The Legend of the Sapphire Cave

"Ma'am?" Part of me noted the timidity I couldn't keep out of my voice with disapproval, but I ignored it and everything else my cutie mark kept pestering me with. Since I had arrived I'd been caged, starved, beaten, nearly raped, and starved again. Though I'd been nursed back to working condition and given enough freedom to clean up my cage, I was still without my magic and surrounded by ponies far stronger than myself. I was right to be cautious around them.

"I ain't saying it again, Eighty. You got no choice. You ate to heal. Now you work for it." I cringed. Memories of the mind-twisting hunger I'd been through were still fresh. There had been more than one occasion I wished for another beating instead, but that didn't mean I wanted to work with Forty-Four again.

"Yes, ma'am." I spoke without thinking, and in the back of my mind I made a mental note about conditioning. Still, I was going to have to choose my battles, and this wasn't one I could fight. I let my response stand.

"Good." She opened the cage and guided me back to the mushroom garden I'd worked in two weeks before. I simply went with her. There was nothing to say. It wasn't long before I was there, and she'd sent me to get my orders from Forty-Four. I didn't have the potential excuse of not knowing him this time, and despite my fear, I found him quickly.

"Um," I started, and realized I was shaking. I forced my composure back into place. "I'm supposed to work here today."

He responded by throwing a familiar yoke over my shoulders.

"You know the drill, yeah?" I just stared at him for a moment. Did he honestly not remember what had happened?

"You... aren't mad at me?" He shrugged.

"Nah, you bucked me and got yours. We're square." Note to self: If there is justice here, it's an eye for an eye. "Now fill those buckets."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That "afternoon" was blessedly dull. I only slightly improved on my time carrying the yoke - I estimated maybe an hour and a half - and was again reassigned to picking mushrooms. The task was three things I was almost surprised to find solace in: Simple, boring, and safe. Forty-Four gave me two beds because of how quickly I had improved on my technique last time; that was, apparently, the typical load. Maybe with some practice, I'll be able to manage three, I thought. My flagging pride protested, and I reluctantly banished my sense of accomplishment.

I finished what felt like well before dinner, and lacking anything else to do - Forty-Four was on the other end of the cave overseeing other work - I wandered to another bed nearby, where a tired white mare was using her forehooves to grind what appeared to be pieces of mushroom into the dirt compost. I watched for a minute or so before I understood what she was doing: The best an Earth or Crystal pony could do to plant mushrooms. Of course. Somepony had to have sown the beds I pick. Knowing what she was doing wasn't an excuse to be impolite, though. I took a breath - something I was getting used to the foul feeling of, in this chamber - and introduced myself.

"Hi! My name is Sta - " I was interrupted by an angry twist in my belly. I could feel my faux-energetic speech quake and slow, and I couldn't keep from stammering my next couple of words. "I mean, I'm Eighty."

She didn't respond, not even to look up from what she was doing. Eventually, I continued anyway.

"And you are?" She still gave no indication that she even knew I was there.

That was fine. I knew more than one way to make friends. I quickly analyzed her work and saw she had been planting in a clear pattern, one that I could emulate without trouble. Taking a piece of mushroom from the pouch by her side - I noticed they were all pieces of the 'head', all attached to the gills where spores were supposed to come out - I carefully worked it into the dirt on the far side of the plot she was working on. Then the next spot, then the next.

Eventually, she reached to plant in the next piece of her pattern, and found my hoof already doing the work. She looked up at me and smiled, and I smiled back, even though I could tell hers was fearful. It was a start. Then she picked up the now-empty pouch of mushroom material in her teeth, and trotted briskly away. I gave another smile, this time to myself.

"Follow her." The near-whisper at my ear startled me, and I jumped a couple of feet straight up, only keeping in a yell by biting my tongue. When I recovered, I turned to discover a jade stallion standing next to me. He had a cutie mark, too faded to be recognizeable, like the rest of him.

"What? Why?" I asked. He cringed, and I lowered my volume to match his. "Sorry."

"So, are you going to keep her waiting?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Okay, newbie - "

"Eighty."

"Stop interrupting or we'll be caught before I finish." I nodded. "Okay, the short version is you just propositioned that mare. You did your work and hers, so she's yours until dinner."

"What?!" Luckily, I wasn't too startled to keep my voice down.

"Normally, we work until dinner. Helping with work makes a little time. You won't get a lot of other opportunities unless you're in the breeding pool." He shuddered before going on, and I caught a shadow crossing his eyes. "So go get her."

"But I don't even like mares!" I blurted. Then I fell over and blinked, staring up at the ceiling. A stinging in the side of my muzzle said he'd smacked me. What -

"Then get off your stupid flank and tell her. She's waiting!"

"I - alright." I pulled myself to my hooves and shook my head clear before heading after the white mare. I found her quickly, trembling behind her mane against the back wall of a small alcove. I tried to smile reassuringly, but she wouldn't even look at me, her shoulders starting to shake as she cried quietly into her forelegs. I tried a gentle tone.

"I'm sorry. I had no - ack!" She threw herself under me with a sudden energy, lifting up to knock me onto my back. I closed my hind legs just in time to stop her from... from...

"No, no! I don't want you to - "

"Sorry," the white mare mumbled. She turned around, hung her head, and lifted her tail, revealing a mess of scars between her legs. I cringed and looked the other way, sympathy pains radiating from my own nethers. "I don't know what I did to attract you - just, please, get it over with quickly."

"I... no. Put your tail back down." I found a reassuring tone much more difficult to conjure than I thought. "I don't want to do anything to you - "

"Heard it before," she mumbled softly, not moving. I sighed, realizing she wouldn't listen. "Just get it over with. I don't want hope."

"No. I really, really don't want to do... that." I turned and walked away before she could reply, and tossed "Have a good afternoon" over my shoulder.

I ran straight into Forty-Four. He frowned down at me disapprovingly, and I cringed, my entire body aching at the memory of his displeasure.

"You goofed up, Eighty. You know you ain't allowed idle chatter." I gulped before nodding, and he gave my fear a smile fit for a Cheshire cat. I couldn't say anything. I knew what he could do, and what his smile said he would do. And it only got bigger. "Get back to your cage and wait. I'll deal with you later." I nodded again, but couldn't even move until he was across the chamber, giving orders to somepony else.

I tried to shake my head clear as I left the mushroom garden. I knew what would happen at my cage. I knew I had no way to stop it. I wasn't strong, I couldn't use magic, I couldn't run fast enough, and my hooves were bringing me ever closer to what the frigid stone in my gut assured me was cage-shaped doom. I wanted to break and flee, but I knew I wouldn't get away - or maybe I would, only to get lost and starve. I shuddered as I let myself into my cage, and curled up to try and stop myself from shaking. That kind of hunger was not something I wanted to ever become familiar with. Just being acquainted was painful enough.

"Eighty." I gulped, and looked up, somehow expecting Forty-Four despite the irate voice belonging to Zero. Her look was hard, but I guess my face was enough to tell her I wasn't here to slack off, because her next words were in a much more neutral tone.

"Forty-Four send you back?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Guess it weren't for disobedience. Small talk?"

"Yes ma'am." I couldn't argue even if I'd wanted to; neither could I stop my voice from starting to tremble with the rest of me. Zero shook her head slowly, and each disapproving word felt like a punch in the belly.

"Well, Eighty, I'm impressed. You're already breaking records for worst-behaved newbie. If you were going to be useless, you could've just said so and spared the rest of us a mouth to feed."

"You'd have let me go?" I asked, trying to be hopeful through the knots my insides were tying themselves into. Maybe if I could make myself less and less useful... "...ma'am," I added, to be safe.

"I'd have had you put down." I gulped. Okay, maybe that wasn't a good option after all. "Don't give me that look, I ain't giving up yet. I got a job even you can't mess up."

"Yes, ma'am?" The question popped out automatically, and I restrained myself from sighing.

"As it happens, a new spot's open in the breeding pools." I gulped again. No. No. No no no no - "Eighty, you better appreciate this. This is my turn, and I been looking forward to it forever. But seeing as you ain't good for nothing else, I'm giving you this one last chance out of the kindness of my heart. Now come with me."

"Yes ma'am," I said before I could think. Then, scrambling for some way out of this, I blurted, "But Forty-Four said to wait here, and - "

"I ain't here for what Forty-Four said. He takes his orders from me, and if he don't like it, tough. Now get out and follow, before I make you."

I stepped out of the cage, and then... then...

... I don't remember.