My Little Rider: Friendship is Joker

by lilAngel

Intermission - The Dark H

Heavy Pick squinted at the cobbles in front of him, and struggled to organise his hooves well enough to stand. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened last night, but he remembered the Champion of Hope asking everypony to help find some magic crystals. Then he’d found one, grabbed it triumphantly, and… everything became a blur.

“Are you okay?” a concerned stallion’s voice came from behind him. He turned his head, panicking for just a moment, and saw the one guy he’d most expect to be going around helping everypony in a crisis. The dependable one. “How much do you remember?”

“I just wanted to help the Champions,” Pick mumbled, “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no,” the big stallion stepped forward to reassure him. “It was just something that went out of control. Even the Champions can’t get things right every time. You controlled the pseudo-Memory well enough to avoid the mad chase, which is more than anypony else did. I didn’t realise you had so much strength in you.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Pick mumbled, a little embarrassed. It didn’t feel good to accept such whole-hearted compliments from a neighbour he’d stolen from the year before, no matter how desperate he’d been. “Is it all over now?”

“Almost. The glass dopants returned to normal when the Hoax Memory was destroyed. But there’s one more thing the Champion needs help with. I hoped I could do it, but she said no, I’m not strong enough. But you are. You need to take this.”

Pick grabbed a crystal like a shard of obsidian, all the colours of the rainbow reflecting from a black surface. It felt slick like oil, and when he touched it his hair stood on end, a chill that he couldn’t explain spreading over his body. The only mark on the thing were two golden spikes on one end, like teeth, and an embossed letter ‘A’ on the side.

“Press the spikes against your cutie mark. They need their new Champion.”

“There’s no need to sound so hesitant, you know. I never thought of you as the jealous type…”

“ABSORB.” This memory’s voice was more like the bubbling of a swamp than the grating of metal on metal. Ripples of change spread over Pick’s body, until no trace of the stallion’s original colouring remained. He still looked half like a pony, but half like something else entirely. The Memory dealer shook his head in disgust, unable to believe what he had done to his friend. But he knew it had to be done, to keep his family safe.

“Where is this?” the other figure spoke in a very different accent from Heavy Pick, so different it was hard to believe this was the same body. While he spoke, he looked at his reflection in a darkened window. Maybe this body was different from what he was used to as well. He seemed particularly concerned with the size of his horns. “And how long have I been imprisoned?”

“This is Ponyville,” the dealer bowed his head as he spoke, “And I understand it has been nearly two thousand years.”

“No wonder I feel weak. Leave me then, I need sustenance. And when we meet again, you will address me as ‘my Lord’.”

“Yes, my Lord,” the stallion answered, and then left the alley. But as he went, he muttered to himself: “What have I done?”

Author's Note:

Hope nobody was put off by the delay in releasing this chapter. I think this is also the first one that hasn't been influenced by a story from both of the shows; so I was a little uncertain about it.

Nearly half way through the story now. I've got a plan for the "plot-heavy" episodes (A, E, K, N, S, and X), but still space for more ideas. So if there's any MLP:FIM episodes you'd particularly like to see me adapt, or any Gaia Memories you're looking forward to seeing a pony version of, please let me know. Especially if it's a C, G, O, Q, R, or U Memory.