literature

Deep in the Cellar

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At first, Minkie Pie was savage in her escape attempts. Each time she heard the heavy boulders being moved off the cellar door, she ran up the steps. She tried shoving past Cloudy Quartz, attacking her, jumping past her… If she could only get into the open, Minkie knew she had a chance. But each attempt was met with a hard kick to her body, and the painful sensation of landing on a concrete floor.

Even before her imprisonment, the filly had been underweight; now, being fed only once every few days, she quickly became malnourished, and was soon too weak to continue her futile charges; simply climbing the stairs was almost too much of a challenge. Now, she tried other tactics, desperately appealing to her mother.

"Mama," she called once, staring up at the mare. "I… I want to be good. I know I was bad. Please, please let me out… I'll even go away if you want me to, just… please…"

With the gray light of the afternoon behind Cloudy Quartz, Minkie couldn't see her face. But she knew, from the almost robotic way the mare walked down the stairs and placed the basket of bread crust, that her mother was unmoved by her pleadings.

"Mama," she said another day, "I saw an angel. She told me everything I had done wrong, and she said I could be good again if I went to live with the nuns. She said it would fix me, Mama."

Cloudy didn't say a word.

"Mama!" was the piercing scream on another day. "There were demons, Mama, hundreds of them! They said you and Papa would burn in Hell forever if you didn't let me go!"

Her mother still did not speak; but this day, she returned up the stairs with the basket of food scraps still in her teeth.

For months, that was the routine. Minkie Pie made every desperate plea and vicious threat she could think of; her tongue burned with the number of lies she told. In the end, her words were meaningless; were it not for the occasional withholding of food after a particularly violent speech, Minkie would have thought her mother had become deaf.

It was after once such instance, when Minkie Pie had described in great detail how demons would some day boil her in lava and feed her to worms, that Cloudy Quartz decided to leave her for five days. When the mare returned to the cellar, she was surprised by the lack of shouting; and when she descended into the darkness, she saw a mass on the floor, oddly shaped and unmoving. As the hazy light crawled down the stairs, and her eyes adjusted to the crushing shadows, Cloudy Quartz was able to recognize the mass as her daughter. Minkie Pie lay on her back, her legs in odd positions, her eyes shut. She did not move.

Cloudy Quartz stared at the still figure of her eldest child, then she calmly began to speak.

"I hope you understand that, if you were to die, we would not move your body. We would cover the cellar doors and never return. Should I do that now?"

Her voice, though calm, was laced with venom, and it had the desired affect; Minkie Pie twitched very slightly with fear, then slowly opened her green eyes.

"Please… no…" she whispered.

Cloudy threw her wicker basket down the final steps; it bounced against Minkie's chest, then tipped over. The pieces of bread fell onto the dirty floor.

"If you ever again try to deceive me in that way," Cloudy said, her voice still unnaturally calm, "I will leave you to die. Am I understood?"

The foal did not speak, and the mare did not wait for a response. She ascended into the cloudy afternoon, and the cellar doors swung shut.

After this, Minkie Pie no longer tried to appeal to her mother; for the rest of her time in the cellar, the pair never spoke a word in each other's presence. For a while, Minkie did try talking to herself, or making pretend ponies to talk to. But she could never fully deceive herself, and the hopeless loneliness finally drove her to silence.


It had been twenty years since any pony had seen Cloudy Quartz's first born filly, except for Cloudy herself. In that time, she had watched Obsidian grow thinner, more quiet, and more corrupted than ever. Though the young mare never spoke to her mother, her green eyes were filled with such intense hate that Cloudy found it difficult to meet her gaze. Even so, Minkie stayed out of Cloudy's way; often, the mare would lay crouched in a far corner of the cellar while her mother left food and emptied the bucket of waste which poorly served for a toilet. So, Cloudy Quartz wasn't concerned when she began to descend the steps of the cellar, and did not see Minkie Pie in the square of pale light.

It was not until she reached the bottom step that the older mare realized something was wrong.

There was a sudden shattering sound against the wall above Cloudy's head, and she felt small, sharp fragments of something fall on her neck and shoulder. Instinctively, she ducked, and looked to her left.

Minkie Pie crouched, almost invisible in the poor lighting, on the top shelf next to the stairs. Her green eyes shone with rage, and she snatched another jam jar, flinging it at her mother. This time, the jar hit the mare's shoulder, shattering and sending shots of pain through her body.

Cloudy Quartz turned and bolted back up the cellar steps, hurrying to close the doors. Just before they shut, she saw Minkie Pie leap down from the shelf, land awkwardly on the floor, and begin hurrying up the stairs.

It took the older mare a few minutes to catch her breath; she had never felt so genuinely frightened of her daughter. The fear was quickly overshadowed by rage, however, and she galloped across the rock farm to find her husband.


"We cannot simply leave her to die," Igneous Rock said in an icy voice.

"I'm not going back down there!" Cloudy repeated. She pointed to her shoulder, where a deep purple bruise was beginning to form. "Do you see what she did to me?! She wanted to kill me, I know she did!"

"If she had," the stallion said calmly, "we both know you would have gone to Heaven. Would you jeopardize your own soul to be spared of some earthly fear?"

"Why don't you take the food to her?!" Cloudy Quartz snapped. "She's as much your responsibility as mine, but you've never yet set hoof in that cellar!"

"It is the mare's duty to look after children," Igneous said coldly.

"It is the stallion's job to protect his wife!" Cloudy countered.

The pair stared at each other for a long moment, then Igneous Rock looked away. "I'll not continue this conversation," he said coolly.

For a moment, it seemed as though Cloudy was not going to respond. Then, almost pensively, she asked, "How did she get up there?"

Her husband frowned. "On the shelf?" he asked.

Cloudy nodded. "She's so thin, and sickly… How in Equestria did she climb onto such a high shelf?"

Igneous Rock shrugged, appearing unconcerned. "Before a pony freezes to death, they often feel very warm. Perhaps before a pony dies from weakness, they experience a burst of strength."

That thought made Cloudy Quartz feel much better.


Cloudy never returned to the cellar, nor did she ask Igneous if he was feeding their eldest foal. She chose to believe he was; as long as she assumed he was keeping their daughter alive, she could stave off feelings of responsibility.

Without the concern over Minkie Pie looming over her, Cloudy Quartz found it easier to pay attention to her other daughters; although, she almost wished she didn't. Had they always been so bitter towards her? It was so strange…


"Come on!" Blinkie Pie groaned, stamping a hoof impatiently.

Inkie Pie gave her a warning tap on the shoulder. "Whenever you're ready, Minkie," she said gently.

The dark mare stood over the unconscious body of her mother; the mare hardly seemed different than she'd appeared at the dinner table twenty years ago; the last time Minkie had been able to see her properly.

So this is how it feels to be powerful…

She felt an intense desire to crush the mare's skull under her hooves, to watch her die right that second… but she restrained herself. She knew, in the long run, giving her mother such a easy death would not be satisfying.

"Okay," she murmured. "Let's go."
This is a very short fan story about Minkie Pie's time in the cellar. I have plans to write another fan story about her first time baking with Inkie and Blinkie, but I don't know when I'll have it ready.

Also, side note, this is my 200th upload to my DA account; fitting that it's a return to the pony series that started it all. :)

MLP belong to Hasboro.
The "Muffins" saga and the character Minkie Pie belong to Reitanna Seishin. Check out her awesomeness here:reitanna-seishin.deviantart.co…
© 2016 - 2024 Tracy-Lynn-Pond
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MidnightMuffinDA's avatar

I actually really like this. It's so annoying how Reitanna barely wrote ANYTHING about her own oc's childhood OR her time in the cellar.