Tempest

The girls spent the rest of the evening preparing as best they could for Zoe’s next attempt.

Katie managed to pull together a high-carb dinner from what little they had left in their cupboards; pasta followed by nuts and a banana, while the nude girl spent time trying to visualise her timing and her pace – to imagine the route the collar might take her and to plan out what milestones she should be aiming to hit and when.

With Zoe’s inability to read, Katie searched the internet for videos on barefoot running techniques and put them on for her while she ate. The fact that she needed Katie to find even something so basic for her only made Zoe feel even more humiliated, like a child being kept occupied.

“Land on the balls of your feet instead of the heels, shorten your strides, keep upright and balance, stay light, run quietly… if you’re making a lot of noise with your steps, as shoe wearer’s do, you’re pounding too hard. Try to run softly, quietly, like an animal.”

Zoe cringed at the language, but tried to follow along beneath the table, arching her feet in determined preparation as she brought another forkful of pasta to her lips.

She was slipping back into her old routine, the familiar sense that came the night before a big race – it was only her constant humiliating nudity and helpless arousal that kept her from feeling like she was back running in college again.

Eat well. Hydrate. Get plenty of sleep. It wasn’t rocket science, Zoe knew, it was just the basics. Just do the basics.

Breathe. Focus. Run.

Still – the question remained unspoken: What happens when I qualify?

The collar had remained cryptically silent – there was no way of knowing what would happen next and Katie’s confession that Zoe should prepare for things to get worse before they got better made her feel uneasy. She was literally running into the unknown – ‘The Paddock’ whatever it was, wherever it was – was as hollow a promise of freedom as anything else the collar had done, and yet Zoe couldn’t help but picture a literal paddock – a green pasture somewhere on some bizarre fetish farm.

Were there others like her out there somewhere? Other ‘Ponygirls’ trapped the same way she was? She felt guilty at the realisation that she hoped there was, wishing this on anyone else was horrible and yet… Zoe felt a **** longing that if escape was not going to be quick or easy, then she just didn’t want to be the only one suffering…

Please…

She couldn’t help but look at Katie with a pang of jealousy as she strode around the kitchen in her clothes – looking and acting so… normal. So human.

Outside, it started to rain, as the storm that had threatened for days now descended on the house. The heavens flashed with random sparks of lightning, illuminating the leaden clouds swirling overhead in a great ominous spiral...

Zoe hugged her blanket closer to her nakedness – luxuriating in the comfort and protection of it as the thunder rumbled overhead. She just prayed that the storm would pass before the morning.

Her body was over-extended, from stress, from physical exhaustion, from the aching redness of her repeated whippings. It had been a long day, and Zoe felt a disquieting sense that tomorrow would be even longer.

She needed to sleep. Both of them did.

Zoe didn’t protest that night when Katie followed her into her room, the blonde made it clear without saying a word that she had no intention of sleeping in her own bed. It sent Zoe’s heart fluttering again, but she said nothing.

Instead both girls climbed into Zoe’s bed... One dressed in her comfortable, warmest pyjamas, and the other naked, harnessed and collared. Both doing their best to pretend for the other that this was just a part of their new normal, while their emotions continued to swirl like the maelstrom overhead.

And as the lights flicked off both girls drifted off to the sounds of the rain, rumbling thunder, and a single distant tolling bell...

Zoe stared expectantly at the closed doors of the church. Inside she could hear the thrumming of music and the sound of applause from the assembled congregation.

Marta's wedding!

She knew where she was almost immediately. She recognised the colourful streamers and the confetti baskets of her cousin's wedding...

High above the sky was crystal clear blue. It had been such a beautiful day...

It IS such a beautiful day...

Zoe blinked. Something was wrong. She... She was a bridesmaid... She was meant to be inside!

She looked around, panic rising in her chest. Was she late? She couldn't remember arriving, but... She was alone outside and the ceremony was happening right now! She was missing it!

Anxiously the redhead tried to take a step towards the doors, but something held her back. Something heavy, pulling at the straps of her harness.

My harness?

Zoe stumbled in place, moaning out, mortified as she looked down at herself. Where she'd expected to see her beautiful pastel blue bridesmaid's dress, instead she saw her naked body criss-crossed with the straps of a white ponygirl harness. Her bare feet hot against the shingle path.

No! Not here! Not now!

Zoe whimpered in terror, trying to move again or cover herself with her hands, but it was as though her body wouldn't respond. She could step in place but trying to walk forwards left her stuck, pulled back by her straps.

She wanted to cover her nudity with her hands, but she couldn't bring them in front of her either, she could barely feel them at all.

Good ponygirls don't use their hands

"Mmph!" Zoe cried into her bit gag, shaking her head in frantic pleading. As she did she felt a weight shift above her head, though the naked ponygirl had no idea what it was.

I need to get out of here before anyone sees me! I need to run!

Zoe trembled, stuck in place. Her eyes fixed in terror to the doors of the church as she heard the applause and music grow louder. Knowing, dreading, that any moment her cousin would emerge from those doors with every member of her family... childhood friends, people she went to school with... They'd all come pouring out of those doors. They'd all see her like this.

They'll all know I'm a ponygirl...

Zoe snorted, thrashing more urgently in place. Frantically trying to move or hide or get away - but it was impossible.

Please! No!

A moment later the doors opened and Zoe sobbed, lifting her left knee high towards her stomach in a **** attempt to protect what little modesty she had.

She watched Marta emerge from the doors, arm in arm with Will - the pair of them looking radiant. Marta's white dress was almost dazzling to Zoe's eyes in the bright sunshine.

I'm ruining her day. I'm ruining it for everyone. I'm a stupid idiot ponygirl...

The naked girl squealed, expecting screams of shock or horror, but their reaction was so much worse... There was no surprise in their faces at the sight of her, no shock, no embarrassment or concern... There was just... Joy...

Zoe cried, tossing her head left and right as the wedding party poured through the doors. Hundreds of guests with bright smiles on their faces emerging into the beautiful sunshine, each casting uncaring or admiring glanced in her direction as they formed columns either side of the path Zoe stood on. Each guest excitedly chatted to the others around them, their Sunday best outfits looking so beautiful to the envious naked girl.

Only then did Zoe spot her parents.

"Mmmmmph!"

Help me!!

She tried to call out to them for help. But it was like she was irrelevant to them... They couldn't hear her through the bit gag...

Please... Please someone help me!

So terrified of her own humiliating helplessness, Zoe didn't notice Marta approaching her flank, the bride reaching an appreciative hand down to Zoe's ass and giving her a gentle stroke.

"Good girl..." She soothed, and Zoe snorted, **** back tears.

"Mmmmmph! Mmph!"

It's me... Marta please...!

"Good Ponygirl"

Before Zoe could react she felt her cousin's hand slip between her legs, cupping her over heated sex possessively and Zoe moaned into her gag, mortified. Marta was groping her, in front of hundreds of people.

No!

Zoe tossed her head back and forth in protest, before she felt the hand withdraw.

"If you're good maybe we'll let you cum!... Maybe..." Marta teased, before, to Zoe's horror the bride disappeared from view behind her.

There was a creaking sound, a shift of the weight on her harness and then Zoe felt the sting of a crop on her ass, driving her forward.

I'm pulling a carriage...

She sobbed in shame, reluctantly lifting one bare foot and then the other as she stepped forwards. Where she couldn't move before Zoe now felt the weight shift, and heard wheels turn against the ground.

There was a cheer from the crowd either side of her and the ponygirl found herself showered with confetti as she walked ahead, tears in her eyes. The church bells started to sound, clanging in a chime that felt out of tune... Distressed... Frightening the naked girl to step further, faster...

The crystal blue sky started to darken... Though Zoe remained bathed in sourceless bright light. The distant horizon stretching out away from her as it faded further and further into the inky black darkness of pure obsidian...

The crowd lining the path became cloaked into shadow, becoming faceless figures that grew impossibly in number, their rows stretching towards the horizon. A crowd of shades lining the route of her parade of terror and shame - the air filled with confetti made from black and pink petals...

"Mmmmphhh!"

No one was going to save her. No one was going to help. She was alone, a ponygirl, left to suffer the constant humiliation of being nothing but an animal.

Please... SOMEONE HELP ME

Zoe whimpered into her gag. Stepping obediently forward, foot after foot, faster and faster and faster...

Ponygirls just run!