Pain from past coming to American city (5)
I believe the answer is:
agony
'pain' is the definition.
(agony is a kind of pain)
'past coming to american city' is the wordplay.
'past' becomes 'ago' ('ago' can be similar in meaning to 'past').
'coming to' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'american city' becomes 'ny' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ago'+'ny'='AGONY'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for agony that I've seen before include "Pain, torment" , "Distress" , "Suffering - anguish" , "Mental suffering" , "Torture" .)