The Spiral Deepens

Zoe awoke from a dreamless sleep; her eyes fluttering open as she took a small gasping breath. It was the kind of deep dark sleep that left her dazed, her internal clock shut down, with no way of telling up from down, or even how long she’d been ****.

The world was sideways; for several long moments she struggled to understand what she was looking at. Her eyes, unable to focus on what was near or far, spied confusing shapes… something shiny… chrome…? Hands… working on a rope…

Zoe sniffed.

She felt warm, something was on her. But she kept her eyes fixed to the hands as they struggled and then threw something down in frustration. It made a loud clattering sound that drew the sleeping girl from her daze.

Katie had her back to her, kneeling next to the coffee table and it looked like she was tying a rope to the handle of a saucepan...

What?

Zoe stirred; more parts of her aching mind came back to her slowly as she tried to remember where her hands were, and how to move. She felt numb, and hot, all at once and she could feel her heart beat, aching, thrumming between her legs.

She somehow found the strength to lift her head from the pillow. She was on the couch, but she had no memory of how she got here as she pulled her upper body upright with weak and trembling arms. The blanket across her slid from her shoulder, slipping down to reveal her bare chest and the gleaming straps of her harness.

Swallowing was hard, Zoe’s throat was dry and the weight of her collar just served to stir a split second of panic in her heart that she was being choked.

“Katie…?” she croaked, her voice hoarse, her red hair a mess across her forehead.

The blonde yelped, spinning around as she dropped the pan with another clattering bang.

“You’re awake!”

Only now did Zoe get a chance to fully register the sight of her friend. Katie’s eyes were bloodshot, and her cheeks pink, like she’d been crying. But what confused and concerned Zoe more was what she was wearing; a pressed tight white polo top, and tight beige leggings… Is Katie wearing jodhpurs…?

“Just… lay back down… sweetie…” the blonde held up a hand, her voice edged with panic. Zoe’s strength gave out and she collapsed back onto the couch, blinking.

“I… what happened? What are you doing?”

Katie wrinkled her nose for a moment, her lips opening and then closing again as she glanced around in distress. Zoe felt her own heart rate increase at seeing Katie like this… she looked… frantic.

“I’m trying to get my boots back… it’s… a long story…”

Zoe scrunched up her eyes. The light in the room felt off, hazed like the setting sunlight streaming through the windows was being diffused by thick clouds, bathing everything in hues of purple, pink and orange.

“How long was I… uh… out?”

“It’s hard to tell…um… five or six hours maybe?”

Zoe’s eyes shot open and she bolted upright again, even as the motion made the room spin. The memory of the morning, the storm, her run and the painful back-to-back-to-back orgasms flooded back to her, making her cheeks redden again.

“Whoa, easy… easy…” Katie protested; shuffling forwards on her knees to the side of the couch, her hands outstretched to placate her. “… You did it… I mean… You qualified…”

Zoe clutched the blanket to her chest and looked around sheepishly. She'd 'qualified' - she'd done it, that meant something right? Wasn't it meant to mean something?

She'd won!

“I did it!” Zoe cracked a smile and let a weight of relief lift from her shoulders... So... What now?

She hadn't expected ribbons or a trophy or a parade but, she'd expected to see something. Some marker of her achievement... Some sign of what 'The Paddock' even was. This was what she'd been running for, so, where was the reward? The collar wasn't gone, the harness wasn't gone... She was still very much laying in their living room, on their couch, the only thing that looked different was Katie…

“… Your clothes…” Zoe whimpered reluctantly. It was immediately obvious that Katie was dressed in what were casual but very clearly equestrian clothes, and the redhead was hesitant to find out why.

Katie visible cringed again, “I woke up in them”

“You… wait… Katie what happened?” Zoe started trying to bring her legs out from under the blanket but Katie’s hand landed firmly on her thigh to stop her.

“Don’t”

Zoe froze and they stared at each other, the **** ponygirl felt a tingle of ice shoot up her spine; Katie’s eyes were deep pools of ****, frightened, seriousness.

“What happened?” Zoe tried again, her voice cracking.

Katie took another deep breath, her gaze faltering, staring at her own hand as she spoke, “You uh… qualified… so, um, I guess, you orgasmed so much you passed out. And, look… the collar didn’t stop. It kept going. You were ****, and it kept going and going and going… your body was just… shaking on the floor”

Katie sniffed, “I didn’t know what to do so I just held you... and then… your collar stopped and then it played back my own voice, like… like it had recorded me… something about promising to always be there for you…” Zoe felt her grip on her thigh grow firmer, “And then, I don’t know... I think the house got struck by lightning or something but… there was this roar of noise and then, I woke up?”

At this point Katie’s voice faltered and her gaze snapped back to Zoe’s, “I woke up dressed like this… and, you were still there and it… It’s like everything is the same but… different?”

Zoe glanced towards the eerie light from the window. She could still hear distant rumbling from the storm but otherwise there was a strange silence... The background hum of life just wasn't there.

“What do you mean?” Zoe stammered quietly, searching for an answer in her eyes.

“I managed to get you inside, but you were completely passed out. I went to get changed but… my closet… it’s…” Katie’s voice trailed off, her bottom lip quivered, “Then I tried to call for help but… the phones are out, so’s the TV… I went to go get help but… uh… I couldn’t leave…?”

“You’re not making sense…”

Katie sighed, biting her lip again, “I don’t think I can explain it… it’s… its better if you see for yourself but... there’s something you need to see first…” Katie’s gaze drifted back to the blanket covering Zoe’s lower half and the redhead frowned.

“W-w-what?” Zoe’s breathing faltered and she shifted her legs beneath the blanket. Was there something wrong with her? Had she fallen – she felt fine.

Katie didn’t say anything, but glanced back at her meaningfully, “You have to promise me that you won’t freak out. I cannot deal with that right now – this is not the most pressing issue we have.”

What the fuck does that mean?

Zoe opened and closed her mouth, hesitating before she nodded. She didn’t even know what she was agreeing to.

“Please say it…” Katie pressed.

Zoe felt her cheeks grow hotter with worry, “I… I promise…?”

“Ok…” With that, Katie let go of Zoe’s knee and pulled herself to her feet, before offering her hands to help the redhead to stand with her.

Anxiously, the naked girl took Katie’s hands in her own, and, on legs still half-numb and unsteady from her run and recent unconsciousness, pulled herself to her feet. The blanket slipped from Zoe’s body, pooling on the couch behind her as she felt her full-body blush rushing back at standing naked in front of Katie like this.

“Can you walk?” The blonde asked, not taking her eyes off of Zoe’s. Moving her feet felt difficult but Zoe managed to flex her left foot and step, awkwardly to the side, then forwards and back, the numbness easing even as the pins and needles ricochet through her muscles and tickled the backs of her legs.

“I’ll be ok”

Katie still held her hands as she stepped around the coffee table, putting one bare foot behind the other as she walked backwards, guiding Zoe to follow her. The redhead meekly complied, taking each step with the grace of a new born deer, as the numbness in her legs faded further and further, the tickling on the back of her thighs seemed to grow more and more present. She thought the blanket was caught on her somehow or it felt like an insect or something was tickling the backs of her legs, but she couldn’t shift it.

“There’s something…” Zoe went to glance back but she felt Katie’s hands squeeze her own and she gasped, her gaze fixed to the blonde’s with growing panic.

There’s something stuck to me… behind me?

Katie took several more steps backwards, guiding Zoe from the living room, stepping in front of the mirror in the hall.

It was only when she came face to face with her own reflection that Zoe understood.

She saw herself in all her glory, her nakedness in her harness completely on display – the illusory outfit she’d relied on until now was gone, leaving her with no protection, nothing to stop her own eyes from taking in the shame of her own bare body, framed by her humiliating harness.

Worse, though, was what Zoe saw as she glanced down between her thighs; a flash of deep red.

She turned frantically, looking at herself sideways as her mind refused to believe what she was seeing for several long agonising seconds.

She had a tail.

Erupting from a tight little point at the very top of her ass was a horse’s tail – the same vivid red as her own hair. It rose up in a neat arch and then hung behind her, slipping perfectly through the straps of her harness.

A tail... A horse's tail...

Zoe froze, then experimentally twitched her left ass cheek. The tail twitched and swished in response.

She screamed, instantly snatching her hands from Katie’s and covering her mouth as tears flooded her eyes. The redhead felt nauseous, instantly and painfully dizzy, as the horror consumed her. The world dimmed as she hyperventilated.

Freak. Idiot. Ponygirl.

“I… I… I… can’t…” Zoe stammered, moaning in despair, “I have a fucking tail?!”

Frantically she reached behind herself, turning on the spot like a dog chasing its own tail as she desperately tried to get it off. She grabbed at it with trembling fingers, gasping at the feel of her hair, her own real hair, growing from above her ass like an animal. Like a pony...

I have a tail. I have a tail. I have a tail?!

“Get it off!!”

Zoe panicked, snorting, as she tried to tug at it, as though it were just glued to her in some cruel sadistic prank. She was even more horrified when she felt the tail pull at her spine and back, a shooting pulse of unwanted pleasure rocketing through her body.

Nerve-endings that shouldn’t exist connected inside her mind, feeding back information her brain shouldn’t know – that her tail was being tugged… her tail was being tugged...!

Zoe let go, mortified, eyes wide and blinking. She felt faint again, the blood rushing from her head into her core as she went into shock. The collar had changed her – it had humiliated her, it had controlled her, it had dressed in this harness and whipped her... but it hadn’t transformed her until now… it hadn’t made her a freak…

A real ponygirl…

She stared at Katie in muted pleading, blinking through tears as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. The blonde matched her look of concern, but her gaze was tinged with something else… something colder…?

“You promised…”

Zoe opened and closed her mouth despondently, a pang of anger washing through her, “I have a tail and y-y-y-you want me to be calm about it?!”

Katie’s eyes reddened further, and Zoe watched the blonde’s cheeks grow wet again as she obviously fought to keep her own tears in check. She marched to the front door and flung it unceremoniously open, pointing meaningfully outside,

“No sweetie… I get that it’s alarming, but right now we have bigger things to worry about…”