Shining sat with his radio in his hand, giving his best read of an excuse he'd come up with.

"Yeah Boss... about the mask" he sighed "Its gone"

"What the hell do you mean its gone?" Glover demanded on the other end of the radio "You had it in your pocket!"

"No sir, I had it in the strap of my body armour, somewhere it could've fallen out of or been grabbed by someone looking for a good hit on Ebay"

"And you're sure you don't know where its gone?" Glover asked dryly.

"Positive, its gone and I have no idea where it went" Shining confirmed "Sorry"

"Alright, okay, well if its gone for good then there's nothing we can do about it" Glover growled "Just don't screw up like this again"

"Yeah, sure thing boss" Shining nodded, rubbing his face and reattaching his radio to his belt, looking around the room before his eyes landed on Twilight. He moved over to her, politely excusing his way through the crowd, before tapping her on the shoulder. She whirled around in surprise before breathing a sigh of relief upon realizing it was her brother.

"Oh, hey there Shining, what's up?2 she asked. Shining gave her a stern glance before pointing a finger towards the door.

"We need to talk" he said.

"Can it wait, MJ and I are talking" Twilight said with a sheepish grin.

"Outside. Now" Shining ordered.

"Sheesh, hard ass" Twilight sighed "See you later MJ"

"Alright girl" MJ nodded, picking up her drink and scanning the crowd, wondering where Harry had run off to "Jesus, our boys just don't wanna be around us do they?" Twilight laughed, following her brother out of the room and to the balcony where Shining and Peter had been several minutes earlier, Peter now somewhere else.

"Right... so what did you want to talk about?" Twilight asked. Shining looked out over the city for a long second, drumming two fingers on the metal railing before asking a question.

"When did you find out Peter was Spider-Man?" he asked bluntly. Twilight's face froze for a second, forcing herself to try and keep a natural look before slipping into confusion.

"What are you talking about?" she asked with a fake laugh "That's ridiculous"

"Look Twilight, I'm not really in the mood to mess around here, so if you can just give me an answer, the real answer, as to when he told you then that would be great" Shining said. Twilight was silent for a brief second, her eyes locked onto the cityscape before she looked back at her brother.

"Shining, I haven't got a clue why you're asking me this, Peter isn't-"

"About fifty five minutes ago, an officer of the NYPD unmasked the vigilante Spider-Man in full view of the city, but the little bastard scampered away, keeping his face low and covered, and he managed to escape sight" Shining explained quickly "I was lucky enough to catch him in an alley where he turned around, at gunpoint, and showed me that it was indeed Peter Parker, now he never told me that you knew who he really was but your reaction back there was more than enough to put it together Twilight... so I'll ask you again, when did he tell you?"

"He... he didn't tell me" Twilight caved "I figured it out"

"Huh, well done" Shining nodded "How did you?"

"Well, he kept acting the same in and out of costume, using the same sense of humour and voice... that was a dead give away to me, and the fact he left signed notes that I was able to match to the letters he'd written to me before we left Chicago" Twilight explained "I managed to draw him out and unmask him"

"Really?" Shining asked in a surprised tone "How did you manage that?"

"I... uh... femininity?" Twilight offered. An unhappy look appeared on Shining's face as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"What sort of femininity?" he asked.

"It, uh, it doesn't matter" Twilight said quickly, her cheeks flushing red "Just that it worked"

"No, you're telling me how it happened" Shining instructed "And if you don't then I'm going to-"

"Shining?" Cadance's voice asked from the doorway. The two of them looked to see the tall woman standing with a drink in her hand and a confused look on her face.

"What're you doing out here?" she asked.

"I was just explaining to Twilight here about how sometimes guys are idiots and that they say the wrong things, in regards to Harry's compliment of MJ, and that she shouldn't be mad at him for the whole night" Shining said quickly, giving a believable answer. Cadance shrugged her shoulders before turning to Twilight.

"You do realize that your date is looking everywhere for you in there don't you?" she asked "He thinks that you've left him"

"Oh Christ, can I go now before he throws himself out of a window?" Twilight asked Shining.

"Fine, fine, go ahead" Shining said, turning to his wife and smiling "Thanks for telling her" Twilight smiled at Cadance as she walked past and the older woman returned the gesture before turning to her husband.

"Are you getting bored yet?" she asked.

"Are you?" Shining responded.

"Very" Cadance nodded "Luna already ran out a while ago, Celestia's trying her best to not throw Justin Hammer out of the window because of his stupidity and I'm falling asleep trying to fend off the rich bastards who all want me to go home with them"

"Do you want me to kick the hell out of them?" Shining asked.

"Very much, but I would prefer it if we could go home early?" Cadance asked "Just you and me?"

"Were... were you originally planning to bring a third person home?" Shining asked.

"What?" Cadance asked in confusion.

"You said 'you and me' as if it was different from usual, like when a girl says 'just you and me' go to the mall, or the beach... or am I misinterpreting that and it was originally an invitation?" Shining asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Cadance asked.

"Was that an invitation?" Shining asked, wanting clarification.

"Yes Shining, yes it was" Cadance nodded, putting a hand to her face and sighing "You know, its a bad sign when you don't notice that I'm trying to seduce you"

"I've told you before, I'm as dumb as a bag of hammers, if you want something don't hint at it, just tell me" Shining shrugged.

"Okay fine, You. Me. Home. Sex" Cadance said, pointing a finger at an imaginary word in the air as she said it "Is that better?" Shining was silent for a long second, holding up a finger with a confused look before speaking.

"So, just you and me right?" he asked.

"Just shut up and follow me" Cadance said, grabbing hold of his body armour and dragging him back into the ballroom.

"I still got it" Shining grinned.

"Peter!" Mary-Jane exclaimed, waving at the teenage boy as he stormed back through the party "Over here!" Peter nodded at her and walked over, sitting down next to her and placing a hand to his forehead with an angry glare directed at the undeserving floor.

"Whoa, what's the matter Tiger?" Mary-Jane asked.

"Nothing" Peter said quickly, falling silent again. Mary-Jane took a sip of her drink, looking away from the teen. Peter glanced at her from the corner of his eye before sighing and sitting up straight.

"Look MJ, I'm sorry about that" Peter apologized "I'm just a little stressed out is all"

"Anything you care to share?" Mary-Jane asked.

"Yeah, sure" Peter nodded "If you... hypothetically of course, you had taken a job that put yourself at risk, a job that somebody else was doing already, but you felt that you could do it better, would you be in the wrong for doing it?" Mary-Jane looked at Peter with a raised eyebrow, setting down her drink and tapping her chin with a red nail.

"I don't know really... if somebody else was already doing it then you might not be needed, and its debatable whether you actually do it better or if you just think you do... but I'm guessing that's not what you wanted me to say is it?" Mary-Jane asked.

"No, not really" Peter chuckled "I want to know if you think that person was doing the wrong thing"

"Well it depends, if you feel like its a job you can do and do it as safely as possible then I figure you can't be wrong on that front, but if you're doing somebody else's job... do they want you to do it in the first place?" Mary-Jane pondered before asking for specifics.

"Not the people already doing it but the people you're doing it for do" Peter answered "They want me to do it for them but I'm competing with a more official group of people who don't want me to"

"So what's the majority vote?" Mary-Jane asked "The original workers or the people asking you to do it?"

"The people asking" Peter replied.

"Well then take a Utilitarian outlook on the whole thing, the greatest pleasure for the greatest number right?" Mary-Jane offered "If you think you can make a bigger group of people happy then go ahead and do it"

"You think so?" Peter asked.

"I would say that's the best thing... but what about the whole 'risk' factor to it?" Mary-Jane questioned "What's the exact risk?"

"I could die" Peter said bluntly. Mary-Jane nearly choked on her drink as he spoke, swallowing it quickly before looking at him with wide green eyes.

"Holy hell Tiger, that changes the game a little doesn't it?" she asked "In that case you should stop doing whatever the hell it is right now... wait, what are you even doing to begin with?"

"Its kind of a long story, but my Aunt and I live on our own after my Uncle died and we're not the most well-off family, we need money to pay the bills, and I've found a way to do it" Peter began.

"Its... its not illegal, whatever you're doing, is it?" she asked in a worried tone.

"No, its legal" Peter chuckled "I'm a photographer for the Daily Bugle and my job's to take pictures of Spider-Man in action, and him in action isn't usually as easy as a neighbourhood watchman's photos or a fire fighter, I need to get close to the bad guys he fights, close enough to take the pictures but at the same time close enough to be in trouble if I get spotted" Mary-Jane was silent for a second before she exhaled loudly.

"I really don't know Petey, I think that if you've got no other way of getting money for your family then you've gotta do what you've gotta do" she shrugged "I think you're the only one who can make a concrete decision with this because I think you'll get different answers from different people, its your life and you need to make whatever choice you think is right" Peter looked down at the floor again for a long second, taking her words into account and once again weighing up the decision he'd had to face;

Was the Man more important than the Mask?

"Alright MJ... thanks for your help" Peter said.

"So, do you know what you're gonna do?" she asked.

"For now, yeah, but I'm not sure if its the right choice" Peter sighed.

"Who knows?" Mary-Jane asked "I think you'll figure it out sooner or later" Next Chapter: Last Dance Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 52 Minutes