//------------------------------//
// Shuffled Away 
// Story: Wild Card 
// by Barrel-of-fun 
//------------------------------//

The day was beginning to wane away by the time I stopped walking. I had been walking in a daze for a bit, an uncomfortable silence surrounding me as, for the first time in a while, I travelled without companionship. When I finally did stop, I found myself on a sun-kissed hill overlooking the port city. As I turned to look down at the city, the sun at my back, it felt almost as if the entire settlement lay at my hooves.
 
How ironic. I had not conquered this city. Hell, I could barely stand to look at it.
 
Regardless, I took a seat on the hill and reached into the satchel that I had hanging around my chest. Two objects were inside. The first could very well be described as a work of art. It turned out that the carpenter I hired did good work after all. The card shooter was wonderfully crafted, all smooth wood and bright springs. It was, to be perhaps a bit extravagant, perfect. The mechanism was smooth, the bands that strapped it to my wrist were comfortable and it was small and light enough to be easily concealed beneath my sleeve without encumbering my arm.
 
The second however, was far less satisfactory to look upon. Not only had I technically stolen it from the Guard house but it was also about as far from a work of art as it was possible to be. If anything, Melody’s journal was the work of a mad mare, and I dreaded what I might find within its pages. Even so, I knew that I had to read it. It was the only way to get any answers about Melody.
 
And I had always been a curious creature.
 
For a moment, I wondered if I would be better off not reading the book, better off not finding out about Vibrant Melody, the mare I had killed. Perhaps I should just throw the book away? Cast it into some stream and forget about it. Get on with my life and try to put Melody, and her fate, out of my mind.
 
But I only thought this for a moment.
 
With a sigh, I looked down at the book and began to read.
 



 

Diary of Vibrant Melody


4/7/1678

Dear Diary,
 
Today was a wonderful day! After so long of working pubs and run-down bars here in Los Pegasus, I’ve finally been noticed. Seems like some the friend of a club owner had stopped by for a drink and he noticed my singing. He said that he would get in touch with his friend and arrange an audition for me. This could be my chance! Finally, I’m going to be somepony.
 
Filled with hope,
Melody.
 

 


Diary of Vibrant Melody


8/7/1678

 
I met the mare I will be working for today. Gentle Tones is, much like her name, a very sweet and caring mare. I’ll be singing at her club every weekend, with a healthy wage to go with it. She even gave me my first two weeks in advance! I’ve never seen so many bits in once place! No more living off tips from leering drunks for this mare!

As soon as I get settled into the club, I’m going to invite the family up to see me perform. I can’t wait to see my sister again, not to mention having Ma and Pa see me up on that bright stage.
 
Looking to the future,
Melody.
 



 
I was, of course, understandably confused by these first few entries. If anything, these seemed to be the various ramblings and recounts of a fairly ordinary mare. Struggling a bit for work sure but, other than that, perfectly normal. What could have possibly happened that caused her to become the fearsome pirate that I had met?
 
I began to skip some of the entries, mainly ones about her family visiting and how well things were going now that she was at the club. Finally, I found one that seemed significant.
 



 

Diary of Vibrant Melody


23/2/1679


 

Another astounding break for me happened today. I got another job offer! A talent scout must have been in Gentle Tones’ club because one of the big club owners offered me a job at her establishment. At first, I was worried. Gentle Tones had told me about some of these big club ponies. How they would wrap a filly like myself up in legal fine print until we didn’t even know which way up was. At first, I believed the older mare and was wary of the contact.
 
At least, until I saw the amount of zeroes on my wage slip.
 
They were offering at least five times what I was getting from Gentle Tones! It became obvious what was happening then. That sweet old mare was just a façade, a mask to lure young fools in and make them trust her. Gentle Tones must have been quite the ruthless businessmare. Now that those nice agents from the big club had come along, I knew how much I was really worth.
 
And it was far more than Gentle Tones could afford.
 
I start at the new club this weekend. With this, I’ll have enough money to bring the entire family up to Los Pegasus, even buy them a nice house soon enough. Ma and Pa can retire if they wish! And my lil’ sis will go to all the best schools!
 
Life’s going to be good from now on.
 
A new mare,
Melody
 



 
To all intents and purposes, it seemed like Melody’s statement turned out to be true, at least for a while. She brought her family up to the city, her wage was more than enough to give them a good life. Her mother and father continued to work, even when Melody urged them to retire they refused, stating that ‘hard work’s good for the soul’.
 
Melody declared this sentiment to be ridiculous and, honestly, I agreed.
 
It was then that I discovered an entry that deviated from the norm. For the last few years of entries, Melody’s writing had been neat and precise, all to the same format. This one, however, was incredibly messy. It looked more like it had been scrawled onto the page by a child than carefully written by a grown mare. At first, I thought that Melody’s sister had managed to get hold of the diary and scrawl in it, until I actually managed to read the near-illegible writing.
 



 

Melody’s diary


28/7/1684

 
Tragedy. How could this have happened to me? Everything seemed to be going so well. Now who could possibly love me?
 
Perhaps I should explain.
 
I was singing at the club like usual and it was getting pretty late. Even though working at this club had been good to me, there were some downsides. For example, barely a few days into my career here, I found out something I had missed in the contract. For one thing, I had to work more nights here than I had at Tones’ club and work much later too. It was a required part of my contract apparently, though of course that wasn’t mentioned earlier.
 
Regardless, I was working my least favourite time of the whole week. Late on Friday night. The only patrons still left in the club are those too drunk or too desperate to get away from home to leave. Security itself is pretty lax, the large bouncers practically asleep on their hooves after the long work day.
 
Thus, they don’t react quickly enough when a particularly drunken stallion decides to climb on stage. I don’t know whether he was actually trying to take a shot at me or if he simply wanted to try his own singing talent. What I saw was a drunken, leery stallion climbing towards me. Naturally, I screamed.
 
Apparently, the drunk didn’t take too well to the piercing noise cutting through his ears and he takes a swing at me. Badly aimed but effective nonetheless. I fall of the stage, seemingly such a long way down, and there’s this glass, just innocently left on a table, rushing up to meet my face.
 
So now I’m in hospital, my face covered with bandages. The docs can’t tell the full extent of the damage yet but I know it’s not good just from the looks in their eyes. I wonder if they’ll let me back at the club, or if I even want to go back? Will Gentle Tones let me perform at her club again? I was wrong about the old mare. She paid me what she could and always kept her workers safe and happy. My contract says I can’t even sue the club or the stallion who attacked me. I even hired a lawyer to look over the legalities of it. Watertight he says. Nothing I can do.
 
Will my sister be able to look me in the eye again?
 
Fearfully,
Melody
 



 
I put down the book as I stared into the distance, my feelings unsure and my mind rife with confusion. From this account, it seemed like Melody was just a mare who had made some bad decisions. I had made much worse decisions in my life but had always managed to pull myself through it.
 
Then again, I realised as my heart sank, Melody didn’t have a powerful goddess of luck helping her out.
 
Once again, I picked up the book and continued reading.
 



 

Melody’s Journal


5/8/1684


 

I feel like a monster. No, worse than that. I feel like a freak. Every day I see perfect, unblemished ponies going about their perfect little lives and yet, when they see me and my new face, their eyes fill with pity, or fear, or some combination of the two. I tried going back to the club and they even let me go up on stage and perform, a fact for which I was immensely grateful.
 
But then, I couldn’t do it.
 
Looking down from the stage at that sea of eyes filled with horror made me clam up instantly. The spotlights, which I had once loved, now just seemed to highlight every flaw. The words got stuck in my throat, and the song refused to come out no matter how hard I tried. I ended up fleeing the stage, not even looking back. I considered trying Tones’ club, where maybe the ponies might be more understanding and not so horrified, but eventually decided otherwise.
 
The world may have taken my ability to perform, but I still had my pride. I couldn’t go crawling back, not now. That bridge had been burnt long ago.
 
I would have been able to take all this with ease, if it were just for one thing. If only my family weren’t like the others. If only my parent’s eyes didn’t fill with sorrow at the sight of my scar. If only my sister had recognized her own sister without having to be told who I was. She was right though. I could see that whenever I looked in the mirror. The scar seemed to twist my entire face into a scowl. I don’t think I’ve ever fully scowled before in my life, and now it’s my permanent expression.
 
I don’t know what I’m going to do next. Something tells me I should leave town. Maybe go somewhere. I hear that Manehatten’s nice.
 
Melody.
 



 
Well that at least explains where Melody came from but not how she ended up as she was. I began to skip forward a couple of pages at a time, quickly skimming through Melody’s thoughts. Her writing got much neater after a while, I noted. Far better than when she had freshly been injured.
 
That was true, at least until I flipped over to the next page.
 



 
I’m not sure what day it is right now, or even where I am right now. I’m scared though. That’s all I can focus on. The fear. Fear of myself.
 
There’s a voice in my head. Not my voice, some stranger’s voice. It tells me things, whispers advice to me. Such good advice. Tells me how to survive in this place. How to fight, how to kill even. The best way to break a pony’s leg, or shatter a horn, or slice a throat.
 
It’s so easy, once you know how. Why doesn’t everypony do this? Surviving is so much easier now I have the voice.
 
Why was I afraid again? I forgot.
 
Feeling sleepy now, the voice is singing to me. Such a sweet voice. Nice voice.
 
Melody
 



 
I re-read the passage, horrified at what was before my eyes. I flipped back through the diary, my eyes furiously picking out small phrases and words that confirmed what was happening.
 
‘I had the strangest thought today…’
 
‘Such a curious idea came to me…’
 
‘Something told me he was lying. Something inside my head…’
 
‘A little voice in my head said…’
 
Something had been talking to Melody, tempting her and telling her what to do. Each time the voice had gave her some advice though, Melody had always followed it. She was so lost that she would accept direction from anywhere, even a suspicious voice inside her head.
 
And I was willing to bet I knew who that voice was.
 
I skipped forward again, skimming through, until I found what looked like a coherent entry.
 



 
I’m not sure how long it’s been since I wrote in here. There are other entries of course, but I’m not sure if that’s really ME writing them. Everything seems so hazy now. The voice is quieter now, still whispering but quietly.
 
These lucid moments are getting rarer and rarer. I can’t tell if this is going to be my last. After this, I don’t know if it will even be Vibrant Melody in this body anymore or some strange creature who obeys the voices in her head.
 
I’m so scared right now. I can feel myself fading away. I don’t want to go.
 
Will anyone miss me when I’m gone? Does my sister remember me? Do my parents still think of me? It’s been years since I saw them. I consider going back to see them one last time but restrain myself. What would the voice say? What would it tell me to do to them?
 
Oh Celestia, I’m scared. Please, if anyone reads this…
 
Forgive me.
 



 
Slowly, I closed the book. For a few moments I just stared at it, drinking in the dark blue covering, the little golden swirls and the various scuff marks that made up the front of the book. I then raised my thousand yard stare to look out over Manehatten.
 
This city had taken so much from me. I had come in a wide-eyed and rambunctious trickster and now…now I’m not even sure what I am.  I certainly wasn’t the same man who got dropped into Equestria so long ago. It had barely been a few months and yet it felt like years.
 
“What have I done?” I asked the world.
 
“The only thing you could do.” Came the unexpected response from behind me.
 
I didn’t even bother to turn, knowing who would be there. That voice. That cryptic little reply. That ability to get onto a completely open hilltop without me seeing. It could really only be one person.
 
“You keep saying that,” I said, still slouching my head, “But I’m not sure what it really means.”
 
She strode over, her light footsteps crunching grass beneath her. She then sat down beside me, laying one hand on my shoulder. I felt like shrugging her away, but didn’t. Now was not the time to be angry with her. I had to let her explain herself.
 
“Ace, if you could see the world as I see it, you would understand my actions.” She frowned, I could practically hear it, “Perhaps it would be easier to just show you.”
 
Her other hand came around, laying gently against my jaw and turning my head to look into her green eyes.
 
“Brace yourself, this is going to feel very strange.”
 
Her eyes flashed, the jade depths flaring with an inside light, and then the world exploded.
 
Golden light filled my vision for a moment. Just as I began to fear that I had gone completely blind, it began to die down, some of the light staying behind and forming strange strings that attached to various objects. Multiple stings seemed to be wrapped around my own body, heading of in various directions before getting lost in the gigantic weave that now surrounded me. Experimentally, I moved my arm and the golden thread that wrapped around it moved with me. I could see the thread but couldn’t seem to feel it.
 
“What is this?” I asked, wonder filling my voice.
 
“This is how I see the world.” Lady Luck replied, “Ace, I’d like you to meet the Strings of Probability. Strings of Probability, Ace.”
 
“What do they do?” I was still staring at my arm, swaying it back and forth and watching the thread dance about, “These Strings of Probability? How do they relate to Melody? And more importantly, how do they relate to Até? She was the voice right? The one talking to Melody?”
 
She smiled sadly and nodded, “It’s not just myself who views the world like this. A whole bunch of other gods can see the Strings, Até included. Look over there,” She pointed to a spot in the grass a small distance from us, “See that rock?”
 
Sure enough there was a small rock in the grass, a golden thread phasing into it.
 
“Say that rock is a cart and that ladybird down there,” She pointed slightly further down the hill to where I could just make out a small red dot on a piece of grass. It would have been invisible if it weren’t for the multiple golden strings that came off its form, “is a pony. Now Até would tug at this string and…”
 
She suddenly grabbed a sting near her hand and gave it a yank. The world seemed to jump sideways as the string jerked. The small rock, which had been stationary only a moment ago, began to roll slowly forwards, eventually picking up speed as it barrelled towards the oblivious ladybird. It was like watching a train wreck in miniature. Any moment now that little bug would be crushed. I found myself strangely concerned over its well-being, despite the fact that it was just a ladybird.
 
“And now,” Lady Luck continued, “I tug at this string.”
 
She grabbed another one near her, giving it a quick strum as though it were the string of a harp. Once again, the world jumped sideways, this time the some of the other strings began to vibrate as the plucked string resonated outwards. A stick, which I was sure had been at least a few feet to the left before, now found itself in the way of the rolling stone. The stone struck the stick and went flying into the air, heading far over the ladybird’s head and landing harmlessly in the grass. The ladybird, startled by its near death experience, quickly fled, taking off as quickly as its little wings could carry it.
 
Slightly amazed and very impressed, I turned to Lady Luck, who simply raised an eyebrow at me.
 
“Do you get it now?”
 
“Okay, I’m not an idiot. You’re saying that you and Até have been at your little tug of war for a while. She alters probability to cause something bad and then you pull some strings to prevent it. But surely, if there are so many probabilities, something could have been done to help Melody?”
 
She looked down, seemingly too ashamed to meet my eyes, “Maybe if I had realized sooner. I didn’t see that Até would prepare so far ahead. I underestimated her, I’ll admit. She had been at Vibrant Melody for a while, twisting her into the rage-filled pirate that you fought. By the time that I realised the extent that Até had prepared for this, it was too late. There were only two Strings around the two of you on that ship.”
 
“So in one, Melody dies and I walk away. And the other?”

My mother looked me directly in the eye, her gaze hard and steely, “You died. Melody finished off Iron and Summer. She then takes out the remnant of the Guard and places Manehatten back under her control, killing many ponies and carrying on her reign of terror.” She sighed then, seeming so old for a moment. She had always seemed like this force of nature, always being either terrifying or exhilarating to be around. Now though, she really did look like someone who had been around for a thousand years, fighting the whole time. She looked so tired. “For me, there was only one option. I couldn’t lose you Ace. You’re one of the few good things that have happened to me in my life…I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
 
I didn’t speak. There were no words to express myself properly to her. I simply stepped forward and embraced her, allowing the goddess – no, my mother – to cry into my shoulder. She had always been strong for me. Now I needed to be strong for her.
 
Eventually, and after much snivelling and sniffing from the both of us, we calmed down. Handkerchiefs were produced from sleeves and we had a good laugh about how pathetic we must look before wiping our eyes.
 
“What are you going to do now?” She eventually asked, her face magically back to looking pristine. Damn goddess magic. I bet I still look a mess. “Até is still out there. She put up a fight over Melody but, in the end, she didn’t put her all into the battle. She has other plans in the works, of that I am sure.”
 
“Well I’ll just have to keep travelling and hunting for her I guess,” I frowned, “But first though, I have to visit Los Pegasus.”
 
My mother looked at me curiously.
 
“There’s a family I have to visit.” I said, picking up the journal from where I had left it in the grass, “They deserve to know the truth.”
 
“What are you going to tell them? The whole truth?”
 
“Of a sort,” I replied, “I’m going to tell them that their daughter was a victim. I’m going to tell her that she died to save another. I’m going to tell them that she died thinking of them.”
 
Lady Luck bowed her head, smiling slightly at that, “Well, I’ll be off now then. We’ll definitely meet again Ace. And I will be watching over you my son. I love you.”
 
I smiled at her, feeling much better now than I did this morning, “I love you too…mum.”
 
She looked up at me, shocked. A wide smile began to tug at her face, even as she began to fade away. A moment later, it was as though she had never even been there in the first place and I was alone upon the hilltop. Looking down at Melody’s journal for one last time, I placed it carefully in my satchel before slinging it over my shoulder and walking over to where the stick that mother had conjured for her little demonstration lay.
 
It was a sturdy looking thing, probably could have been a thick branch if it had stayed attached to the tree. Maybe children would have wrapped a rope around it and used it as a swing. Maybe some bird would have made its nest upon it. So many various possibilities for just a branch. Seemed a waste just to leave it lying here.
 
I picked it up and gave it a quick once over. It would do I guess. Taking a few pouches and bags from my belt, I quickly tied them onto the branch before leaning it against my shoulder. Reaching into one of the remaining bags at my waist, I pulled out my pipe and placed it in my mouth before setting off down the hill.
 
The world awaits after all, and you know what they say about old gamblers. We never really die…
 
We just get shuffled away.