
"Thank you Shining" Celestia said "I'll speak to you all soon, have a good evening"
"You too" Twilight said. With a curt nod Celestia headed off to the buffet where Cadence was talking to the mayor. Once she was gone Shining got Peter's attention by patting him on the shoulder.
"Pete, I want to tell you that a few of those guys you had that fight with are here tonight" Shining warned.
"Are you worried that they're going to hurt me?" Peter asked with a smirk.
"No, I'm worried that you're going to hurt them" Shining chuckled, patting Peter on the shoulder with a grin "Just try to avoid them, I don't want to have to mop up any blood or teeth tonight"
"I'll do my best" Peter said "If you don't mind though, I'm going to go get a drink"
"Hurry back" Twilight smiled. Peter nodded and headed over to the drinks table where he overheard a very worrying conversation.
"Is everything in place for the grab?" a thick Russian accent asked, coming from an all grey stallion leaning against the wall.
"Sure is, the boys on the roof are ready to make the jump and snag everything in this joint" another Russian chuckled "These rich idiots won't even see it coming" The two of them laughed for several seconds before they realized that Peter was standing there. They looked up at him, moving away from the wall as they walked slowly towards him.
"What did you just hear boy?" one of them asked. Peter looked back and forth between the two of them before deciding to trick them.
"Jag är ledsen, jag förstår inte engelska" he said in a confused tone, looking between the two men.
"Ah, the stiff don't understand a word we've been saying" the second man chuckled "Beat it boy" Peter continued his act as he walked away from the table and back over to Twilight.
"Where did Shining go?" Peter asked, looking around for her older brother.
"He got called away downstairs by some other officers" Twilight said "Why?"
"No reason, just curious is all" Peter said. He then began to pat his pockets down as he pretended to search for his phone.
"Crap, I think I dropped my phone in the limo downstairs" Peter growled.
"It should still be there if you want to go get it back" Twilight said "Why do you need it?"
"I need to call my Aunt to tell her how the party's going" Peter added as he ducked away quickly, tightening his grip on his bag as he left the ballroom and into the stairwell. After bolting the door shut with the fire latch he dropped his bag to the floor and unzipped it, revealing the red and blue costume folded inside.
"Looks like we're up buddy" Peter whispered as he pulled the costume out, the iconic spider symbol gaining a familiar glance from him "Time to suit up" Peter changed out of the suit quickly and into his costume. He held his mask in his hand as he threw his bag against a high spot on the wall and webbed it in place, making sure it wouldn't be discovered. He pushed the rotating window out of place on the staircase and slipped out onto the outside walls.
"Here we go" Peter said as he pulled his mask over his face, setting it into place "It's Spider Time"
One of the Russian men looked at the other before each of them pulled balaclavas over their faces and thumbing buttons on their watches. The lights died in the room, blanketing it in complete darkness as a faint whistling noise could be heard. There were whispers of confusion and some of worry. There was a moment of confusion as a faint whistling noise could be heard before a colossal sound of smashing glass filled the air. The glass rained down in the darkness as black clothed men with head torches swung in on abseiling cords swung into the room, each of them wielding an assault rifle and seemed to be well trained with the weapons.
"Everybody on the ground now!" one of them yelled in a Russian accent. Several of them fired off shots from their rifles as others produced large sacks and began walking around the cowering guests, tearing jewelry and watches from them as well as forcing them to hand over their wallets.
"If you comply, nobody gets hurt!" the Russian yelled "But if you piss me off... you get the picture!" There was another moment of silence before a loud knocking noise was heard from one of the shattered window panes.
"Uh... excuse me!?" someone yelled "Am I allowed to come in this way or do I have to break my own window!?"
"What the hell?!" the Russian yelled. There was a brief flash of light as the light reflected off what looked like eyes. The Russian screamed loudly before his cries became muffled and a strange, elastic whipping noise was heard.
"B-boss?" one of the terrified mobsters asked in a whimpering tone "You there Boss?"
"I'm sorry but Boss isn't here at the moment, can I take a message?" the voice asked loudly. There was another flash of light as the mobster began to fire wildly at wherever the voice was coming from. There were more screams followed by more elastic sounds.
"Somebody get those damn lights on!" another mobster roared. There was a brief second of calmness before the lights in the room turned back on with loud electric buzzing sounds. The mobsters threw away their head torches as they scanned the ballroom, aiming down the sights of their weapons with panicked breath. The tension suddenly snapped as a flash of color dropped down and dragged one of the mobsters up to the ceiling, the gun dropping loudly to the ground as the mobster screamed until he was knocked unconscious. At this point all of the mobsters turned to the sound to see several of their crew stuck to the ceiling and tied up in some kind of white string.
"Now while I admit it's not as grand as the chandelier I have to say that it has a certain... charm to it" the voice said from next to one of the mobsters. He whirled around only to have an elbow slammed into the side of his face before being spin kicked to the floor.
"And another one down!" they yelled. The mobsters all whirled around, pointing their guns at the figure that stood in the center of the ballroom.
"Stop!" one of the mobsters yelled in anger.
"Hammer time!" Spider-Man yelled, whipping his arms out to the side and using his webs to yank the guns away from two of the mobsters.
"Kill him already!" another yelled. They all opened fire on Spider-Man but thanks to his heightened agility he was able to handspring backwards away from the fire and land on one of the chairs.
"You look tired man..." Spider-Man said as he leapt into the air. As he tucked forward he used his webs to grab hold of the chair before launching it over his head and smashing it into the mobster, knocking him straight to the ground.
"Take a seat!" he yelled as he landed in a low crouch. He used his webbing to clump together more chairs before swinging them into the air.
"Gentlemen welcome to the Spider-Man theater and as your graceful host I would like to offer you a place to watch the show!" Spider-Man yelled as he launched one chair after another at the mobsters, knocking them sprawling to the floor "Oh lookie here, a full house tonight" His spider-sense flared wildly as he heard the last mobster reload his weapon and begin to fire. Spider-Man easily dodged the hail fire of rounds as he lashed his arm out and webbed the barrel of the gun before yanking it back towards him.
"Now, now, you shouldn't play with toys like this" he chuckled as he snapped the weapon in half "You might hurt yourself"
"What... what the hell are you?!" the mobster demanded. Spider-Man dashed the last three meters towards the mobster and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off his feet and holding him in the air.
"I'm just Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" he said as he punched the mobster in the face. He dropped his unconscious form to the floor before he dusted his hands off.
"Ladies and gentlemen if we can all form an orderly line in each of the four corners of this room someone can hold one of the bags of goodies while the rightful owner collects their belongings" Spider-Man said before web zipping onto the hole in the window "Remember to divide the treats fairly or you'll get in trouble" With that he leapt out of the window and swung away into the night. The room was silent for a long moment before somebody in the crowd began to applaud. This motion was joined by several other people before the entire room was applauding and whistling for their masked hero: the Amazing Spider-Man.