//------------------------------// // The Reveal! // Story: Dragon Knight Duelist // by Royaldragonknight //------------------------------// "So... this is a good thing?" Sunset asked after Rainbow got through her super happy explanation of what she had learned from the tournament. Dash gave her a look of aghast. "Are you kidding!? He's the new champ AND he knows us! That could be a big boost for us!" "But of course, if he's become an up and coming star then him even mentioning us will rocket us forward." Rarity answered as Applejack gave her a look "We're in Canterlot, how can anything big happen here?" and Pinkie just cleared her throat before acting normal again, there was the briefest of gestures towards Sunset, but it vanished fast. "Because!! He's the Regional Champion! Meaning he's the champion of the whole Region and he's supposed to be a local!" Rainbow explained. "That's going to bring attention to the town for sure! Plus this is also the town where all the weirdest stuff keeps happening, so it's a bit bigger than you think." She grinned. "What was this guys name again?" Sunset asked shaking her head but grinning anyway. Rarity almost answered but kept her mouth shut at the last second before she answered. "Yes, Rainbow dear, what was his name again?" She asked Rainbow instead while Applejack's look of incredulity turned into one of suspicion that Rarity was hiding something. "Spike EmeraldFang, the Dragon Knight!" She grinned, getting why Rarity stopped. "He's a bit younger than us.. Oh! I've got a pic!" She pulled out her phone to show one of the selfies that she took with him, making sure to choose one of the ones that didn't have Rarity in the frame at all. "He... looks a bit familiar, don't he?" Applejack asked, wondering why he looked so similar to someone... or something... then Pinkie just bounded over "He looks like Twilight's dog, Spike. Doesn't he?" She asked Dash laughed. "Yeah we thought the same thing too when we saw him in the match. It was even weirder when you texted us about Princess Twilight not being able to find her Spike, but look at him, he's human." She pointed out. "Yeah, I don't think you can control the way you look after crossing over from the portal..." Sunset took a more close look at the at the picture. "Still, there's a fair amount of similarities..." "Who knows? Maybe this is her Spike and he just found a long forgotten relic that once belonged to the princesses that allows him to control his form in other worlds instead of whatever form that world would impose on him." Pinkie said going into full theory mode. Rarity and Applejack just blinked "Can... can that even happen?" she asked and Rarity shrugged. Rainbow Dash recognized what she was talking about, it was a game reference. Before Dash could say anything, Sunset cut her off. "You mean like the Moon Pearl from Link to the Past?" She asked finding Pinkie's theory to be pretty solid. She blinked as that got her looks. "What? It's been one of my favorite games since I came here." She shrugged. "But still, that's something we should be able to find pretty easily, it's not like its going to be something small and hard to see..." She went back to examining the pic, and saw something. "Hey, what's that?" She asked holding it out for the others. She was pointing at something around his neck. "Huh, looks like a pendent..." Dash said, it was a small golden dragon figure clutching a small red pearl like object in its claws. "That..." Rarity said "It's a pearl alright... I can't believe I didn't notice it when we- I- I mean when Rainbow Dash first showed me the picture." She said trying to save herself. Applejack wasn't buying any of it. "Well regardless, think we should tell Princess Twilight?" "I don't know... It feels like it would be easier to just ask the guy? Cause if we're wrong that just get's the little dragon in trouble for no reason right?" Sunset offered. "Yeah, that's true." Rarity mentioned "In that case, Rainbow Dash. Next time you see him, think you could ask?" "I can send him a message on Social Media, turns out we're mutuals." She grinned already typing it up. "Aaaand Sent!" Back in Twilight's castle Spike suddenly got a vibration that made him shake. "Spike? Everything okay?" Twilight asked him confused as she and Starlight looked at him oddly for the sudden action. "Heh, yeah, just a rumble in my stomach. I'm gonna go get a snack!" He ran off. "What was that about?" Starlight asked as she watched the small dragon run off. "No idea, but he's been acting odd for a while now..." Twilight shrugged before going back to reading up on what she and Starlight where studying. Spike got to his room and pulled out the small phone, that kept it's connection thanks to the open portal. "What was that abou- Oh good...." He grumbled seeing Dash's request for a meet up. After a moment of thinking he shrugged and replied. "Sure, I have a few interviews two days from now, can meet up then." "We've got a meeting!" Rarity said as everyone was looking over Rainbow's shoulder, she was far too excited about meeting Spike than she should've been for someone uninterested in the game. "Hey that was my line!" Dash giggled before replying back to him and setting up where to meet up. "Wow, didn't think that would be that easy...?" Sunset blinked not getting a bit more suspicious. "So.... What do we do if it is him?" She asked curiously. "Wonder why he hasn't told Twilight yet, probably." Applejack says a bit sternly. "I still think it's nuts but hey, weirder stuff has happened." Dash shrugged as she got a notification. "Says to meet up with him at the mall on Saturday, he'll talk with us right after his interview." "Sounds like a plan alright." Applejack says and Rarity smiles, already looking forward to it. Come Saturday, the girls got to hang around as Spike finished his interview in the game shop, thanks to this being an early interview it was before the mall was opening up so they got in early along with him. It mostly consisted of questions of how he felt during the duel, questions from viewers submitted online, and how he felt being the new champ coming from a smallish town like Canterlot City. After that was over they had their run of the place. "Hey! Sorry about the long wait, everyone didn't get to make it?" Spike asked as he got over to them. He was wearing a dark purple hoodie vest with green lining along with a light green under shirt with some black flames around the stomach and a pair of long black pants. Around his neck was the same pendent they saw in the picture. "Twilight's been helping Fluttershy do some crash course history lessons." Applejack explains and Rarity nods "Indeed, poor dear can't handle reading about wars a lot." "Plus this isn't really their thing I'm su-" Sunset started before she was cut off by Dash rushing past her and grabbing the duel disk on Spike's arm. "Dude!! Is that the new duel disk from Industrial Illusions!" She practically squealed while looking at the piece of equipment. Spike grinned. "Yeah, part of the trophy for winning Regionals, I get to be one of the first to have the newest Model. It's super light weight." He already had his deck in the system for the interview. The Disk itself was very much colored after his own scheme, with a purple base and green hollow emitter and lining. "Rainbow!" Rarity said consolingly. "You can't just grab things that people are still wearing!" She admonished Rainbow Dash only for Pinkie Pie to join in. "Yeah! You can't just do stuff like that!" She said and in a blur she was next to Rainbow Dash, wearing Spike's necklace. "Or like this!" Spike's eyes widened as he saw what she took . "Hey Pinkie!" There was a sudden burst of magic and a purple furred pup fell to the ground with a thud. "Ow...." "Okay... Not the way I expected this to happen?" Sunset blinked. "But it is Pinkie..." Rainbow, who was still holding onto the duel disk, looked surprised. "So it really is you!" Rarity blinked as well "Oh my goodness, I knew you looked like Twilight's dog, but I was too shy to say anything and it turns out that it's true." She said in a bit of anguish. Applejack patted her back with a grin. "Sad that your celebrity crush turned out to be a dog?" She asked and Rarity stood up ramrod straight. "No, no, no. You see... I... this is the person that likes our band so... ummm..." she tried to avoid saying what Applejack already knew. Pinkie Pie meanwhile just tossed the necklace back onto Spike happily. "Sorry about that." "It's fine... I figured something was gonna happen when Rainbow reached out to me right away on social media." He focused for a second and then returned to human form and stood up. "And I'm not a dog, in my world I'm a dragon. I'm just a dog here because of what ever cosmic reasoning..." "Plus here he's still thought of as a human so that endorsement doesn't really suffer from what we know now." Sunset pointed out. "What I want to know what that is, and why you're here." She said pointing to the necklace. Spike sighed. "Let's go somewhere else and then talk about it. Cool?" The group moved themselves to the still empty food court, none of the food stores were even open yet, but plenty were still setting up for later that day and the pizza place was kind enough to serve them even while they were still setting up. "Alright, we changed spots and Sunset was wondering about that fancy necklace ya got there." Applejack continued. He took it and held it out a bit for them to take a better look. "It's called the Red Moon Pearl, when I decided i was gonna start coming here more often I needed a way to be human while I am. So, doing what I normally do when I need magic to fix something.... I avoided Twilight altogether and went looking in the former castle of the two Pony sisters." He fiddled in his backpack for a moment and brought out a book. "Found this that pointed me to magical objects that could possibly help one disguise themselves. The Red Moon Pearl only works in other dimensions though." "Huh... and you didn't go to Twilight because...?" Sunset asked, kind of confused that he went that route. "Because I didn't want her to know I've been sneaking off to this world..." He grumbled laying his head down on the table. Rainbow blinked while drinking something. "But why? I mean is it a bad thing that you're here." "I doubt it... But I don't really do anything anymore back home." "I mean... you sure?" Applejack asked, that sounded either really boring or a bit harsh. "I've been doing this since y'alls Friendship games like 6 months ago. That whole thing my Twilight talked about with the time loops happened." He started to explain. "And, after that Starlight became her student and by proxy her assistant. I get asked to still do things... but it's usually minimal." "So you felt like you aren't needed." Pinkie asked coming back with more pizza. "Basically. And the last time I was here just wondering and Duel Monsters really caught my attention... I wanted to try it and I turned out to be really good." He grinned. "Duh, you're like the best!" Rainbow shook him a bit causing him to laugh. "Well that don't seem right." Applejack said with a bit of a frown. "But yer enjoying yourself here at least?" She asked hoping that was at least going well. "Oh yeah, it's been a lot of fun and really interesting way of meeting people." Spike smiled leaning back. "And don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at Twi or Starlight for what's been happening. Just felt left out and a good deal bored. I guess the real reason why I don't want to tell her is cause I don't want her to worry." He scratched his nose and sighed. "The only reason she noticed I was gone and wrote to Sunset was because the last tournament ran longer than I expected..." He chuckled nervously. Rarity smiled as she looked to him. "Darling, I know that Twilight can be a bit of a worry wart, but I feel like she'll understand." She said in supportive tone. Applejack nodded "If there's anything she's bound to have learned by now, it's trust." "Yeah... I know. I still don't like making her worry. Plus..." He paused trying to think of the best way to say it. "You want to stay here right?" Pinkie piped up with a grin, which caused Spike to sigh and nod. "You know, I'm starting to think you're just really good a picking up on context clues rather than everyone just thinking that you randomly know the answer..." He said, which got a bigger grin from the pink haired girl. Sunset smiled at that "I've read up on some of her friends, if she's willing to let Rainbow Dash join the Wonderbolts Academy, then I'm pretty sure she'll let you be a Duel Monster Champion over here. So long as you keep in touch at least." Sunset said reassuringly. "Yeah... though she and the others haven't known each other as long as me and twi have. I mean she hatched me for Celestia's sake..." He grumbled. "Hatched you?" Rainbow blinked. "Dragon not dog." He pointed out and explained the exam where he was hatched. Sunset, Rarity, and Applejack listened the whole time. It certainly was an incredible thing, a wave of rainbow energy supercharging Twilight's magic, the fact that Spike was a dragon still... no matter how many times they hear about the other world it's still surreal. Rarity got resolved though "Only more of a reason to ask her then, eventually something like this will happen, and I think she'd prefer if it were somewhere she knew herself as well." Spike grumbled some stuff a about cursed logic and the like before nodding. "I know... I need to head home for something first before I do that though." He was about to get up when they all heard a squeaking sound coming from behind Spike. Pinkie and Rainbow blinked as a light shined from where Spike's deck box was and out popped a little see through dragon lizard thing. With a flap of it's little wings in floated up and landed on Spikes head and gave a squeak before it's tongue bleped out. " Yeah yeah I know..." Spike responded seemingly too the squeak. Sunset, Rarity, and Applejack all paused as they watched the small creature emerge. Spike saw the weird looks and blinked. "What?" "Sugarcube... ya got a tiny dragon on yer head, you don't get to ask us why we're confused." Applejack said plainly "Wait.... You can see him!?" Spike asked shocked, even the little dragon looked confused by the statement. "Yeah, I mean he's kind of ghosty. But we can see him just fine." Pinkie said popping up and poking at the dragon, only for her finger to go right through. "Yeah... so umm... who is he?" Sunset felt the need to ask, he was cute but it was more than a bit odd. The little dragon lifted off Spikes head and went over to Sunset cocking its head to the side and giving a meep. "He's Kidmodo dragon." Spike answered while reaching into his deck holder. "Wait! Isn't that a duel monster card?" Rainbow asked really confused and still shocked. Spike pulled out a card. "Yup, this one." He held out Kidmodo's card which held a perfect depiction of him. "And he's a duel monster spirit, that sort of found me like... I think it was four months ago?" "Four months? Isn't that-" Rarity started and abruptly stopped, Applejack just got a brief smirk as she asked Spike. "I'm guessing that's around the time when you first started playing Duel Monsters?" "Yeah just about, I was building my deck still and he shook his way out of a booster pack I was opening." The little guy flew back over and landed back on Spike's head. "He's been hanging around ever since, couldn't tell you why, but he's cute at least." "He certainly is." Sunset said and Rarity and Applejack nodded With a flash the little guy shot back into his card and Spike put him away. "Okay so... I guess I have to go talk to Twi now... After I stop by my place first anyway." He scratched his head still not comfortable with the idea. The group went their separate ways after that. With Spike getting ready to speak with Twilight.