Does It Almost Feel Like You've Been Here Before...

Zoe gasped, taking an instinctive step back as Katie slammed open the front door. A shaft of eerie purplish light and a blast of cool air erupted across her naked body, snapping the humiliated girl’s hands to her chest and her bare legs crossed at the ankles.

The sight beyond the frame made Zoe's blood run cold. Her momentary embarrassment of being exposed to the world instantly forgotten, replaced by overwhelming existential horror...

It was still their street. The same houses in the same order. It was still their porch, their front yard, their driveway. But when Zoe's eyes drifted further, looking at where the road should’ve been, her heart stopped.

Instead of asphalt, there was sand. Where there should’ve been curbs, there were instead white rails, supported on posts several yards apart. There were no cars, no people, just an uninterrupted expanse of sand stretching down to the corner and beyond.

It was a track. A track for racing horses.

Zoe took a tentative step forwards in disbelief, her entire body trembling as Katie sniffed back tears, her face steel as she stared meaningfully back.

“I don’t…”

“Look at the sky…” Katie’s voice cracked.

Zoe reluctantly glanced up, only to be overcome with dizzying vertigo. It was like the town was in the eye of a storm with great walls of cloud blocking out the horizon in every direction. The sky was swirling, the clouds forming an impossible, near perfect spiral overhead. Beyond, there was nothing but haze, lit from every direction, tinged purple, with no way of knowing if it was night or day… it was as though someone had removed the sun and just made the whole sky glow instead.

Zoe couldn’t speak; she was drowning in the reality of her guilt. She did this? Her single stupid misguided wish, had done… this?! The pure unimaginable power of the iron collar affixed to her neck was now laid out before her – it couldn’t just change her, it could change everything.

“Katie…?” Zoe whimpered, blinking back tears, her fingernails digging into her bare breasts. She clutched herself so tightly that it hurt – she needed to wake up, this was a literal nightmare.

The blonde said nothing; instead she huffed and marched inside, retrieving the saucepan and rope from the living room before striding purposefully back out into the yard, her bare feet flattening the grass as she went. When she reached the railing, Katie hurled the saucepan out into the middle of the track. It landed with a muted thud and a moment later she started pulling the other end of the rope, drawing the pan back towards her again.

Only when Katie threw the pan a second time did Zoe notice the shiny pair of black riding boots discarded in the middle of the track.

Again she missed, and again, Katie drew back the pan and threw it at the boots.

Zoe stood in the shelter of the doorway. Unable to move or think or even begin to process what was happening, she just watched Katie throw the saucepan over and over and over…

“You can come out – there’s no one else here...” Katie called without turning around, grunting as she threw the saucepan again. This time it caught on the heel of one of the boots and she was able to drag it through the sand towards her a few feet before it came loose. “Damn it!”

Instinctively Zoe stepped back from the doorway, terrified that Katie's shout would draw attention from their neighbours.

Zoe blinked, Wait, there’s no one else here?

Only then did she process how eerily quiet it was; there was no sound of distant traffic, no footsteps, no talking or laughter carried on the wind. There was no hum, no static, no white noise of distant activity. It was like all life had been removed from their world. There was no birdsong, no dogs barking… just the sound of the breeze and distant thunder; the sound of the saucepan hitting the sand and Katie’s muffled sobs.

Zoe's throat went dry, “W-w-what do you mean... There's no one else?”

“There's no one else...” Katie repeated, her voice betraying her own suppressed panic.

Glancing up and down the 'street', Zoe's mind spun as she took in the unnerving stillness of everything. There were no cars, no people, not a bird in the sky... It was just her and Katie... Alone.

The pan hooked one of the boots, pulling it a little closer before it dug in again and slipped free.

“Come on...!”

“We're alone?”

Zoe saw Katie's shoulders tense, “I don't know”

“Are we still...?” Zoe wasn't sure how to end the question, ...here? ...alive? ...ok? The sentiment was the same.

“I don't know”

Zoe's lips parted, but no sound would come out. The guilt gripped her throat tighter than the collar ever could. Should she apologise? What could she possibly say or do now to even start? Had she disappeared the whole town? The whole world except for her and Katie? The naked girl shuddered, closing her eyes as the tiny movement down her back caused her new tail to tickle her thighs again.

The silence lingered painfully, until Zoe meekly broke it,“What are you doing?”

She was unable to bring herself to step out from the shelter of the doorway, too terrified to move her legs for fear of feeling her tail flicking against them again.

“I told you,” Katie grunted with the effort of another throw, “I’m trying to get my boots back…”

Zoe frowned, watching the blonde pull the rope back in again before she gathered enough courage to ask, “But…”

She winced when Katie stopped still; though she didn’t turn around the smaller girl threw the rope down with a frustrated cry. She marched down the rail, stopping at the point where their driveway met the track.

“Because Zo…” Katie started with another huff of effort as she unpinned a part of the rail and swung it aside, “We can’t leave”

Katie threw herself at the gap she’d created – only to bounce off of thin air.

Zoe felt the knot in her stomach tighten as she watched Katie petulantly bang her fists against... nothing. She knew the sight should've alarmed her because they were trapped, but, instead, it bought a single sobering thought to the centre of Zoe's mind...

Katie isn't safe any more.

After a moment Katie resolved to just lean against the air, glaring back.

This is all my fault.

“We can’t leave the house... there’s like… a barrier that goes all the way round…” She said despondently, “I tested…”

“B-b-but… the boots?”

“I threw them…” Katie huffed, crossing her arms, “I was annoyed… and I didn’t think they’d go through… but it turns out stuff can go through, just not us…” Katie’s eyes narrowed, “well... not me…”

Zoe swallowed, the implication was left hanging in the air.

“But I need them back - they're... they're all I've got...” Katie kicked her bare heel against the invisible wall and tugged at the hem of her polo.

“... your clothes...?”

“Don't Zo... please...” Katie's eyes snapped up and Zoe couldn't help but shrink back.

Katie's clothes weren't her own. Though they fitted her perfectly, the long-sleeved polo and khaki jodhpurs weren't her style. They were too clean, too tight fitting, too... Equestrian.

The riding boots laying in the middle of the sand would've accentuated a look that could've easily been completed with a riding helmet... or a whip...

The collar changed her...

Katie hugged herself with the scowl of self-loathing that Zoe was all too familiar with. The collar had changed her clothes, it had touched her, it had violated her.

“My whole closet,” Katie's voice faltered, “Its all... different...”

Zoe shifted her weight from foot to foot, glancing back up the stairs behind her in the direction of Katie's room...

Everything was different, and yet it was exactly the same...

It was all too much. Zoe felt she'd lost even her most tenuous grasp on her new fucked up reality. Was this a nightmare? A dream? Or was this really real? Had she erased, seemingly, everyone but them from the face of the earth by 'Qualifying'? She hadn't had a choice!

She was tumbling, falling down a rabbit hole without control and without a parachute. Worse, now, apparently, she was dragging Katie along for the ride...

It was an inevitable, constant descent towards the same humiliating conclusion...

Good little ponygirl.

“I'll... fix it...” Zoe tried, trying to convince herself more than reassure her friend. She glanced back at Katie, her mind fogged with doubt.

For a moment Katie said nothing, and Zoe didn't feel she could breathe until she did.

“We'll fix it...”

Zoe whimpered gratefully as she watched Katie unfold her arms and toss her blonde hair aside, “And we're going to start by getting my boots back.”