//------------------------------//
// A Good Man 
// Story: Along Came A Spider 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

Two ponies stood in the ruins of a burned down boutique, both of them wearing somber expressions as the gazed at the ruin that used to be their home. Coco let out a sad sigh as she wiped a tear out of her eyes, while Otto wrapped a hoof around her should to comfort her. The two of them walked through the burned down rubble, finding a few pieces of clothing or a design that somehow managed to avoid being decimated, but the rest of the boutique had been lost to the flames.

"Hard to believe two days ago this place held dresses that Sapphire would have worn for the whole world to see," Coco said with a sad sigh as she looked over the remains of what had once been a place of business. "Now it's nothing but soot and ash. Practically nothing survived. It's all gone."

"Perhaps it was for the best. The mess within was so terrible that I considered burning it to the ground a few times myself," Otto admitted, getting a tiny smirk out of Coco before she realized that a wall was still standing. She recognized where the wall would have been located within her boutique and she gave Otto a look. "What? Did you truly believe that I would not make my laboratory fire proof? I was a very successful evil genius Coco and you don't get to that statues by ignoring the danger of fire."

"Of course you would. Let's see what's left of your stuff," Coco instructed. The two of them walked over to the wall and Otto pried it open, though with greater effort than before. He managed to pull the wall open to create a large enough opening for Coco and him to slip through. The two looked around to see that the room was completely untouched by flames, leaving Coco wide eyed while Otto walked over to his table.

"Ah, glad to see that my secondary pack managed to survive," Otto said with a smile as he picked up a red pack, which opened up to reveal four, red appendages that moved like the limbs of a spider. He then glanced beside the pack to see a small spider bot sitting beside the pack, which he picked up and flicked the on switch. The bot came to life and began to run around the room, until it spied Coco and crawled onto her back.

"So you made those giant spiders," Coco realized as the spider bot rested upon the top of her blue mane, settling down and letting out a small beep. 

"They were designed to keep an eye on you and those who might get themselves into trouble," Otto revealed while he slipped the back over his shoulders, watching as the limbs extended and retracted a few times before he was satisfied.

"So you do truly care about me?" Coco asked with a coy smile as he walked up beside Otto and smiled up into his face.

"Coco, you are an intelligent pony. Figure it out for yourself," Otto avoided with a sly smile of his own before he saw Coco gaze around the room once more. "There is nothing else in here, in case you are wondering. No hidden lair or secret cloning facility. Though I wouldn't mind one of those."

"It's just...this workshop wasn't made of anything that the main building wasn't. But somehow it was completely untouched by the flames," Coco noticed before she gaze Otto a curious look. "You did something to this room? What was it?"

"A special formula of mine, that I coated the walls with," Otto said with a shrug as he walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a small canister, which he tossed to Coco. "It is completely fire retardant, meaning that even dead wood wouldn't burn if I applied this to it first."

"This is...incredible! How did you come up with it?" Coco asked in amazement.

"After the first three times Parker burned my secret lair to the ground I decided that I needed something to fight the flames as well as the Spiderman," Otto revealed before his face darkened. "Unfortunately for me, the material that I need to make it was rare on Earth. Or was too time consuming. Here though, there is more than enough to make the formula."

"...so what you're saying is that here you could mass produce it?" Coco asked, Otto catching something in her eyes that made him raise an eyebrow. "Otto, this could be an incredible invention. It IS an incredible invention. Think! If ponies had this, then they wouldn't have to worry about fires as much as we used to! Does it work against magical fires?"

"Are trying to insult my intelligence? Of course it does. I modified it for this world," Otto said with some heat before his curiosity took over once more. "I admit that I never thought to mass produce it...but what would it achieve? So it would stop a few more fires. You have magic and fireponies for that."

"But what would be more heroic, Otto? Saving ponies from a fire that burns down their homes...or never needing to save them because you gave them this?" Coco inquired to Otto, who gave her a small smile when he saw what she was getting at. "Not to mention that I'm certain that a pony that produced this miracle would be regarded across the world as both the smartest and the kindest-"

"You know how to hit all of my buttons, don't you?" Otto asked with a smirk, which grew into a genuine smile when Coco whistled innocently. "Very well, I shall consider it Coco. But for the time being we will need someplace else to stay, unless you are fine with living in the ruins of your old home?"

"No thanks. There are other places that I can stay," Coco said as she offered Otto her arm, shrugging with a sigh when he didn't take it. "Besides, Twilight contacted me and said that she would ask the princesses to pay for a new home and boutique for me. Since mine was burned down by a crazed supervillain. That's also their reward to you for stopping the Beast."

"How would they know about that?"

"Because I told them what you did. Not about the Spider, but about you using your intelligence to bring him down."

"I see. What became of our satyr friend, by the way?" Otto asked. "Surely they've thrown him in some prison right now, where he will most likely rot for a few months before breaking free and swearing his revenge on all that he believed wronged him."

"Actually, they're keeping him in a special laboratory, where they're trying to find out what the being that made him did to him," Coco corrected Otto before her eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head. "They haven't gotten much out of him yet about the being that made him. Only that he was dark, twisted and had a strange obsession with crystals. Weirdo."

"Yes, us mad scientist can be quite weird," Otto agreed as the two of them left the ruins and walked down the street, not sure where they were going yet. "But fortunately, there are those that see past our weirdness and see the real us...thank you Coco."

"For what?"

"For everything."

\\(  )//
//;::;\\

There was only one pony sitting at the bar when Otto pushed open the door, a smirk crossing his face when he spied the stallion that he had been looking for with his elbows on the bar while he downed the cider that neither of them could stand. Without a word to him Otto pulled up a stool and sat beside the stallion, sighing when Beer Tap laid the same drink in front of Otto. 

"I am glad that I found you here," Otto said to break the silence after then minutes of just sitting. Stonewall said nothing in reply. All he did was take another drink of his cider before making an expression similar to the one Otto made when he choked his drink down. "Because...I have to apologize."

"If the end of the world hadn't just happened, I would be certain that those words right there would have started it," Stonewall said with a smirk as he took another sip, getting Otto to chuckle slightly as he stared down at his own drink once more. 

"I have been...cruel and unfair to you. I see now that beneath your idiotic exterior, your dull eyes that convey no intelligence and the fact that for the life of you you can't-"

"I thought this was supposed to be an apology?" 

"Right. I wanted to apologize for all of my...attitude. You proved to me a few days ago that you are just as courageous as a real hero. And to thank you for your words, even if I did not hear them from you," Otto said, getting Stonewall to glance at Beer Tap, who averted his eyes and whistled innocently. "I did not need to be the superior, nigh unbeatable hero. I just needed to be a good one."

"And you always have been. Even though I hated your guts at first, when I figured out who was under the suit I realize that deep down you truly were a good pony. Even if it took you forever to show it," Stonewall said with a smirk. "But I need to thank you as well. You've helped Coco to be stronger, you've saved this city...and you helped me to see that ones past does not define their future. That we all can be better than we believed to be."

"And I have Coco to thank for that...and Peter to an extent," Otto begrudgingly admitted. Stonewall let out a small chuckle before he ordered another drink for the both of them, much to Otto's dismay.

"So have you thought about what you're going to do next?" Stonewall asked Otto.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that your spider powers are still gone, right? So what are you going to do next?" Stonewall asked once more, getting Otto to look down at his hoof as the question echoed in his mind. "Because that suit that you built along with those metal limbs of yours looked pretty powerful. And they seemed more...you."

"Perhaps you are right, Stonewall," Otto admitted once more as ideas began to form within his mind. "Perhaps it is time for me to start being myself again."

\\(  )//
//;::;\\

"This...was even better than what I could have hoped for," Coco admitted with eyes wide as she and her two friends gazed up at the massive entrance to her brand new boutique a few months later. The building was twice the size of the previous one, had massive towers around it that made it look like a castle and was painted like the night sky. It was a gift from Princess Luna. "I mean, it's even got my silhouette being used in a creative and artistic manner. That is so cool."

"Not only that, but I've gotten confirmation from some old friends that it's the largest boutique in all of Equestria," Stonewall revealed to Coco, whose eyes grew even wider at that statement. "Meaning that you are now the proud owner of the largest, and soon to be most successful, boutique in all of the world."

"This is too much for me," Coco said as she started to rock, but Otto caught her with a hoof and forced her to stay standing upright. "All the expectations...all of the orders that I'm going to get...it's going to be pandemonium."

"Well, fortunately for you that you happen to have a super genius and a former soldier to aid you with your tasks," Otto said with a laugh as he glanced down at his green suit with yellow trimming. "I would also like to add rich and very attractive to my description about that genius." 

"What did I tell you? A few months of being used and already all of Equestria has you to thank for keeping fires down," Coco said with a smirk as she elbow Otto in the gut. "Now all they're waiting for is to see what the brilliant Doctor Octavius has in store for them next."

"I actually have a few ideas that may be able to improve this world even further. See, I have been studying your ponies magic and may have-"

"While I would love nothing more than to hear the two of you bore me to death with your geek talk, we do have a ceremony to be getting to," Stonewall reminded the both of them, sighing with exhaustion when they both gave him a blank stare. "They've finally rebuilt downtown and they're going to be having a ribbon cutting for the new buildings that were set up down there. We're going to be late."

"Feh, what do we care? We have a whole new building to explore. It might not mean much to you, but as I do not have a home I need to secure the best room in there for myself," Otto said to Stonewall in a very serious tone, but another elbow to the ribs by Coco changed his mind. "Fine, but if it's any longer than an hour I'm going to try taking over the city myself."

"Sure you would."

"I mean it, I would construct a-"

Otto's words were cut off as the three of them could hear the faint sounds of panicked screaming coming from off in the distance, followed a few moments later by the roaring of something that was neither pony nor human. Stonewall and Coco looked to Otto, who let out a sigh as he glanced down at his outfit.

"It was such a nice suit. Oh well. We shall meet up later. Coco, do not start giving out rooms until I have had the chance to look!" Otto demanded before he took off in the opposite direction. "And if Cherry shows up for our date early, stall her however you must!"

"Wait what?"

Otto raced through the streets until he found an alley that had neither pony nor any other creature within it. As he raced into it he tore his suit off of his body, revealing a black and green battle suit beneath. Four mechanical limbs erupted from the back of the suit and lifted him off of the ground, while a helmet unfolded from the pack that had been hidden under his suit. Otto grabbed hold of the helmet and prepared to slip in on, before something that caught his eye. Something that made him stop in his tracks.

It was a cracked mirror that rested up against the alley wall, but as Otto gazed into its reflective surface he found the form of Peter staring back at him. Parker seemed to be leaning up against the wall and gazed at Otto with an expression that the scientist couldn't read. But then Otto shook his head and turned to leave.

"I do not care what you have to say to me. The ponies need me," Otto said curtly before he glanced over his shoulder once more. Peter closed his eyes and shook his head with a slightly smile, before he opened his eyes once more and gave Otto a thumbs up. Otto blinked with surprise and a moment later Peter was gone, leaving Otto to simply be staring at his own reflection.

He then heard a cry for help and shook himself free of his thoughts, slipping the green and black helmet over his head as his limbs propelled him towards the source of the distress. 'Today will be a test run in two different ways. It will be the first testing of my new appendages as well as this battle suit...but it will also show me how I can handle being a hero without Parker's powers,' Otto thought to himself as he climbed up over a building overlooking the panic...where he spied some kind of centaur monster sucking the magic out of the ponies. 'But I have a feeling I'll do just fine.'

"Halt, beast," the pony in the suit snarled down at the centaur, who looked up just in time to take a metallic limb across the face. He snarled with rage before two more limbs wrapped around his legs, pulling him off of his hooves and sending him crashing into the street beneath him.

"What in the...who are you?" the centaur asked.

"Who am I? That is an easy one," the pony said as he pointed to the eight legged creature on his chest, before all four of his metallic limbs attacked the being all at once.

"I am Doctor Octopus."