Ultimate Spider-Colt

Power and Responsibility

Chapter Four

Ponyville Hospital

Doctor Stable roamed the halls of the hospital, on his way to the room of his most recent patient. A purple and green baby dragon by the name of Spike, he recalled. Apparently, he had been beaten within an inch of his life by his caretaker Twilight Sparkle. Why in Celestia’s name she had done that was beyond him.

Slowly walking up to the door containing the dragon, he gingerly touched a hoof to the stump where his front left hoof used to be. Sighing to himself, he opened the door with the same hoof and walked into the room. “Hello, Spike.” He says to the dragon who couldn’t respond.

Spike was unconscious, on the bed, his body past his chest covered in a thin sheet. Doctor Stable looked over the dragon, and took notes on his clipboard, which he grabbed off a table.

Slight change in heart rate in the last half hour. Condition: Stable, but only just.

Placing the clipboard down on the table, he said goodbye to Spike, and left the room.

A pony whisked through the darkness of the closed Canterlot Laboratories, silently making her way through the building.

She eventually came to a stop at a door labeled ‘Arachnid Study’, and with a pop, appeared inside the room. Using her horn to illuminate the area, she used her magic to grab a syringe from a table, and poked it into her skin, drawing blood into the small container. Granting herself a small smile, she grabbed a pen and labeled the syringe ‘Clover’. With another pop!, she disappeared.

“Featherweight? Time for school!” Aunt Shoeshine’s voice calls, piercing the barrier of sleep from my mind. Groaning, I slowly sit up, wiping my eyes with a hoof as I do so. The door to my room opens, revealing Aunt Shoeshine with an impatient look on her face. “Feather, it’s time for school. Time to get up!” She walks over to my bed, and with a mighty tug, pulls the covers off my body, sending a shiver of cold down my spine.

She lightly taps my head. “Up. Breakfast. School. Now.”

I flop back down and close my eyes. “Five more minutes?”

“No. Now.”

I moan, but she pulls me out of my bed and I fall to the floor with a thud. "Okay... School time. Got it..." "Okay, spider that bit me... You have officially screwed me over...

"Even my new 'strength' that you gave me is fading..."

I grab my backpack, and walk down the stairs into the living room, where Uncle Lucky is sitting in his chair, reading the newspaper. “Morning, Feather.” He says barely looking away from the paper. “How’s my favorite nephew?”

“So-so.” I respond, walking into the kitchen. It’s small, with a black and white checkered floor. A table with three chairs sits in the corner, with a wall of cabinets, a fridge and stove sit on the left, and Aunt Shoeshine is cooking breakfast. “Hey, Aunt Shoeshine.” I greet her with a hug, and open the fridge.

“Not so fast, Feather. Breakfast is cooking.”

“Can I at least get some orange juice?”

“Fine.”

With a silent “Yes!” I grab the carton and start chugging it, finishing in seconds. “Okay, thanks, I love you!” I shout, flying out the door and towards the school.

“Featherweight!”

Scootaloo’s voice snaps me from the blue sky. I look down towards Ponyville, and see her trying her best to keep up with me on her scooter. With a grin, I glide down, landing next her as she slows her ride down. “You doing okay?” She asks.

I can’t tell her about the strength enhancements the spider gave me.... Not yet anyway. “Fine.” I lie. Even if I did tell her, the enhancements are going away, anyway. “What about you?”

“Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and I have finally found a way to get our Cutie Marks!” Oh, yeah. Forgot that she was still..... Ah... A blank flank. N-not that I look at her flank, but, it’s kinda hard to miss a pony without their Mark. I don’t normally pay her lack of one any mind, she’s ‘cute enough without it. See? I made a pun. ah, forget it.

“Really? That’s great! What do you gals have in mind?”

She takes in a deep breath.... “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS BULL RIDERS!!”

Her shout nearly deafens me, knocking me off my balance. “B-bull riding?! That’s kinda dangerous, Scoots!”

She simply scoffs, and pays attention to the road for only a second to jump over a fruit stand, never letting go of her scooter. “Don’t worry, Feather! This Pegasus can take anything!”

But, just then, a laughter erupts from just in front of us, startling us. Scoots and I skid to a halt. That laughter’s familiar.

Stuck up, arrogant, and prissy.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

“Really? You can take on anything?” Diamond says, the outright mockery in her voice is so high, she couldn’t sound any more obnoxious if her life depended on it. “That’s kind of a bold move, considering your... problem!”

Problem? What?

Silver Spoon seemed to pick up on my confused expression. “What? Does your coltfriend not know? It’s kinda obvious, at least, it is to us!” They walk closer. “You’re the only Pegasus pony...”

“Who can’t even fly!”

That did it. I know they didn’t do anything to me, but they messed with my Scootaloo. I punched the pair of them in the muzzles, knocking them onto their flanks, blood pouring out of their noses. “Shut your freaking mouths!” My blood was practically boiling. These stuck-up, prissy and arrogant fillies were spoiled their entire lives. Might as well give them a good scolding for the first time.

“All you two care about is yourselves! You don’t care who you step on, if it means getting what you want or making yourself look good!!” My wings flare out, and I reach a hoof to strike again, but then my brain clicks.

I just hit them. I hit them so hard that they started bleeding. I couldn’t do that.... Not since the spider.....

The enhancements.

They’re back.

“I.... I’m....”  I shake in fear. I hit them. Like, really hard. “I’m sorry....” I lower my hoof, and run off.

I didn’t go to school after that. I currently stand in the living room, Aunt Shoeshine and Uncle Lucky stand in front of me, stern looks of their faces. When I walked in the door, the blood on my hoof was immediately noticed, so their was no point in trying to hide it. I told them everything, but not about the Spider-Enhancements.

“Feather...” Lucky begins. “I don’t know what to say.... What in Celestia’s name were you thinking?!

“I-”

“You weren’t. That’s what. You punched two fillies- daughters of the richest ponies in Ponyville- for no good reason!”

“I-”

“There’s absolutely no excuse for you to do that to a filly! And Celestia damn me if my nephew is gonna grow up to be like that Thunderlane! Always beating on mares. I’ll be damned if my nephew will grow up that way.” His expression hardened.

“I-”

“No, Featherweight Clover. I don’t want to hear it. You go up to your room.”

“But-”

“MARCH.”

I stand up, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. I didn’t want to hit them. I didn’t. I swear, but was he gonna let me freaking explain?! No! All I did was punch them! I didn’t mean to hurt them!

“Fine!”

I yelled. I didn’t want to- I mean it- but my temper broke. I was angry and sad at the same time. Angry because I was getting a freaking lecture for defending a friend. And sad because that lecture was from Uncle Lucky, the stallion I looked up to. And he was disappointed in me.

“You don’t understand! You have no idea what I’m going through!”

“I was young once too, Featherweight.... Listen.... Your father... he had a philosophy, and it’s one that served him... Very well..” He bent down to my eye level, and placed a hoof on my shoulder. I didn’t want to look him in the eye, so I stared down. “He said that if you did well at something.... Something you did better than anyone else.... He felt that not only should you do these things, but you do these things for others. He said...”

He pulled me into a hug. “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

I grabbed his arms and threw them off of me. I didn’t want to hear it. He yelled at me for no good reason. He had no idea what that spider did to me. I ran up the stairs to my room, tears flowing freely. I opened the door to my bedroom, but stopped in the frame and sat. I sit and cry. Like a little schoolfilly.

Featherweight flung my arms away from him, and he rushed up the stairs. I could see the tears in his eyes as he ran. I didn’t want to make him cry. Celestia knows I didn’t. But what he did.... That just pisses me off more than anything. A colt hurting a filly. One of the many things wrong with the world.

“Lucky....” Shoeshine’s voice snaps me back to the present. She embraces me in her arms, and I return the embrace. “Don’t you think you went a little hard on him?”

A smirk crosses my face. “Compared to what my father did to me when I got in trouble, I just gave him a free discount on all the science books in the universe.”

“Their parents... Filthy Rich and them... They’re gonna sue us.”

“And we don’t have a lawyer...

“.... Come on, let’s go check up on him...” I suggest, but then i hear the tell tale bang of a window slamming shut. Featherweight just made a run for it. “Never mind. Let’s just sit, okay?”

As we sit down, I hear a noise coming from the back room. The sliding glass door was opened.

“It’s probably Featherweight. I’ll go check up on him.”

As I fly through Ponyville, the sun is starting to set.

“With great power comes great responsibility.

To Tartarus with those words. To Tartarus with what they meant. I don’t care if Dad said them, they came from Uncle Lucky’s mouth. I fly down towards an alley way, and lean against a wall, resting a hoof on it.

“I... I didn’t mean to.... h-hurt t-them...”

The tears still fall from my face, but not as freely as before. I had gotten a slight grip on my feelings, but I can’t hold it in forever. I don’t want them coming to look for me... I’d better keep going. I try to move away from the wall, but my hoof gets stuck. “What?”

There’s nothing holding it there.... And no sticky substance to keep it. “What the heck?” Placing another hoof on the wall, I try to use that as leverage for a pull, but now both hooves are stuck. “Come on!” I put my hindlegs on the wall. If this doesn’t work....

I manage to raise the first hoof. “Yes!” I then start working on the other hooves, when a thought crosses my mind. I slowly raise the second hoof, and it comes off with ease. I then step it forward, and I put the first hoof forward as well. I do the same for my hindlegs.

Holy Celestia.... I’m walking on the wall!

I then jump off, managing to land on my feet. “What the heck did that spider do to me...?”

A smirk crosses my face.

“What ever it was, it’s friggin’ awesome!”