I'm Addicted to the Madness

Obsidian 'Minkie' Pie stirred, her little head hurt, and she wondered why she was so cold. Finally managing to open her dull, green eyes, the filly looked around and discovered that she was surrounded by such intense darkness, she could barely see her hoof in front of her eyes. The air was heavy and smelled of mildew, and tapping her hoof on the floor, she realized it was solid, cold concrete.

"Hello?" She squeaked in her tiny voice, which echoed slightly. She began to feel very frightened, "Mama? Papa?"

Minkie Pie stood, though her body ached from laying on the hard floor. She wondered how long she had been passed out; The last thing she could remember was eating dinner with her mother and father. She also recalled feeling very sleepy.

Taking a few steps forward, Minkie yelped as she bumped into some sort of rickety, wooden structure. Feeling it, she discovered that it was a set of shelves with a few empty glass jars. Minkie's eyes began to adjust to the darkness just enough for her to make out shapes of objects, though there weren't many in the tiny room she was in. However, she knew she had indeed been here before to bring down and take up jars for her mother's homemade jams, and sometimes retrieve tools for her father. Minkie Pie was in the cellar.

Knowing where the exit was, Minkie made her way up the dusty stairs and pushed at the latch on the door, but it wouldn't budge. Perplexed, she heaved with all her might, but it seemed as though something was blocking the cellar door. Panic started to set in, and she pounded both hooves on the wood desperately.

"Mama! Papa!" Minkie cried.

From what she could see through the very small cracks around the door, it was night time, but she had no way of telling exactly how late it was. Were her parents asleep? "MAMA!! PAPA!!" Tears ran down her face as she fought with the door, but after ten minutes, she used up what little energy she had and collapsed on the top stair, sobbing. Minkie Pie didn't understand why she was locked in, or who even put her down in the cellar to begin with. Maybe if she waited out the night, she'd be able to shout again and get her parents' attention...

Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz were outside harvesting rocks, but Minkie Pie had hidden under her bed to get out of working. It was the afternoon, and her parents had barely spent any time searching for her, for over the years, they had tried less and less to communicate with their first daughter. Minkie had even overheard her parents talking about how frightening of a foal she was, and that they wanted to get rid of her. This broke her little heart.

A few nights ago, Minkie Pie had discovered that she had a new born sister, but her parents absolutely forbade her from getting close to the infant. She didn't understand why, though. She had been excited to see the tiny filly, and even smiled at the thought of playing with her and growing up together. Alas, her dreams were crushed when her mother told her she was never to enter the little filly's room.

But Minkie Pie did not want to listen.

As her parents continued to work outside, Minkie quietly trotted to her baby sister's room and slipped inside, carefully closing the door behind her. With difficulty, seeing as how she was so little, Minkie Pie peered into the cradle to see her tiny sister curled up in the blanket and sleeping, a cute frown on her face. She was grey, just like the rest of her family, save for her Granny Pie, who was bright pink. Maudileena Pie was what her mother had named the foal, 'Daisy' being her middle name. She wanted so badly to wake Maud Pie up, but she was afraid she'd cry.

However, Minkie didn't need to rouse the foal, for her small light turquoise eyes fluttered open and fell upon the older filly. Maud cooed cutely in baby talk, and Minkie Pie grinned widely.

"Hello." She spoke softly, "My name is Obsidian, I'm your older sister. When you start talking, you can call me Minkie Pie."

"Mah?" Maud cooed questioningly, crawling out from her blankets and coming closer to her sister.

"Meen-kee," Minkie answered slowly.

"Mee?" In an attempt to get even closer to Minkie Pie, Maud fell over the edge of the cradle, but Minkie caught her instantly, cradling the tiny child in her arms.

"Be careful!" She warned the baby, "You're little! You can get hurt if you fall like that!"

Not understanding, Maud Pie waved her arms and giggled, which made Minkie Pie fall absolutely in love. She nuzzled her short purple mane, and then blew a raspberry on her tummy. This caused Maud Pie to shriek with laughter, and Cloudy Quartz burst into the room, looking enraged and horrified.

"Obsidian Pie!!" She shouted, and Minkie flinched, pulling her ears back. "What did I tell you?!"

"I was playing with her..." Minkie murmured, but Cloudy yanked the foal out of her arms.

Immediately, Muad Pie began to cry hysterically, but her mother ignored it as she tucked her back into the cradle. She then turned to Minkie and struck her across the face, "Get out! Go to your room! NOW!!"

Weeping with pain and sadness, Minkie Pie trudged to her own room and crawled under her thin blanket, sniffling and feeling miserable to no end. She hadn't done anything wrong, and in fact, it seemed like Maud Pie had really taken a liking to her older sibling. Why wasn't Minkie Pie allowed to play with her own sister?

It was that night that Minkie Pie had somehow fallen asleep during dinner, only to wake hours later on the cold, hard floor of the underground cellar.

Light from the sun shone through the cracks of the cellar door, catching Minkie Pie's attention. She weakly stood again, banging on the wood and calling for her parents. She froze when she saw a faint shadow appear in her line of sight, freeze, and then dash away. Heart pounding from anticipation of finally being rescued, Minkie continued to yell louder than her little voice had ever gone. She paused when she heard a stallion's voice speaking from afar, and recognized it as her father's. Her mother quickly gave a reply, and before Minkie Pie knew it, another shadow approached.

"Obsidian Pie, get away from the door," Cloudy Quartz ordered emotionlessly.

Discouraged by the tone, Minkie pulled her ears back and descended the stairs halfway. There was the heavy sound of large rocks being moved off of the wooden door, and it finally opened, revealing the silhouette of her mother backlit by bright sunlight.

"Mama...?" Minkie Pie whimpered.

"All the way." Cloudy Quartz barked, "All the way down the stairs."

The filly carefully made her way to the floor of the cellar, and then looked up to see that Cloudy had followed her, but stood above her on the fifth step.

"Mama, why am I down here?" Asked the frightened, dark toned foal.

"You are to remain in this cellar." Her mother replied coldly, "Obsidian Pie, we have had it. You are an evil, evil child, and you need to be kept away from everypony."

"What... Did I do...?" Minkie asked, her lip trembling and eyes welling up with tears.

"I do not know what went wrong!" Cloudy shouted, making Minkie Pie flinch and cower, "You were my first foal, so I thought the pain I went through during pregnancy was normal despite what the other mares have told me! You were like a parasite! I was weak, frail, constantly vomiting, and oh Celestia, how you kicked! Giving birth to you was the most horrible agony I have ever felt in my life!"

"Mama, I do not understand..." Minkie lowered her head.

Cloudy Quartz's expression was filled with hate as she glared down at her first born daughter, and poor Minkie Pie lowered herself slightly to the floor in fear.

"When I found out I was pregnant with Maudileena, I was terrified that the torment would begin again," She explained in a hiss, "But no, that entire time she was in my belly, it was like a vacation! I was surprised when the doctor told me that she wasn't dead, she was so calm! I only got sick a couple of times, and when I gave birth to her, it came to a shock that it was over! And so I thought back on everything you had done, everything your father and I had to go through with you, and I realized that it was not normal..." She took one step lower, closer to the filly. "You are evil. No foal in the village is like you. No foal speaks like you, or acts the way you do."

"What did I do wrong?!" Minkie cried, but in an instant, Cloudy Quartz sprinted down the remaining stairs and lashed out with her front hoof, striking Minkie Pie on the chest and sending her fully to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"I wanted to dispose of you, but your father said that we would most certainly go to Hell. So you are to remain down here. I will bring you a blanket and will feed you, so if you die, it will not be our fault." Cloudy Quartz told the foal in a low tone.

Minkie Pie was sobbing, staring at her wicked mother in disbelief. She had been treated terribly by her parents all her life, but she had never thought they'd actually abandon her. She thought they loved her...

"You are the one who deserves to die!" Minkie screamed, getting to her hooves weakly. Minkie was overcome with more hatred and rage than she had ever felt, accompanied by the searing pain in her little heart, "I want you to die! I did nothing wrong!"

Cloudy pursed her lips and turned up her nose, starting to go back up the stairs. Minkie Pie shrieked and charged forward, intending to grab Cloudy's tail to yank her back, but Cloudy bucked her with her hind legs, sending her to the floor again. The cellar door was shut before Minkie Pie could stand back up.

Crying and yelling hysterically, she sprinted up the stairs to attempt to break the door open, but the rocks that had been moved back on top of it were much too heavy. Minkie Pie bellowed the names of her parents at the top of her lungs, as well as tried to call for anypony else, but their closest neighbors were much too far away to hear.

The fight lasted for hours before tiny Minkie finally lost all energy and retreated back down the stairs to curl up in the corner of the cold cellar. Though she was exhausted, the tears still poured from her tired green eyes, and she buried her face in her arms, whimpering the words, "Why... Why... Why..." All through the night until she finally succumbed to sleep.

One year later, Minkie Pie got her Cutie Mark. She had been once again trying to escape, but something inside her finally broke. She realized she was trapped, locked away forever, and there was no returning to the life she had had before, no returning to the fantasy and lies displayed to her by the world. This was reality. Miserable, dark, cold reality.

Laying under her thin, filthy sheet of a blanket, Minkie Pie watched a mouse searching for scraps of food. It was wasting its time; the one piece of bread that had been given to her three days ago had already been eaten. She was so very hungry.

The mouse ventured closer to Minkie, and when it was within reach, she stomped on it hard with her hoof, crushing the poor rodent to death. Then Minkie Pie brought the corpse closer to her and devoured it. Meat was an odd taste, and she had difficulty chewing, but she had no choice.

Minkie Pie had no regret for killing that mouse, nor any other unfortunate animal that managed to make its way into the cellar. She hated everything, everypony, every single living creature in the world, even herself. She was broken, no longer crying or screaming, no longer trying to find a way out... any sign of fire within her heart had completely extinguished. It was as if she was dead inside.

Igneous Rock never came to see his daughter, and Minkie rarely even heard his voice. Cloudy Quartz brought down food every few days, sometimes waiting a full week. She'd also empty the bucket Minkie Pie had to use as a bathroom. Countless times she tried pleading to her mother to let her out, but Cloudy never spoke a word to the broken pony, and even tried avoiding her eye. Minkie Pie wanted to attack her mother, to bash her skull in with her hooves, to do something...

But she was too weak and frail. She had no strength, hardly any to stand up and climb on top of objects to avoid drowning when it rained, flooding the cellar. Did she think that maybe one day she'd have the chance to end the life of the mare that abandoned her? No. She had no hope for escape, no motivation to try, and no faith in being rescued.