A Cross To Bear

After he left, Silver Cross lay there sobbing. By now, she would have thought she had no more tears left in her, but he kept proving her wrong. Most of her good memories had faded in her mind. She was just left here in her own personal nightmare, a place made up of his bedroom, the dungeon downstairs, and her cage.

As usual, he had brought her back to her cage once he was done with her, and shoved her back inside. Curled up in the cage, her face was barely an inch away from the far end and her tail pressed against the door. The cage floor was lined with damp shredded paper, and the air fresheners didn't totally block the smell. It was cramped, smelly, and uncomfortable, but it was all she had.

She faintly remembered living elsewhere. She had lived in a cottage with a bedroom she called her own once. It had been a small town, but she had been happy there, she thought, even without much in the way of friends. It was getting hard for her to remember.

There had come a day when her mother hadn't been feeling well. She'd thought it would pass, but it never did. She got worse and worse, and one day when she came home, her mother was gone.

Daddy hadn't dealt with that well. He'd gotten more and more distant, leaving her on her own a lot of the time. Eventually he had packed everything up, and told her they were moving.

She'd been happy they were going to have a new start in Canterlot, actually. Without the cottage and the village to remind him of mommy, she'd thought they would have more time together, and maybe she'd have her daddy back again.

A few days after they moved, though, daddy had taken her to meet a strange white unicorn. He was dressed all fancy, his blond mane styled like he was somepony important. She had never quite learned his name, though she knew him all too well these days.

He had passed daddy a small burlap bag. Daddy had glanced in it, then tucked it in his saddlebag, seeming satisfied. Daddy had then nudged her, told her to go with him, and that she should do anything he asked of her.

Silver Cross hadn't liked the look in the unicorn's eye, but she wasn't about to disobey her daddy, not back then. She'd obediently followed him into a nearby carriage. Once it took off, the unicorn had run one hoof through her mane in a way that had made her shiver.

The carriage ride was fairly short, finally pulling up to a house on Cherry Avenue. When she didn't get out of the carriage quickly enough for his liking, he shoved her out, then pulled her into the house with him, not giving her time to think.

Once inside, he'd dragged her to his bedroom and threw her down on a big soft fancy bed. Then he'd pushed her tail aside, and started doing things to her she didn't like at all. She'd screamed and struggled, but that had seemed to make him enjoy it even more.

Finally, as she lay there, limp, bleeding, and fur matted, he'd picked her up, and taken her downstairs to his own private dungeon.  He'd shoved her into her cage for what was the first time. Unfortunately, it wasn't the last.

She'd lost all track of time since then. She slept whenever she could, since he liked waking her at odd hours, or doing things that prevented her from sleeping. Every so often, he'd come by, and yank her out by one leg, often twisting it so she cried out in pain. Sometimes she'd end up in the bedroom, sometimes in chains and manacles in the dungeon, and sometimes she'd barely even leave the cage.

Early on, she'd tried fighting him a few times, but all got for it were cuts, bruises, and a lot of black and blue marks. Of course, she got those from him sometimes even when she wasn't fighting him. He liked seeing that he'd left marks on her.

Silver Cross hurt all the time, these days, though he did heal her a little from time to time. He'd mainly heal her if he got so carried away that she wasn't sure she'd survive. She'd actually tried making him really mad before, hoping he'd go too far and it'd at least end, but she'd woken up afterwards anyways. Sometimes she wondered if she had died, and this was where she'd gone for being bad.

She'd called out for her daddy to help her at first, and one time he had just stopped for a moment and laughed. Then he'd told her that her daddy would never come for her. Her daddy had sold her to him, and she was his now, to do with as he pleased. Hearing this, and remembering the bag he'd given her daddy way back when, she'd never called out for daddy's help again.

Silver had thought about trying to escape before, but she'd never even managed to make it out the door. And what if she did? She'd only lived in Canterlot for a few days. She didn't know her daddy's address, and daddy would probably just take her back anyways.

Worse, she knew she wasn't the first one he had done this to. He had a picture album with pictures of him doing the same things to other fillies her age. And the cells in the dungeon might not have anypony in them now, but they sure looked like they had at some point.

She doubted she'd ever get out of this place. She wasn't even sure she'd make to nine, if she hadn't already. Thinking along this gloomy line of thought, she went back to crying and whimpering to herself.

Silver Cross heard a few noises from upstairs, but paid them no attention. She didn't even stop when she heard hoofsteps headed down the stairs. He liked it when she was crying, anyways.

When they started approaching the cage, though, she moved slightly away despite herself. With the way she was crammed in there, that wasn't very far, though. All the things he might do to her next ran through her mind, leaving her paralysed with fear. The door to the cage swung open, and she braced herself.

Then a strange voice belonging to a lady called out to her. "Are you alright?"

What now? She just kept lying there, not daring to move a muscle. He'd played some cruel tricks on her in the past. This had to be one of them.

A minute passed as she lay there, willing them to go away.

"Kid, we have about five minutes to get out of here before the cops come," she said, frustration in her voice. "They're coming here to take you to a low grade orphanage where you'll be bullied. So get out of there. Or do you want to stay here?"

Actually, being bullied in an orphanage sounded a lot better than where she was right now. But it finally clicked in her head that this might not be a trick. Having a faint glimmer of hope, she decided to do as the voice said.

She wasn't actually sure if she could leave this cage, though. She uncurled as best she could and tried to turn to face the exit, but couldn't. She'd never actually left this cage herself, after all.

Unable to turn, Silver Cross tried to back out slowly, since it actually kinda hurt to move. It hurt when she wasn't moving, too, of course, but not as much. After a moment, she felt a tingling sensation, and she was grabbed and pulled out by magic.

As she was set down on the ground, she saw another unicorn in front of her. It was a lady she'd never seen before, wearing a fancy black outfit, and looking down at her disdainfully with penetrating blue eyes. Something bothered her about them, though she wasn't sure quite what.

Silver Cross could understand the reason for the look in her eyes, anyways, glancing down at herself. She had never actually been given a bath here, and she was sure it had been at least months. Her mane, tail, and coat were matted and dirty, and you couldn't even tell what color they were supposed to be.

This wasn't even mentioning the dried blood and other substances in her fur, concentrated around her hindquarters, but elsewhere as well. And she was sure she must smell awful, though her sense of smell had sort of shut down by now.

The lady, by contrast, seemed to barely have a hair out of place. She gestured for Silver to follow her, and started up the steps. Wincing with each step, she hurried to keep up with her anyways. The lady seemed to be blocking her view of something as they went through the house to the front door, not that she cared, as long as he wasn't there.

Walking through the front door was something she'd always hoped to do, but never expected to really happen. As daylight hit her eyes, she looked around, amazed. She'd never thought she'd see trees or the sky again. She almost expected him to pop up from somewhere, but even if he did, it was worth it.

Outside was a carriage not too different from the one which had brought her there so long ago. A tall dark purple stallion seemed to be driving it. The lady opened the carriage door.

"Hop in."

She shuttered, standing there looking at the carriage. Memories of her last trip flashing through her mind, her greenish yellow eyes went wide with fear.

The lady sniffed. "Do you really want to stay here?"

She shook her head, fear replaced with resolve. Whatever this trip brought, it couldn't be worse than if she stayed. Silver Cross hopped in, pain shooting through her as she landed on the seat. Trying to find a comfortable way to sit there, she finally gave up and just curled into a ball.

Climbing in afterwards, the lady barely glanced at her before turning her attention to the driver.

"Agares, you can go now."

The carriage started to move. Where she was headed now, she had no idea. But she wasn't still in her cage. That had to at least be something.