Harmony's Warriors: The Spectacular Spider-Colt

by Avenging-Hobbits

Act I - 04 - How Do I Shoot Web?

Act I:
“Origins”

Chapter Four:
“How Do I Shoot Web?”

How do I get down? Pipsqueak’s eyebrows furrowed, his eyes peering over at his hooves. They were apparently quite snug against the brick walls of the building he’d managed to find himself attached to.

I mean, this is amazin’ and all, but I can’t be stuck up ‘ere forever… he tentatively tugged at his hoof, and with a rather underwhelming flick of the wrist, it popped loose. His center of gravity wobbled slightly, causing him to tense up again and the grip of his remaining three hooves to tighten noticeably.

“Okay…okay…don’t panic Pip, panicking never solves anything,” he muttered aloud, looking down at the street below with a gulp. “Guess I’ll just climb down then…yeah...climb down...five stories...of sheer brick wall…using just me ‘ooves………piece o’ cake,” he told himself, trying to remain as calm as possible in his current predicament.

He closed his eyes tightly, lifting one of his rear hooves and slowly reaching it downwards, before mirroring the motion with one of his forelegs. He repeated it with the other hooves, and so on and so forth, eventually finding himself, somewhat stiffly, climbing down the wall. A smile slowly spread across his face, and he let out a giggle.

“Hey, this is actually pretty ea-”

That’s when one of his hooves caught the other, and he found himself suddenly tumbling forwards wildly. He let out a yelp, coming loose from the wall and throwing his forelegs forward on reflex. There was a noticeable pinch in his wrists, and next thing Pipsqueak knew, he was tangled in a web of silk and surrounded by papers of various kinds.

“-sy…” Pipsqueak let out a sigh of both relief and frustration, as he began to clamber awkwardly out of the recycling bin.

“Lucky for me it was just paper” he muttered, his hooves clopping against the cement as he hopped out of the bin, some pieces of paper still stuck to his hooves. He let out an annoyed grunt, shaking his hooves to cause the papers to fall away.

“Okay Pip, this is something you need to workshop…” he glanced up at the building. “I mean, I’m not exactly gonna try climbing another one of these…” he trailed off, closing his mouth and looking down at his hooves and back at the wall.

I wonder if I can get around faster now….

He tentatively walked over to the wall again, attaching his right hoof to the structure.

Only one way to find out I guess…

Followed by his left hoof.

And that’s by doing.

/////////////////////////////

“Okay Pip, now for the big one.” Pipsqueak took a breath, flexing his neck as he watched the roof across from the one he was standing on. So far, climbing had been a rather straightforward matter of putting one hoof in front of the other, albeit with the conceit of being 90% up a flat surface. Once on top of the roof, of course, there was the matter of getting to the next rooftop.

“Just one little jump.” He crouched down, pawing at the ground and taking another breath. “You can do it…” He flexed his hooves. He’d been good at track and field, but that was before he proved he could jump fifteen feet straight up a wall. It stood to reason he could try to see if he could jump that far straight ahead.

“One… two… three!”

On three, he bolted forwards, his hooves carrying him much faster than expected. His eyes widened slightly in surprise, and he almost tripped over the edge of the roof. Fortunately, he came to his senses quickly and jumped, his momentum carrying him across the gap and halfway across the next roof. Pipsqueak quickly suppressed his surprise and kept running, and he was able to clear the next gap with no difficulties.

“Heh, this is easier than I thought,” Pipsqueak said after clearing another gap. He came to a stop, his smile large and wide. His breaths were now heavy pants, as this was the first time he’d ever really run so fast. He looked up, noting that he had reached a massive gap that he was pretty sure he could not jump, super jumping skills or no.

Guess now I can try out that... whatever it was I did earlier. Pipsqueak stared at his hooves, then back out at the gap. Deciding to start simple, he raised his right hoof and pointed it at the nearest building he could see, waiting patiently for something to happen.

“... Okay, that’s not working,” he muttered, looking back at his hoof. He could see a slightly off-white substance built up at the joint where the hoof met the wrist. He looked back at the nearby building again.

“Okay then….let’s fly!” he flung his hoof forward.

Nothing.

“Um... Go, web!” he tried a different hoof motion, but once again yielded nothing.

“Up, up, and away!”

Nothing.

“Shazam!”

Still nothing.

“Onwards, Aoshima!”

Once again, nothing.

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Pipsqueak angrily flicked his wrist again, more out of spite and frustration than anything else. As if a joke, a thread of webbing went sailing towards the building across the street, where it stuck to a water tower. Pipsqueak’s eyebrows rose and frowned.

“Okay, be like that,” he muttered, giving the line a tug with his other hoof to make sure it was connected firmly. “But at least you’re working now,” he added, bracing himself for the jump.

He took several steps back, pulling the line nice and taut.

“Yoiks! And away!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, galloping forwards and leaping off the roof. The line loosened, before going taut once more. With a sharp yank, it started swinging him forwards.

“This is awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeee--”

That’s when he hit the water tower.

Pip let out a pained groan, peeling himself out of the humorous imprint he created on the surface of the water tower and shaking his head to clear it.

“Yeah… note to self: practice swinging...” he crawled down to the surface platform, sitting down to take a moment and rest his now sore body.

“Recap time Pip. You got bitten by a freaky spider at RichCorp Labs, and can now climb up walls, jump across rooftops and swing from a web line coming outta your wrists,” he paused, letting the sheer strangeness of the past day or so filter through. “You gotta tell somepony. Somepony you can trust. Just in case something goes wrong...now, who do you trust?”

He tapped a hoof on his chin, his eyes wandering idly.

“Can’t really tell Aunt May… she’d just get worried… and Uncle Copper isn’t really a scientist…” he paused, his eyes widening. “Why didn’t I think of it! Dr. Cheerilee! I can tell ‘er! She knows all about genetics and mutations and stuff, maybe she can explain all this!”

Now that he had a semblance of a plan in his mind, Pipsqueak clambered down from the water tower and started down the wall. He’d had enough high altitude travel for the day, and he wanted to save his energy for Cheerilee. Also… he was rather sore.

/////////////////////////////

Pipsqueak, sitting upside down on the ceiling, was looking at Doctor Cheerilee, who sat strangely quiet as she took in all the information he had given her.

She looks rather anxious… he thought to himself, noticing how, even though her face was rather flat, her eyes seemed to twitch involuntarily every so often.

“Um… you okay Doc? Or do you need a minute?” Pipsqueak asked, tilting his head slightly. Cheerilee shook her head slowly, leaning back in her chair and keeping her eyes fixed on Pipsqueak.

“No… it’s alright,” she said slowly and calmly. “Just let me get this straight: you were bitten by a spider, and now, for whatever reason, you seem to have gained abilities vaguely similar to that of a spider. Am I correct in assuming that?”

Pipsqueak, still perched on the ceiling, nodded. “Yeah… that’s about right.” He gave her a meek smile. “I think it was one of Bunsen's Spiders, Doc,” he added, giving Cheerilee another, somewhat more helpful smile.

Cheerilee's expression darkened, and she put her head in her good hoof. “Of course it would be one of his. Everything he touches goes haywire--”she halted mid-sentence, looking back up Pipsqueak to see him now hanging from one leg.

“Um, Pip, do you mind coming down from there? It’s rather worrying to see you hanging from so high up.”

Pipsqueak looked back at how he was hanging, before giving Cheerilee a nod. “This is pretty cool though, don’tcha think?” he said, shooting out a line of webbing and slowly repelling down from the ceiling. He landed safely and sat down in front of Cheerilee. “I didn’t know it was Bunsen who made the Spiders, Doc. I mean, didn’t he make that weird thing that started attracting lizards?”

“And an alligator. And a dragon scientist we had…” she let out a long sigh, her eyes sliding towards Pipsqueak’s wrists. “Have you run out of that webbing yet?”

Pipsqueak glanced down at his wrists. “Uh, no I don’t think so. I think my body just produces it naturally. Not sure if it can run out. I mean, I spent the whole afternoon swinging around on this stuff.”

Cheerilee sighed again, pulling out a pen and notepad. “How long have you had these… changes?”

“Uh, well, ‘bout a day. I got sick yesterday afternoon, came home, and then passed out. When I woke up, I felt perfectly fine, so I just kinda shrugged it off as the flu or somethin’... and then the weird stuff started ‘appening… like, I got this spider-sense…”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, glancing up from her notepad. “‘Spider-Sense’? Care to explain?”

Pipsqueak nodded, putting a hoof to his chin. “Well… it’s kind of hard to explain, I mean... it’s like I can automatically tell where anything is. It’s strongest when the thing is like, say, an oncoming car or a runaway dodgeball or somethin’.” He then shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s sorta like psychic powers I guess…”

Cheerilee gave Pipsqueak a look, that he could see was the silent version of a long winded lecture about the dubious nature of what he just said. Instead of speaking however, she let out a sigh, clicking open her pen and jotting down what Pipsqueak said.

“Spider bite grants psychic abilities.” she let out another, more tired and downtrodden sigh, dropping her pen and sliding back in her chair.

“Um, you alright, Doc?” Pipsqueak asked, leaning forward slightly.

Cheerilee simply groaned in response, rubbing her forehead. “I’m just tired, Pip. No worries. I was up really late last night taking care of my niece.”

Pipsqueak raised an eyebrow. “Niece? What niece?”

Cheerilee sighed again. “Ruby. Ruby Pinch. My cousin had to drop her off while on a business trip. She’s a nice filly, but she couldn’t get a wink of sleep last night,” Cheerilee rubbed her eyes. “Something about nightmares or something. She didn’t seem exactly keen on going to school this morning either.”

“Well, I can’t blame her. Being the new filly and all. What school?”

Cheerilee motioned towards Pipsqueak. “Yours I think. Mostly because it’s nice and low key. Nothing crazy ever happens there you know.”

Pipsqueak quietly nodded, making a mental note to try to find this Ruby tomorrow, if only so she wouldn’t be friendless.

“If you don’t mind me saying, Doc, ya look pretty worn down. Have ya ever considered taking a vacation?”

Cheerilee laughed quietly, shaking her head. “I thought about it, but…” she motioned to her laboratory equipment. “I can’t,” she said quietly. “I have too much to do.” She straightened up. “At any rate, I think it’s best that you try and avoid using these newfound abilities. We don’t know the full effects yet, and we don’t want to cause any problems that could otherwise be easily averted.”

Pipsqueak frowned again. “Are you sure, Doc? I thought I should try and see just how much I got changed by-”

Cheerilee was already shaking her head. “No. There’s no telling what could happen. I want you to promise me that you won’t use these things to do something stupid or dangerous.”

Pipsqueak was quiet for a long moment, before letting out a sigh and giving Cheerilee a nod. “Alright… I’ll try.”

Cheerilee gave him a smile. “Thank you, Pip.”

/////////////////////////////

Cheerilee stared at the computer screen, with a drained, vaguely frustrated look in her eyes. She’d been locked in her laboratory for most of the day, running simulation after simulation. So far, she’d made some vague progress, but nothing anywhere near definitive. She needed a break though, something to reignite both her passion for science, and her ability to solve the problems in front of her. She rested her head on her hooves, keeping her tired eyes on the screen.

What am I going to do? I’ve got Rich’s request, and now I have to figure out how in Equestria is Pip able to walk up walls and shoot webbing...

There was just so much. A little more than a week ago, Cheerilee hadn't had anything to do because she was waiting for the board to vote on her project. Now she had to take care of a child who took a medication that Cheerilee had never heard of before that had unknown immunosuppressive effects on the filly, a student who was apparently turning into a pony-spider, AND she also had to create a cure for something that didn’t even probably need a cure in the first place.

Across the room from, her, having been previously whirring quietly in the background, one of the machines started beeping sharply. With a slight grunt, Cheerilee pulled herself to her hooves taking a moment to steady herself on her three good legs before carefully attaching the prothesthic. She walked over to the monitor, her gait slightly off center as her prosthetic shifted a little on the stub of her leg.

Tonight, she thought to herself, I will get a full nights rest, and I don’t care what I have to do to get it. She clicked on the appropriate window and frowned. The machine had been analyzing Ruby’s medicine, mostly out of Cheerilee’s own concern for Ruby’s health.

Her cousin had been maddeningly vague on what exactly the medicine did or what it was for, and some initial tests had shown that it had some rather complex spell work interwoven into it.

Probably made in a brew or cauldron… Cheerilee mused, carefully reading the information on the computer screen. Whatever spell work had been done on the medication had apparently modified it to affect the DNA structure of the patient itself, forcing it to remain in a certain form.

Cheerilee leaned back from the screen with a frown on her face. This could be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands...repressing part of the genetic code...somepony could use it prevent a pegasus from controlling the weather or prevent a unicorn from using their magic--

Her eyes widened, and it felt as if a lightbulb went off above her head.

Wait a second! I can use this to solve Mr. Rich’s problem! I can use this to repress the mutant gene!

She quickly trotted back to her other set of computers, closing the results of Pipsqueak’s tests. She could focus on those later. Right now, it was time to study the medication in earnest.

Author's Note:

Yeah it's short, but come on, they can't all be Dante's Inferno.

Anyways, like I said, the drive has diminished.

Anyways, I hope you guys like the chapter.

I gotta figure out a way to have Ruby show up more instead of keeping her off screen.....

Comments

[doorcf]

wow, thi was a good chapter, good to read you again

[The Literary Lord]

From the title, I can tell you're a big TV Tropes guy. Peter, you better learn not to tempt fate quickly! So, his webbing is biological in this universe. Is that foreshadowing I spy with that mention of the reptile attracting device. So, Ruby's medicine has magic that must be preventing any of her vampire traits from showing up (since she's part vamp via her mom). Let's hope that Cheerilee hasn't opened Pandora's box here.

[James-Plasma]

5285110 Hi, I Highly Recommend that Your Next Story Not to be Marvel But Instead to be an MLP Crossover with the Greatest Saga Of All Time...

Main Theme:

and then after that story then you can do an MLP/Marvel Story crossing over with the 5th film in Phase 3 of The MCU...

Main Theme:

and then finally after that you should make a Past Sins Original Story...

Main Theme:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_VIII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor:_Ragnarok
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/137789/nyx-and-the-shadow-of-nightmare
...Nuff Said.
with thanks and hopes up,
From Your Biggest Fan of all time in the history of all of reality,
Shane W.L. Nokes aka James S.K. Plasma aka Dark-Pulse/Darkimus-Primal

[What is pie]

Hey can you do something with button mash

[Avenging-Hobbits]

9717630 Not at this time. Everything’s kinda on hold as I try to get my ducks in a row as it were

[What is pie]

Ha cause you are Daffy Duck if you need ideas I was thinking a into the spider verse with button as miles