//------------------------------//
// Innocence Lost 
// Story: Wild Card 
// by Barrel-of-fun 
//------------------------------//

It was after the fifth or sixth hit that I decided I would have been better off just jumping for the hatch.

Early on into my fight against the pegasi I had discovered a small but unavoidable problem. Pegasi are very fast. Individually, I could probably beat them simply by punching them before they could swoop away. But with fifteen of them attacking me at once? I had no chance of reacting in time.

One of them, a light blue stallion with a smirk on his face, shot at me from the front. I readied my knife, prepared to fend of any attack from him. At the last second though, he switched directions, peeling off to the right. I barely managed to throw myself to the left in time, feeling the displaced air as the pegasus who had flown in from behind shot past me. Even as I was rolling back to my hooves, they still wouldn’t let up. I swung my arm out and just managed to deflect a blow that would have caved my face in, causing it to glance off my horn instead. My head ringing, I swung out at the offending pegasus, only to have him dodge back and join the hovering horde above me.

My hand shout out like a whip, a Clubs card flying forth to take one of the pegasi out. However, cards, whilst good for games and slight of hand tricks, aren’t exactly the most aerodynamic of projectiles. Even with my best throw, the pegasus I had been aiming at still managed to lazily flap his wings and dodge over the card, letting it simply fly beneath him.

I growled in frustration as more pegasi began to sweep in for an attack run. No matter how quickly I turned or how wary I was, they could always get into my blind spots. They could fly and had me completely surrounded. As one pirate flew in from the front, I kept my eyes on him, making sure to look directly into his eyes. For a moment, his gaze wavered, looking just over my right shoulder. Instantly, I brought my right leg around in a sweeping arc, turning what looked like a roundhouse kick into a large step before bringing my other leg around and dropping my torso down. This was a desperate move on my part, more acrobatic maneuver than an actual combat strike. Regardless, it worked quite well. The moment both of my hands touched the wooden deck, I kicked off with my left leg. Combined with the momentum from my over-enthusiastic step earlier, the force of this kick allowed me to turn what should have been a normal handstand into a whirling dervish of pain and hooves.

Those years I spent as part of the circus don’t seem so wasted now. Never underestimate clowns.

The flanking pegasi, not being used to such an outlandish attack, was caught completely off-guard. A single spinning hoof, moving so fast that it was just a blur, slammed into his side, stunning him for a moment. Before he even had the chance to consider recovering, a second hoof hit him, this time in the shoulder, causing him to stumble and fall to the deck of the ship as his wings gave out. The next few spinning hoof kicks passed over his head as I attempted to adjust myself to the correct height. In my defence, it was damn hard to aim kicks when you are upside down, spinning and balanced on your hands. Finally, I managed to land a solid blow to his head and he went down, slumping like a sack of potatoes. Satisfied, I flipped back onto my hooves and looked around for the next attack.

I was strangely disappointed. The pirates were all staring at me in a combination of shock and anger. Shock over the insane method I had just used to take out one of their fellows; anger over the fact that one of their fellows had been taken out, in a manner that seemed to be mocking them no less. 

At an unspoken command, the pegasi began to move into positions around me, arranging themselves so that they were equally spaced to completely surround me. Simultaneously, the well-trained pirate pegasi turned to their respective lefts and began to fly forward, each one following the one in front. In mere seconds, the pirates had formed a ring around me, their forms moving so swiftly that, to me, they appeared to be little more than multicolored blurs. I began to turn on the spot, eyes darting back and forth as I tried to see where the next attack would be coming from.

I received my answer when something slammed into my back, knocking the breath out of me and sending me stumbling forward. Before I had a chance to recover another blur moved at the edge of my vision. My head exploded into stars as the hoof slammed into my jaw. I barely managed to stay on my hooves as I tasted iron. I desperately tried to draw in some air to replace that which had been knocked out of me. Maybe then I could stop seeing stars.

The moment I managed to fill my lungs, another blur shot in, slamming into my stomach before I could raise my guard. Blood shot out of my mouth as the air was once again forced out of me. I fell to my knees in pain, vision swimming. Blearily, I managed to focus on a small piece of white floating in the sea of red that had shot out of my mouth. They’d managed to knock out one of my teeth.

There goes my modelling career.

I attempted to plant one arm on the deck and push myself back to my hooves. However, the moment my hand touched the wood, there was a blur and a flash of metal to the side of my vision. My arm went limp and I shouted in agony, collapsing to the deck. Something had cut deep into my arm, which didn’t seem to be responding to my commands at the moment. It had to be Melody. She seemed to be the only pegasus armed with wing blades.

I was beaten, bloody and bruised on the deck, lying in a quickly expanding pool of my own blood as the laughter of the pirates rung in my ears. I had to get out of here, collect myself and rethink my strategy for taking on these pegasi. Judging by their silent professionalism, these were probably the best of Melody’s troops. My earlier plan, to lure them below deck and take them out one at a time, probably wouldn’t work. If anything I’d say that, outside of tricking them with impractical and unusual attacks, I wouldn’t be able to take any of these pegasi in one on one combat. So much for best laid plans and all that.

My working arm was trapped beneath my body, thankfully out of sight of the circling pegasi. Frantically, I scrambled at my coat, trying to get at my deck of cards without alerting the pegasi to my plan. Just as I thought I had moved too much and given the game away, what felt like a single card came loose from my deck and tumbled out of my pocket, landing in the blood near me. I desperately grabbed at it, clutching the fragile piece of layered paper in my grasp. The last of my hopes rested in something that could be torn up with the slightest of efforts. 

That almost sounds like a metaphor for most of my plans.

Digging into reserves of energy that I didn’t even know I had, I forced myself to my knees, slowly managing to regain my hooves. I swayed from side to side slightly, still very woozy from the blow to the head, and blinked rapidly to try and clear the blood from my right eye, which seemed to have developed a cut over it. Idly, I noted that the pegasi had stopped circling and were now merely hovering in place, watching me. My woozy gaze managed to lock onto the pegasi right in front of me, a victorious smirk pulling at her scarred face. I attempted to ignore the terrible stabbing pain in my chest as I looked at her, a smile of my own slowly creeping onto my face.

Time to play my hand.





Vibrant Melody watched as her crewmates swooped around the fallen form of the annoying goat-thing. Like the good little obedient ponies that they were, each pegasi was hanging back from the bleeding body, waiting for Melody’s orders. She smirked as she slowly began to descend. This little pest had caused too much damage, been too much of a challenge, for Melody to allow anybody else the pleasure of finishing him. No, she would end this one herself.

Her gentle flaps brought her ever closer to the creature, still lying there in a pool of his own blood. Melody’s own wings were covered in crimson splatters, her blades especially had been practically coated in the stuff. For a moment, she regretted that she had used the blades. This goat-thing - she hadn’t even bothered to ask for its name - was bleeding heavily now. Even if Melody didn’t bother to deliver the final slash, it would still bleed out soon.

A shame. The pirate queen would have liked to have longer with this one at least.

With a grimace, she cast these thoughts away. Twice she had managed to capture this fool and twice he had managed to escape, causing massive damage as he did so. It would be best just to end it, here and now. 

Melody managed to snap out of her thoughts to look back down at the creature, who appeared to be shuffling about slightly. The last spasms before death perhaps?

Then she saw something in its claw-like appendage. Something small, and rectangular and made of...paper?

Melody’s eyes shot open as she realised what the creature was trying. Immediately she ceased her gentle flapping and tucked her wings into her side, angling her body into a sharp dive. At the same time she activated the final weapon in her personal arsenal, a bracelet that was wrapped around her right hoof. Out of this seemingly ornamental accessory sprung a twelve inch long blade, sharpened to a razor point and easily capable of reaching a stallion’s heart. This little gadget was one of Melody’s favourite weapons, simply for the look on her victim’s face when the blade shot out and impaled them.

Fun times. Fun times indeed.

The pegasus mare managed to avoid the tempting nostalgia and focussed upon her current goal; mainly, stabbing this damned annoying goat-thing through the chest and staking him to the deck of her ship. To that end, she thrust her hoofblade forward with all her might, heading straight for the creature’s centre of mass.

At the last moment, her opponent flipped over onto his back and raised his card, as if desperately hoping that the flimsy piece of paper could block a blade. Unsurprisingly, it failed in this regard. The sharpened metal slipped straight through the paper and sank deep into the goat-thing’s arm, causing him to yell out in pain. Melody was impressed. She had been going for a killing blow and yet, once again, the fool’s speed meant that he barely managed to avoid the embrace of death. Lucky bastard.

Smirking maliciously, Melody drew her hoof back for another blow, setting her sights on the injured creature’s head. As she raised her leg though, she noticed something strange about her hoofblade. The card, which she had momentarily dismissed, was stuck on her dagger. Not only that, but the card appeared to be faintly glowing. The strange symbols upon its face, showing a large diamond with two smaller ones in each corner topped by an ‘A’, were glowing particularly brightly, forcing Melody to wince away as it stung at her eyes. Suddenly, Melody realised what was about to happen, her mouth dropping open as she realised she was at the centre of the danger zone.

With a single powerful flap, she was in front of one of her crew members, waving her hoofblade in front of his face and screaming at him.

“Get it off! Get it off!”

The poor pegasus pirate was understandably confused by this strange turn of events. One moment, his terrifying captain was about to execute her downed opponent; then the next she was in front of his face shouting something he usually only heard from her when she featured in his dreams, usually accompanied by whips and what could only be classified as perverse amounts of latex.

“Okay!” He beamed at her with a stupid grin before he began to loosen and slip out of what little clothes he was wearing. This may have been more seductive if he had more to slip out of than a neckerchief. But then, some ponies could make even a neckerchief look sexy and alluring. 

Melody stared in horrified confusion as the crewmember began to pull at his one article of clothing, looking for all the world like he was trying to garrote himself rather than strip.

“Not you, you idiot!” She screamed.

Giving up on assistance from her crew - who were definitely receiving a lashing after all this for stupidity unbecoming of the most feared pirate crew in Equestria - Melody began to tug at the card herself. First she attempted to paw at it with her hoof, but it remained stubbornly stuck on there. Next she attempted to rip it off with her mouth. However, the moment she clamped her jaws on the card, she realised something.

The card wasn’t just giving out light, but heat as well.

Admittedly, it was only a small bit of heat. Next to nothing compared to the amount of light it was already giving off, which equalled some of the brightest magical lights already and showed no signs of stopping. However, Melody could already feel it heating up the knife, the warmth slowly travelling up and reacher her bracer.

Abandoning the card for now, Melody took a slightly more extreme measure. Her crew watched in further confusion as she began to tug at her treasured bracelet, eventually managing to yank the whole device off her leg. With a crow of triumph, Melody suddenly launched the bracelet, card and all, directly up into the air with all of her surprising strength. 

Thirteen pairs of eyes followed the bracelet’s graceful flight through the air. The moment she had realised it, Melody had immediately dived for cover, managing to get under a loose tarp that had been left on deck. The only other being not watching the bracelet was the goat-creature, who had seemingly disappeared from his prone position on the deck, leaving only a pool of blood to remember him by.

Each pirate watching the bracelet had a similar train of thought. It went a little something like this:

Oh my! Shiver my timbers! That’s the boss’s prized bracelet with magically augmented hidden blade. Why, she would be inconsolable if she lost such a precious prize.

Perhaps, if I saved her treasure from it’s certain smashy fate upon the deck, she would be grateful?

Perhaps she would even consider not giving me a lashing?

Why, it is my most noble and honourable duty to rescue that bracelet.

There was some slight deviation in these thoughts of course, and not all of them were nearly so eloquent. In fact, one particular neckerchiefed stallion’s thoughts ran more along the lines of:

I wonder if she’ll give me extra lashings if I save the bracelet?

Regardless of the motivation, the reasoning or even the particular tone of thought that each stallion had, they all ended up thinking exactly the same thing at exactly the same unfortunate moment.

Isn’t that strange glow getting a bit strong?

In a mercifully silent explosion, a second sun appeared above the ship. For one beautiful, horrible moment, thirteen stallions experienced something that only the Princesses had ever seen. They gazed into the heart of a star, the raw, unbridled light of life itself burning directly into the eyes and permanently scoring itself into their minds.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the false sun vanished, leaving its victims - it’s witnesses - rooted where they had been left. They continued to gaze up at where the light had once been, eyes unseeing and mouths hanging open. Though their bodies remained unmoving, their now milky eyes darted round inside their sockets, hunting for any form of light that they could find, all in vain. They had gazed directly into the heart of a star, one of the strongest lights in all creation, and for them there would be no more light.

As one, the thirteen stallions fell to the deck, bodies thudding on the wood as they fell without ceremony or purpose. The slight rise and fall of each stallion’s chest was the only indication that they were still alive. The rest of their bodies were completely still, mouths still hanging open, legs limp eyes closed. 

As they lay there, two heads popped up from their hiding places, assessing the damage on deck.





I gazed down in amazement at the damage that the Ace of Diamonds had caused. Aside from the thirteen limp ponies on the deck, the card had caused no small amount of damage to the ship. The heat of the flare card, whilst nowhere near proportional to the amount of light produced, was still significant. The false sun had been in the middle of the ship’s rigging when it had appeared, and a lot of the main mast had been caught in the blast. Now the entire sail was ablaze, a thick black smoke billowing up from the canvas, putting me in quite the position of danger.

I could only be glad that the heat to light ratio was so skewed in favour of light. If that card had carried even 1/100th of the heat proportional to the light it produced then we would have all been screwed. Along with the entire ship. And a good portion of the sea. And probably quite a bit of the Equestrian landmass as well. 

So yeah, small mercies.

Perhaps I should explain my disappearing act first? Well, the moment Melody was distracted doing a good impression of Adam West’s Batman with her oblivious crew, I got to work on my most intricate and cunning plan to date. I call it: Operation Don’t Die Horribly.

So far, it’s all going pretty much to plan.

Firstly, I had deceived my audience with a nice bit of sleight of hand. Melody believed that I had only managed to draw one card, which she had managed to get stuck on her hoofblade. In actual fact, I had drawn two and hidden the second one behind the first. Whilst Melody and the pirates were distracted dealing with the first card, I quickly applied the other one to my wounds, trusting in my luck to lead me right. Sure enough, I instantly felt a soothing calm come over me as my wounds patched themselves up. My vision cleared up as my concussion left me and feeling gradually began to return to my arm, legs and shoulder. 

By this point, the pirates were completely wrapped up in watching Melody dance about like a madmare, pawing at her leg and seemingly trying to bite herself. They were far too distracted to notice little old me slip away. The moment I was sure that no pirates were currently watching me, I considered running for the lifeboat but something stopped me. I don’t know if it was some divine intervention, indigestion or perhaps even one of those worrying things called a conscience that I’ve been hearing so much about, but something told me that I shouldn’t just run away. I needed to finish this.

Two sides of me went to war. My natural cowardice battling against whatever strange new feeling had decided to take to the field of battle. On one side, the forces of cowardice brought up points such as: ‘We’ve fled from a lot of stuff in our life, it’s how we’re still alive. What’s one more?’ On the other hand, the challenger brought weapons such as: ‘You started this, you need to finish it.’ The war was a short and bloody one but, against overwhelming odds, the challenger took the day with one final decisive strike.

It was called: ‘What would Summer and Iron think?’

With this thought at the forefront of my mind, I changed my direction away from the lifeboat and towards the complicated mess of rope netting that I believe is called the ship’s shroud. I quickly scaled the ropes, swiftly ascending into heavens above the ship whilst ignoring the shouting of Melody from below me. Reaching the crow’s nest, I hopped inside and crouched down, covered myself with a rather ratty looking blanket, closed my eyes, pointed my face away and waited for the inevitable.

I was not disappointed as, a few moments later, the entire world turned white. I clamped my eyes shut and went so far as to cover them with my hands. Yet still the persistent light shone through, although at least not to a blinding degree.

Which leads me to my current precarious position; stuck up in the crow’s nest with the mast below me on fire and smoke finding it’s way up my nose and into my lungs. I hastily ducked back into the crow’s nest but it was too late, the damage had already been done. A racking cough ripped through me, followed by an almighty sneeze. As if in answer, a scream of pure rage came from below me. Filled with a sort of morbid curiosity, I once again poked my head out of the nest, peering down through the smoke to where I could see a dot of pink glaring up at me.

Oh shit! Did she see me?

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME UP THERE? YOU’RE DEAD!”

Yeah...I think she saw me.

Abandoning my rather pathetic attempt at stealth, I rose from my hiding place and prepared to face my opponent. Only to find that she had seemingly disappeared. My eyes scanned the deck of the ship, searching for that flash of pink that might show where she was hiding. It was then that a strange sound reached my ears, a sort of high-pitched whistle.

I swung around just in time to get my knife between my neck and the wingblade that had been about to decapitate me. The blow glanced off as a snarling Vibrant Melody shot past, sending me stumbling backwards from the sheer momentum of her attack. Even though the strike hadn’t been a direct one, the power behind her wings was immense. She wasn’t playing around anymore. With that sort of force, a single slip up on my part could mean the loss of a limb, or worse.

I barely managed to see her coming around for a second attack run, simply catching a pink blur out of the corner of my eye. This time, I threw myself down to the floor of the crow’s nest, allowing the screaming blur of pegasus and blades to fly overhead. I hastily got back on my hooves, ready for the next attack, but froze when I saw the damage her attack had done. The solid wooden circular wall that made up the crow’s nest was now sporting a large gash. The wood looked to have been entirely torn away in a large ‘V’ shape as one of Melody’s wingblades had cut into it. Involuntarily, I gulped down my fear, trying to ignore the shaking that was taking over my limbs. I could barely hold onto my knife, my palms seemed so sweaty. Not to mention my hair, which was now plastered to my head.

I swung my head about, desperately trying to spot the speeding pegasus who, at any moment, could separate me from some body parts I consider to be very vital. Such as my head. The moment I managed to spot her, coming in fast on my left hand side, I dove behind the mast, vaguely aware that I let out a very unmanly shriek as I did so. I didn’t really care though, now was not the time to be focused on how masculine I looked. Now was the time to try and not be killed by a dangerous flying psychopath. 

I cowered behind the mast, holding my shaking knife in front of me as though the tiny piece of metal would be enough to stop her. I’ve been in some very dangerous situations before, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to death. Living on the razor’s edge, accepting that I could get cut at any moment, that’s kind of what I do. But the razor has always been sort of friendly to me, part of my lucky inheritance I guess. Now the razor was hurtling towards me at insane speeds and was capable of cutting through solid wood. I was ashamed to say that I had no idea what to do. Every clever plan, every little trick up my sleeve. What were they supposed to do against so much rage?

There was no time left for thinking. Melody had arrived. A scream filled the air, partly coming from the enraged pegasus and partly coming from the tortured wood of the mast as her subsonic speed wing blade tore through the wood. The mast-top hung there for a moment, before beginning to topple over, slowly falling away from the nest and down towards the deck of the ship. It didn’t matter though, it had accomplished something at least. Going through the mast to get to me had managed to slow Melody down just enough. Enough so that, when her blade struck my knife, she didn’t tear right through the metal and the satyr hiding behind it. Instead the blade was ripped from my hand and sent tumbling to the deck and I was left stumbling backwards, my arms numb as the blow rang through me.

Too late, I realized the error of my positioning. I was too close to the edge of the nest, taking cover behind the mast as I had been. The blow had stumbled me and, as I desperately attempted to regain my balance, the back of my legs impacted against the nest’s wall. Slowly, I tumbled backwards, hands reaching out to grasp at thin air. All the many ropes, the sails and the masts seemed so mockingly out of reach as I fell. A small part of me was filled with the knowledge that whatever came next was going to hurt. The rest of me was filled with despair, the sort that consumes a human mind whenever they are falling.

Before I could even properly process these emotions, it was over. An overwhelming pain shot through my body as I slammed into the deck back first. Almost comically, I noted that I bounced a few times before coming to a complete rest. Every part of my hurt and I could barely open my mouth enough to let out a weak groan to express how much pain I was in. I wasn’t even sure if I could move my arms and legs, I didn’t even bother trying. At the moment, even sending signals to those limbs seemed like too much effort. 

Things went from terribly bad to horrendously worse as my fuzzy vision was filled by a pink blur, which quickly resolved itself into the snarling visage of Vibrant Melody. I felt like I should have some witty line here, some uncornered little quip to show of my devil-may-care attitude.

Except that I did care, quite a lot. I couldn’t move, blood was filling my mouth and even breathing seemed like a herculean effort. Now my would-be killer was standing over me, preparing herself for the final blow. I almost wished she would just do it already. Just slam a hoof down on this thick skull of mine and end it. Seriously, even if I got out of here, how long would it be until I was in the exact same situation with some other mobster? Or maybe some horrific creature would get me? 

In that moment I was more scared than I had ever been in my life as I realised something. I was my own worst enemy. I was always throwing myself into these stupid, dangerous situations and for what? Some cheap thrill? The adrenaline rush of having my teeth kicked in?

A sob escaped from my bleeding mouth as I felt tears falling down the side of my face. I wasn’t crying from the pain though, but from the realization that everything I had done, everything I did, was pointless. If I die, here and now, then who would remember me? Summer and Iron maybe, but eventually even they’d get on with their lives and forget about the fool they had once known who got in over his head.

I was a gambler of the worst sort, one who gambled with his own life. 





Vibrant Melody paused as she saw her victim weeping. Not that she wasn’t used to ponies and other creatures sobbing for their lives before her but this one was different. The goat-thing before her had always been so...so flippant. So uncaring in the face of danger. For a moment, the pegasus wondered what had changed. Some switch had been flipped inside her victim and it intrigued the pirate queen. She was about to lower her raised hoof when a surge of emotion shot through her.

KILL IT! KILL IT AND YOU CAN RULE THIS SEA WITH AN IRON HOOF!

With a snarl of pure rage, Melody reared up and prepared to crush her victim’s skull. She didn’t question the sudden switch of emotions inside her. She couldn’t. At the moment, her mind was too clouded with anger to even comprehend the thoughts and curiosity that had been swirling around her head just a few seconds prior.

Just as she was about to slam her hooves down she stopped, an unfamiliar feeling shooting through her chest. Gasping she looked down, her eyes going wide as she beheld what had happened to her.





More tears escaped from me as I looked at the knife sticking out of Melody’s chest, my semi-prehensile tail wrapped around the hilt. I could scarcely believe what I had done, looking at the tail like it was not a part of my body. The connection was undeniable though, my eyes followed locked onto the bloody dagger sticking forth from the wound even as my mind desperately tried to deny what I had done.

Vibrant Melody still stood there, rearing above me as the last of her strength slowly ebbed away. Sluggishly, she fell to one side, her left leg giving out beneath her as she stumbled away. My knife left her chest with sickening ease, the sharp blade easily sliding out of the flesh. My tail finally decided to unwrap, allowing the dagger to fall to the deck with a clang. I ignored it though, staring at Melody. The pirate queen had fallen a few feet from where I lay and was lying on her side, staring at me. Her eyes themselves were going glassy, but still managed to retain that vital spark of life.

Finding new strength in my limbs, I desperately scrambled my way over to her, crawling through the pools of blood, rum and seawater that covered the deck. I immediately pressed one hand to the wound, the other leaping into my pocket to go for a Heart card. I needed to heal her.

I tried to ignore the blood seeping between the hand that was vainly attempting to put pressure on the wound. I finally managed to find a card and yanked it out of my pocket, only to have my face fall as I saw the face of it.

Clubs.

Casting it to one side, my hand shot in again and pulled out another. Spades. And another, Diamonds this time. With a snarl of frustration I grabbed the entire deck and pulled it from my pocket, letting them spill onto the deck. I began to push the combat-focussed cards out of the way, desperately searching for a Heart card. It was no use though. Every single one of the cards on the deck, bobbing about in the pools of blood, was either a Diamond, a Club or a Spade. The message was clear. Vibrant Melody would not be getting healed.

I refused to give up though, even as my vision began to blur from tears. I pressed my other hand to the wound, hoping beyond hope that two hands would somehow manage to keep the blood from spilling out. It was no use though. The crimson liquid continued to seep through my fingers, staining my hands red even as it went to pool on the deck. I looked at Melody’s scarred face, unwilling to look at the terrible wound I had caused.

Her eyes were even more glossy now, that spark of life slowly rescinding. Her mouth was opening and closing, looking like she was attempting to get air into her lungs through a sick parody of talking.

“I’m...I’m..” The gasped whisper sounded like little more than the sound of a gentle breeze, but it pierced straight through my haze.

“What?” I sobbed as I leaned closer to her head, “What was that?”

“I’m so...rry,” Her broken words stabbed into my heart, almost making my stumble back in shock, “Cabin. Bo...book.” One last sigh escaped he, followed by a ragged gasp as she tried to draw in one more lungful of air, “T-thank you.”

And with that, a final death rattle escaped from her lungs as the pirate queen’s eyes shut for good. I don’t know how long I knelt there, staring at her in incomprehension, my hands still pressed to her wounds, even though she was long passed saving. Eventually though, I fell backwards, slowly collapsing to lie in a pool of blood. My cards floated around me, merrily bobbing about and knocking into each other like paper ducks. Beside me, the slowly cooling body of Vibrant Melody lay, looking surprisingly peaceful. Without the ever present snarl of fury on her face she looked sort of beautiful. Her relaxed face made the scar much less pronounced. The illusion that she was sleeping was ruined only by the blood that matted her fur and the wound that covered her chest.

I would have shed more tears on seeing the damage I had caused to such a beautiful creature, but I was too tired. I lay there, staring up at the blue sky, until I fell asleep.