The ponies of Manehatten all gazed at the sky with wonder and awe as they watched a black cloud begin to form over the city. Most of them had been told of a thunderstorm that was supposed to take place later in the week, leaving most of the ponies thinking that there had been a mistake in the schedule. That was until a voice began to talk through the cloud.
"Citizens of Manehatten, I am called the Beast. And I am the one responsible for the attacks upon your city," the monster said as his voice thundered across the entire city, causing all that could hear it to gasp with terror. "For so long I have operated in the shadows, testing my beasts by sending them to attack you and the other cities of Equestria."
"But this place was different. This place has something that made it special. This city had a hero," the Beast said to the ponies, whose hopes rose for just a second at the mention of the Spider. "A hero that I killed last night. A hero that failed to protect you."
"So with no more hero to entertain me, I have decided that testing my monsters one at a time would be a waste of my time. So instead I will test all of my creations upon your city. All five hundred of them!" The ponies of Manehatten gasped as the Beast's laugh cackled across the city, while the black cloud continued to spread across the city.
"But what of the Ambassadors? Will they save us? The answer is no. See, the greatest thing about all of them gathering in one place is that it is easy to keep them busy. No doubt it will cost the lives of some of my most magic resistant beasts, but it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make. And even if they do beat my monsters, they tend to get...explody when they fall. I'm sure it will be a great surprise for them."
"But back to the matter at hand. If you want to survive my monsters rampage across your city and I can't see why you wouldn't, then you should flee from your homes and run to the lands outside of this place. If not, who can say what these monsters I've created will do to you? Perhaps they would be nicer if I had remembered to feed them at least once a week."
The ponies began to scream and race to their homes to gather up their supplies, the panic not helped any when the monsters that could fly began to screech at them and dive bomb some of the ponies in the streets. While the panic began the Beast watched from the roof of the stadium, a smile on his lips as he heard the ponies screaming even from the top of the stadium. He then turned and leapt onto the raised platform in the center of the stadium, landing right next to Coco.
"The Ambassadors will stop you. They'll get past your monsters and put a stop to your evil schemes," Coco said with as much confidence she could muster, but when the Beast turned to look at her she found her courage quickly evaporating.
"I bet they will. But it won't matter," the Beast said with a smirk as he turned from the mare and gazed down at his army. "I have the numbers. I have the fortified position. And I have all the powers of the Spider. Including that sense of his that warns me to any kind of danger. Twilight's magic? Can't touch me. Rainbows speed? Childs play. Today is the day that I prove the power of science, prove that true power lies in these monsters. And I'll prove it by tearing down the old world."
"You're just as crazy as all the other villains that tried to take over the world," Coco spat at him, but this time the Beast didn't bother to turn around. He simply gazed across his field with a smile upon his face, having waiting for this day for so long. He then glanced down at the webbing that came from his wrists, remembering how surprised his had been when he found that Otto couldn't actually create his own webbing.
Then there was the sound of commotion near the entrance to the stadium and the Beast glanced over with mild interest, assuming that a pony had been found sneaking in. But his eyes went wide in shock when he saw the red and black suit with webbing on it battling with his monsters, shooting some of them with a crossbow while stabbing them with a blade when they got to close.
"It cannot be," the Beast whispered and Coco's eyes went wide with joy when she saw the suit.
"I knew that he'd come to save me! I knew that you couldn't kill him!" she sang with confidence as the Beast narrowed his eyes at the Spider, trying to get a better look. "I hope you're prepared for the worst butt kicking that you've ever received, because now-"
"Answer me this, Coco? When did the Spider have a wing like a Pegasus that he was trying to hide?" the Beast asked Coco, whose eyes went as wide as they possibly could when she figured out who was really under the suit.
"No," she whispered in terror as the Beast turned back to his minions, pointing at the Spider with one finger and causing all of his beasts to begin to rush the costumed being.
"It seems that some fool wished to die a hero today. Very well, do to him what we'd do to the actual Spider!" the Beast roared as his hundreds of monsters swarmed the Spider, who held his ground as every single abomination attacked him at once.
\\(0)//
//;::;\\
The sound of the second hand moving across the clock face was the only sound in the bar, as all of the patrons that had been there merely twenty minutes ago had all cleaned out the moment the threat came down upon the city. All except for one pony, who sat at the bar with a glass of applecider in his hoof. He didn't drink any of the liquid, because he couldn't stand the taste, but he still felt the need to grip something tightly.
Beer Tap stood behind the counter, cleaning some of the mugs that had been left behind by the ponies that had bailed, slightly pissed about how all of them had left the bar without paying. He wouldn't have minded leaving himself, but he had promised as long as there was a patron willing to sit in his bar he would tend to them. And with one lost soul on the barstool before him, he knew that he couldn't leave yet.
"Quite the spectacle going on out there, isn't it?" Beer Tap asked the stallion, who said nothing in reply as he continued to stare at his drink. Beer Tap went back to cleaning his mug, but as he glanced over at the patron once more he found that he couldn't stay quiet. "Everypony else is trying to get out of the city. Yet you're here. Why's that?"
"Because if this city is destroyed, then I hope I am killed in the rubble," Otto replied in a bleak tone as he continued to stare at his drink and the bubbling liquid within. Beer Tap raised an eyebrow in response before he placed his glass down and walked over in front of Otto, waiting until the pony looked up at him before he began to speak.
"Now what could possibly bring about that kind of attitude? You sound as if the fact that these creatures that are attacking us is somehow your fault," Beer Tap said with a smile, but when Otto replied with a blank stare Beer Tap's smile fell. "I see. So what are you doing in my bar, then? If you're seeking your death, you'd probably have a better chance of finding it out there."
"If I go out there I may accidently help someone. And then they'd become an even bigger target," Otto said with a another smirk, before he took a drink of the cider and groaning in disgust. Beer Tap let out a small chuckle at Otto's words, getting the doctor to raise an eyebrow as he looked up at the bartender. "I'm sorry, does my disgust for your drink intrigue you?"
"Well, it's just...you're only the second patron I've had in here that doesn't like the applecider," Beer Tap reminisced.
"I do not care," Otto replied.
"He was a massive stallion, one that had seen a lot in his time and was constantly trying to show that his past didn't bother him," Beer Tap continued on, ignoring Otto's words. "Of course, when you only have one wing and a body covered with scars, it's kinda hard to say that you're past doesn't bother you anymore." The bartender glanced in his mirror to see that Otto had lifted his eyes in interest, though he was doing his best to hide it.
"Finally got the story out of him a few weeks ago. He was a soldier in Celestia's army, one of the best actually. But then one day his forces got split and he was left with a choice. Save his soldiers or complete the mission. Well, he did the latter and completed the mission, leaving his troops to die. He may have lost a wing in the process, but he completed his mission."
"So did she reward him for his heroic actions?"
"No. She fired him on the spot," Beer Tap replied, causing Otto to raise an eyebrow slightly. "She was horrified that she had left his own troops to die like that. He was shamed and cast out into the world. He would have most likely drowned out there if not for the kindness of a mare."
"Coco," Otto whispered under his breath.
"She had been burned a few times on past partnerships, resulting in her not trusting many ponies. But an ex-soldier seemed trust worthy enough and she decided to give him a chance. She's given a lot of other ponies chances. And so the soldier worked with the mare, at first just working for her because it was a job, but over time he came to kind of view her as the daughter he never had. He saw the potential the desire to improve in her and decided that he only wanted to help her achieve her dream. No matter the cost."
"You say that like it's supposed to matter to me. I know who you are speaking of and I could piece together this story myself," Otto said with as much rage he could muster as he glared at the floor, but it sounded hollow and false compared to what he normally sounded like.
"Maybe. But now we get to the meat of the story. See, while I may have wormed this story out of him a week ago, he actually came in here not long before you," Beer Tap revealed, causing Otto to turn his head towards the bartender. "He was wearing a funny suit that made him look a lot like a bug and he also had a look in his eyes, like he had made piece with death. He came in here, ordered a drink and talked to me for a while."
"See, he was having a dilemma. He knew that he needed to help somepony precious to him, but he know that if he tried it was most likely that he would die. He told me that the pony that actually owned the suit had given up and wouldn't be able to help him. So that he might have to be the hero."
'I know I may have said to him that he would be a better Spiderman than be, but I truly did not believe that he would wear the suit,' Otto realized with some terror filling up his heart, knowing that he may have doomed a pony that had aided him to certain death.
"But then he told me that he wasn't a hero, that even if he had the suit he wouldn't be able to last long. It wasn't only that he didn't have the power to save her, it was that he didn't have the heart to stop the villain. That the only one that could had given up, even when he was still this city only hope."
"Then he was wrong. Because that hero was never a hero to begin with," Otto snarled before he tossed his lungs at the bartender, who caught the mug without spilling a drop of the cider within. "He was a fool trying to act superior to a true hero, when in reality he was the inferior one all along. And now not only is he not the hero everyone says he is, but he also doesn't have the power to help. Once again, he has failed them."
"I suppose you could see it that way, if you're a glass half empty kind of way," Beer Tap agreed. "Or you could see it as a person that, even though he knew he wasn't the true hero, still went out of his way to save the ponies of this city. He still fought the monsters, the criminals and those that tried to hurt those here. He didn't have to. He isn't a hero after all. But he still did it, even when he wasn't the real Spider."
"Did he tell you that too?" Otto asked, smirking when the bartender nodded. "Of course that fool couldn't keep his mouth shut. Maybe he did it because he still felt guilty for his past mistakes."
"Or maybe he has a soul and couldn't sit by and watch as evil tried to harm others," Beer Tap replied as he turned away from Otto. "So yeah, right before you showed up he pounded down the rest of his drink and went off to fight that unwinnable battle, he said one last thing about that friend of his that thought himself a failure."
"What was that? About how much he hated me?"
"No, actually. How did he put it again? Right. All that fool was concerned about was how he failed, how he wasn't superior. But as he left the bar he said "He may not have been the superior hero, but he was a pretty damn good one in my books. He actually cared for others, unlike most. He's a real hero...and here's hoping I can have a fraction of his courage"."
"Wait a moment...he really said that about me?" Otto asked with some amazement.
"I'm starting to think that you're the only one here that doesn't believe that what you've done is heroic," Beer Tap replied. "But you keep comparing yourself to the other Spider, the one that you believe to be the pinnacle hero. Being a hero isn't about being who is the best. It's about helping others. And you have gotten that right."
Otto placed a hoof on the table and thought about what Stonewall had said about him, never noticing as Beer Tap placed the drink that Otto had thrown in front of the stallion once again. "Maybe you should stop comparing yourself to Peter, to beating yourself over how you'll never be the hero like him. Instead, you should be asking yourself a different question. Will you continue to look at the world as glass half empty?...Or will you realize it's not the powers that make the hero, it's the person with them. The person that chooses to continue to help even when they feel they have amounted to nothing."
"Wait a moment...you just said person," Otto noticed.
"I guess I did. So what will it be, Otto? Is this no longer your problem that you've failed? Or are you going to set it right?"
'He is right. Perhaps...I have been beating myself for my past actions for too long,' Otto realized as he stared at his own reflection, for the first time not seeing the image of Parker looking back at him. 'But without my powers, this battle is...powers. The powers that belonged to Parker. The powers that the Beast now has. But I am Doctor Otto Octavius. When have I ever needed powers to prevail?!'
Otto rose from his chair and pounded down the rest of the cider, wiping away the remains of the drink as his brain began to fire on al cylinders. His eyes blazed like an inferno and his face was set like stone. "Now that's a look I haven't seen in a while. Gotta plan?"
"Hundreds, actually. But all of the plans require the same material," Otto said as he glanced over at the bartender. "I need metal. A lot of it. And some thread to make a new suit."