Just a Game

by SinnerWhoKeepsTrying1978

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Original Character, Mystery
Length: 1619

A pony skeleton, a journal, and ten stacks of playing cards. How did this pony die?

Trickle Down has been looking for his brother for years now, and finally found him, or at least his remains. But, what he found along with his brother's remains leaves him with more questions than answers. What do those cards have to do with him dying, if anything? Are there any answers to Trickle Down's questions?

Published 2019-01-26 12:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-01-26 12:30:01 UTC

My Report

It is with mixed feelings that I write this report on my brother, Stack Up. While I'm glad, more or less, to say that I've finally found him, I don't know how to feel about what I've found. I know the skeleton I found can only be my brother, but what I found with him doesn't make any sense.

The way I know this skeleton is my brother is the detailed journal I found with him. He's always kept a journal, no matter what his circumstances. And, his journals have always involved what he was doing at the time. The journal I found next to his remains details him plaing a card game he either discovered or made up, which he named after himself and me, Stack Up, Trickle Down.

According to him, the rules of this game involve a number of decks of cards, twenty-one total based on his entries. I dare not disturb the stacks of cards; because, for all I know, they could've been the cause of his death. But, back to the rules, there are fourteen ranks of cards, enumerated from one, or ace, to ten; followed by four cards with images of humans on them, which my brother called Jack, Queen, King, and Joker. From what I've read of my brother's journal entries, the ace ranks higher than all other cards, with the exception of the Joker; except that the two card can cancel out any ace.

I say "any ace" because there are four symbols, or suits as my brother called them: the red heart, the red diamond, the black club, and the black spade. He drew a picture of each symbol, but the pictures of the club and the spade make no sense to me. But, I suppose that doesn't matter. What matters is that among the aces the spade ranks highest for some reason. Also, the Joker is the only rank that has no suit.

Based on his entries, he started off with a single deck, then added others as he continued to play. According to him, the game was played in rounds, with each round consisting of drawing a card from each stack, and the card with the highest rank winning. If more than one stack drew a card of equal highest rank, the stacks were considered "at war," a situation that was solved with drawing the next card from the top of the "at war" stacks, until the drawn card from each stack was not equal in highest rank. Then, like a normal round, the highest-ranking card wins. War or no war, the stack immediately below the one that won would be awarded the cards that had been played in that round. Which is to say that the cards would be placed on the top of that stack.

No more than ten stacks were considered playable, and a new stack was started when the lowest stack won a round. If a stack ran out of cards, which was inevitable in the case of the stack in the number-one position, the stack or stacks below it would move up in position. For example, say there were four stacks, and the stack in position one ran out of cards. In that case, the stack in position two would move to position one, the stack in position three would move to position two, and the stack in position four would move to position three. Thus would be the advancement of card stacks when those ahead of them ran out of cards, no deck moving ahead of any above it.

My brother wrote that he found some kind of container with twenty decks of cards in this cave where he lived, the cave where I found his remains. But, I haven't been able to find this container, in spite of him drawing a picture and writing detailed information on where he found it. Based on his earliest entry, he started playing this game as soon as he found the cards. He wrote he felt compelled to play the game; and he started noticing something about ponies outside the game, mainly that ponies' lives ended at the same time card stacks ran out of cards. He wrote that he wanted to try an experiment, thinking nothing would happen, that it was just something for fun. "After all," he'd written, "it's just a game."

According to one entry, after buying a new deck of cards, he gave the new deck his name and added it as the eleventh stack as soon as he could. And, shortly after that, he was employed at a business in a high-level commercial district. According to his entry, this job would only allow him time to play one round per day of this card game. But, as long as he could play this card game, he didn't mind.

His journal entries document how he advanced in his job at the same time his deck, his stack, advanced in position, becoming playable after advancing to position ten at the same time he advanced to a position where he could employ other ponies under him. He documented being able to do that kind of employment, one pony at a time, and how some under him either died or quit, at the same time stacks under his started and promptly ran out of cards after he advanced further in his job, at the same time his stack advanced to position nine. As he continued to advance in his job, he wrote, he was able to employ a pony under him who in turn employed a pony under him. And, as his stack was awarded more cards, his employment in this business seemed to promise him more time.

Then came the day when he advanced to the top rank of the business that employed him, the same day his deck reached the position of number one. He had quite a stack of cards on top of his deck, which seemed to suggest to him that he was going to lead the company he now presided over for at least a year, maybe two.

His last journal entry is as follows:

I have been playing this game faithfully, one round per day, up until now; and I'm down to my last card. It's only a game, but it has been a fun one to play up until today. So, why do I feel so afraid of playing this last card? Yes, I've observed deaths that have occurred with a deck running out of cards; but those were only coincidences, weren't they? Why am I asking this question? This is just a game.

Maybe it's because of how far I've advanced in my job while playing this card game. But, that doesn't make any sense. What does a card game have to do with me getting my job, then advancing as far as I have? Aren't they just coincidences? And, what about presiding over the company for the past two years? It has been interesting, watching myself advance as I have while at the same time watching my deck, my stack, advance up the positions. But, like I keep telling myself, it's just a game.

Well, I can't wait any longer. I have to play this last card, then go to my job.

Well, there it is. And, surprise, sur

The entry ends like that; and, from what I can see, his last card was a Joker.

I've tried looking for my brother's place of business, based on his journal entry on the matter. But, what I found were the ruins of a building that hadn't been taken care of for centuries, maybe even before Nightmare Moon was exiled to the moon. Just some rusted metal, and a few bricks to indicate corners of the building. But, the only signs of activity are his own hoof-prints.

I know my brother is an honest stallion, and he wouldn't steal anything. So, I can only assume, from what I've seen of his cave, that somepony must've given him these decks of cards. I don't know how long he was playing this game before he got the twenty-first deck. Considering how I found his remains, he must've been dead for at least a year by the time I found them. Like I've already written, I don't dare touch the cards, just in case they could hurt me in some way. I don't want to end up like my brother.

I tried to look for the store where Stack Up said he he bought his deck before adding it to the game, but I couldn't find it, at least not in the condition he said it was in. Like his place of employment, it looked like it had last been used before Nightmare Moon's exile to the moon. Maybe somepony gave him that deck, and he chose to see it as a purchase, adding it to his game soon afterwards.

Well, this is my report on my brother. And, after reviewing all the evidence, or as much as I dare to, for the past month or two, I'm left with no answers to my questions. In fact, I'm left with even more questions. To whoever reads this, maybe you can figure out what happened to my brother. Did he die from poisoning from the cards? I've seen no evidence that anypony killed him. Was he, and the evidence has long since been destroyed by the time I found him? Please, I need help figuring out this mystery. I've been trying to solve it for the time I've been here, and haven't gotten anywhere. Does anypony out there have any ideas?