//------------------------------// // Sounds Ridiculous // Story: The Completely Normal Pet of Spike the Dragon // by DauntedSuperior //------------------------------// “Now it’s time for the questions!” Sweetie Belle ran to the corner of the room and grabbed a bean bag chair as I sat on Spike’s shoulder, messing with my magical output. The small fog that had been at the back of my head had dissipated so I no longer worried about whatever that had been. ‘Testing, testing, one two three...’ seeing none of the crusaders react wiped the earlier smile off my face. ‘Twilight says that magic is equal parts knowledge, visualization, and experience.’ Spike said as he helped the girls move a couple more of the bean bag chairs to the center of the room. ‘Visualization huh...’ I looked around the room we were in, taking note of it’s shape and size. It was just a box room, easy to remember and see in my head. I slowly started to seep my magic out into the box I had pictured in my head, feeling the magic coming out of me. “Did it jus get cold in here?” Apple Bloom asked as I poured more magic out of my mind. “I think that was Scruffy.” Spike spoke up as I heard one of the bean bag chairs be dropped on the floor. ‘I’m trying something, hold on.’ “Oh oh, I heard that!” Scootaloo stated with excitement. “Me too!” Sweetie Belle said next, just as happily. “Yes! Now we won’t have ta wait fer Spike ta translate everything.” opening my eyes I looked around to see that the podium had been moved to the side and four bean bag chairs had taken its place. ‘So everypony and dragon can hear me?’ after receiving various nods and confirmations I smiled, ‘Good. Now I'm just going to warn you ahead of time you probably won't believe half of the stuff I'm gonna tell you.’ “After the most recent year we had?” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, “Jus try us.” “Yeah and you’re the coolest friend we’ve got besides Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo flopped down in the orange bag chair holding a clip board. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom also took their seats leaving one left for Spike and me, ‘Yeah, I guess a kitten with dark magical powers would make a pretty cool friend.’ “Pretty cool? Did you just make a pun because of your ice powers?” Spike asked as we took a seat. ‘... No?’ Spike smiled as Sweetie Belle cleared her throat, “Now that everypony is comfortable, we can get to our first question for our newest member. All agreed?” “Agreed.” Sweetie Belle took the clipboard from Scootaloo before looking over Spike and I, “We each came up with a starting question for the two of you for the first question on our list.” she stated excitedly, “Spike, if we were in a video game would you be the damage dealer, the tank, or the healer?” “Uh, when I’m playing games I pick the tank because, well, they’re tanks.” the purple dragon shrugged, “And most games have their best armor made from dragon scales so I’m already set there.” “Alright.” she grabbed a pen that was attached to the clipboard with her mouth and scribbled something down, “Scruffy, are you a Lovecraft horror, here to take over our world?” In that instant I felt all eyes on me, ‘Uh, no.’ The three fillies let out a collective sigh of relief. Before I could ask what a Lovecraft horror was Spike spoke up, “There’s no way any of you are allowed to read Lovecraft.” “We’re not, but we tricked Rainbow into telling us about the monsters once.” Scootaloo puffed out her chest a little. Apple Bloom started giggling, “Ya, then your ma chewed her out fer an hour straight cause ya had a nightmare.” “Ya, I think that was the only time I saw Rainbow Dash so scared she acted like Fluttershy.” Sweetie Belle politely cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, “Can we please have no more interruptions? Thank you.” she looked back down at her clipboard, “Spike, do you have any plans of hoarding the gold and treasures we collect when we’re crusading?” “Only my share.” Spike said with a chuckle. Sweetie nodded and wrote something down, “Scruffy, are you or are you not- wait, Scootaloo, this is the same question.” “Well we didn’t tell each other our questions when we wrote them down.” Scootaloo pointed out, “And after the stuff Spike told us I wanted to make sure so I wrote down the question.” ‘Wait, what did Spike say about me?’ “Jus how ya woke him up in the middle of the night talkin about dark magic, adventures, ghosts, and quests.” the farm filly answered. ‘... Well when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous.’ “Because it is ridiculous.” Sweetie Belle stated before turning to her pegasus friend, “Scootaloo, ask a question.” “Right, uh.” she looked over to me, “Oh! What kind of powers do you have?” ‘Well I can manipulate ice, my claws can cut anything or grab onto anything, and I'm a telepath.’ I answered honestly, ‘Before you ask, a telepath is someone who can talk to you in your mind.’ “Is that it?” Scootaloo asked before I could continue, “I’ve got more scooter tricks than that!” ‘I wasnt' finished for one.’ I stated, ‘Secondly I've only had these powers since yesterday.’ “Oh, sorry.” ‘Anyway, those are the ones I mainly use. I've also got my shadow claws which use a lot of magic but let me grab stuff from a distance.’ “Ooooh, show us show us show us!” Scootaloo said excitedly. I smiled and started to pull on my magic when Spike spoke up, “He can’t, Scruffy just woke up from magical exhaustion. If he uses any high level spells it’ll give him a splitting headache.” and just like that my magic slowly was called back. “Why would something that sounds like levitation be that hard?” Sweetie Belle asked. Spike shrugged, “Dark magic is down right weird.” ‘Okay then, let's move on. I can also turn invisible when I'm in a shadow. I still have to work on that one though. I've only done it a few times, but it didn't feel that taxing.’ Scootaloo looked at me like I was some kind of superhero, ‘Then there's one more, but I've only done it once and couldn't do it again, no matter how hard I tried.’ “So cool.” Scootaloo muttered to herself making my tail swish side to side happily. “Was it a form change spell?” Spike asked as I turned and jumped up on his head. I leaned over to look him in the eye, ‘I did look different for a bit, so I guess so. What's a form change?’ “I’ll tell you later, it’s really complex magic that Twilight only did once.” Spike started to laugh, “It turned her white and made her mane and tail catch fire.” ‘Okay, I’ll try to remember to remind you.’ I said with a roll of my eyes knowing I probably wouldn't remember. “Alright, now for the final set of questions.” Sweetie Belle said looking down at the clipboard, “Spike, what is the main thing you hope to do while we crusade since you can’t get a cutie mark?” “Oh that's easy, have fun and help you girls find your cutie marks.” “Ooo, good answer.” Sweetie picked the pencil back up and scribbled something down, “Scruffy, if you're not...” she stopped for a second, “Okay it’s not the same question. Scruffy if you’re not a Lovecraft monster then what are you?” ‘I’m a Reincarnate.’ looking around at the confused looks I spoke up again, ‘I’m going to guess you have no idea what that is. A Reincarnate is someone who was chosen by whatever huge power rules over the multiverse to play out key roles in different universes. Anything from being the villain to the hero or just someone who helps the main hero of the time once and imparts advice that impacts them.’ ... They all sat there for a few moments staring at me making a slight pang of worry start forming in my chest. “Wow...” Scootaloo was the one who said it, her eyes twinkling with amusement, “Oh if you’ve been a hero have you ever saved the world before!?” “Does that mean we're going to be heroes!?” Sweetie Belle asked just as excitedly. “Why would ya want ta be a villain?” the farm filly across Scootaloo asked. That seemed to stop the other two fillies in their tracks, both of them losing there amazed looks to confusion. ‘I have no idea, and before you say anything-’ I looked to Scootaloo who had her mouth open, ‘-I literally have no idea. The few other Reincarnates I remember ever running into were either completely insane or had memory troubles just like me. So I think I came off on the lucky side.’ “So how do we know if ya gonna be good or bad?” Apple Bloom asked with her head tilted. Before I could speak my dragon friend spoke up for me, “Well we did just save Ponyville last night. Pretty sure that makes us good.” “Oh yeah, sorry Scruffy.” ‘It’s cool.’ “So that means that you can’t tell us any cool stories? That stinks.” Scootaloo kicked the floor. ‘I could tell you about how much I hate Angel.’ I offered. “Who cares about that, everypony hates Angel!” Scootaloo groaned making everyone in the room laugh. After the laughing died down Spike looked around, “So, are you done with the questions? Scruffy still has one of mine he has to answer.” ‘I do?’ I suddenly remember the explanation I promised him about Sleek, Ray, and Red, ‘Right, forgot about that.’ “Yep, we each got to ask you both a question so that only leaves the initiation trials.” Sweetie said with a smile on her muzzle. Looking to my sides I saw that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were snickering. ‘Why do I not like the idea of these trials?’ “Don’t worry, it’s just a test run to see how good you’ll be as crusaders.” Sweetie said with a wave of her hoof. “Ya, we’ve done it so you two should be fine.” Scootaloo said with a smile that spoke differently. “Completely safe.” Apple Bloom sporting the same ‘we’re lying’ smile as her friend. “Hey Spike, what was your question for Scruffy?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I just wanted him to explain the three evil ponies we were talking about before we got here.” Spike said as I hopped down off his shoulder and onto the purple bean bag chair we were on. Upon seeing their confused faces I decided to push the thoughts of whatever the trials were to the back of my head and explain, ‘Okay, I'll take it from the top for you girls to follow. It all started with Twilight's new royal assistant Sleek...’