In All but Name

“Katie?!” Zoe hissed in pleading, body hot, unsure if the blonde could even hear her over the thrumming hum of the mower’s engine.

The only reply she got was a sharp twist of her right nipple that was so sudden it caused her to shudder and moan, stumbling as she struggled through the sensation to turn, throwing her weight into the cart arm on that side and practically side-stepping in a **** attempt to ease the aching pain of the instruction.

“ow, ow, ow, Katie!”

That’s not gentle!

Through her bleary eyes, Zoe realised she was being turned sharply around as the phantom crop tapped lightly against her bare ass and her tail flicked involuntarily up in protest. Though the little vehicle was light, and the crop wasn’t pushing her into anything above a walk, she still had to take a relatively wide line, stepping as best she could to turn within the confines of the track; grateful, at least, that she was able to turn away from the shadow that had replaced Mr Peterson and put the cart between her naked back and it.

As they swung around, Zoe gazed longingly back up the street towards their house – relieved through all the humiliation that at least she didn’t feel completely out of control this time. That for the first time in the hot blur of the last few minutes she was at least now facing the direction of safety. The twisting on her right nipple eased as she finished the turn before the phantom soothing strokes returned to both her tits, drawing her forwards, causing the naked girl to lean into them involuntarily, **** for any small amount of comfort amongst the confusing and overwhelming embarrassment.

Just get me out of here. Out of this... thing...

Overhead the spiralling clouds continued their disturbing rotation as a light breeze tickled through the air, washing across Zoe’s naked skin as if the universe itself was trying to deliberately remind her of just how **** and exposed she was.

“I… I don’t think anything is real…” Katie called over the mower; its discordant sound slowly abating with every yard Zoe retreated them from it.

The naked girl screwed up her nose into a pained frown, her cheeks burning even as she didn’t turn around… the way Katie spoke made her whimper with another tiny bead of resentment, was she not listening? Her cries and pleas had been completely ignored, and Zoe couldn’t tell if Katie was even really talking to her or just out loud, “It’s… like a movie set…”

Zoe bit her lip as she strode on, the alien sand shifting beneath her toes. It was only now, from this distance a few hundred yards away that she could see the differences in how their house looked compared with everything around it. It was more real... more complicated... more detailed... more alive. Even in the eerie nightmarish haze all around them the house stood just as it always had - it had lights... warmth... an interior...

Zoe reluctantly glanced around, heart racing with an overwhelming yet indescribable sense of wrongness as she grasped what Katie was saying. The rest of the neighbourhood houses were in the right places; they were the right shapes, the right colours - but it was like they'd been copied in a hurry. Unlike the vivid reality of their own, their details were missing - there were no lights, no furniture, no texture. The walls were too flat, the angled rooves too uniform, their windows nothing but obsidian black mirrors; a cold and opaque void of shadow behind each pane of glass. They weren't just empty of life, they were empty. They were fake.

Hollow simulacrums of houses in a simulacrum of their street, by nothing but the blackest shadow. Locked behind the demented reality of the boundaries of the track - they were meant to only ever exist at this distance, as a blur in her peripheral. They were both close enough to touch and yet impossible to ever visit. They were set dressing. They were background.

… Just like a movie set...

“Or a game...” Zoe's voice broke as she reluctantly glanced back, her tail flicking again as her stomach wound in tighter knots. She tried to swallow the existential horror - the knowing - that wherever and whatever they were in now very much wasn't where they'd been yesterday - despite the façade. If this was 'The Paddock' then it wasn't just a terrifying change in the sky or the scenery, or even her own body - it wasn't a movie that was going to play out around them, they were in it, they were the players - and the rules had changed. Again. Not just those enforced by her collar this time - but of their reality itself.

She hadn't won anything, there was no freedom here, the ratchet had just tightened another click.

The track. The chariot. The shadows. The houses. The demonic spiralling storm hanging in the sunless sky - it was all here for her. More guard-rails. More restrictions. More motivation.

She tried very hard not to think about the shadow that had replaced Mr Peterson. How many more not-people were out there right now, silent and empty...? The world around them wasn't blanketed in a peaceful quiet, but in the stillness that came hiding from a malevolent danger. Being alone was horrifying, but being stalked, unseen, was much much worse.

“Is he still...?” Zoe dared not look back.

There was a pause before Katie hissed an anxious reply, “... he's just mowing... I don't think he's even looking at us...”

“Katie... what did he say...?”

“You don't want to know... But... it wasn't him...”

Zoe opened her mouth to protest before she held her tongue - maybe not knowing really was better right now. Overhead the spiralling sky rippled with hollow thunder as the sound of the mower drifted further behind them. A lightning flash reflected across the window voids, reflected a hundred times like the dazzling flashes of cameras, and again Zoe's bare skin prickled with the discomforting chilled sense of being watched... the void isn't empty...

“Are you ok?” Katie's voice quivered, in half whisper.

“No...” Zoe trotted on a few more paces, “... Are you ok?”

She felt Katie shift the balance of the cart, but there was no response. Zoe swallowed down another shuddering breath as a painful silence hung between them.

“I'm... sorry...”

“Don't”

Zoe closed her eyes, knowing there was nothing she could say - faltering in her stride as she felt a soft pull on her right nipple that she instinctively leant into. The cart rolled languidly behind her as she took a long, slow, deliberate breath in - holding it as she counted her strides in her head, blindly clinging to the simplicity of the metronome... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... There was no pain in the count. No anxiety. No worry. No need to think about monsters in the dark. All there was was her footsteps...

Good ponygirls just run!

The tugging on her nipples swung from right to left, and a sharp tap of the crop on her flank pushed her into a hard left turn. Opening her eyes, Zoe breathed out in relief at the sight of the sanctuary of their driveway opening up in front of them. A corrective tap of the crop found her pussy again, drawing her down to a slow walk as she braced, aware of the invisible barrier bearing down on them as they passed into the gap in the railing, her bare feet leaving the soft sand of the track and returning to the cool certainty of concrete.

Between her legs the crop tapped again, sharply slowing her to barely a walk, then in lighter taps, a constant dizzying pressure against her aching pussy like she was being gently teased or coaxed down slower and slower, to an agonisingly stilted pace. The naked girl whimpered, biting her lip as she deliberately tried to follow the dizzying commands, her breasts and pussy both at once being soothingly molested by invisible hands as the weight on her harness grew - **** to let her bare feet hover above the ground with each slow step, drawing the little chariot forward only inch by inch.

“K-Katie...?” Zoe mewled, glancing back as best she could in confusion as to why they were suddenly going so slowly so close to home. It was only then that she caught sight of the blonde again crouching in the cart, bracing, her hands balled tight against the handlebars, barely releasing the break as she crawled her half of their little contraption across the threshold.

“Easy... easy... easy...” Katie repeated, though again Zoe wasn't sure if it was to her or just her own thoughts spilling out loud.

Zoe snorted, her tail flicking, “I d-don't have a choice...”

Only when the wheels of the cart found the concrete, and Katie too was back well within the confines of their property did she relax, a loud sigh escaping her lips as she stood up again and waved a hand over the edge of the cart. Where only moments ago she had been trapped within the invisible confines of the chariots bubble, her hand now passed freely over it's sides again.

“I think... I can get off again now we're here...”

Zoe, had little time to contemplate Katie's freedom as the blonde's releasing of the break simply turned the gentle coaxing on her breasts into forceful encouragement forwards once again - and within seconds she felt the sharp tapping of the crop against her ass and the tugging on her nipples easing her back into a walk straight up the drive. She gasped, eyes wide and heart beginning to race again as she stared at the looming obsidian darkness of the open stable door looming ahead of them.

“D-don't get off!” Zoe yelped, staring at the darkened garage interior and the very solid wall at it's rear - her imagination racing into visions of Katie leaping free and leaving her to some uncontrolled **** walk headfirst into it...

“Easy Zo... I'm not...” Katie said defensively, as they approached the stable doors, “I'm going to try and... uh... park you, I guess?”

Zoe's eyes flicked to the porch, then back to the garage interior again as her panicked shame leapt violently into her throat, “W-w-wait... K-Katie... It might... I... can't... please!”

Her bare feet skidded against the ground for a moment, a scuffing step that was **** out of her by another powerful stinging impact of the crop.

“Huh?”

“Stop! Katie... stop!” Zoe moaned, her panic growing more frantic as she passed beneath the doorway and into the garage itself, only paces left, her heart pounding and body primed. Would this count? Did it count? They hadn't gone anywhere, she hadn't run, right? It wouldn't... it couldn't... she desperately didn't want it... not now... not again... and she couldn't face a punishment right now either... please no...

“I don't wanna cum!!” Zoe squealed, eyes squeezing closed as she felt Katie pull the brake and the sudden sharp sting of the crop landing hard against her aching clit. The straps drew taught and Zoe suddenly teetered on the spot, leaning back to sharply stop the chariot. She panted, bracing, yelping in muted despair as she counted her own heart beats for the demonic voice to snap at her from her throat.

“Feet apart! Toes! Stay!”

Zoe jolted, shifting, parting her legs obediently, lifting herself back onto arched feet, rocking in place with a pained whimper that left her pink body flushed and trembling, her pert ass tight beneath her tail as it rocked to a stop against her thighs.

A heartbeat. Another... another... Nothing.

Stupid pony...

Zoe opened her eyes, an embarrassed blush rushing across her naked skin at her outburst, as she felt the straps that had held her so firmly to the cart start to fall away, one by one. and the mechanical monstrosity crawled itself down from her body, detaching it's parasitic snakes from her form until it once again lay dormant and still behind her back. And yet she dared not move from her proscribed position, holding herself as still as she could in that humiliating pose of **** 'pride', facing the wall at some mockery of attention, back arched, bare breasts thrust forwards, her long runners legs taut and perfectly posed for inspection.

“You need a minute...?”

“I... thought...” Zoe stammered, her cheeks growing a darker shade of crimson.