Chapters View Online
Look Out! Here Comes The Origin Story! Part 1 of 3
I'll be honest with you before I get started. If you're looking for a happy, joyful little story loaded with sugarplums and gumdrops, you should probably just turn around and leave right now.
Still here? Ok, I'll start with the basics. My name is Peter Parker. True, it's something of an unremarkable name for a pony, and everypony outside Manehattan seems to have these prestigious, meaningful ones, but you know what? I can't imagine a world where I'd possibly be named anything else, and I ain't arguing. I grew up here in Manehattan, raised by my Aunt May and Uncle Ben, whom I was left with after my parents died. The three of us never had much, but we got by, and it was always a loving roof we lived under.
They always pushed me to do well in my studies, and never one to want to let them down, always did my best. Don't get me wrong though, unlike most ponies, I honestly enjoyed learning in school, and it was science I excelled at. And I say science as a generalization, because I got really immersed in just about every scientific subject that there is. Chemistry, microbiology, physics, you name it, I studied it. It was actually my first A with a science project (a complete scale model of a calcium chlorate molecule, if you don't mind me pointing out), that I wound up with my cutie mark; the ever classic nerd's microscope!
Yeah, that’s just about the all the perks of being a young genius, but then there’s my life at Midtown High. Here, let me paint you picture of a typical day in the life of young Peter Parker and tell you about the day before the big class field trip.
It started off decent enough, actually. Aunt may came and woke me up, I fumbled around for my glasses on the nightstand, and in forgetting how well tucked in the blankets are, tripped and fell as I got out of bed. Another great start to another great day!
After I washed up, I went downstairs for breakfast. Monday morning is blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and it made Mondays much more bearable for everypony.
“Well, Pete, excited for the big trip tomorrow?” Uncle Ben asked, his usual calm smile on his face.
“Of course he is, Ben, look who you’re asking!” Aunt May grinned and gave him a playful swat on the shoulder.
“Bet he’s looking more forward to seeing that pretty unicorn running the whole thing than he is to learn!” He had a tendency to tease me over the fact that I was a fan of Twilight Sparkle, even if I only ever mentioned it was just because she was an incredible scientist and sorceress (even though I wasn’t very big on magic). Sure, she was my age and all, but I never bothered putting much thought in that direction. Like somepony that well known would give a nerd like me the time of day.
After breakfast, I was headed off to school. Eddie wasn’t at the corner we usually met up at on the way to school.
“Aw nertz.”
Eddie Brock was the long running best friend and brother-from-another-mother. His parents and mine pretty much raised us side by side for sometime, our fathers both brilliant scientists who worked for the same company. When it came to our schoolwork, he was almost as good as me. Eddie usually kept up with me on the report card, but anytime he ever hit a snag, I’d always lend a hand. But, he’s always had me beat at sports. Dude’s always been built like an athlete, and he’s mostly been around to give me a hand whenever the usual meatheads like Flash Thompson came around looking for a nerd to stomp on. I say mostly, because he tends to have to miss school for regular doctor appointments. I assumed today was one of them. What struck me as strange, though, was that he didn’t seem to want to talk about what they were for. I asked once, sure, but he went and changed the subject faster than I could blink and didn’t even seem to realize I’d even asked. I didn’t bother a second time, knowing he’d say what those appointments were all about when he was ready.
Anyway, it was looking like I was on my own, today. This oughta be fun.
I made it to first period, geometry, with no problems, surprisingly enough. Actually, nopony ever bothered with me until later at lunch, when a hoof was stuck out and I fell face first into my scoop of chocolate pudding.
“Just couldn’t wait till you sat down to eat, could ya, Parker?” I don’t know what possessed me to say what I said next. Must have been when I finally got sick of the guy.
“Very good, Flash. Did it take you all weekend to come up with that? Hope your head didn’t hurt too badly, all that thinking you probably had to do.” Oh crap, what did I just say? I guess with all the years of that treatment, I was pretty fed up by this point, but I’ll admit, it was still a pretty dumb thing to say to somepony who could bench press my weight with one hoof.
“Getting pretty bold, there, Parker.” Oh well, might as well go for broke, given how deep in it I am now.
“I’m surprised you even know the meaning of the word, or any, for that matter.” He looked a bit displeased. I shut my eyes and waited for the inevitable hoof to the chocolate coated face.
“There a problem here, Flash?” I looked up and saw Eddie. Looked to me like the appointment got cut short. Couldn’t help but wonder who it was he was standing there with.
“It’s none of your business, Brock.” Is that a bead of nervous sweat, I see?
“Oh, I see some pea-brained moron about to lay in to my best friend, it becomes my business. Now, does this have to get ugly (well, uglier, with you already here)? Or are you going to do the smart thing for once in your life and just walk away? I mean, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you have a chemistry test to fail in about 15 minutes.” Without a word, Flash stomped his way out of the lunchroom.
“Thanks, Eddie…”
“What’re brothers for, right?”
“Well, not bad, teach, not bad at all.”
He turned to his friend with a cheesy grin on his face and motioned him forward.
“Who’s your friend, Eddie?” I asked, almost sure I’d seen him before.
“Pete, this is Harry. Harry, this is Pete.”
“… Harry? Wait, you mean like, Harry Osborn, Harry?” Of course. He’d been in plenty of photographs in the papers with his father, Norman Osborn, one of the wealthiest and highest paid minds in the scientific community. He was no Twilight Sparkle, but he was a pretty big deal.
“Not many other Harrys that Eddie’s been tutoring, last time I checked.”
“Well, Eddie never mentioned anything about tutoring you.” Eddie made money as by-the-hour tutor. I could only imagine what he’d be making with this.
“I figured it’d be a nifty little surprise. And judging by the look on your face, I’d say it was a good call.”
Yeah, he got me. Somehow he’d managed to hide the fact he was tutoring the son of somepony like Norman Osborn.
They explained away that Harry was in fact being transferred here into Midtown High. His father was there to spend some time overseeing the Manehattan branch of his company, and apparently was trying to appeal to get in a spot for some supposed new discovery of his at tomorrow’s big event.
Ok, so it wasn’t as typical a day as I made it out to be before, what with who I met that day, but the rest of it was about as normal as things got. Another status quo day for Peter Parker.
I can tell you’ve probably gotten pretty bored by now, so I'll get to why you're really here: to learn how I got my second cutie mark, and everything that came after. Yes, I say second cutie mark, because, well, I guess fate is just kind of funny like that. Let me start with the day that the life of Peter Parker went from a nice and simple flowing ride, to an erratic terror train conducted by a cock-eyed psychopony (metaphorically speaking).
You know that funny feeling you get when you wake up and just know that something is going to happen today that's just going to change everything you know and love?
No?
Me neither.
Sure would've been a nice warning if I'd had that feeling when I woke up that particular morning. This was the day my high school class was heading into a huge science and magic expo being held at the Equestrian history museum, and was actually being overseen and run by none other than Princess Celestia's star student, Twilight Sparkle! Needless to say, I was pretty eager to get there.
"Hey, Pete, why so glum?" Eddie sure does call ‘em like he sees ‘em.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, Eddie, I was miles away…"
"We're just about to climb the steps into our favorite annual tourist spot (free of charge for once), to look in on a huge array of new discoveries that'll probably change all of Equestria as we know it, not to mention possibly speak to, or at least see our idol, and you look like you just got an A-." He really has a way with words.
"I don't know Eddie, I guess the thought of that last part makes me kinda nervous… I mean, she's an absolute brainiac and-"
"You're not?"
"… I don't want to ask anything to make me sound stupid at her big Q&A after the all exhibits are revealed…" Can you blame me? I mean, I had a lot to ask. Unfortunately, I didn't actually remain conscious for anything other than the first exhibit we were led to.
Our tour guide (a pink pony who, if you ask me, seemed to enjoy being a volunteer tour guide a little too much to be considered what I'd call sane) brought us towards a tremendous cylindrical tank with a tree that seemed to have more spider webs in its branches than actual leaves, along with a rather pretty yellow pony with pink hair who seemed to be talking directly up towards the huge bulk of strands.
"First off, this is where my bestest friend Fluttershy looks after all the spiders that my other bestest friend Twilight has been casting all kinds of spells on to see if… um… wow, I guess I forgot what she was casting magic on them for! But I'm sure whatever it's for, it's really important and she could probably explain it a LOT better than I could!" I was getting the feeling she was only here to help out as a favor to her friend, who was apparently Twilight. Maybe I wouldn't look that stupid after all!
"Maybe you won't look that stupid after all, little brother!"
"Don't you think that's a little messed up, Eddie?"
"Oh, like you weren't thinking it."
"No!" Yeah, I'm a little ashamed to say.
"Anyone wanna come take a closer look at this little spider colony we have here?" the guide asked. I pretty much shot forward ahead of anybody. Or rather, I was the only one who wanted to actually get a good look at everything in the tank. If Eddie didn't have a thing about spiders, he probably would've been right there next to me.
I was only vaguely aware of the pony in the glass, Fluttershy, heading to the opposite side of the tank to talk to Pinkie, our tour guide. She sounded like she was worried about something, but I only barely acknowledged that there was anything wrong. I was pretty amazed at what I was seeing. All these different species of spiders going about their business in the treetop webbing was something of a show. Some working together to add to their home and singlehandedly carrying tremendous bundles of rotted wood into a refuse pile to the side of the tank, some seemed to actually be set up on smaller branches to determine what would break away and fall, apparently knowing beforehand just when it would break and leaping to safety with blinding speed!
I didn't even realize the tour group was leaving without me until Eddie called out to me. "Just a sec," I called back, and that was about all the time the loose spider needed. I couldn't tell ya why it felt the need to do what it did. Maybe it didn't like the cut of my jib. Maybe it didn't like that I was eyeing the pretty caretaker to his family's nest. Whatever the reason, it crept up just above my front right hoof without me realizing, and,
"It bit me! Augh! That spider bit me!" I managed to shake it off of me, and it crawled somewhere out of sight. I know a tiny set of fangs are going to hurt when they sink into you, but that bite really. Freaking. Hurt.
"Peter! Are you alright?"
"Little Parker's spazzin' out!"
"Oh no, did anyone see where the spider went?" Almost immediately, my head felt like it was burning. I mean, there are migraines, we've all had them, but then there's that skull-splitting pain that knocked me out cold in about 10 seconds flat. Last I could remember before I blacked out was everyone clamoring over me, screaming for help, and with the things I saw when I went under, I'm surprised I wasn't just flat out screaming.
“Peter? How do you feel?”
“Uncle Ben? Where am I? Why can’t I move? Why can’t I see anything?”
“Just stretch out your limbs, Peter, you’ll break free just fine.”
I was terrified at first, not having any idea what was going on, but hearing Uncle Ben’s voice was a comfort, and he always did seem to give the best advice. I did as he said, difficult as it was. I was wrapped up pretty tight in what I already knew to be a cocoon of spider webbing. I knew it, but I didn’t want to believe it, and when I got loose, any doubt I might’ve had pretty much died. I looked all around me and quickly realized I was back home, only… I could only barely recognize it under all the webs. They were just… everywhere, the whole house made into some kind of nightmarish nest.
“Uncle Ben?” I turned my head to where I had heard his voice come from, and unfortunately, what was left of him wasn’t hard to find. He was a hollowed out husk of a pony, stuck to the living room ceiling. His eyes were sunken far into their sockets, the shell of his hide withered and decrepit to the point where, at the slightest touch, it would have given in and crumbled away. I could barely stand to look at him out of a painful combination of absolute horror, disgust, and sorrow. What was done to his face, well… at the moment I could remember reading somewhere that when spiders feed, they start at the head, and apparently that was what the wound looked like on a pony of middle age.
I had to find Aunt May, get us out. As heart-wrenching as it was, I could do nothing for my uncle at that point, but maybe Aunt May was only cocooned somewhere, left unconscious as a snack for later. Just that thought alone made me snap out of my stupor at Uncle Ben’s state, but before I could get started on searching, there was a loud banging on the door. Somepony outside was trying to get in?
“Is anypony in there? This is the police! We’re here to help! Can you let us in?” The cavalry arrives, but way too late for my tastes.
“I-I-I can’t! The doors and windows are all w-webbed shut! I can’t get out!”
“Don’t worry, son! We’re doing our best to break down the door, just hold on!”
“Please, hurry! I need to find my aunt! Just please get in here and help me find her in all this mess!”
I didn’t have to look long though. I turned to see a bundle of webbing dangling from the ceiling right in front of me. I chose not to ask questions on how convenient it was, and opted to just rip away the threads as quick as I could. I reached forward and tore at the cocoon with my claws and… wait, claws? Yes, my hooves were gone, replaced by the pointed claws at the end of a spider’s legs. It was at that moment that the police burst in, the first screaming, “What in the name of Celestia?!”
“No, please! I-I didn’t mean to! I don’t even remember what happened!”
“Stop that thing before it kills whoever’s in there,” another had shouted. I didn’t know what else to do other than leave Aunt May to them. They could probably do more for her than I apparently had at that point. I scurried over to the stairs and shot straight up to my room before the cops could do anything. I shut the door and locked it, turning to the mirror on my closet door to get a good look at myself. Huge mistake. The only vaguely recognizable part of me I could see was that I still had a pony’s head. I say vaguely, because… hey, I’ll be honest, you’d have trouble picking your own face out of a line-up if it suddenly had four extra eyes and a prominent set of fangs protruding from the mouth. It’d probably be made all the more difficult if your head was sitting atop the body of a tremendous, red and blue spider.
The police were going to be plowing down the door to my room any second, so the only thing I could think to do was ram my way through the wall and head outside. Of course, the instant I did just that, I was met with a shouting from above.
“There it is, everypony! Come on!” I looked up to see a division of pegasus from Princess Celestia’s royal guard bearing down on me.
“Wait! Please, I didn’t mean to hurt anypony! Just please, stop!” My words fell on deaf ears, and they pulled in low, swords drawn, ready to kill the monster. I scuttled down the side of the house and out into the neighborhood, everypony screaming at the sight of me and heading for the hills. Every part of me said to just get as far away from civilization as I could, as fast as I could, and I really booked. I seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere when I turned around. No one seemed to be following, and I kept walking backward, scanning for anypony around, when I back into something with a loud tink! I looked to see what I bumped into and quickly realized it was a glass wall.
“Peter? Whatcha got there?”
“It’s a spider Uncle Ben! I just found it and caught it!”
“Oh Peter, you know how your Aunt May hates those things. Why don’t you just let it go?”
“Aw, do I have to?”
“Sorry, little pony, but you have to. It’s only gonna cause one problem after another for us if you keep it. You know that.”
“I guess you’re right…”
“No, please! DON’T!”
That younger me, who had barely had his cutie mark for more than a week, gave the jar I was in a good, hearty toss, much to my dismay.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” And the jar shattered.
View Online
Look Out! Here Comes The Origin Story! Part 2 of 3
“Peter! Wake up!” And thankfully, I did.
“Finally! Jeez, never seen anypony hit the floor harder than that!”
“Eddie? How long was I out?” He scratched his head.
“Maybe about 15 minutes.” I looked up and saw him, and our tour guide, Pinkie,
“Thank Celestia! He’s awake! Hey Fluttershy, it’s ok, he’s awake now!” The spider
“I am so sorry about that, sir. It’s my job to look after all the spiders for Twilight, and I didn’t think little Nancy would cause any trouble when she asked to be let out for a little while… at least she said she wouldn’t… Also, her mama, Sheila, would like to apologize on her daughter’s behalf, since we still can’t find her.” That was when the spider, erm, spoke up? I honestly couldn’t say, what with the short series of squeaks that it was letting out.
“Um… apology accepted?” It gave off one more squeak before going silent again. The tamer finally looked up and gave a small smile.
“Again, I’m really sorry about all this…”
“Well I-I’m feeling a lot better, now, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Pff, I’ll say…” Eddie piped up. I opened my mouth to say something to him when I saw none other than Twilight Sparkle herself making her way through the crowd. Eddie followed my eyes and, for once, he seemed to be at a loss for words.
“Please, if you could all just step aside, I’d like to talk to the pony who was just hurt.” Face to face with her, and everything and anything I wanted to ask seemed to have gotten sick of waiting, and vacated the premises.
“Are you ok? How do you feel? Do you need an ambulance? Where’s Rainbow Dash? She’s supposed to be ready to take anypony to the emergency room if something happened!”
“Sorry Twilight, I’m here! How’s he looking?” That was when the blue pegasus with the rainbow colored hair zoomed in almost out of nowhere. I noticed her eyes were looking a tad baggy.
“Napping again?”
“Yeah, my fault. I couldn’t help it, I just got so bored!”
“Well, now you might have something to do!” This Rainbow Dash pony ended up looking pretty guilty, but I really was starting to feel better, so I figured it best if I said something
“Look, Miss Sparkle?”
“You can just call me Twilight.”
“Ok, Twilight…” I think the fanboy in me was having a heart attack.
“… Look, I think I’m going to be ok. I remember I had a blinding migraine before I passed out, and it’s gone now… I don’t think anyone needs to make such a huge fuss.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Well, if I’m wrong I’m sure she could get me to the hospital in no time at all.” Eddie seemed to finally regain his wits.
”Well, Peter, maybe you’d better head on home, just to be safe.”
“Wait, what? No way! I’ve been waiting all year to be here!” Twilight spoke again,
“Look, Peter, I’d have to agree with your friend. I can tell you’ve really wanted to come here, and I appreciate it, but it might be best if you went home.” Well, if someone who’s smarter than you is telling you what’s best for you, you should probably shut up and do as they say.
Later, after everything was said and done, I found myself hitching a ride home with Rainbow Dash. I guess she felt like she at least owed me that much, even though she ultimately wasn’t needed back at the museum.
“So, are you totally sure you’re feeling ok, pal?”
“Uh, yeah.” I only said it several times before we left, I neglected to add.
“There’s my house, you can set me down on the lawn.” And she did.
“It’s Peter, right?”
“Yes.”
“I can understand how bummed out you are not getting to stay. I mean, it’s not really my thing, but I can get not being able to really talk to someone you’ve wanted to meet for a while (you should’ve seen me at the Gala a while back, trying to get some attention from the Wonderbolts). And yeah, it was pretty obvious it was Twilight. That look on your face when she was talkin’ to ya wasn’t exactly hard to pick up on, even though I just woke up.” And with that, I think I turned just about every shade of red you can think of.
“Well, thanks for the ride…” She gave a simple nod and a smile and lifted back in to the air, but before she took off, she said
“You know, this might not be much in the way of encouragement, but I’m willing to bet you’ll get another chance to talk to her. And sooner than you’d think.” I looked up, slightly confused and asked
“What makes you say that?” She shrugged.
“Don’t know. Just a feeling I got. See ya around, Peter!” I waved as she left, then turned and headed back inside.
By now, Uncle Ben would still be at work, so that only left
“Aunt May? You home?”
“Peter? Is that you?” I heard her coming down the stairs, and when she turned the corner and saw me, the look on her face told me she’d sooner expected the royal sisters themselves to talk in the front door before I’d come home early from a big class trip like today’s.
“Peter, what happened? I would have never thought I’d see the day you came home early! Are you ok? Do you need to lie down? Sit, I’ll get the thermometer!” I told her all about what happened at the museum, the exhibit, the spider, and who it was that sent me home. I left out the nightmare.
“Oh, I’m sorry about what happened, sweetheart. I know not even Eddie was as hyped to be going to that big expo as you.”
“Yeah, but it’s not all that bad, I mean, given who I got to finally meet… brief as that was… And who knows,” Rainbow Dash’s words still fresh in my mind, “maybe I’ll get another chance to talk to her.” Aunt May smiled.
“Always look on the brighter side of things.” She got up and went to make dinner and I went up to my room.
After I pushed open the door and went to my desk to study for the semester’s finals, I felt a weird tug at my left hoof. I looked down and saw some kind of thread trailing back from it, to the door.
“What the…” I saw it, but after today, my head was already sick of anything and everything that had to do with spiders. Rather than risk Aunt May seeing and worrying about what might be going on, I shut the door. I looked at the soles of my hooves and couldn’t think of a thing to say, or how to react. I had a set of web spinnerets at the center of them.
What exactly was done to the spiders in the exhibit? All that tour guide mentioned was that Twilight had been casting different kinds of spells on them. That spider’s bite did something to me, and these spinnerets at my hooves must have just been part of it. I did a quick check at the mirror to make sure I was still pony-Peter, and not spider-Peter. Same number of eyes and legs, that’s a relief. Well, I had a whole day ahead of me to go and figure things out, might as well use it. Aunt May would be busy for a while, so I didn’t think I’d have to worry about her coming to check on me. I decided if I have a spider’s webs, then it’s time to experiment to see what else came from the spider, and the scientist in me was pretty hyped to find out. Quick stretch, a lot more flexible than I used to be, for starters. I put a hoof to the wall beside the window, and felt it adhere to the surface. Once I knew I could climb the walls, I must have crawled around the entire room 6 or 7 times. Once I got tired of that, I tried lifting the bed, frame and all, and had no problem balancing it on one hoof above my head.
As incredible as the discovery of all these new abilities was, I still had a question about it all: “What do I do now?” I only dwelled on the thought for a few minutes when I heard Uncle Ben come home. I headed straight to my desk to look busy, knowing he’d be up to check on me. I heard him step up the stairs and the door opened
“Before you ask, Uncle Ben, I’m feeling great.” He smiled and laughed
“Your Aunt May told me everything that happened. Are you sure you’re ok?”
“I am. Really.”
“Well, if your say so. Come on downstairs, dinner’s almost ready.”
The next morning, before I left for school, Uncle Ben stopped me.
“Let’s talk for a bit.”
“Sure, what about?” He rubbed his chin, I guess thinking about what to say.
“Well, Peter, I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while. Go ahead and sit down.” I did, wondering what it was all about.
“Son, do you know where you’re going in your life?”
“I think I have a pretty good idea, why do you ask?”
“It’s just… You know the whole story of Princess Luna, right?”
“Who doesn’t? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well… I can remember that day she, as Night Mare Moon, escaped from the moon, wound up kidnapping Princess Celestia, all that mess. Things are better between them now, but things were also good between them 1000 years ago, too. That time ended when Princess Luna, in her jealousy, and becoming Night Mare Moon, had forgotten herself. She had lost her way, because of it, and the kind of power she had, a great deal of trouble had been caused by her, and she was banished for it.”
I scratched my head, still confused, “I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with this.”
“Peter, it’s just that, there comes a time in many ponies’ lives where things seem to just go wrong for them for one reason or another, and it can affect them and their loved ones on a grand scale. Princess Luna is a prime example of that. She was not evil. Celestia herself would attest to that. It was things happening to her beyond her control that, sadly, she couldn’t cope with, and she lost her way, lost herself, because of it. It goes to show you that kind of thing can happen to anypony, Peter. Now, you’ve only got 2 years of high school left. I’m sure you realize that, once you’re out, the real world comes into play, and it’s gonna throw you some pretty wicked curve balls. I know you’re a good, brilliant boy, and you’re bound for some tremendous success, but I want you to promise me something here and now: Stay on course, Peter. Promise me that, no matter what it is life throws at you, you’ll never lose sight of your goals in life, and most importantly, never lose sight of yourself. It’s a great deal of power you got, with that incredible mind of yours, and you remember what I always used to say: With great power…”
“There must also come great responsibility.” Words I’ll take with me to my grave.
“I promise, Uncle Ben.” He smiled and gave the kind of warm, heartfelt hug that lets you know somepony loves you dearly.
“Oh geez, I’ve held you up too long.”
“I think I can handle being 10 minutes early instead of 20.” With a chuckle he said
“Yeah, I know you tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so get on out of here, quick!” I turned and headed outside, and I was at the sidewalk when he called out from the porch.
“Peter! Almost forgot to tell ya! I think we’re gonna go ahead and take a long overdue fishing trip this weekend! Sound good?” It had been a while since the last one, and even though I never caught anything bigger than a candy wrapper, there was never a fishing trip I didn’t enjoy.
“Sounds like a great idea!”
“Alright! We’ll discuss trip details when you get home! Have a good day at school, son!” I returned the well-wishing and went on my way. I never actually got to school that day, and we never got the trip we were looking forward to.
Now, I was originally planning to head for school, but the flyer I saw on the way was what threw that intention out the window. It was an ad for some big wrestling competition being held down at the lower east side of Manehattan. They were offering a hefty amount of money to anyone who can stay in the ring for three minutes with their best guy. We didn’t have much going for us as far as cash went, so I took this as the perfect opportunity to help put a little more in the bank. After all Uncle Ben and Aunt May had done for me throughout my life, this was the bare minimum, least I could do in return. The ad said they were looking for ponies with good, colorful costumes, so I galloped over to the old costume shop we used to stop at for every Halloween. I looked up and down the store for just the right costume, but none of the ones I saw really called out to me. I went around maybe 4 or 5 times before the old clerk at the desk finally spoke.
“You looking for anything in particular?” I didn’t feel the need to hide anything, so I told him what I had in mind. He looked at me like I just said I could talk to oranges or something, but paused to think for a moment, and went into the back room.
I waited for just a few minutes, when he came back out with it. It was a red and blue, full body costume, complete with a cover-all mask with blank, somewhat menacing white eyes.
“This and the other ones like it haven’t exactly sold very well, but I figured it might suit your needs well enough.” I took a moment to give the suit a good, in depth look, and knew that this was exactly what I needed.
“It’s perfect! How much do you want for it?” He paused for a second and simply smiled.
“Just go on ahead and take it. It’ll be my wishing you good luck with that little tournament you’re looking to get into. Celestia knows you’ll need all the luck you can get…” I figured hey, that must be a good sign, and besides, I knew something about me that he didn’t, anyway. I stuffed outfit into my backpack and booked straight out the front door.
It was about an hour later that I managed to get the building the competition was being held in. It was packed full of ponies looking to see some good fights, and the line for the sign-ups wasn’t too bad. Quick bathroom trip to slip on the costume and I was happily waiting in line soon enough (I completely forgot to see if it fit before I left the shop, so I lucked out that it did at all, I think. It was kinda tight, though). When I got to the desk, the lady there had a look on her face like a puppy was about to be stampeded over.
“Yes, I am seriously going for it.” Not saying a word, she simply shook her head and gestured for me to put my name down on the list. With that, I went to wait with the others waiting for a shot at the champ, Crusher Hogan.
Once it was my turn to go up, I was actually fairly nervous, and that announcer riling up the crowd wasn’t helping.
“Aaaaaand another one bites the dust! Crusher is just absolutely unstoppable today! Is there nopony who can stand up to this monster of a stallion!?” Funny he should say that.
“Perhaps it is the next challenger! Perhaps it is the pony standing behind me, right on the other side of this curtain! Perhaps he is the one who can survive the impossible!” He leaned over to the curtain to talk to me.
“What’s your name, buddy?” Uh-oh, I hadn’t thought of anything yet. All I could give him is the first thing that came to mind.
“Er, uh, the Equine Spider?”
“… Really kid? You’re gonna go out there calling yourself that?”
“I uh, I guess?”
“That is just… beyond terrible.” I didn’t argue, plus, he actually did me a favor when he called me up.
“And now, for your viewing pleasure… I present to you all… The Spectacular… The Amazing… SPIDER-MAAAAAANE!” On that note, I stepped out into a chorus of boos and hisses. I wasted no time as I made my way to the ring, my head held high, muttering to myself “I’ll show them… I’ll show all of them…” When I stepped in, Crusher wasn’t the least bit intimidated.
“Ha! Are you serious with this, kid?”
“As a heart attack.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll go easy on ya, just because I’m in a generous mood.”
“By all means, go ahead, if you think it’ll make me go any easier on you.” I wanted to goad him into really putting in an effort to hurt me, if only because I wanted to see the look on his, and the audiences faces when I put him down for the count. The taunt seemed to do the trick, probably because a big guy like him felt insulted for a little guy like me even thinking I’d have to go easy on him. The cheesy grin on his face faded pretty quickly, and he came right at me.
Just before he could reach to grab me, I did an easy somersault up and over him, with a simple smack at the back of his head. He came back around and tried it again, but I grabbed onto one of his hooves and used his momentum to flip him on his back. Before he could get back up, I lifted him up over my head, balancing him on one hoof before tossing him up several feet, and stepping aside to let him hit the floor with a loud smack. The crowd was just going berserk, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. I was getting into the spirit of it all, and turned away from Crusher so as to face the crowd and get them to cheer me on something fierce. I was only at it for a minute or two when this bizarre tingle in my head kicked and I could somehow see in my head what Crusher was about to do to me. He had gotten back up when I wasn’t looking, and managed to get a hold of a chair, looking to bash me at the back of the head with it. Before he could even get in close, I whipped around, put both front hooves forward and shot two streams of web at the chair, using them to yank it out of his grip and grab it myself. Holding the chair in my teeth, I leapt to the side of him and, before he could turn, I webbed his left legs together and tripped him up. I got in close, poised to give him a good couple of whacks when he cried out “Alright, I give! You win!” The referee called it, and put my hoof in the air, declaring me the winner. Being the winner of something like that for the first time in your life, you tend to feel a strange sense of unreality, like what you just accomplished didn’t really happen. I have to tell you though, what came soon after was something I wish had never happened at all.
“That’s it? The ad said-…”
“Three minutes to survive in the ring with my best pony. He gave in two.”
“So that gives you the right just give me a dinky little bag of chump change?” What can I say? He was a money-grubbing, two-bit crook, plain and simple.
“This… this isn’t right! You can’t do that, I won fair and square!”
“Says you. I don’t know how you did it, but I know you did something to rig that fight with Crusher. There’s no way you could’ve pulled off what you did without some kinda trick. You probably had some unicorn friend of yours out in the crowd helping ya, for all I know! And besides, it’s my money, I’ll do with it as I please. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to kindly get out of my face!” Without another word, I left the manager’s office, thinking my own hateful thoughts and barely acknowledging the stranger brush by me.
I was almost to the elevator at the end of the hall when I heard the shouting. I turned to see a gruff, rather mangy looking pony with a knife in his teeth and a plump bag hanging from his neck, running down the hall from a security guard, and the lowlife who ripped me off.
“STOP HIM! HE’S GETTING AWAY!” I understood the situation completely, and politely stepped to the side, letting him onto the opening elevator. Before the door closed, the thief looked over to me and simply gave a grateful “Thanks!” The guard kicked the elevator door and turned to me yelling “What’s wrong with you, you little idiot!? You couldn’t have tripped that little punk or something?!” He turned and headed for the door to the stairwell, presumably to cut the thief off at the lobby. The fight promoter simply looked over at me, some blood trailing down the side of his head, and gave me a bit of a death glare. I simply looked straight back at him and gave a smug smile and a nod. Soon enough, the elevator came back and I made my way out.
It was just after sunset that I had made it home. I was somewhat nervous at what Aunt May and Uncle Ben would have to say to me, since I didn’t doubt that they got word from school that I didn’t make it in, and getting in this late wouldn’t help matters. When I finally broke away from those thoughts and looked up, I saw there were several police ponies outside the house. I couldn’t help at chuckle to myself, seeing how far they’d apparently gone to try and find me after they got word. I went up to two of the cops out front and asked what the problem was, as if I didn’t already know. Turns out I didn’t.
“Sorry kid, but it’s none of your business, just go on home.”
“But I live here with my aunt and uncle! Where are they?” They looked at each other rather nervously, and the other one spoke up.
“You might want to have a seat on the porch, there…” I did as he said. This wasn’t about the fact that I was missing for the whole day. My heart was beating like a war drum, my thoughts racing at what might have happened.
“Officer, please just tell me what happened!”
“Please just remain calm, son. This may be hard for you to hear…”
“What happened?” It was then that I could hear Aunt May in the house. She was crying.
The officer sighed, and then he told me.
“Your house was broken into, just a couple of hours ago. There was a bit of a scuffle between the robber and your uncle… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your uncle has just been murdered.”
View Online
Look Out! Here Comes The Origin Story! Part 3 of 3
Whoever he was, he was going to regret what he did. When I caught up with him, he’d be sorry he stabbed an old pony in cold blood. It wasn’t just anypony, but my Uncle Ben, the kindest old pony I knew. Because of this burglar, he was gone.
After the cops told me what happened, I went inside to hug Aunt May. I’d never seen her look so heartbroken and distraught in my life. We didn’t say a thing, just held each other as we both wept for Uncle Ben. After a few minutes, I went up to my room, saying I’d like to be alone and cool my head. I shut the door, opened the backpack and had the suit back on within a matter of seconds. I wasn’t going to just sit and wallow in my grief. Not as long as I had the power and the will to see that my uncle’s killer got what was coming to him. I opened the window and crawled down the side of the house, sticking to the shadows. Luckily, before I could take off in a blind, unguided search, I heard one of the cops mention that the burglar had fled east and was holed up in an old bayside warehouse.
I galloped a lot of the way there, brushing past a lot of confused looking ponies, but as fast as I could move now, it wasn’t quite fast enough for my taste. It was when I ducked into an alley to catch my breath and looked up that I had a much better idea. I scuttled straight up the side of the building I was leaning against until I was at the roof. I looked over the edge, watching the direction that the police were headed. What I was about to do was probably suicidal, almost abysmally stupid, as I hadn’t even thought to see if it would work yet. I took some steps back, closed my eyes, drew in a deep breath, and exhaled. I repeated those actions two more times, then broke into a run and leapt off the edge.
I allowed myself to plummet for just a second, feeling the wind breeze past my head, before I put out my right forehoof and shot a stream of webbing toward one of the buildings in front me. I felt the vibration of the web’s impact on the wall, held on, and allowed it to swing me forward, with the momentum of my fall being redirected and sending me flying once I let go. It was definitely a rush like no roller coaster could ever hope to quite reach. The fact that I am protected from falling to my death by only my abilities kinda helped that feeling along. With having invented the webswing as my own means of getting around, I quickly snapped my attention out of my new discovery, and back to the reason I was out: Get a hold of Uncle Ben’s killer before the police could, and make him pay.
It wasn’t long before I made it to the warehouse. There were a few cops already on the scene trying to get him to surrender peacefully, but didn’t seem to be having much success. Sneaking into one of the broken side windows was no problem at all. He was on the third floor, and not very difficult to find, with all his nervous stomping from window to window, watching Manehattan’s finest gather outside. I slowly crept up towards him from the ceiling when he came to rest between some large crates, hiding from the floodlight shining into the room.
“You might hide from them…” I dropped, kicking the knife from his teeth (and with some of his teeth, actually) and towards the wall, webbing it up once it landed. “But there is nowhere in the world you can hide from me .”
He was having trouble talking through the blood he was spitting up and the teeth he had just lost, but I understood what he said well enough.
“No, please, just let me go! Don’t hurt me!” The pleading only served to make me beyond livid.
“Don’t hurt you? Don’t hurt you?! YOU JUST MURDERED MY UNCLE, YOU WORTHLESS PILE OF GARBAGE! GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON I SHOULDN’T BREAK YOU LIKE A TOOTHPICK RIGHT NOW!” I only heard him whimper.
I grabbed him and flung him straight into the ceiling above my head. I caught him when he fell, and dragged him by the tail to a window, which I smashed open with his face. It seemed to have gotten the attention of whoever was working the floodlight, because they shined it straight at us, and I got a good look at him. Suddenly, it was like somepony just held me down so a herd of buffalo could trample my head into the dirt.
“No… Not you… My fault…” And that was all I could bring myself to say. It was the thief from before, the one I could have stopped, but didn’t. Just to get some smug sense of satisfaction, I had let him go. Uncle Ben was dead because I couldn’t see past my own selfishness enough to simply stick out a hoof and trip some crook. Hearing the cops making their way up the stairs snapped me out of my stupor long enough to cocoon the thief to the wall and slip back outside unnoticed.
I was about halfway home when I stopped to rest on a rooftop overlooking the city. I pulled off the mask and promptly broke down, tears clouding my vision. What had happened tonight was my fault. “How could I have let this happen ?” I thought, “Uncle Ben would be sitting comfortably with Aunt May in the living room by now if it wasn’t for me! This power of mine… it should have been what saved him …” And the words he had told me that very morning came back into my head. “Not to lose sight of myself, he said. And that with great power, there must also come great responsibility …” His words always made sense in their own way before, and I understood them well enough, but they never hit me with the kind of clarity that they had at that moment. I looked down at my mask. I just stared it, with a solemn thought in my head, growing in its own intensity: “Never again. For as long as I live, and as long as I have this power, I’ll never stand by the wayside and let any evil befall anypony else ever again, no matter what it takes .”
I stood up and looked down to survey the suit once more, and that was when I saw it. “That wasn’t there before …” There’s no logical explanation I could conceive, no plausible reason I could even begin to muster. How could I? I mean, it was just a suit I picked up in a costume shop, not an actual part of me or anything. But there it was, as plain as Princess Celestia’s day: A bold, red spider resting on the blue flank of the costume. As strange as it seemed, it looked as though that Spider-Mane had earned himself a cutie mark.
That very weekend, which should have been a nice, fun fishing trip for the three of us, was when Uncle Ben’s funeral was held. After the service, and the other mourners had left, Aunt May and I stood beside each other at the foot of the grave. It was there that I silently made a promise to him that I would do right by him, not matter what it took, and the both of us bade him goodbye. Later in the night, after Aunt May had gone to bed, I was back in the suit. I wasn’t much in the way of a tailor, but I had done the best I could to add to the suit a bit. I had lined the red exterior with an intricate web pattern, and fixed a black spider to the chest. I figured it would help get the message across what I was all about, and when I looked in the mirror, I knew this was how it should be. Satisfied, I headed out into the night.
It wasn’t long before I happened upon a young mare getting her purse snatched from her. The punk who tried to run off with it didn’t get far, of course. From a street lamp, I caught him with a line of web and zipped him back towards me. An easy conk on the head was enough to knock him out as I let him dangle from the neck of the light. The lady ran up to find her purse resting at the base of it, and I had left a polite note inside that read “Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Mane!” So it began.
The following month was when all of Manehattan steadily became more and more aware of Spider-Mane’s existence. From random muggings in the night, to a full blown bank robbery, I was there to put a stop to them all and keep everypony out of harm’s way! I never gave anything less my absolute best and, granted, some folks were more grateful than others, but I knew I was doing the right thing. But you know, there really are just some whom you just can’t convince, no matter what you do. The newspaper I picked up on the way to school proved to me just that.
The front page story was of me, the headline reading “Who Is Spider-Mane?” The story itself read as some slanderous drivel, claiming I was some kind of criminal, that I was no better than any of the scumbags I’d caught for the police. Oh, and speaking of the police, they’d put out a warrant for my arrest. “What the…?” was my reaction to the artist’s rendering of me that I saw at the end of the article, portraying me as some kind of equinoid spider-monstrosity. Not what I’d seen in the nightmare before, that would have been weird . No, the drawing I saw was just downright silly. “Well, at least they got the colors right…” Below that was an offering of reward money for anypony who could bring in any decent picture of Spider-Mane to the Daily Bugle, the place who printed this rag I was reading, and practically felt the idea bulb click itself on in my head. I had a camera that had some decent quality, so I brought it with me on patrol once the sun went down.
I found a neat little group of 5 thugs who’d fled from a jewelry store they’d broken into. I followed them into an alley, set the camera up on a fire escape with the automatic timer set, and then laid into the lot them. I managed to get some pretty good shots, in my opinion: two heads bashed together, one guy flipped onto his back and webbed to the ground, another winded with a kick to the stomach, and the last one, the leader, I assumed, just sort of gave up and I stuck him to the wall (I had a good laugh at that guy's expense). The camera got it all. I had each picture printed the next day after school and headed over to the Daily Bugle to get my reward money. I gave them all a good look over before I went in their front doors and got a bit of an ego boost from how good they looked. No way could anypony look at these shots and not like them!
“Kid, these are absolute crap!” So spoke J. Jonah Jameson, my new favorite pony in the whole world.
“I-I’m sorry?” Needless to say it was kind of jarring to hear.
“You ought to be! I could get better shots from a blind monkey! And I wouldn’t even have to teach it how to use a camera!” Ow, my ego!
He set aside the folder and looked at me. “I’ll give ya 100 bits for the lot of them.”
“Uh, that sounds kinda low…”
“Take it or leave it, kid, it makes no difference to me! Just hurry up and make your mind if you want it or not, I got a business to run!” I took the money. It was better than nothing, and I just couldn’t argue with what he said next. “Great, now get outta my face. I expect to see you back in here same time tomorrow with some new and better stuff!” I did a double take, unsure of what it was I’d just heard him say.
“Tomorrow? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, you don’t need an afterschool job, huh? Great! I can get somepony else with a better work ethic!”
“NO! Uh, if that’s an honest to goodness job offer, sir, I’ll gladly take it!"
“Fantastic. Talk to Ben Urich on your way out, he can probably give you a better camera to work with.”
“Will do.” I couldn’t believe my luck!
“What, you’re still here? Beat it!”
That really wasn't so bad, all things considered. When I left Jameson’s office, I asked around for Urich and got pointed towards his desk.
“Can I help you, kid?” He seemed like a cool, friendly kinda guy.
“Uh, yeah, Mr. Jameson said you might be able to help me out with a new camera?”
“Why? Wait, don’t tell me. He’s actually hired you on as a photographer?”
“It seems that way.”
“Got him some Spider-Mane pics, I assume?”
“Best I could.” I still say they weren’t that awful.
“Must have been with some right shotty equipment if Jonah’s sending you my way for one of my spares.” He opened a drawer stocked with a few of his extras, all looking somewhat more expensive than mine.
“You keep a whole desk drawer full of extra cameras?”
“Kid, I’m a reporter. I’ve made my career on being prepared for anything and everything, and keeping more equipment ready than is probably necessary. The drawer just below that one’s full of spare tape recorders, too.” That certainly made sense to me. With the new camera in tow, I headed back home to give Aunt May the good news.
“This is wonderful news, Peter! It’s good to have gotten yourself an afterschool job! And with a newspaper? That sounds like it should be very exciting! How’d you get a job with the bugle, anyway?”
“Well…” this part I was nervous to share. “I went and brought them some pictures of Spider-Mane…” I think that’s when the reality of what might come of being a photographer for a newspaper really hit home with her. She went as pale as a ghost.
“What?! When did you go and get… Peter, I don’t think I’d want you going to work for them if it means you’re going to be doing risky things like taking pictures of that criminal!”
“Aunt May, please, I’ll be fine. Look he’s not some lowlife thug or anything. He’s out there doing everypony a favor. He didn’t even seem to mind me getting pictures of him for a paper whose editor in chief isn’t very fond of him. Besides, you have to admit we could probably use the extra money!”
“Peter, no, this could be dangerous! I don’t want you putting yourself at risk just for the sake of our bank account!”
“Look, I can understand why you’d be worried… It’s only been a month since we lost Uncle Ben…”
She started to tear up. “I don’t want to lose my nephew, and especially not so soon after my husband.”
“I promise, Aunt May, you won’t lose me too.” I gave a smile and a chuckle. “I’m a big boy now, I can handle the other kids trying to take my lunch money.”
She smiled back and gave a mighty powerful bear hug, as if she figured that, if she didn’t, she’d never get another chance. Bless her heart. But I couldn’t help but think, if me being a photographer bugged her this much, how would she react to finding out just who Spider-Mane was?
“You have my blessing, Peter, but please; be careful out there.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Aunt May. I got a feeling I’ll be able to handle whatever comes my way.” You just gotta love that naiveté in today’s youth.
In any case, it seemed like I was all set in my life; that I’d started doing what I was meant to do all along. Things were certainly different , now, and a little more complicated than I was used to, but it didn’t seem like anything could happen to make things more complicated.
Elsewhere, in the Ponyville library, a very ecstatic little purple dragon named Spike leapt all around the room wearing a mock Spider-Mane outfit he’d made, trying to emulate the Manehattan hero whom he’d become a huge fan of. The librarian, his best friend Twilight Sparkle, simply rolled her eyes and smiled as she read a fantasy novel that was just donated that day.
“I don’t care what anypony says, Twilight, there’s no way a guy like Spider-Mane could be just another criminal. You know he stopped a bank robbery all by himself? A lot of people said he was working with them the whole time, but come on, he beat them all down and didn’t even take a penny!”
“I agree. I sincerely doubt anypony who’d go out on a limb for others like that is much of a criminal.” “Even if he’s wearing an outfit like that,” she heard her friend Rarity’s voice say in her head. She couldn’t help but laugh at the thought. She put the book aside. It did strike her as odd, however, that this Spider-Mane had sprung up so soon after the incident at the science and magic expo she’d hosted. The memory of the pony who’d been bitten by one of the many spiders she’d experimented on was still fresh in her memory. She broke from that train of thought when she realized how late it was. She was about to tell her assistant that it was time for him to go to bed when he’d spewed out a puff of green flame. It was a new letter from her to her straight from her mentor, Princess Celestia.
“Ugh, for a second there I thought I was gonna puke.”
“With all of your jumping off of bookcases and shelves it’s a wonder that all you spat up was a letter from the Princess.” Spike gave a sheepish smile as he readied himself to write Twilight’s reply once she finished the new letter, which read:
My Most Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,
There is a bit of a matter over in Manehattan that I’ve gotten rather curious about. I believe you must realize I’m talking about this Spider-Mane fellow. I’d like you to head over to Manehattan to look in and investigate. I want to know more about Spider-Mane, and there’s only so much the local newspapers can tell me, so I’m asking you to learn more. Of course, I’d not send you alone; I’d like it if each of your friends went with you to keep you company, and to lend you any sort of help they can. I’ve arranged for a fairly spacious house for the six of you to share in one of the residential areas. Let me know if you think you’re up to this, and if you’re not, I understand.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
“Well, of course I’d be up to it, as long as we can all go together. Well, Spike, looks like we’re off to Manehattan!” No response. “Spike?” She looked over to find him out cold where he stood. The unicorn simply shook her head and smiled and carried him off to bed.
She can send a reply to the princess in a morning, and she might be pleased to hear that her student already has a good idea as to just who Spider-Mane may be.
