Peter sat with his legs crossed, hunched over an old skateboard deck he'd pulled off the shelves in his room, the bottom of it covered in hastily-scrawled equations and scientific formulae from several years ago. He'd removed the protective film from the board and had drilled several new holes into the board in order to fit the riser, trucks and wheels into place. He'd decided to go for harder wheels this time around, sacrificing grip for speed, as he put together a new skateboard to replace the one that had been crushed when he'd first gotten his powers.

"Now I just need to tighten this screw..." Peter said, gently twisting the screwdriver with an intense look of focus on his face "And this puppy'll be all finished up" As he felt a great amount of resistance against the movement of the screwdriver he decided that it was tight enough. He quickly tested the rigidity of the trucks before sliding his hand down the grip tape on the top of the board.

"Fresh and unused" he chuckled "Perfect" He placed the board down on the floor and rolled it back and forth a few times, checking the stability of the board and how efficiently the wheels spun before leaning back on his hands, sighing loudly. He'd finished working on the new bored, cooked up a new batch of web fluid, injected it into and pressurized the cartridges, sneakily washed the stench of smoke out of his costume, stripped down and cleaned his web-shooters before reassembling them.

"Being grounded sucks" Peter sighed, sitting up straight again and stretching his legs out "I need air... I need to go for a swing" There came a brief knock at the door that got Peter's attention. He heard the door open and thought he heard a familiar voice but it was too quiet to tell. There was a conversation downstairs followed by his aunt shouting for him.

"On my way!" Peter yelled, dashing downstairs and seeing Harry talking to his aunt "Hey Harry"

"Hey Pete" Harry responded.

"Harry here is trying to convince me that I should let you go out for the day" she said "Why should I?"

"Because I'm the best nephew in the world?" Peter asked with a cheesy grin. May looked at him with a very unimpressed gaze and he scratched the back of his head.

"Because this time I'll stick to the rules and come home when I'm supposed to?" he tried again.

"Much better" May said with a nod "But I'm warning you, if you don't come home on time you're grounded for a week and I'll sell your phone to a trade-in store"

"Please no" Peter muttered.

"Then make sure you're on time" May said, handing his phone back to him.

"I will" Peter nodded, smiling gratefully at his aunt before looking at Harry "Gimme a sec, I need to get my shoes and my board"

"That reminds me, I haven't seen you on that thing in ages" Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest "Where'd it go?"

"Well... it got busted" Peter shrugged.

"What!?" May exclaimed "When did that happen?"

"A few weeks ago, don't worry though, I used a spare deck I had with a few extra pieces to put together a new one" Peter said quickly "So there's no reason to be mad"

"Except the fact you broke a board?" May asked, but Peter was already up the stairs. He lightly closed his door as he opened his drawers, opening the secret compartment in the top drawer and taking out his web-shooters. He fastened them onto his wrists, checking the pressure gauge before realizing they were brand new, slipped his shoes on and grabbed the new board. He darted back down the stairs, kissing his aunt on the cheek as he went past and with a quick pivot he faced Harry, patted him on the shoulder and headed out the door.

"Look after him" May said to Harry.

"I will Mrs Parker" Harry nodded with a grin "I have been for the past seven years"

"I know" May said with a kind smile "Thank you"

"No problem" Harry chuckled, waving goodbye to May as he turned around and followed after Peter who was already on the street preparing to set his board down and ride it "Hang on Pete!"

"You hurry up then!" the teen yelled back at his friend. May looked at the two teenagers and smiled happily, glad that they were still as good a set of friends could be, closing the door and going back to watching the TV.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Peter asked in a whiny voice.

"Yes, its just on the next block" Harry nodded. The two of them had gotten out of Queens and had taken the subway to Chelsea where they had walked for the past ten minutes in order to get to the cafe where Harry had said that the others were waiting for them.

"It better be or I'm gonna find a trash can it throw it into you" Peter growled.

"Don't you mean throw me into it?" Harry asked, looking over his shoulder and at his friend.

"No, I'll throw it so hard it'll consume you" Peter said in a faux threatening voice "You. Bin. Same thing" The two of them looked at each other for a brief moment before they cracked up, laughing at the sheer stupidity of Peter's last few sentences.

"Christ, its actually a miracle that you're my friend still dude" Peter chuckled.

"Why's that?" Harry asked, swerving around another group of people to avoid walking into them.

"Because I'm an absolute idiot?" Peter suggested with a grin "That's a good reason"

"Yeah, but so am I" Harry shrugged "That's why we're friends"

"Because we're idiots that nobody else likes so we just hung out with each other?" Peter asked.

"Sounds about right" Harry nodded "Come on, just over here" The two of them crossed the street and came to a small cafe where they could see Cadance's gorgeous locks of multicoloured hair in the window.

"Ah, so Cadance is here?" Peter asked.

"So are Celestia and Luna" Harry added "They all wanted a day out so we figured we'd just hang out together"

"Fair enough, thought I'm gonna have to ask for you to not make me sit next to Luna" Peter brought up.

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"Because she fucking hates me" Peter said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Ah yes, slipped my mind for a moment" Harry said, now wise to the situation "No promises"

"Fuck you" Peter sighed, making his friend laugh as he opened the door and they walked into the cafe. Twilight was the first one to notice them, a wide smile on her face as she waved at her boyfriend and Peter. Harry waved back and Peter nodded at her, Harry explaining to the waiter that walked over what the situation was and after a confirming nod from Cadance they were allowed to approach them.

"Hey guys" Twilight said, taking a sip from the straw in her milkshake as the two teens sat down.

"Hey Twilight" they said.

"Hello you two, how have you been since we last met?" Celestia asked with a kind smile.

"I've been doing great" Harry said with his own smile in return "I've started proper business tuition with my Dad now and its gonna be a paid internship"

"That sounds great, what are you planning to spend the money on?" Cadance asked.

"Probably Twilight" Harry chuckled, winking at his girlfriend.

"Gay" Peter said quickly, looking over at the other side of the cafe while drumming his fingers on the table.

"Mature" Luna sighed, taking a sip from her own glass of lemonade.

"Its a joke Princess" Peter said quickly.

"I'm aware of that, I just thought that jokes were supposed to be witty" Luna said, rolling her eyes.

"Not of all them, sometimes they can be cold, strung-up and heartless" Peter said irritably "Which is what makes you the perfect example of one" Luna glared furiously at Peter and the teen returned the icy glare, the tension in the air thickening before Celestia stepped in to diffuse the situation.

"OK you two, that's about enough" Celestia said quickly, turning her eyes to Peter "What have you been up to recently?"

"Not much really, just sort of lazing around most days" Peter shrugged.

"Sounds awfully prophetic if you ask me" Luna stated.

"Luna" Celestia said sternly "Act your age already" Luna finished her drink and set it down loudly on the table.

"I'm going for a walk" she said, quickly standing up and leaving the cafe. Celestia sighed angrily and followed after her sister, leaving the others sitting in an awkward silence.

"Nice job Peter" Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"What?" Peter asked "That wasn't my fault"

"You might not have started it but you sure as hell let it escalate" Twilight said "Could you have not kept cool for a few more minutes, you only just got here" Peter looked at the others who were looking at him with agitated and annoyed looks. He nodded his head, pressing his hands onto the table and standing up.

"Right, I get the point" he said "I'll fuck off then"

"Peter come on" Twilight groaned "Don't act like that?"

"Act like what?" Peter asked as he moved away from the table "Its obvious that I've ruined the moment, I'm only making it awkward by staying here so I'll just do us all a favour and leave so you can have fun again"

"Dude, really?" Harry asked "Don't be an idiot"

"Whatever" Peter hissed, stuffing his hand into his pocket and picking up his board on the way out. He could hear mutterings from the other people in the cafe but he chose to ignore them, pulling his hood up to just before his quiff was at its highest and threw the board down onto the ground. He stepped onto the board and pushed off quickly, taking a corner to see Luna and Celestia arguing on the street corner much to the amazement of everyone else gathered there. Peter watched them as he skated past, catching Luna's eye and glaring furiously at her.

"Kid, watch out!" a female onlooker yelled as Peter's board drifted onto the street as a large Range Rover came speeding towards him. His Spider-Sense activated and without even looking he used his adhesive powers to stick his board to his feet, leap high into the air and grin down the roof railings of the Range Rover, sparks flying from the trucks, before he landed easily on the ground, continuing to skate away.

"Peter!" Celestia called after him, moving away from her sister and going towards him.

"Ugh... fuck off" Peter growled under his breath, veering off into an alley. He grabbed his board and leaped high into the air, kick jumping off the walls in order to get to the top of the buildings and out of the sight of the public. He peeked his head over the edge of the building just in time to see Celestia look into the alley with a confused expression.

"Sorry Celly" Peter whispered "I'm not in the mood to put up with your cunt of a sister any more, besides, I've got better things to do" Next Chapter: A Fateful Mistake Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 29 Minutes