Along came a new spider.

No amount of power can stop the inevitable. It's redundant, this quest was reduced to a false hope made by you, it makes breaking you much more pleasing.'

'

"Shining, will you please focus on other things besides wondering about what your little sister is doing" Queen Celestia asked, annoyed that the chief had requested to be excused for the fourth time.

"Sorry, I'm just worried who she's hanging out with." Shining said.

"Her friends are her most trusted friends since kindergarten. Why are you begging to question it?" Celestia asked.

"It's not that...its one of her new friends...not the most trustworthy of people I met, I'm worried he may do something that may hurt her." He replied.

"And why don't you trust him?"

"He had a fight with her when they first met, they are better now, but I can't bring myself to trust him. Every question I ask of his background to her, she just says: 'He doesn't feel comfortable talking about it.' It's just-"

"Nerve-wracking?" Celestia finished.

"Yes, but it's just that, he's extremely secretive of his past, it just seems a little suspicious."

"Well if he wants to keep his past a secret, it's his choice." Celestia countered.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Shining retorted.

"I do not know, but patience can reap it's rewards, maybe when he's comfortable with his surroundings, he may want to talk about it."

"Uhh...your highness? Can we please get back to the meeting?" A business woman asked.

"Oh, right." Shining said, chuckling nervously.

"So what was it that Alex told you?" Applejack asked. Rainbow froze, not knowing what to say to throw off suspicion.

"Umm, he told me if I was fine." She responded quickly. First mistake.

"From what I saw it'd seemed longer than that. C'mon Rainbow you can tell me. Where'd all that pride go?"

"Applejack?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you can keep a secret?" She asked.

"Of course. What do you want to say?"

"Alex has spider-powers. And he's the guy who saved us when school first started." She stated.

"What? That's ridiculous. How would you k-"

"Sarah, Insomnias lead singer, found out, and he told her everything. I found out when I passed by the alleyway they were in. He found out I was listening in. And I ran, he caught up and saved me from a car, and he told me what I wanted to know afterwards. He told me to keep it a secret but it's been killing me for a day now. We'd been trying to find out who the new Spider-man was since school began, only to find out he was right next to us!" She gasped, it'd been getting tighter to breathe all of a sudden and Rainbow felt light-headed.

"Listen Rainbow, I know you kept a promise for Alex, but the truth is going to get out sooner or later, lies don't last very long, when the time comes you and I have to be honest with our friends and be honest. Am I clear?" She said.

"Y-yeah."

"Good, we need to talk to him, he may freak out at first, but I'm sure he'll understand."

The two proceeded to walk to the auditorium after school to see Alex sitting down doing his homework while watching both bands practice. And he seemed to be getting involved.

"No,no, that riff is too long, it'll kill the song if you do it longer than that. You got to keep it short, but simple enough to get the job done. Ok Luis?" Alex said.

"Dude, you have no experience in music, yet you know so much, how come you don't play?" Luis asked as he adjusted his guitar.

"You'll be surprised when you listen to concerts in Central Park, when I was little, Earl used to take me and Dylan to concerts every now and then to see the bands live. It was fun, but we stopped after I turned eleven." Alex responded while doing his work.

"Alex, can we talk to ya for a sec?" Applejack asked.

"Sure, what do you need?" He said.

"Right here ain't the right place, follow me," She said while pulling him along with Rainbow to a nearby closet behind the curtains.

"Alright, what do you guys ne--"

"Rainbow told me." Applejack said.

"For fu-"He said while turning to Rainbow. "I thought I made you promise not to tell anyone about this."

"I tried, but it kept eating me alive to tell someone, I'd just couldn't take it!" She exclaimed.

"She's right Alex, lies like that can only go so far, best to tell now before it harms others."

"I know lies can rot, I'd thought it would buy me time." He responded.

"Buy time for what?" Applejack asked.

"So I can figure out what to do without getting arrested and carted off to the Cellar. You know what they do to criminals there!" He said.

"Yeah." She said, her voice trailing off.

"Is there anyone else who you told, because if you did, I'm going to have a fucking meltdown." Alex said.

"Relax, there was no one else who could've known." Rainbow assured.

"How come you don't do more of it?" Asked Applejack.

"More of what?"

"Being Spider-Man, he was a symbol of hope for the city, hope's not easy to come by these days. Especially with all the crime going around." Applejack said.

"Because I don't want to, I only acted because I don't like these sort of things happening, it's not like I can just drop everything for that." Alex said. Irritation running through his voice.

"Then fight to see it ended. If the city would get another hero to help end the crime running through it, there may be hope again. You need to know that." She stated.

"Okay hotshot, how am I supposed to get a costume?" He asked.

"Say What now?"she said.

"You know, the thing Spider-Man was known for, a 'man of mystery', how am I supposed to afford spandex?" He grunted.

Applejack shrugged. "Improvise?" She said.

"Can't believe I'm going through with this." He mumbled.

"Hey it's your powers, you use 'em." She said.

"Fine."