Instability

“W-wait…”

“We have to open it…”

“… Do we?” Zoe whined.

Her fingers wrung at the hem of the back of Katie’s polo, tugging the material tight as she cowered, keeping the blonde firmly between herself and the looming threat of the jet black door. Katie took more determined steps up the driveway, and the naked redhead was **** to follow, her bare feet offering little resistance.

“Not opening the door isn’t an option Zo – we don’t have options... We can’t just shut ourselves inside and pretend this isn’t happening.” Katie took another step up the driveway and Zoe was cut adrift, her fingers slipping from the polo as she stood still.

Her resolve crumbled with the deep-cut. She wasn’t sure if Katie had meant it but there was an edge to her words that caught Zoe sharply. Shutting herself inside and pretending her life hadn’t taken a turn she didn’t want was exactly what she’d done after her last race. It was what she’d been doing when she’d made her stupid wish. It was what had lead her here, now; naked, collared and tailed. She’d been running away from everything – she was still running away from everything.

“I… just… I can’t…” Zoe tried, staring at the stable door in anxious loathing, “Katie I’m scared!”

“I know it’s scary Zo but… this… all of this…” Katie waved a hand all around them, “… it’s for you.”

The knot of guilt in Zoe’s stomach tightened and she suddenly felt the restrictive weight of the collar more keenly.

“The track didn’t hurt you and I don’t think this will either…” Katie took another step in the direction of the door before Zoe threw out a hand in protest.

“W-wait… Katie… I’ve seen doors like that before…” Zoe took several anxious steps left and right trying to calm her racing heart, her tail swaying in distress.

“Me too”

Zoe stopped stepping, “What?!”

“What?” The blonde turned back defensively, running a hand down her outfit again.

“Where?”

“You where?” Katie shot back.

“I…” Zoe paused, frowning, looking between her friend and the obsidian door before she glanced down at her feet sheepishly, “I’ve been having dreams… nightmares… I… I keep seeing black doors just like that…”

Katie stopped, “In dreams…?”

Zoe frowned, “Wait, what did you mean you’ve seen a door like this before…?”

“My closet…” Katie’s shoulders dropped, “My closet has been replaced, I guess? I don’t know how else to describe it but… it’s not there anymore. I mean it is but, the door is black and… Inside all my clothes were gone and all I had was…” She stopped herself with another sigh, “Look, whatever replaced my clothes and my closet and the street and the sky has apparently replaced the garage too; it’s the same as this… same material, same everything…”

Katie took several more purposeful strides towards the ominous stable door, her jaw set determinedly as overhead another distant rumble of thunder echoed from the spiralling clouds. To Zoe, the stable door towered over Katie’s diminutive frame as she reached it, like the jaws of an unfathomable leviathan that would swallow her at any moment.

“What if it’s dangerous…?” Zoe whined.

“What if it’s not?” Katie shot back as her fingers found the handle.

“Katie, wait…” Zoe took an anxious half-step forwards, but it was too late, Katie lifted the latch with an ominous clunk, a solid sound between the impact of metal and stone that echoed with an ancient and unnatural hum.

Zoe froze.

With little effort the wide door began to swing silently open, Katie held it only slightly ajar, and Zoe could only watch as she peered inside, her blonde head disappearing into the shadows. The same prickling sensation she’d felt standing on the track returned and Zoe nervously glanced at the windows of their neighbours silent houses again, she couldn’t shake the disconcerting feeling that they were being watched or stalked… and she felt very very ****.

“Oh...” Katie’s voice echoed from inside the garage and snapped Zoe’s attention back just in time to watch her disappear behind the door.

“Katie…?”

There was no response.

“Katie…!” Zoe hissed urgently, taking another **** step up the driveway after her, her tail flicking in panic.

“It’s…” Katie’s voice called from inside, “… safe… just, stay there for a second…”

“Why…?” Zoe insisted nervously, edging closer to the doorway, “…W-what’s in there?”

“Not my car” Katie called back despondently.

“… Katie?”

There was another pause, before the blonde’s voice grew closer again, “Ok, it’s safe but you’re not going to like it…”

Not going to like what?!

Zoe drew herself onto her toes, her imagination starting to race away from her as Katie eased the door open from the other side. What lay beyond swung into view agonisingly slowly, the eerie flat light from the sky washing into the shadowy interior so slowly that it took Zoe several moments for her eyes to adjust to what she was seeing.

“No…” Zoe whimpered, her voice cracking, as she gazed in despairing humiliation.

Illuminated by the flat light pouring through the stable door, its sleek jet-black frame squat between two wheels and its draught arms extending out towards the doorway like the pincers of a mechanical insect, was what Zoe could only describe as a chariot.

No no no no no… please no…

The little sulky was small – far too small to be pulled by any real horse – with maybe just enough room for a single occupant at the rear. It rested on two wheels, tipped forwards to balance on the pair of parallel draught arms that extended out in front of it, their ends adorned with straps and tack that lay across the concrete floor of the otherwise empty garage like tree roots. Behind a small seat at the rear of the cart was some kind of black wire basket, while there seemed to be a set of simple dials on a set of handlebars built into its front.

The entire vehicle was uncomfortably dark and alien, as though it was a silhouette of itself, but Zoe still recognised with horror the impossible metal that made up its frame and wheels… because it also encircled her throat.

“… W-w-what…?” Zoe choked out the question in a breathless gasp, recoiling down the driveway in a dizzying panic as indignation started to flare inside her stomach, “No!”

“It’s okay Zo…” Katie offered, stepping around the straps and back alongside the chariot, resting her hand on the side of it in demonstration. “See?”

The naked redhead’s eyes remained warily fixed to the twisted monstrosity, feeling like its long arms were reaching out to her. It didn’t take a genius to work out what or who the chariot was meant to be pulled by and Zoe’s crushing blush and horror only grew more intense at the realisation.

“I… I’m not going anywhere near that thing!” Zoe snapped quickly, clutching at her sides again in defensive embarrassment.

“Woah, easy…” Katie held up a hand in placation, “You… don’t have to… but, this is obviously here for a reason?”

“That’s what I’m worried about…” Zoe hissed.

“I’m just going to look at it… ok?” Katie tried with a calming nod, causing Zoe to stifle another whimper of protest, “It’s just a cart… it’s not going to hurt us…”

Zoe anxiously looked around again before she took a very tentative step forwards, opening and closing her fists and bouncing on her toes as she tried to stifle the anxious energy sparking inside her, “… please be careful…”

Katie lifted herself onto her toes, her blonde hair falling in a cascade as she peered over the front of the little vehicle, her fingers tracing the lines of the dials on the handlebars without touching it, “This thing is really weird…”

Zoe snorted, stepping forward again anxiously, “Get away from it then…”

“No, no… I mean… it doesn’t make sense?” Katie looked up at Zoe with a frown as she pointed at the front of the chariot again, “It’s got, handlebars like a bike? Brakes even but… they’re not connected to anything and these dials… they’re nonsense…”

Zoe’s tail flicked as she reluctantly craned her neck to try and see what Katie was talking about while keeping her distance. “I… I don’t think we should be touching it at all… please Katie…”

I don’t want to play with the terrifying chariot that’s obviously meant for me.

The blonde waved a hand to hush her and Zoe could only watch on in horror as Katie stepped up into the thing, still peering at the dials. She wobbled for a moment, trying to maintain her balance on the tipped floor as her fingers flicked across the surfaces of the two dials, “This one says ‘Balance: 35 M’… and this one is like, a speedometer I guess, but it just says x1, x2, x3, x4…?” Her eyes flicked back up to Zoe again with a confused frown, “Does that mean anything to you?”

Zoe shook her head with growing frustrated fear, her red ponytail flicking wildly and sending her matching tail swaying the other way, “N-n-n-no…?”

Katie peered in closer, “How about HH? There’s a little like, symbol thing on this one that looks like 2 H’s on a poker chip or… something?”

Zoe stomped a bare foot again, hissing, “What? No? Katie, please get off of it…” The longer Katie played with the thing the more aware Zoe felt of the straps of her harness, the weight of her collar and the constant tickling flick of her new tail against her bare ass – being in the presence of something clearly designed for a ponygirl only made everything else feel even more restrictive. “C-can we please go back inside?”

“Hang on… I just want to see if I can make out…” Katie said, her hand gripping the handle bar for support in the uneven cart, her fingers finding the brake…

Zoe watched seemingly in slow motion, as the cart swayed near imperceivably further forwards on it's wheels, the platform tipping over the centre of the wheels, easing the whole thing off balance. Katie gasped, eyes wide, and instinctively gripped the handlebars tighter, which only seemed to cause the wheels to turn enough to make the tipping motion worse and the blonde lost her footing, landing hard in the seat with an anxious yelp.

“Ah...!”

The chariot rolled with slowly increasing momentum out of the garage doors, its draught arms pointed straight for Zoe as they skittered against the ground, the gentle incline of the driveway starting to accelerate the little vehicle as it rolled menacingly towards her.

“Shit, shit shit! It won't stop!”

“Katie!” Zoe gasped, instinctively jumping forwards to try and stop the cart from careening away. The second she drew close though Zoe was **** to leap back in terror as the array of straps attached to the front of the cart suddenly sprung to life. They writhed, whipping up impossibly ahead of it like wide alien hands, a mass of snaking, coiling tentacles reaching out to grab her.

Zoe screamed, throwing herself aside onto the grass, feeling a breeze of air whip past her bare skin as the straps flailed for her and missed by inches.

Katie yelped again and the redhead could only watch helplessly as the cart carried the blonde trundling with growing speed down the driveway towards the opening in the barrier to the track. The moment the straps left Zoe’s immediate vicinity they seemed to fall lifeless again, dragging limp against the ground as the wheels of the sulky spun on.

Zoe pulled herself up, panting as she hurried after the run-away vehicle, watching in horror as Katie hunkered down, shoulders set as the cart built up speed. The blonde had no chance to jump free before the chariot reached the invisible barrier and Zoe winced in anticipation, expecting some awful impact when Katie reached it… Only nothing happened… the cart passed through the barrier, carrying Katie miraculously unscathed with it.

The moment the sulky hit the sandy flat of the track it skidded violently, the front arms digging-in with a pained crunch that sent plumes of dust into the eerily still air. Katie, already set off balance, careened forwards with a heavy jolt above the handlebars. She was stopped by an invisible **** in mid-air and crumpled, her blonde hair flipping up as she slumped down in the foot-well.

Zoe bolted quickly down the drive in pursuit, stopping just shy of the track, her bare toes edging against the sand fearfully, “Katie?!”

The echoing roar of the crash, combined with her pleading shriek of the girl’s name echoed endlessly into the eerie emptiness of the street, in the distance, a bell tolled as the spiral clouds above grumbled with a flicker of purple lightning.