“Now it's a little hard for me to remember everything because, you know, crazy. But I can remember enough to give you a good look at who I am. Be warned though, I didn't start out crazy, so at some point this will become a very sad story.” the man told all of those present before he sat down.
A few seats down from Christopher a pokemon that looked like an orange lizard with loose partially shed skin hanging from his shoulders and waist, and a mohawk of red scales on his head chuckled. He propped his arms behind his head, and looked up at Joker. “Another origin story, Joker? Which one will it be zis time, eh? Abducted by aliens, or cloned from a ninja?”
The king threw his arms wide, and smiled widely. “What can I say, Roi? If I have to have an origin, I want it to be multiple choice!” at this, Roi and the rest of the Royal Flush mercenaries shared a laugh for the old joke. “But this is how it really happened.”
“Hehe, sure it's, Joker. Sure it is.” Roi waved him off at first, but then he saw that his friend was not smiling. “Wait...you're actually going to tell us.” It was not a question, but a spoken fact. Roi knew when the man was joking, and when he was not.
“I feel as if ve are missing something.” Biochem rubbed his chin. “Could someone perhaps fill us in.”
“Joker enjoys telling a different version of his past every time someone asks about it.” Roi explained to the ponies. “But now...I think we will hear the real thing.”
Joker smiled again, but it was not his usual madman’s smile. It was the smile of a man who finally knew it was ok. “This is my story, and it all started when I ran away to join the circus.”
A collective smack filled the dining hall as everyone applied a hand, hoof, paw, wing, or other appendage to their faces.
“What?” Joker looked at them in confusion. When nobody responded he eventually shrugged and moved on. “I don't think you need to hear every detail about my life...or want to…
“Most kids go to the local Professor after their tenth birthday to get their pokedex and trainer's license so they can begin the journey of discovery that is the life of a pokemon trainer. I on the other hand, did not have a desire to be a professional trainer, so after my tenth birthday I ran away to join the circus.” Joker explained, mostly for the ponies who may not know how things worked on Earth. “Lucky for me there actually was a circus in town that day, but it was packed up to leave, so I hid in one of their train cars and travelled with them to the next town. And it was on that train that I met my first pokemon friend.”
The air in the dining hall became very wavy, signaling a flashback.
A young boy of ten sat alone in a dark train car as it rumbled along the tracks towards its next destination. He had no money, no spare clothes, and no idea where he was going. But he was on his way, somewhere, to join the circus. He could not wait to be a clown.
His stomach growled.
“Food?” He got up and stumbled around in the dark, trying to find a light to turn on.
Click.
“Well that's lucky.” He was in the snack car, surrounded by popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts, and hotdogs. Not having any way to cook anything, he opened a bag of peanuts and set out some hotdogs for later.
After a few minutes he heard something that was not his stomach growling. He grabbed a stick of cotton candy as a weapon and advanced through the train car in search of the sound. He found it; a small pokemon was chewing at the hotdogs he had set out, but the plastic wrapper kept getting stuck in its teeth.
“Meowth! Meowth meowth meowth.” It was a cream colored cat with patches of brown on its ears, hind paws, and the curled end of its tail. It had whiskers growing from around where it should have had a nose (two on either side and two above its eyes), and a gold medallion rested on its forehead. It was a Meowth.
“Here, let me help.” the boy reached for the food when he saw the cat pokemon spit out some plastic.
“Meowth!” the feline complained about the human taking its food.
“Here ya go!” he pulled out a hotdog and gave it to the pokemon.
“Meowth?” the cat took it and ate it, and smiled at the human. “Meowth!”
“You're welcome.”
The boy remembered his cotton candy and decided to take a bite that was a little too big. He started to cough as a lot of the sugar went down the wrong way.
“Meowth?!” The pokemon rammed into him with a Tackle, knocking him to the floor and making him successfully cough up the junk food.
“...ow…”
“Meowth?” The cat lightly slapped a paw on his face. “Meowth?”
“I'm ok.” He blinked at the pokemon sitting on his chest, and suddenly hugged it. “You saved my life! Thank you!”
“WHAT THE HELL!?”
They looked around to see a man in a red dress coat and a big top hat, with a large mustache, and a rather angry frown. They were not able to see him for long before he threw them off the train. They both rolled down a hill, tumbling head over heels the whole way down, and only stopped when they splashed into a creek.
“Turned out we were there for a few hours and the ringmaster didn't appreciate us eating a bunch of the food for free.” Joker clarified for everyone. “So he threw us off the train. Perfectly logical.”
Twilight Sparkle balked at him. “Two questions. First; WHAT JUST HAPPENED!? Second; He threw you off of a moving train!?”
“I have four Psychic types sitting...floating right there.” he pointed to the beheeyem, starmie, solrock, and lunatone. “Between the four of them there's enough Psychic power here to make you actually remember that you were there without it seeming like the normal illusions of a Psychic pokemon. Seamlessly.”
Roi whispered to one of his teammates, a large black crocodile pokemon. “I was wondering why he kept those nerds around.”
“They can just do that vhenever they vant?” Biochem asked.
“Well...no.”
Several of the other pokemon and ponies around the table visibly relaxed.
“They have to be in a trance state that lets their minds work in perfect sync.”
The air got wavy again.
“Oh, another flashback.” Pinkie Pie announced. “I've got popcorn!”