Filigree looked around at the fine metal bars that surrounded her and smiled. She loved her cage, she loved it very much. It had taken a long time for her to build, and the cost was not cheap, but it accomplished what it was meant to accomplish. It kept her nice and safe. No one could hurt her here, no one could attack her or harm her or insult her. She didn’t like them all anyway.
They were all so stupid and dull, they didn’t quite understand her and they always spoke before they thought about their words. They would harm one another, both on purpose and by accident. They would harm her too. But not anymore, now she could ignore them, she could live by herself and she wouldn’t need to worry. She sighed as she turned around and laid on the nice cushions she had brought with her, nuzzling her head deep into the comfort that they provided.
“Hey.” The voice echoed through the cage and Filigree sat up in alarm. She looked around her cage and saw just past the bars one of the ponies who had harmed her on accident, one who had been close before she realized just how annoying he was. “Hey Filigree, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
She marveled at the fact that he didn’t say anything about the cage. That even with as plain a sign as her metal home he had still sought to bother her. Didn’t it say enough to everyone to just leave her alone? That she didn’t want to talk to anyone? Perhaps they had simply misunderstood what the cage meant? That was a possibility she supposed, maybe they thought she had been trapped by something.
“It’s fine.” She responded, brushing away the apology, “I just don’t feel like hanging out with anyone.” She lounged against one of her cushions as she finished, thinking that would be the end of the conversation.
“Oh, well if you need anything I’ll be around.” He said, glancing at her with a look of worry.
“Ok, I’ll keep that in mind.” She responded easily, merely wanting the conversation to be done with.
“Ok, I’ll just be around if you need me.” The redundancy drove Filigree mad but she tried not to show it, for some reason still caring about whether or not she hurt his feelings.
“Ahuh...” Sarcasm bled into her voice and she watched as the stallion outside the cage finally got the clue and left. She sighed as she lay her head back against her pillows, only to be interrupted by a loud crashing noise. She turned her head abruptly wondering what could be going on and her eyes went wide.
On the other side of the cage a stallion swung a large hammer against the bars, bending them out of place and ruining all the work that Filigree had put into it. She let loose a shocked gasp and bolted to the wound that he had forced onto her handiwork. “What are you doing!” she screamed as she watched him wind up for another hit. He swung with all his force and revealed his face. Filigree instantly identified him as her brother.
“Oh hey Filigree, I was just wondering if you wanted to come for a walk around town.” He stated, as if he didn’t realize what he was doing.
“No! I’d like to stay here if that’s fine with you!” She screamed angrily, even as he wound up for another blow.
The weapon hit the bars with the sound of a shot and she watched as the bar broke under the force, leaving a gaping hole in her habitat. His face betrayed no idea that he had done anything. “Are you sure? It’s a nice day today. You could do with some exercise, heck it’ll probably cheer you up to.”
“No! I just want to be left alone!” She shouted in retort. She heard another bang, this one from across the cage. She turned and saw another pony attacking her new home with a hammer as well. She made to run at him but was grasped from behind.
Her bother drug her out of the small hole he had made in the cage, ignoring her as she fought to stay inside. Several other clanging sounds began to fill the air and when she was at last left on the ground she hurriedly looked around and saw several other people attacking her cage. The very same one that she had spent years building and had invested so much in.
She ran forward, grief pounding in her heart. She grabbed one of the ponies by the neck, trying to drag them away from her cage, but she was shrugged off easily and she fell helpless to the ground. Her mane quickly became a mess as she tried and tried to stop them only to fail and watch as her carefully crafted home came apart piece by piece.
She cried then, broken down as she was, and watched with a feeling of despair that wormed into her heart and twisted it like a wet towel, wringing from it every tear. The tears, lacking a place to go, escaped through her eyes. She was helpless as she watched them destroy her new home, she couldn’t take it, so she reached inside and died that day.
The Filigree that walked the streets wasn’t the same one everyone had known for so long before, she was different down to her core. But no one noticed, no one cared to look. Filigree bled inside herself for so long, the wounded and torn figure of who she had been before found a way to iron up her heart and used it as a cage all it’s own.
She didn’t ever want to go through what had happened again. And for all the small good in the world, the overwhelming terror and evilness is what made her give up. No one seemed to grasp how horrible their reality was, and it made whatever was left of Filigree’s soul cry, but the tears never met her eyes.
She was the actor, playing along with all the lines that everyone had given her. She would feign joy like they wanted and she would hide away her sadness at the world. The sadness of what things were and how helpless she and everyone else was to stop it. It was simply natural to be monsters, there was nothing she could do about it. So she let the monsters eat each other, cannibalistic to the core.
You had two choices, become a monster or die.
Which was nobler in the end?