//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Atrocity // Story: Rosa // by awf //------------------------------// warning This chapter hits a bit hard and isn't extremely relevant for the whole story. It's okay to skip it. Features: description of ponies being enslaved for hard work, abuse and neglect, mentions of exploitation. Everything from the bottom-most paragraph (horizontal line) is back on track and returns to the main story. Rosa was one excited pony! She had finished with the dishes and the garden and had gotten herself a simple lettuce and tomato sandwich. Now she had about an hour and a half to spend watching TV before the Boone family came home. The couch made a very satisfying plop noise when she jumped up. Then, deftly balancing her sandwich on one hoof, she reached for the remote on the coffee table. It was a bit tricky to hit those small buttons, but by placing it between her hind legs, Rosa was able to press them with the edge of her hoof. She turned the TV on and took a bite out of her sandwich. To most humans it would be a bit boring: bread, a bit of salt, and vegetables. To her it was delicious and Rosa didn't care what some random people might think. The picture came alive to some men in expensive suits sitting around a room and talking. It looked like a movie, but it was the middle and Rosa didn't really know what was going on. She understood the basics of how a TV worked, mostly gleaned from overhearing conversations in the School, so she knew that she couldn't rewind whatever she was seeing to its beginning. Movies on computers and iPads worked like that, but not TV. Luckily, there was a large selection of channels for her to pick from. After a brief study of the remote, Rosa pressed a button and the image changed. This time it looked like a show about some heavy machinery, digging out some rocks. Curious, but not really interesting to her. She wondered if there was a channel with gardening on there instead. She kept going, skipping past some music, a couple more movies and a thing where people were cooking. Then she spotted a pony and her hoof froze in mid-press. She had a pale gray coat and a mint mane, but what caught Rosa's attention most was the heavy, iron collar around her neck. As she watched the image changed to show a dimly lit hall with rows and rows of cages, most of them containing filthy ponies. Her ears flattened in apprehension and Rosa stopped chewing her mouthful of sandwich so she wouldn't miss a word. A woman was talking, but she couldn't see her on screen. "... breeding mill despite the recent humane treatment law. The police had this to say." The image changed to an uniformed man facing an array of microphones. Rosa swallowed, but didn't take another bite. As the man began to talk, her sandwich fell out of her nerveless hoof. Rosa had known that ponies weren't treated very well in some parts of the world, but the images the TV was showing were heart-rending. Starved, wretched, miserable creatures, huddling on what looked like threadbare blankets on concrete floors. They mostly shied away from the camera, except for some who leaned their hooves on the bars and begged the reporters to take them away. Some of the ponies looked barely a few years old. The voice-overlay explained that they were only taken out of their jail-like rooms to work, and when they finally collapsed from exhaustion the ponies were simply thrown in a ditch, usually somewhere out of the way like the woods. It struck right through her heart and tears dripped unimpeded on her legs and the couch. Yes, on some unconscious level Rosa had known about this, or at least feared it, but it was one thing to have vague suspicions and quite another to actually see the results with her own eyes. A lady came on and the text underneath said she was from something called 'SPCA'. She explained about a mare they had rescued from a farm when the owner had been arrested for cruelty to animals. They showed the pictures of the pony and Rosa couldn't hold back a sob. Her limbs were so thin she could see individual bones! She was like a standing, trembling corpse! No pony should look like that, ever! "Please, no!" Rosa whimpered, hoping she had been nursed back to health. The woman on the TV sighs and explains that 'Macy', as they had named the unknown pony, died the next night. Rosa's vision blurred and she missed the next part of the show. One thing in particular horrified her. All of that was happening in the United States. She recognized the names of places and people as definitely American. The country her teachers had always told her treated its ponies well. Surely they hadn't lied to her?! Those atrocities happened in other parts of the world, backward, savage places like Africa and China, right? Not right in her country?! Rosa remembered her friends from the School. All of them were treated well, if a bit strictly. They were fed and warm and safe. None of them were overworked and certainly none were ever killed! Maybe she should change the channel and not look at this stuff anymore, but she couldn't force herself to stop now. She blinked her eyes clear and concentrated on the TV again. Something was driving her to see the full horror. Only a few words were needed for her to slam her hooves around her head in an effort to shut it out: "... sold as sex slaves. The illegal auctions take place in..." Suddenly Rosa couldn't stand any more. She lashed out at the remote and the TV shut off. That was good. She had already heard too much and now she couldn't get it out of her imagination. Just thinking about it made her head swim and her stomach clench. The photograph from the TV was now burned in her memory. A pink mare with patches of her fur missing where she had been burned by cigarettes. There were cuts on her legs and belly and she had a haunted, beaten look. Her mane had been matted and her tail had simply been chopped off, it looked like. To give the men easier access. To make the pony easier to hose down each day. Her big eyes, round and pleading, had looked utterly defeated and devoid of any hope. That hadn't been a pony looking back at Rosa, just a shell of one. "Gurk!" She didn't get much warning before the sandwich came back up her throat and all over the coffee table. It burned her mouth, but Rosa scarcely felt it as she began to cry. It would have to be cleaned up before the Boones came home, she knew, but right at that moment Rosa couldn't really move. She wished she could forget it all. Take it all back. Never have seen that channel. How could anyone do something like that to another creature?! A slight change in her luck and that could have been her! Her stomach heaved again, but there was nothing left, except for a bit of bile, which left a foul taste in her mouth. "Why?!" Rosa sobbed. There was no one there to answer, of course, but she had to scream out her anguish. "WHY!!!" She folded down on the couch, not caring that she was lying on what was left of her sandwich and that she was smearing vomit from her muzzle into the cushion. Closing her eyes, Rosa started to cry miserably. It was not fair. This was supposed to be a good country for ponies. People were supposed to be nice. All she wanted to do was help them. Rosa was sure that was what all ponies wanted to do! They weren't supposed to be left in a ditch somewhere after they stopped being useful. She tried to stop the thought, but it came back. Again she retched dryly. In desperation, Rosa clutched a pillow and pressed it against her belly. Two things she knew. First, she would never in her life be able to forget all that. Second, she had to somehow pull herself together. Lillian could not be allowed see her like that. More importantly, the girl should never know what was happening in the world. For that matter, neither should Rosa. She began to understand why the School didn't allow TV. She should have obeyed. This would be impossible to unsee, but Rosa still had to try. For Lillian. The little girl immediately knew something was up. Rosa couldn't act well enough to fool Lillian, even if her father and her brother couldn't read the expression on a pony's face. "What's wrong, Rosa?" she asked a few seconds after she gave her her welcome-home hug. "N-Nothing. I'm fine!" the mare tried to convince her. Lillian watched her thoughtfully for a moment. "You look like you've seen a ghost." It was so close to the truth that it made Rosa wince before she could stop it, but she quickly tried to cover it up with a smile. "I'm just, a b-bit tired, that's all. Come on, let's get you up to your room." Luckily Lillian was young enough to take her word for it and slipped her backpack off her shoulders. Rosa led her upstairs without really saying anything to Mr. Boone. Fortunately he didn't seem to mind. Rosa hoped she had done a good enough job with the couch. The stains had been fresh enough to come out cleanly. The rest of the sandwich, almost whole, she had tossed in the bio bin outside. No appetite after that. She had taken wet towels and cleaned up herself and her uniform as best as she could. The mere memory of why she had thrown up was enough to almost make her hurl again, but Rosa had managed to stop it in time. It hadn't prevent her from crying the whole time, though. At the end she had been left with about three minutes to get her mane in order, wipe her face as clean as she could, and splash some water on her muzzle before the family came home. Her stomach was still queasy and Rosa was afraid for her future. Could she end up like those ponies she had seen? The School would supposedly find her good assignments, but maybe she could get kidnapped? Instructor Martha had always said how pretty Rosa looked. What if some perverted human wanted her badly enough and simply grabbed her when she went to take the trash out? That was illegal, but now something told Rosa that humans wouldn't try all that hard to get her back. Lillian would be heartbroken and Mrs. Boone would probably tell her the mare had run away. In fact, that would probably be what they all thought and Mr. Boone would complain to headmaster Freely. Rosa shook her head to try and dislodge the idea. What she needed to do was put those images out of her mind and focus on the here and now. She hadn't been kidnapped and the Boones probably lived in a very safe neighborhood. She had Lillian to take care of and her brother to tutor. There was even some gardening she could do later to take her mind off the stuff. Rosa suddenly realized she had been standing in the door of Lillian's room that whole time. "Oh! Sorry!" she forced a fake laugh. "Guess I'm more tired than I thought!" The girl didn't mind. Rosa saw she had gotten ahead and kicked her shoes off and was already pulling her dress over her head. She took the discarded shoes and put them outside the room so she could clean them later. Lillian was already wearing her pink slippers for the house. Seeing her expression, the child dropped her school dress on the floor and came over to put her arms around Rosa's head. She pressed her forehead against the mare's. "You should go take a nap," she whispered to her. "I won't tell Dad, honest!" Being alone with her thoughts and with nothing to do was the last thing Rosa wanted right then, but the hug was very nice and she closed her eyes. "Mmmm. Maybe. I wanna help you do your homework first." It would still be about an hour before Mrs. Boone came home and made lunch. "Uh, Rosa?" a voice sounded behind them. Rosa freed herself from Lillian and turned around. Mr. Boone was standing in the doorway. "Come here," he said. His thunderous expression scared her a little and Rosa immediately assumed she was in trouble because she had been in Lillian's room while the girl was changing. His notions of smut and all that. Her ears went down and Rosa swallow heavily. "Y-Y-Yes, sir." Following the man out of the room, Rosa gave the girl a reassuring smile before her father closed the door. There was no reason to worry the child, even if Rosa was in trouble. "I'm sorry, I should have-" The man didn't wait for her apology, but set off down the hallway. "Come!" he ordered. Yes, he was taking her to her room, probably so that Lillian wouldn't hear the punishment. Rosa hanged her head and followed. She nearly bumped into Mr. Boone's legs when he stopped unexpectedly at Benjamin's door. When Rosa looked around wildly she saw that the boy was sitting at his desk with his notebooks and glaring at her sullenly. "Math homework. Right now! Both of you!" the man demanded. Rosa suddenly understood and heaved a sigh of immense relief. "Of course, s-sir! Right away!" She walked into the room and turned around to assure the man she would do her best with his son, but the door just slammed shut. Obviously Mr. Boone had gotten another call from the boy's teacher, she guessed. There was just one chair in the room, so Rosa went and stood beside Benjamin's desk. He was still glaring at her. Time to work her magic. It took everything she got, but Rosa pushed the traumatic TV show as far down as she could and gave the boy a bright, happy, fake smile. It was a good thing he couldn't read her like Lillian. "So... um, fractions? Here, let me see your homework and then we'll do it together, okay? It shouldn't take long." That last was more for her own benefit than the boy's. Actually, she realized, maybe this was a good thing. Focusing on Benjamin's math and improving her relationship with him gave her something immediate to do and required all of her concentration. She might even be able to stop thinking about those poor ponies for a while. Rosa was almost grateful as she reared up and leaned her forehooves against the edge of the desk so she could see the things on it. The boy still hadn't moved, so she reached over and slid his textbook closer. "Show me which exercises you need to do for homework," she urged him. There still wasn't any reply. Benjamin seemed determined to be obstinate. It was going to be her fault, of course. Rosa was the older one and should have known how to bring a recalcitrant child to hand. That had been her whole training, after all! She thought back on Instructor Martha's lessons. After all, in some ways Benjamin was acting like a special-needs child right then. There was one trick that might work there. Rosa slid closer so she could read his notebook. "Here, let me see..." She made herself sound completely absentminded, but she ended up brushing her head against Benjamin's shoulder. She took one hoof off the desk and placed it on his chair, as if to steady herself. That let her almost hug the boy, without it seeming like she was trying to do it. The 'surreptitious embrace', Amethyst had called the move, for children too shy or nervous about touching her of their own accord. Rosa took it a step further by actually putting her muzzle on his shoulder. Benjamin stiffened under her, but that was a normal reaction. "Hmm," Rosa murmured to herself, "let's see. Problems four to fifteen on page..." It was working! Her soft, cuddly, pony magic was having an effect. The lad shifted unconsciously so she could lean closer to the notebook, but that just meant she was hugging him even more. Chest fluff on bare arm. Time for her next trick. Rosa lifted her head and waved a vague hoof without even looking in the direction. "Here, grab that book, let's see what we have," she said matter-of-factly. The boy obediently reached over to grab the item, but that just meant he had to put his arm right in front of her muzzle. Still pretending like she was reading his notes, Rosa ducked under it and voila - he was hugging her around the withers. Perfect. Amethyst would be proud of her! Of course it ended a moment later when Benjamin pulled the book to him and let her go, but he was sufficiently unnerved that Rosa could control him, to an extent. More importantly, he got to feel just how nice a pony hug could be. She would have to give him a chance later to pet her without obvious prompting, but Rosa felt that had been a good start. Placing her hoof on the desk's edge again, Rosa started reading through the problems in the textbook. The math itself would take a lot of focus, so no more assistant pony shenanigans. It was okay. She had broken the ice quite well, especially judging from how Benjamin was fidgeting on his chair. He wasn't thinking about how annoyed he was at being forced to work with her. Instead he was thinking about the touch and the 'inadvertent' hug. Those were much better topics. "Okay, let's try with this first one. Would you read it aloud for me, please?" Now that Rosa had given him a task, the boy accepted it almost gratefully, just so he had something to do other than what must have seemed like groping her. Come to think of it, having a definitive goal was helping them both. Rosa already felt a little better about what what she had seen earlier. The horror receded, even while she understood it would never really go away.