//------------------------------// // No, He Can't. He's a Colt. // Story: The Amazing Spider-Man: The Web of Friendship // by Time Pony Victorious //------------------------------// PETER Swinging around with hooves instead of hands made life pretty difficult for Peter. Still he gave it his best shot as he swung right out of the forest and into the village. The Hydra had already made it inside and there were ponies everywhere screaming their heads off, running away in panic. Peter’s eyes had trouble registering what he was seeing. At first he thought Zecora and Fluttershy were just hallucinations by his addled mind, now he realized he really was on a world full of ponies. Pegasi and regular ponies like Zecora ran or flew around but there was another type of pony here as well. Unicorns. Nope, you read that right. This place has freaking unicorns as well! Peter’s head swam, was this real? Was he sure he wasn’t just dreaming? His head throbbed and his hind-leg ached with pain, nope, this was reality. Peter swung off a building shaped like a carousel and whipped around the Hydra, landing on top of a hay-covered house. “Hey! Big guy!” he called. The Hydra glared at him with four sets of eyes. “Hasn’t your mommy ever told you that it isn’t nice to destroy towns with poison?” One of the Hydra’s head spat out poison at him and he dodged. Good thing too, the glob of phlegm began to melt the hay and the roof. “I’ll take that as a no,” he muttered, landing on another building and shooting a web at a wagon and throwing it at the Hydra. The Hydra reared back as the wagon collided into him. It hissed indignantly and snapped at Peter. Peter jumped and dodged the heads, webbing two of them together and knocking them against each other. But that only just irritated it more. It fired more poison gobs at him, forcing Peter to dodge like crazy. What was the myth behind the Hydra? Heracles fought him, if you slice off one head, two more would take its place, and the only way to stop it was to burn it. Peter really wished he was bitten by a radioactive flaming spider. One of its head roared at Peter and he shot a web into its mouth. The head’s eyes widened as it gulped, trying to swallow the web but failing to. It recoiled back, making gagging sounds like a cat with a furball, the other heads tried to move forward but the choking one kept moving back. Peter webbed directly to the left then, using the same hoof, directly to the right and pulled back slightly on the makeshift slingshot before launching himself right at the Hydra, kicking it right in the gut. The Hydra landed on its back, its three heads snapping wildly at Peter but they couldn’t touch him. He kept jumping around, dodging, and webbing the heads more and more as they missed him. Soon within a minute or so, all three of the heads were stuck together and webbed to its belly. Peter sighed. “Whew, all in a day’s—WHOA!” He backflipped as the fourth head finally swallowed the web in its throat and snapped at Peter. “Jiminy Christmas, that was close!” His side burned with pain. Looking down, Peter noticed a gash that stained his fur a sickly shade of green mixed in with blood. Nausea washed over Peter as he fought the disorientation and focused on the Hydra. It was back on its feet, the fourth head broke the webbing around his three other heads and they growled angrily at Peter. It lashed out with its right claw, smashing into a building causing it to collapse in on itself. Debris began to fall on a trio of ponies who screamed, paralyzed with fear. Peter shot a web at the trio and pulled as hard as he could, throwing them all out of the way just as the debris landed. “Hey!” he complained, just in time to see a claw heading toward him. He shot across town like a bullet and crumbled against some random vendor. Dazed, Peter lifted his head up weakly, “Two ninety-nine for a bushel of apples? Highway robbery!” he mumbled in a slurred voice. Suddenly streaks in the sky snapped Peter back to reality. Contrails zipped high above the sky in a bunch of different colors and shapes, one contrail was just a series of black storm clouds with lightning arcing off it. The contrails followed several flying shapes that Peter thought were military jets but they were pegasi flying so fast they were just a blur of navy-blue to him. The Wonderbolts, Peter guessed. There were half a dozen pegasi and they raced toward the Hydra, smacking into its chest making the monster stagger back. The Hydra wailed angrily and lashed out with its claws and many heads but the Wonderbolts were too fast. They dodged expertly, flying around the Hydra without crashing into each other or getting caught. They weren’t only fast, Peter realized, they had insane dexterity and agility. Some of the Wonderbolts stopped midflight and turned right around to avoid teeth and claws without missing a beat! Peter now realized why Zecora was so eager to call them. But he had to help. With great power, comes great—OH ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS! Peter rolled out of the way as a bathtub slammed into the spot where he was a moment ago. The monster was now settling for throwing random stuff at the Wonderbolts instead of catching them but the elite pegasi couldn’t be touched. They needed to drive the Hydra out of town because killing it would be too difficult plus Peter didn’t have the heart to. Fine, it was a rampaging monster but it wasn’t the Hydra’s fault. Peter had woken it up accidentally and pissed it off. Peter wouldn’t appreciate someone killing him after waking up. Peter ran up to the Hydra and formulated a plan. First, he would tie up its arms then its neck then they just could drag the monster out of town and back into the forest, sounds great— “GET DOWN!” A Wonderbolt tackled Peter just as the Hydra swiped its claw over him. “You idiot!” she cursed, glaring down at him. “What’re you doing anyways—um, what’s with the costume there, chief?” Peter couldn’t see her face. She wore a full-body suit and a mask with goggles but her red mane poked out through her mask and her mouth was visible. “Ugh, have you looked in the mirror lately, lady?” Peter snapped back. The lady (Peter guessed the correct term is mare) scowled but kept Peter’s legs pinned down. “Listen hot-shot, get out of here. The Wonderbolts have got this covered.” His spidey-sense went nuts. Peter overpowered the mare, wrapped his foreleg around her and pulled her sideways, rolling as the Hydra stomped where they were. Now Peter was on top, staring at the Hydra as it continued to fight off the pegasus. “Have you now? I hadn’t noticed, how’s that going by the way?” Peter asked. “We’re trying to detain the Hydra,” the mare snapped back. “So was I!” “Great work so far.” “Hey, I did more than six of you guys did. That’s a win in my book, Goggles.” “Goggles? Speak for yourself! What’re you supposed to be anyways? The Creeper of the Night?” Peter growled as he got off the mare and helped her up. “It’s called a secret identity,” he answered, watching as she brushed herself off. “Ooh, yeah, so secret from somepony dressed in bright red and blue.” “Blue and yellow? Please, those colors are so last season.” “Listen Arachnid,” the mare said, pushing her face up to his so they were snout to snout. “This is the traditional Wonderbolt outfit, not some homemade, shoddy piece of—“ “Spitfire!” one Wonderbolt yelled as he flew around the Hydra again, dodging poison and claws. “A little help!” Spitfire nodded and looked back at Peter, still scowling. “We’ll settle this later.” “It’s a date.” The two of them charged the Hydra. “Go help out Soarin’!” yelled Spitfire. Peter frowned and scrunched up his nose. “Who?!” “The blue pegasus!” Peter searched for the blue pegasus but since all of them were wearing the same costume it was difficult to distinguish which was which, it didn’t help that they all flew around at like 40 mph. “I can’t tell which one is Soarin’!” “Seriously?!” “You guys LOOK the same!” “THAT’S RACIST!” “NO! I meant your cos—watch out!” Peter swung toward Spitfire and carried her out of the way of the Hydra’s swiping claw and landed on top of her. Spitfire grumbled a curse but still maintained her high-speed with Peter riding on her back. “Dude, for a scrawny guy you’re pretty heavy!” “I had a big breakfast!” Peter argued but then he pointed at the Hydra’s necks. “Listen, just get me behind him so I can web his necks together and keep him pinned. You’re a fast flier, you’ll be able to do it way faster than I could.” Spitfire nodded and circled around the Hydra. “Guys, alpha formation!” The Wonderbolts understood and began flying right in front of the Hydra trying to distract it by taunting it or goading it to attack one of them only to immediately fly out of the way. The formation left the Hydra’s back fully exposed. Spitfire shot off like a rocket toward the Hydra but it must’ve sensed something was wrong. The Hydra pinned down the Wonderbolts with both of its claws and turned around with its heads to attack Peter but it was too late. Peter shot the web already and Spitfire bucked him off sending him flying toward the monster. The heads opened their mouths and snapped… but missed completely. By the time they realized they missed, Peter had already webbed their necks together, tightly this time, and pulled it down to the ground. His superstrength was enough to lift the Hydra off the ground and slam him, heads first, back down. The Wonderbolts were released and the Hydra groaned in pain but it didn’t move. Peter rested to catch his breath, every muscle in his body ached, he felt like he wanted to go pass out into a coma for a month but managed to stay on his hooves. “Whoa, nice job squirt,” the pegasus Peter guessed was Soarin’ said, patting him on the back. Peter winced from the impact and Soarin’ pulled off his mask, expression apologetic. “How did you do that?” asked another Wonderbolt. “With the… webs and your strength.” “Ya know… three square meals, going to bed on time, drinking plenty of water,” Peter answered breathlessly. “Hey, Web-Head,” Spitfire called, her mask was off and she was smiling. “Nice job.” “Thanks—“ “But call me Goggles again, I’ll sonic rainboom you to the moon,” she finished with a scowl. “Right…” Peter didn’t know what a sonic rainboom was but he wasn’t keen on finding out. “So, what’s your name, Web-Head?” Peter was going to answer but then his spidey-sense tingled again. His eyes widened as he pushed Spitfire out of the way and turned around just in time to get caught by the Hydra. It had jumped to its feet and grabbed Peter in its claw. The four heads spat out blobs of poison at the Wonderbolts making them scatter to avoid it. Then the heads turned to Peter. Peter’s legs were pinned down and this Hydra was insanely strong. On a good day he might’ve been able to overpower it but he was too weak. The heads grinned with its razor sharp teeth and opened wide. Peter’s last thought went, Well, this is how I die. The Hydra yelped, its eyes going wide as a purple aura surrounded it. It wasn’t moving but Peter could see panic in its eyes as if it were trapped under a tractor beam. Peter then noticed the purple aura surrounded him as well but it separated him from the Hydra, which was nice. The Hydra was levitated all the way back to the forest while Peter was safely deposited on the ground. He shuddered, shaking the residual effects of being carried around like that like some helpless cow against a flying saucer. He turned around to thank the Wonderbolts for their assistance but noticed they were bowing formally to a new pony. She stood in front of Peter, glaring daggers at him like, Why did you destroy my town? Her coat was magenta purple and so were her wings and horn. Her hair was dark with red streaks dyed into it and a pointy crown thingy sat just above the horn. She spread her wings apart and approached Peter. “You,” she hissed. “What have you done?” Peter said something really smart like, “I… uh.” The mare sighed. “Never mind, come on, let’s get back to my castle. You look exhausted.”