Sarah

“How in the hell are we supposed to find this thing?” Sarah asked. It had been at least a half-hour since they'd found the trussed up Ronnie suspended above the canyon floor, but no coach and no other teammates. The nearly naked woman stuck up there held appeal for both Sarah and her ropes, but the torrent of antiquated insults Ronnie rained down suggested it was better to keep moving. This time.

“My plan worked, we snagged the coach's driver. I didn't account for it continuing off on its own.” Vivian groaned. “Or that the ground would get so chewed up when it started doubling back and looping on itself that we'd lose its trail.”

“Well, it’ll probably come back this way sooner or later. And at very least we can hold up anyone chasing us. We only have enough for one more.” Sarah shook the small flask at Vivian. “And it's your turn.”

“Bullshit. I paid for it, you get all the turns.” Vivian laughed it off.

“Seriously? Again?” Sarah groaned. “Ugh, I'll be drinking as hard as Mallory to get this taste out of my mouth.” She held up the end of Vivian's leash. “I could make you do it.”

Vivian cocked an eyebrow. “You could, but consider the long term ramifications. I sleep in the same bedroom now.”

“Is that a threat or are you coming on to me?”

“That depends. Now, be a dear.” Vivian pushed the offered flask back to Sarah.

“Fine.” Sarah chose a spot where rock walls narrowed a bit. Popping open the flask, she took the last salty, disgusting swig before the scent could hit her, then swished the concoction around in her mouth until she felt it start to harden.

The Sticky Icky - It's white, it's strong, it's sticky. If you wanna know what it tastes like, ask your mom.

Blecchhhh! Sarah spat into her hand, and the goo left a trail from her mouth to her lips like vile bubblegum. She slapped her palm against the rock about chest high, sticking it to the wall. She backed across the path, allowing the muck from her mouth to pull into a long, thin line stretched across the canyon at chest height. The web would be a little thicker and easier to see than the one which snared Ronnie, but if someone came at fast maybe they’d get stuck. It’ll slow them down a bit, at least.

“That's the last of it.” Sarah spat into the dirt again and again, trying to get the last of it from her mouth. But it was still all she could taste. Out of desperation, she grabbed a handful of sand and actually tried scraping the last of it off her tongue.

“You'd better get used to it, Sarah.” Vivian teased. “Haven't you performed oral before?”

“No, of course not!” The rope heads turned towards Sarah, and she could swear they looked aghast. “Not on a boy!” That seemed to placate them briefly, and they coiled back around Sarah’s midsection and wound down her arms to near where she held Vivian’s leash. Vivian looked at them sliding closer, but didn’t flinch away. For reasons Sarah couldn’t fathom, they appeared to accept that and left Vivian alone. Vivian strode off in direction they guessed the coach had gone, not even looking back, just assuming that Sarah would follow.

Sarah caught herself feeling… disappointed that they didn’t tie her to Vivian?

“Out with it, Sarah.” Vivian didn’t even look back, she continued to study the ground in front of them for any clue as to which of the cart tracks was most recent.

“Out with what?”

“Don’t play the fool, your brains are your most attractive feature.”

“You think I’m attractive now?”

“I always did,” Vivian sounded incredulous that Sarah hadn’t worked that out already.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Are you serious, Sarah? We were co-workers and you were in a relationship. Of course I kept that to myself. I’ve done some manipulative things, but I wouldn’t have just barged in and fucked someone in a relationship.” Vivian shook her head.

“Not unless there was profit in it.”

“That’s harsh but true, sadly.” Vivian shifted her collar slightly, as if she was suddenly getting hot. “I’ve crossed some lines, but that was the woman I was, not the one I’m becoming.”

“Becoming?”

“The show isn’t over, Sarah. Who knows what could happen to you, or me, or any of us? So… out with it.”

“You said you laid all your cards on the table when we started this challenge, but you didn't.” Sarah pressed on. “Ruby came to you about the show, and you sabotaged Al's team in the first two challenges. Got that part. But what was in it for you? That part you kept to yourself.”

“You’re asking where was my profit?” Vivian countered, and Sarah’s silence made it clear enough. “Good question. The right question, actually. Ruby… offered me a way out of the harem. She said that if Michael picked one of her team at the end, then she’d make me her assistant. Help her make the show, play with a little magic, and I thought maybe once this was behind me I could find a way out entirely or even host myself.”

“And what would happen to us?”

“You'd be Michael's harem, obviously. He was telling the truth, we’re all in the harem at the end of this. There was only one parachute, or so I thought. But she lied. I don't think her offer was ever genuine. Once Michael made his choice then I'd have no leverage left, and she could do whatever she wanted to my brain on the way out.”

“That’s kinda shitty of you to try to leave us behind like that.”

“I promise I feel very badly about it, but my other choice was to hit with magic until I was sexually submissive to a man who hated my guts. There wasn't a third option.”

“Well now you know how it feels.” Sarah scoffed. “When you laid that miserable offer on my desk right before you eviscerated Michael's company. What was I supposed to do? Follow you over to Solar Flare? They were after your clients, not me, that company would have dumped me immediately. Or I could stay with Michael and watch his implosion. Where was my third option?”

“That's… fair.” Vivian sighed. “I can't change any of that. It's in all in the past and…” Vivian trailed off.

“And what?”

“I was going to say ‘the past can't be changed,’ but for some reason that didn't feel correct. Anyway, let's not focus on it, it gets us nowhere. Focus on the present, and winning this challenge. And afterwards… we’ll continue this conversation in that shared bedroom…?” Vivian looked over her shoulder, with a casual smirk.

“Are you trying to manipulate me with your sexuality?”

“Only if it's working.”

“I thought you had a thing with Janet? Maybe I’d be the one barging into someone else’s relationship?”

Vivian looked thoughtful for a moment. “Did I ever tell you my Winston Churchill joke?”

“You have a Winston Churchill joke? What, is it like written down on a flash card somewhere?”

“Yes.” Vivian said bluntly. “I heard someone tell it once, saw the laugh it got from the old guys in my target sales demo, and wrote it down when I got home.” She cleared her throat. “So, Winston Churchill is at a state dinner. Crazy British fancy like only they can do, white tie and everything. And this knockout blonde sits down next to him-”

“‘Knockout blonde’, seriously?”

“Hush, I’m telling the joke here. The two of them get on well at the dinner, and then it breaks up and moves to the cocktail hour in the next room. The parlor game that evening was to move from person to person and ask hypothetical questions, and before long he’s back alone with the blonde. So when it’s his turn, he asks her. ‘Madam, if I were to offer you 10,000 pounds, would you stay the night with me?’ She flashes him a big flirty smile and whispers, ‘Who knows? I very well might!’ So Churchill asks her ‘Madam, suppose I offered you 10 pounds?’ And now she’s upset, and she demands ‘Sir, what kind of woman do you think I am?’ to which he responds, ‘Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we’re haggling the price.’”

“Gross.”

“I closed three deals in two weeks with that one. Guys love when a woman tells a crude joke. Makes her seem as dirty-minded as they are, and that one is perfect because it gets them subtly thinking about spending money.”

“You’re a piece of work, Vivian. What does that have to do with anything?”

“First and most importantly, Sarah, we’re all going to be concubines soon. All we’re doing on this show is haggling the price. Being defensive about relationships is a losing move - I know, because it made me lose. And second, you have a lot to learn about sales… and men. Considering your new line of work, you should - pardon the phrase - bone up.”

“You’re probably right about that.”

“So ask already.”

“Ask what?”

“‘Vivian, please teach me everything I need to know about sales and men.’ Okay, sure Sarah, anything for you.”

Sarah laughed uproariously. “So that’s what this is about? You trying to become my dick tutor? Ok, where’s the profit in it for you?”

“In exchange, you can never tell anyone about this next part. You still got Danica’s bikini?”

“Yeah, you wanna tell me why you made me pick it up?” Vivian didn’t answer that, instead she pulled out a small brown cookie from the front of her own bikini top. “Vivian? Is that-”

“Yes. A dog biscuit. Shut up.” Vivian bit off half of the bone-shaped treat. “Fuck, I hope that’s enough.” Vivian chewed for a second, swallowed, looked thoughtful for a moment, then just pushed the rest of it into her mouth and finished the whole thing. Vivian shuddered and rubbed her shoulders as if she was suddenly freezing cold, despite the heat at the bottom of the canyon.

“Uh, enough for what?” Sarah asked.

“We need to find that coach, and quickly.” Vivian took Danica’s bikini bottom from Sarah’s hand and shoved it into her own face, taking a long deep inhale of the scent. “Ohhh fuck that’s powerful.” Vivian dropped the bottoms and swayed slightly, as if she’d chloroformed herself. Sarah, worried that she might faint, reached out to grab Vivian’s shoulders to keep her upright. Vivian kept sniffing the air, twisting slightly in Sarah’s hold.

“Vivian…?” Sarah asked, but the blonde had a look on her face of pure determination. Ok, Vivian usually had a look of pure determination, but this time it looked even more determination-y. Vivian suddenly spun, knocking herself loose from Sarah’s grip and dropping to her hands and knees. Vivian dropped her face nearly to the sand, continuing to search the ground with her nose.

Right… A dog biscuit.

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Vivian crawled along the ground slowly at first, winding backwards and forwards, checking every rock and divot in the sand. Her face pressed down into the ground and her ass up in the air, pointing directly at the stunned Sarah. Suddenly, Sarah didn’t mind too much that she was going to be in a harem, so long as it was filled with women like Vivian. Vivian sped up, straightening out her path and picking up into a trot. They continued into a large intersection of canyons and Vivian stopped to sniff the air around her a few times.

“You…uh… got the scent?” Sarah felt dumb for even asking, but she wasn’t sure what else to ask.

“I’m trying but it’s… difficult.” Vivian’s face scrunched. “The whole biscuit was maybe too much… I can smell so, so many pussies. Like every damned woman that’s ever been to the hotel. It doesn’t help that you’re back there gushing into your panties.”

Sarah blushed at being caught, but it didn’t seem to offend Vivian, only annoy her.

“There.” Vivian said, arching her shoulders and pointing down one of the narrower branches. “Hurry!” She bolted off, so quickly that it yanked the leash right from Sarah’s hand. Sarah called out and chased, but Vivian didn’t seem to care that she couldn’t actually run on two legs. It’s like the thought didn’t even occur to her to try.

Vivian was surprisingly fast on all fours. Or, Sarah was just a slow runner who smoked too much weed. But she didn’t really want to admit that right now, so she went with ‘Vivian is fast’ as the explanation for why the blonde dusted her to the first curve and all the ones after that.

“Vivian! Slow down, wait up!” Sarah called as she fell further behind. “Oh thank god…” Sarah panted as she rounded the final corner and found the coach. Another quarter mile and I’d have dropped.

The canyon had continued to narrow as they ran, and the coach had gotten itself jammed between two rocks jutting in from either side. Vivian sat on her haunches behind the coach and looked up at Sarah with unmistakable pride on her face.

“...good girl?” Sarah offered, which was apparently the right answer because Vivian waggled her butt in appreciation.

Danica appeared at the side of the coach at the sound of voices. She crouched behind the corner of the coach and brandished a gun. “Oh! It’s you!” She smiled, lowering the weapon to climb over the rock that had caught the rear wheel. The nude woman rushed over to give Sarah a big hug.

“I am so happy to see you two! I have been trying to get this thing unstuck and-woah! Vivian!” Danica jumped as Vivian started sniffing her backside.

“Sorry, that need just kinda came over me…” Vivian blushed a deep crimson. Sarah wasn’t sure what to say that wouldn’t make it more embarrassing, so she said nothing. “The good news is, you’re a member of the pack.” Vivian unhelpfully added.

“Great!” Danica gave Sarah a confused side eye, returned by a shrug.

“Yeah, we’ve been having a bit of a day too.” Sarah climbed over the rock to walk to the front of the coach, stopping when she saw the women harnessed to the front. “Ok, not that bad a day. Goddamn, Luciana, they did a number on you.” Sarah returned Danica’s side eye at the stripes across the backsides of both of the harnessed women, and the whip in Danica’s hand.

“She told me to!” Danica whined. “Besides, it’s how you tell them to move.”

“That makes as much sense as anything. But who’s the redhead, and how’d you get them stuck?”

“Zoe is her name,” Danica patted her hair affectionately. “She… came with the coach? I don’t know her story. Luciana got hit with this.” Danica showed the revolver. “Janet said it was temporary. For her sake, I hope that’s true.” Sarah didn’t follow up on that, not sure she wanted to know. “Ronnie tried to take the coach, knocked me off, and the two girls ran off with the coach until they got themselves stuck here.”

“I think we can free it.” Vivian called from the back. Sarah and Danica looked around the side to see where she was inspecting. “This wheel just needs to be jarred loose and the whole thing should be able to fit through the rest. After that the canyon opens up.”

Sarah nodded. “That should work. Good girl.” Vivian waggled again while Danica gawped. “Just roll with it.”

“Pretty much have to,” Danica shook off her shock. “Ok, I’ll climb into the driver’s seat in case the girls bolt again.”

Once she had done so, Sarah and Vivian positioned themselves between the coach and the rock wall. It was close enough that the two could place their backs against the coach and plant both feet on the rock for leverage. Sarah took up Vivian’s leash.

“Ok, one, two, three, push!” Her command shot down the leash and both shoved with all their might against the wall, tilting the coach away just enough that the wagon wheel slipped free of the rock that had held it and began to roll again. The two quickly scrabbled up the side and into the seat next to Danica. Once they were seated, Danica cracked the whip across the two bare asses in front of them, and the coach started rolling with speed.

“Next problem. Where the hell is the hotel?” Danica asked. Vivian calmly pointed. “How can you know that?”

“I can smell Al’s fucking cigar from the finish line.” Vivian grumbled. “Fuck, I’d do anything to ride away from it.”

“Hear hear.”

Vivian’s confidence was premature. The rabbit warren of canyons was still far too complex to navigate without the aid of Vivian’s nose, but even with the benefit of that direction, it was taking a long time to figure their way through. The twisting canyons split and twisted the winds that made it down inside, so the scents would come at her from odd directions or even more than one direction at once.

“Take this.” Danica pushed the revolver into Sarah’s lap. “My aim is terrible. Don’t worry, the gun doesn’t… hurt them.” Danica cracked the whip across Luciana’s backside, then shied away from Sarah’s raised eyebrow. “Ok, the gun doesn’t directly hurt them.”

“I knew a guy who collected old guns. Wonder what he’d pay for this piece?” Sarah let the polished chrome on the barrel reflect the sunlight as she looked it over.

“With or without the ability to turn women into plow animals?” Vivian asked. Keen eye for value, that one.

“They don’t all turn the way Luciana did,” Danica said. “Janet turned catlike, ran off up into the hills.”

Sarah popped open the cylinder. There were two filled chambers, each bullet marked with a symbol she didn’t recognize. Mallory and Janet are still out there, plus Michael who might try to take the coach back. Not enough shots… She hoped having the two girls pulling the coach would let them outrun the rest, and let her avoid having to use this thing. Maybe catJanet will be scared of our dog? Sarah glanced over at Vivian, who was sniffing the air and pointing Danica towards the right fork of the upcoming split.

Vivian was taking on less of the demeanor of the ferocious pit bull Sarah would have guessed and more of a golden retriever. Her eyes looked excited, like she was just happier than hell to be useful. Vivian forced herself between Sarah and Danica, nuzzling in as if she enjoyed their proximity.

“...What?” Vivian asked when she noticed Sarah staring.

“Nothing. Just want to get out of here.”

“Good news on that front.” Danica pointed to the tops of the canyon walls, which seemed to be growing closer. “We’re climbing.”

Danica drove the lead girls harder to get up the slope, which was leaving them exposed and vulnerable. Sarah felt some degree of pity over Luciana’s and Zoe’s striped asses. But then Sarah remembered that Luciana had gotten them into this mess and Zoe seemed to be happier than hell just to run, and resolved to enjoy the spectacle. That was, until Vivian elbowed Sarah and reminded her that she was the shooter, so Sarah was forced to tear her eyes away from the two gorgeous butts and watch boring cliffs and shrubbery so they wouldn’t get ambushed. But she did sneak a few peeks…

Danica exhaled in relief and Vivian beamed as they crested the ridge and the hotel came into view, shimmering in the distance. However, their goal was closer - the corral that marked the end of the road. The wooden gate was open and inviting, and they could see a wooden grandstand next to it filled with what must be the entire staff of the hotel. Ruby and Al loomed over all of them from the top row, watching the approaching coach through old time spyglasses.

“That’s the finish line! Go go!” Vivian called. Home stretch! Danica raised her whip to strike the girls, but before she could, the coach lurched forward and knocked the three back into the bench seat. Danica’s backswing was thrown off, and the end of the whip snagged in the wheels of the coach, yanking it from her hand and leaving it behind. As soon as she’d sighted it, Zoe tore off running like she was possessed. Faster than she’d been running even under the whip, faster than anyone Sarah had ever seen! Luciana’s legs were churning as fast as possible just to keep from getting left behind and dragged by the harness.

“Hold on!” Lost in her frantic single-minded sprint, Zoe had seemingly forgotten the large coach behind her and was dragging them entirely too close to oncoming obstacles. Danica tugged hard at the reins to steer around the rocks and cacti in their path as best she could, but she could only make minimal changes. Goddamn it this thing is out of control! Sarah felt a powerful sense of deja vu and cursed the Producers for their lack of imagination.

“Danica, steer right! I smell-” Vivian was cut off as an arrow shot out of the bushes up ahead, missing the trio by inches. Sarah shoved Vivian’s leash into Danica’s free hand and tried to line up a pistol shot at the place where she thought it had come from, but the coach was bouncing all over the place and with only two rounds she couldn’t afford a wild shot.

“So close, Daddy!” Up ahead Michael burst free of the bushes, holding Danica’s discarded bow with one hand and dragging a completely disheveled Mallory by her wrist shackles by the other. Michael was nude but for a cowboy hat, but at least he looked like he was coherent. Mallory was an absolute mess, the slick juices running down her leg were obvious to Sarah even at this distance, and a quick look at Vivian’s glassy eyes showed they were nearly overpowering her senses as well. Michael grabbed an arrow from the quiver hanging from Mallory’s back and tried to line up a shot, but the blonde was busy grinding herself against his lower leg, rolling her eyes with pleasure every time she tugged on shackles she wore around her wrist.

“Oh fuck me…” Danica dropped the reins and dove at her own pussy, the effects of the pills, the denial, and finally seeing Mallory and Michael together crashing straight through her mental defenses.

“Danica! Keep it together!” Two rounds or not, she needed to get control of this situation. Sarah snapped off a shot of her own to try to distract Michael while she grabbed at the reins, but she could barely aim it. The round sailed wide enough of the mark that Michael didn’t even flinch.

His second arrow caught Danica in her bare breast, disappearing into her body with a powerful flash. It passed Mallory’s lust straight into her, and combined with her own the effect was to reduce the woman to a sheer quivering mass of need. Which was bad enough, since Danica was the one who was supposed to be driving.

Sarah realized a beat too late that there was a second, more important problem: Danica was still holding Vivian’s leash. As the brunette rose from the seat with a single-minded compulsion to attack Michael’s cock, that same compulsion was carried down through the collar into Vivian.

Fuuuuu- Vivian and Danica jumped up in unison and stampeded right over Sarah’s side of the bench. Sarah was shoved clear of the coach and dropped the gun to curl up, expecting her next sensation to be a headfirst crash into the dirt speeding by below. But instead she felt a powerful yank across her chest as the ropes that had been quietly wrapping themselves around the bench arrested her fall. She swung back into the side of the coach with a painful smack. When she dared open her eyes, she saw Michael trying to wave off the onrushing Danica and Vivian and point to the coach. But the two would absolutely not be denied, not with Michael’s erection so close at hand. Seeing that he couldn’t wave them off, he desperately tried to grab at another arrow but it would not have helped matters even if he was able to loose it. Before he could notch it, Danica and Vivian tackled Michael to the ground. Before they were concealed by the dust kicked up by the wagon, Sarah barely got a look at the three girls catfighting over the right to take his dick in their mouth.

It’s all… up to me… Sarah grabbed the seat and tried to haul herself up, but doing so one-handed while hanging off the side was a little more than she was capable of right now. She planted a heel on the top and tried to haul herself up that way, but before she could pull her weight up and onto the coach a hand shot down and grabbed the ropes around her chest. With inhuman strength, it yanked her up and onto the seat. Sarah found herself eyeball to eyeball with… a cat. Janet. Both, really. As messed up as Mallory looked, Janet seemed even wilder and more feral. Cat ears shot out through her now-frizzy red hair, her pupils had elongated into the narrow slits of a cat eye, and the woman was now lithe muscle underneath those curves.

“Meeee-ow.” Sarah purred. Janet rolled her eyes at that, looking embarrassed that she even had to be there. Yup, they nailed the cat expressions.

“Get off the coach.” Janet ordered, pointing with her free hand. Paw. Whatever. Sarah grabbed the ropes and gave them a tug to demonstrate how she was secured to the seat.

“I can’t, I’m literally tied to it.”

“Tell the ropes to let you go!”

“They haven’t listened to me once since I got them!” Sarah yelled back. The finish line was looming over Janet’s shoulder, drawing closer at a rapid clip. “You get off! You know the rules, we can’t split the win! If we’re both driving, we both lose!”

“I am not losing!” Janet flashed fingernails that now looked rather… claw-like, and Sarah felt the ropes tighten against her body defensively. “Ugh, fine. I’ll do it myself, like everything.”

Before she swiped, Sarah grabbed Gropy and Pervy and looked into their ‘faces,’ willing them to understand.

“Come on, you two! You have to let go! She’s a cat now and cats will claw through anything to get what they want. It’s their instincts. Their cat instincts. Understand?”

“Jesus, it’s temporary, you don’t have to be a bitch and rub it in.” Janet groaned. “Just untie yourself and get the fuck off!”

Gropy and Pervy looked at Sarah for a long beat, until Pervy’s head popped up excitedly with recognition. The two nodded at Sarah and began uncoiling from around her, loosening her from the seat. Janet kept her eye on the woman, not wanting to make the same mistake that had gotten her shot. But this meant that she couldn’t see what the ropes were doing behind her as she grabbed Sarah’s shoulders to give her the heave-ho.

“Wait! Wait!” Sarah called as Janet moved to chuck her off. Janet paused, cocking her head with feline curiosity - when it feels no fear or threat from its prey whatsoever. Her loss. “Have fun, kitty kitty!”

Sarah kicked at the ropes between Janet’s legs and they went flying off the opposite side and ricocheted off a saguaro. Janet whipped around to see the movement in her peripheral vision, and pulled back her teeth and hissed as she saw her downfall. Sarah’s ropes had formed themselves into a perfect ball, which was now rolling along the ground… looking for all the world like a ball of yarn… in other words, completely irresistible. Janet threw Sarah down to the roof of the coach and bounded off the back as her animal instincts overrode her human brain. Sarah heard Janet’s pathetic yowling growing fainter behind as she chased her elusive prey.

Sarah lay splayed out on the coach, catching her breath with one arm dangling off the side and the other laying across the driver’s seat. The Harem Hotel cameras caught every angle of the woman jiggling from the vibrations of the speeding coach, and the smirk on her face as she passed under the arched Harem Hotel stables sign that marked the finish.

Hell. fucking. yes.

Sarah’s smile was short-lived as she was thrown forward when the coach ground to a quick halt. The redhead who had been doing most of the pulling dropped to her knees in the dirt with an exceptionally loud and relieved whinny that seemed to echo off the far mountains. Zoe’s entire body thrashed from what was obviously an extremely intense and clearly long-denied climax, so strong that only the harness kept her from collapsing to the ground.

“You and me both, girl.” Sarah muttered under her breath as slowly picked herself up to a seated position.

“Yeeeee haw! Winner winner chicken dinner!” Sarah heard Celene call, followed by hoots and whistles and a hail of gunfire as the rest of the watching staff started dancing and firing their guns in the air in celebration. Even on this goofy show, that cannot be safe. Sarah imagined those bullets causing random animal mutations all over the hotel grounds when they came crashing back down.

“Hoooold on just one freakin second!” Al clomped through the paddock, with a smug-looking Ruby walking alongside him like she was among the clouds. “The rule says the winner is the team who was driving the coach! Not some chick sprawled on the back. No driver, no winner! No chicken dinner!”

“Oh come on now, Al, you’re being even more ridiculous and obstinate than usual. Luciana was driving!”

“Luciana was pulling.”

“What’s the difference?” Ruby shrugged.

“The driver doesn’t end up with whip marks all over their ass!”

“MOOO!” Luciana stamped her hoof and snorted. She might have charged Al then and there, but Sarah clutched the reins and yanked them back before she got them both in trouble.

“Ok, so Sarah’s holding the reins. Either way, it’s obvious that my team won.”

“Now she is! Not when they crossed the line! INSTANT REPLAY!” Al called out to nobody in particular. Sarah saw the glint in his hand as he pulled out a cheap gold pocketwatch from his coat. When he wound the hands backwards. Sarah was suddenly being yoked backwards as the entire world reversed itself. “!YALPER TNANTSNI” Al belted out. He and Ruby moonwalked back to their seats overlooking the paddock. The bullets fell backwards out of the sky into the chambers of the staff’s guns, the staff themselves wiping the smiles off their faces and slamming their butts back down onto their seats. Sarah found herself back into the lying position where Janet had left her, and the two horses forced to their feet as the coach rolled through the finish line and about twenty yards out into the field of play.

What in the-?!

Sarah gasped for air as time suddenly flowed forwards again, and she only had a moment to reflect on the craziness of that before they passed under the arch again. She just heard Zoe’s moan of intense pleasure - Again!? That poor girl! - before everything - everything - froze absolutely solid. Every sunbeam, every piece of dust, every single bead of sweat on Sarah’s body all stopped completely dead. With everything silent, Sarah could only move her eyes as she heard the two hosts approaching again.

“See, she’s not holding the reins!” Al pointed at Sarah’s limp hand, resting on the driver’s seat. Ruby planted her foot on the step and climbed up to inspect it, looking at Sarah’s fingers with the intensity of a crime scene detective.

“It’s resting on her thumb, under the other fingers. She doesn’t need to grip the damn thing with two hands to count! It’s in her hand, she was driving, game over. I win. Deal with it.”

The two continued arguing for over a minute while Sarah and everyone were held in place by the magic. She remembered Ruby doing this on opening night, but that time it seemed to strain her. Is their power growing stronger as the game continues…? Good lord they were already beyond anything human already, is this gonna get… worse?

“Just release them for now, before that one loses her mind,” Ruby waved her hand at Zoe. “She’s just a rental, remember? I’m not losing that deposit.” A still-pissed off Al clicked the button on his watch to release the flow of time again. Sarah was once again thrown forward as the coach stopped. This time Zoe had apparently been frozen during that mind-melting orgasm, and she was slumped completely unconscious in the straps. Luciana nudged her with her hoof, but the redhead kept drooling onto her breasts through her large dopey smile.

““Yeeeee haw! Winner winner chic-”

“SHUT UP!” Al called, the murderous look on his face showing that he’d lost the argument. That silenced Celene, though the celebratory gunfire and whoops continued regardless. Ruby was holding a large book in her hand, presumably some sort of rulebook. She pitched it over her shoulder casually, having won her argument and the challenge, and it disappeared into the air before it hit the ground.

While Al stormed off under a cloud of curses, Ruby walked over and grabbed Luciana by the cheeks, planting a kiss directly on the woman’s lips.

“The team couldn’t have done it without you.” Ruby shook the woman’s cheeks.

“Mooo?!” Luciana looked around in confusion, as if to ask if anyone else had seen that. Sarah slowly climbed down, feeling a wild noxious mix of fear, excitement, and lust at that finish. She climbed down warily, expecting Ruby to cross the space and kiss her too, but instead the host simply bounced over and honked her left tit with a wink.

Hey!

Ruby left to being constructing the stage, leaving Sarah to unbuckle Luciana and Zoe from the harnesses. Once she was loose, Luciana trotted off towards the water trough and Sarah had to help the now slowly recovering Zoe over to join her. Sarah splashed a little water on Zoe to bring her back to her version of coherence, and was rewarded with a friendly nuzzle. Zoe and Luciana bent at the waist to drink from the trough, leaving Sarah to step back to confusedly ogle.

“This better be temporary…” Sarah eyed Luciana. The big boobs and strong muscles she could live with. The hooves and horns were a bridge too far, honestly. But a cautious side eye at Zoe confirmed that happy endings weren’t always available. Fuck… Michael, your plan needs to work…

Across the paddock, the staff hustled to jump from the wooden grandstands as Al and Ruby disassembled them all at once. The nails shot out of the planks and then the planks themselves followed, everything flying into the air and circling above them as a chaotic cloud of iron and wood. The two hosts snapped their hands down to the ground and the materials shot towards the center of the paddock. Posts rammed deep into the earth, followed by the planks laying themselves across the top and the nails firing into them from above to secure the whole thing. Within several manic seconds, the grandstand had reassembled itself into a large stage.

As the hosts worked, Celene and the staff jammed a small stick of dynamite into the lock sealing the stagecoach door. Sarah ducked as the small explosion blasted the door off its hinges. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a heavy safe inside. It took six of the men to carry it to the stage, giving Sarah a newfound appreciation for the two ponygirls that pulled the goddamned thing. Once they dropped it in front, Celene calmly spun the dial and entered the code to unlock the door.

“They made you blow off a padlock but gave you the code to the safe?” Sarah asked. Celene gave her a large shrug.

“Colt was like that.”

“He was.” Al interjected himself into their conversation. “So let’s get this over with, then we never have to mention his name again.” The last bits of wood formed steps to the stage, and Sarah and Luciana moved to the spot where he pointed for them to stand. Sarah’s ropes slithered across the ground and up the steps to her feet. Sarah smiled and knelt down, allowing them to slide their way up and around her arms and torso, not even complaining when they yanked her arms back and secured them there. “Ok I'll let you have this one, I owe you.” Sarah joked.

Al snapped his fingers repeatedly, and each time a swirling thin dust devil dropped from the clear sky to the stage, and upon withdrawing revealed one of the other contestants. Janet, Mallory, and Ronnie appeared to one end of the stage, in various states of confusion, criminality, or animalhood as the case may be. The next revealed Vivian, sat on her haunches and looking quite pleased with herself at the win.

The final cyclone dropped Michael at the end of the line, standing and still wearing the cowboy hat and nothing else. Danica was on her knees, uncontrollably bobbing her head on his dick. Danica hardly noticed the change in location or audience. Michael blinked a few times to clear his vision after the dust had swirled around him, to see that he was now the center of attention for the hosts, the cast, and the staff who had been summoned to watch the conclusion. Michael tried to push Danica off of him, but the woman had her treasure now and would not be stopped. She grabbed two handfuls of his ass and pulled herself in closer, burying her face in his pubic hair as she took his entire length. Sarah let out a low, appreciative whistle at that. She expected Michael to look embarrassed, but apparently having failed to stop her, he decided to lean in. He placed his hand possessively on the back of her head and made long eye contact with the rest of those watching. Wow… He really took my advice on confidence to heart.

It didn’t take very long for him to finish, but Michael did try to mute his reaction. When he came in Danica’s mouth, she came as well, gripping his ass even tighter and digging in her nails as the climax powered through her. Between her and Zoe, Sarah was getting a little jealous of these women cumming so hard they could barely stand. Danica blushed when she looked up to see she had an audience and, seeing no place to surreptitiously spit, swallowed his load with everyone watching.

Repeat Performance +0

But an audience! +2

As Danica wiped her lips and assumed her place in line, Ruby stepped to the front of the stage and took command, staring directly into the middle distance where the camera presumably watched.

“Well now that that’s come to a happy ending, let's congratulate the winners: Danica! Sarah! Luciana! Vivian!” Ruby and the Staff clapped. It was only then that Michael suddenly looked ashen.

“Something you want to tell the girls? Something you’ve had to keep under that… hat.” She grinned and flicked the bill of his cowboy hat.

“I… If I won there wouldn’t be a strike!” He cried out, like the words were bursting out of his chest. “I was trying to tell you! I just… couldn’t say it!”

Danica and Ronnie looked absolutely horrified at this news, clearly the chance to avoid a strike entirely would have been the best outcome - especially for Danica. Sarah shook her head - that would have made things so much easier from the beginning. At least we won.

“That’s right, we’re gonna need to dish out a strike.” Al clapped his hands ruefully, and the wood behind the stage suddenly lunged upwards into a large bar hanging over the heads of Ronnie, Janet, and Mallory. Ropes fired over the back of the stage and swung down forming a hangman’s noose over their heads. Before anyone could scream, and Danica was clearly heading that way imminently, Ruby waved her own arms for silence.

“Calm down. We’re not that dark.” Ruby twirled her fingers in the air, and Janet, Ronnie, and Mallory were suddenly swept from their feet and spun upside down like they’d been caught in a hunting snare. The ropes jumped forward and wrapped around their ankles, hanging them inverted, high enough that their fingers couldn’t reach the stage.

Damien reached into the blown-open coach, and emerged holding a large cast iron post filled with heated coals. A red-hot poker in the shape of an X was resting inside, and the three dangling women each looked at it with unmitigated fear.

“Don’t be such babies about it.” Ruby shook her head disapprovingly. “Take your medicine like Mama and Vivian did.” Then she looked out into the desert again to address the invisible audience. “Thank you, thank you! Despite some unfortunate delays, we hope you enjoyed our throwback challenge! To recap the prizes - The Victory Points in the coach are now the winning team’s to distribute, along with some fun new items! The losers…” Ruby cocked her head towards the struggling trio hanging by their ankles, “are up for a vote to determine who gets the strike. And we promised one more surprise… While each of the winning girls gets a night with the Boss by themselves… the entire losing team has to share their date! Hope they're feeling snuggly!”

Janet and Ronnie stared daggers at each other at this revelation, while Mallory just continued to look confused. And horny. Very confused. And very horny.

“So without further ado, audience please tell us which of these beauties gets a lovely new X to mark their shame!”

[AN: The vote below asks you to rank each contestant and Michael 1-10 on their performance, 10 being the best. The VP and items will be distributed by the characters, but the votes will rank the severity of the TFs in the next round, as well as the character who creates it. The lowest average score from Janet, Mallory, or Ronnie will receive the strike. The Poll is now closed.]