Hannah had taken Jewel Box out of the stall for the final round of her piercings, because she needed all the light she could get. She shackled the girl's hooves to the floor, spread well apart, and then found a barrel out on the main floor of the barn. With David's help, she rolled the barrel over to the splendid filly, who was already trembling in anticipation of the worst. Hannah bent Jewel box down over the barrel, so her beautiful rump was raised on high like an offering. With another length of cord, she lashed Jewel Box'es bridle to a third ring set in the floor.
The young ponygirl was now facing away from Turq, so she could hear her whimpering but not actually see her face. Hannah sat down on the barrel next to Jewel Box, and stroked her back and flanks, trying hopelessly to calm her down. It had the opposite effect. The filly's knees knocked against the barrel, making a little rhythmic clonking sound, like a pony limping.
"All right, that's all right."
She swabbed the ponygirl's vulva in antibiotic ointment, once and then twice. Then, working with her hemostats in one hand and the needle in the other, like a woman knitting, Hannah began to work her way down Jewel Box'es labia. Emily came in to watch. Hannah kept up a steady patter over the ponygirl's moans and little pleading shrieks for mercy.
"There, now. I saved the brightest amber for here, so it stands out against your dark little lips. Now think how pleased the stud will be on Friday. He can hardly see your other jewelry when he comes to cover you. But he'll see this, and he'll feel it, too? Don't you want to look your best for your stud?"
"You should tell her." Said Emily.
Hannah sighed. "Must we?"
"It's better to tell her. And I want to see her hear it."
"Jewel Box?" Said Hannah cautiously. "Maxon, who owns you, wants you to have your clitoris pierced. It's large enough, I've checked that. And I've it done it before… once. But Emily wants you to know about some of the possible side effects." Already Jewel Box was thrashing on the barrel, as if she were trying to get away. Not likely. Hannah seemed a bit pained, watching her. "Normally, it makes your clitoris extremely sensitive. But it's possible that you'll get scar tissue, and lose a lot of sensitivity. Or maybe all sensitivity there. That's not likely, but… well, I think Emily wants you to worry about it for the next few weeks."
Emily smiled at this little sign-off, and squatted beside Jewel Box, helping Hannah hold her down. The hemostats gripped the ponygirl's clit, and she stopped thrashing, wisely, but she seemed almost to be hyperventilating with fright.
Hannah ran the needle through, and the barn shook with Jewel Box'es always-underestimated scream. Finally, Hannah slipped in the bar, with its delicate pommels of amber on either side, and leaned back to admire her handiwork. Jewel Box was swallowing huge gasps of air, one after another, as if she had just surfaced from a drowning.
"Can you get me a bucket of water?" She asked Emily.
"Sure."
"Easy there, Jewel Box. You're all done."
Emily returned, and Hannah doused the panting ponygirl with a bucket of water, then threw a cool-down blanket over her. She shuddered, a little blanketed pyramid over the barrel.
"I suppose we'll have to let her rest up this Friday."
"We can't. Syzygy… we ought to try him out on all seven."
"Oh." Hannah shook her head. "No, she needs to rest. Heal up a bit."
"All right. We'll have Syzygy cover someone twice. Then it's a fair contest, eh?"
"Right." Said Hannah, who seemed to be a bit overwhelmed herself. "And then Friday next, we find out if she's gone numb or gone to heaven."
Emily grunted. "Either way, she'll holler until the hayloft collapses, you know she will. Pleasure or frustration, take your pick."
So one of the remaining ponygirls was to be covered twice that Friday. Naturally, Emily wanted to use this little irregularity to foment some discord. She announced that she would reward the best-behaved ponygirl that week with the honor of a second helping of Syzygy. Which ought to make Jewel Box the winner, Turquoise thought after a few days. The filly had become shy and nervous again, and did not shake her rump at the passers-by to show off her pretty new decorations. No doubt she was worried about the clit piercing. But Emily's plan didn't work. Unless you got the first two shots at Sizzy, he probably can't be a prize worth winning. A stud like Orion, that can stay rock-hard all day long, is not sitting behind every stable door.
All the same, the ponygirls were on fairly good behavior up until Wednesday, when it seemed fairly clear that Minka had won the battle, and the others cut loose to all their old bad habits, knowing they couldn't win. So it was a quiet week. Because really, it's the ponygirls that are the trouble-makers. And Orion, but he's in low spirits these days.
In the end, Minka got amply rewarded. Syzygy was brought to her first, and allowed to satisfy himself for quite a while. Then to Yeesh, then back to the little Greyson, whose second round of moans instilled a jealous respect in all the other fillies of the barn. By the time Syzygy was brought in to Turq's stall, even the ring, the leather ring that Hannah had helpful buckled on him, could not keep his cock up. He thrust inside her weakly, and - Turquoise was fairly certain - faked an orgasm so that Emily wouldn't whip back to his stall and let him rest.
"Better luck with Syzygy." Said Ingrid wickedly. Turquoise ignored her, and tried to get off by rubbing her swollen clit against the edge of the cradle-beams, until Emily came back and threw a bucket of cold water on her.
The next Friday morning, Hannah woke him up bright and early, and fed him a very rich breakfast - oats and honey and carrots and rich buttermilk. As she washed him down thoroughly, she finally spoke. "Well, champ, get ready to party. We tried out Syzygy last week. Now we're going to try you. Just take it easy, pace yourself, and you'll be the stud, ok? It isn't so hard."
Emily came over and leaned at the stall door, malice oozing from her.
"We're going to start with the filly, then work up the aisle and back down the other side. I want to do Turq last." She said.
"Killjoy," said Hannah, but she was cheerful about it. Sirius was mortified. He remembered that he could not even remember the seventh time he had mounted the phantom. This is Emily's accursed idea of a joke. Finally, finally, I get to mount Turquoise, and it will just be a humiliation. I'll be half-asleep and jabbing her with a limp string. And Syzygy must have pumped her till she was bursting. God damn it. But another voice inside him - whose voice? - was saying: 'Why worry? You're about to cover seven ponygirls. You haven't had any pussy in thirteen months, and you're about to fuck until your cock is numb, and here you are worrying about whether or not you'll impress a mare who maybe doesn't even care about you anyway. Who do you think you are?'
Already they were leading him out of the stall, in a Hackamore bridle, which might as well have been nothing, and into Jewel Box'es stall. She was so beautiful, with her freckled ass and the delicate wisps of red hair that Emily had left to frame the vulva. She turned her head as far around as she could, but she had blinkers on, and could not see him. Still, she was hungry for him. Since Hannah had finished the piercings, she hadn't been covered, and no doubt she was desperate to know whether her clitoris had been left insensate or super-charged. She was arching her back, and her shackled hands made fists and released, waiting. When the stall door opened, one of her hooves started to shiver uncontrollably, which Sirius found more fetching than he could have possibly imagined.
"Now go easy, boy." Hannah warned again. Whatever. It had been how many months since he had mounted the phantom? Six? Seven? And before that he had not gotten to mount anyone - to have sex, rather - since he had come to Broken Oak. He leapt on to Jewel Box as if she were the last seat in the lifeboat. The tip of his cock nudged the little bead on its amber rod, and Jewel Box sang and stamped with joy. Lack of sensititivity did not seem to be a problem. Her hips snapped happily under him, and his cock slid exultantly into the waiting warmth, the amber studs on her inner labia treading his shaft perversely. Too good to be true! Oh, yes, thank you! Nothing else mattered for a moment. Not the brevity of it, not the cruel way in which Emily had stolen Turquoise from him again, nothing. Only the vital thrusting into this perfect, dappled backside. This pussy that had no need of David to change its heat and pressure and lubrication; a vagina made for his cock, hungry for it, waiting for it. He moved mad with pleasure, and spent himself into the sound of her delighted groans.
She kept bucking long after they pulled him off her.
Minka was next. Sirius could tell that there was some hostility among the ponygirls, that the Greyson should get Syzygy twice (and early in the day, too), and then have Sirius second. It was clearly unfair, and it was probably manufactured by Emily to create divisions, as she loved to do.
Unlike Jewel Box, Minka could not turn her head: the collar held her neck in one position. Sirius took a moment to admire her beauty close up. Her bodysuit was such an elegant means of torment. But he had not much time for this, because Emily and Ingrid caught the bottom of his buttocks on their accursed length of rope, and forced him up onto her.
Oh yes. His nipples slid smoothly against the latex of her back, just as his cock slid smoothly into the wet passage before it. He saw her fore-legs tremble as she came, watched the hoof rocking back and forth against the floorboards. It reminded him of Turquoise, and he was not thinking of Minka as he gave up his fluid inside her.
Then it was Magda. He was tiring already, and he found it strangely disturbing that Magda had sucked Tomas' human cock. It had never bothered him before, but now, in this brief moment of rutting intimacy, it seemed disgusting. As he lay atop her, she stroked his chest with the fingers of her bound hands, and he felt vaguely repulsed by this tender gesture.
Ayesha did not flip her tail out of the way properly, and Sirius did not notice this in time, being entirely focused on maintaining his erection. Apparently the grooms did not notice either. The leather strands of the tail caught on his cock, and he dragged them inside her. Both of the ponies noticed immediately, but there was little they could do about it. The strap pressed to Sirius' buttocks held him tightly in place - he could not back up and try again. He thrust painfully, and Ayesha whinnied and stamped until she was almost running in place, and getting a barrage of neat swats to her stomach and breasts.
When he was finished, they took him off her and saw the aftermath. Ayesha's tail - plug - the monstrous thing that Emily had given her for Christmas - was pulled half-way out. Ingrid roared with laughter, and wrenched the whole thing free. The leather strands were fouled with mucus and semen, and Ayesha was crimson with embarrassment.
"Shall I punish her?" Said Ingrid.
"Not yet."
Hannah was trying to revive Sirius' erection for a fourth round. She was not having a great deal of luck.
"Wait a second." Said Emily. "Remember on the phantom? He does better with a blindfold. Let me get one." Ah no, you bitch. But even Hannah was giggling.
"Don't worry, Sirius," she said cheerily. "You get to see Turquoise all the time."
"They're really cute, huh?" Hannah chimed in.
"Too cute." Said Emily, coming back. She buckled the blindfold on to him, and led him on down the corridor aways, then rather abruptly doubled back. Are you trying to confuse me, lady? The blind taste test? I could find my way to Turq's stall with a blindfold on and the wind howling.
"Take the last three out." Emily said, "and tie them up to the grain bin."
"Em, don't be evil." Said Hannah.
"It's not evil. If Sirius is ever going to be a stud, he needs to learn that one pony's cunt is the same as the next. We're not trying to find out if he makes a good fucking mariachi band, gives a lady a candlelight dinner. We want to see if he's a decent stud."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Hannah stroked him to a painful erection again, and they dragged him forward with the strap on his buttocks. They placed another strap across his chest, which prevented him from lowering himself all the way onto the mares. "All right, Sirius," Emily said, "Let's see what's behind tail number one."
He swung himself up onto the hips in front of him. Blindfolded, it took him a long to time for his tired cock to find the slit awaiting it with dripping warmth. He poked hard into the slippery flesh, too low, and the ponygirl squealed. Clumsy! The squeal sounded a lot like Turquoise, actually. Then, after a few more awkward tries, he got inside. He thrust slowly, in deep strokes. If it was Turquoise, and he had just botched everything up, he wanted to at least give her time to enjoy it. But then, listening to her breathing, he felt sure that it was Dolly. He slammed into her several more times, rudely, so as to come quickly and dismount. The orgasm was already more of a painful routine than a pleasure. But I'm saving the slow dance for her, he thought, with grim resignation.
After another, fairly brief round of being rekindled by Hannah's fingers, they mounted him on the second ponygirl. This time his cock found the mark at once, and she whinnied happily. It struck a note of panic in him. For, had Sirius not been fairly sure that he had just covered Dolly, he would have said that he was covering Dolly now.
They've put me up on her twice. They're trying to confuse me. I won't let them. As he spent himself inside this pony, groaning, he jabbed his knee into her leg, hard. She whinnied again with shock, and now Sirius thought he heard Turquoise, and another, colder chill ran through him. But the grooms were dragging him back off.
The last of the ponygirls he mounted in confusion and exhaustion, barely able to keep his erection. He had no idea who it was. Maybe Comet. Maybe. He dismounted, beaten. Emily had won. Either he had not mounted Turquoise, or he had disappointed her. Either way he had lost. He couldn't recognize her.
"Well, Sirius…" Hannah began.
"No," Emily interrupted. "Don't tell him. It's better for him if we don't tell him."
"Mmmm. Ok."
"Look, he bit her. Clever little bastard."
"Leave him in his stall until the mark is gone. So he won't see who he bit."
Hannah took him back to his stall, took his blindfold off, and washed him down thoroughly. She was cheery as ever. "Wasn't that wonderful? I bet you've been dreaming of it for months. Next week we'll try Scorpio, of course, and then we'll decide who gets the job." She kissed him on the ear. "You know I'm rooting for you."
August wore on in its slow succession of musty heat and then blissful, cleansing thunderstorms. Turquoise trained on the high-jump, the hunting trail, and blindfolded carriage pulling - which she was still terribly afraid of, but the zipper harness made it easier. Where her human will would have resisted, the nerves of her nipples could not. It simplified things.
Sweating from the trail, she was led back into the barn one day to hear an uproar. She heard a man's voice which she found familiar, but could not place. He was arguing with Hannah. Ingrid pulled the blindfold from Turquoise's eyes and ran out of the barn, not even stopping to tie her. Turquoise felt the perverse vacuum of freedom on her skin - she was not stabled, tied, or fenced in. The door was open. I could just walk out, and get half a mile down the driveway before they catch up with me and whip me until my teeth chatter. But she had no interest in that anyway. The drama in the barn was much too interesting: Mellissa's old boyfriend was back.
"Give her back!" He was shouting.
Hannah threw her hands up in the air, not angry but exasperated. Turquoise tried eagerly to see the expression on Jewel Box'es amber-studded face. Unfortunately, the blinkers and the heavy snaffle gag she was wearing covered everything.
"Look, I think this is a bad idea." Hannah understated.
"Fuck you!" Shouted the ex-boyfriend. What was his name? Oh yes, Patrick. "Who do you think you are, bitch? Keeping human beings like this…" He was up into the higher register of self-righteousness, and kept going for a while. Turquoise glanced along the aisle of pens to see who was watching. Most of the ponies who weren't outside. She smiled. Jewel Box would be completely mortified. It's a good thing Emily isn't here, or she'd be punished, too. Except Emily never would have let this idiot get back into the barn.
Hannah was taking the opposite approach.
"You want her?" She asked softly, when his wrath had spent itself. "Here you go." She opened the stall door. It was not a sarcastic challenge, she did not yank the bolt open dramatically. It was just a sincere, damning gesture.
Patrick stared. Jewel backed diagonally across the stall as far as the leash let her. Oh God, she hasn't done anything to deserve this. And if this asshole doesn't realize that pretty soon, I hope Hannah kicks him out.
"Melissa?" He said, in a strangely angry voice. She stomped and snorted a bit, turning her blinkers to him. There was a long silence. Hannah got down a pair of reins and held them out for him.
"No!" He shouted.
"You can't take her out of the stall without reins."
"I'm not taking her out of the stall," he said, glad for a chance to look away from the freckled ponygirl his former lover had become. His voice was full of threats which he seemed unlikely to back up. "I'm taking her home."
"Kid, you can't afford her. Maxon doesn't have a student discount."
"I'm calling the cops."
"Fine. There's a phone in the office." She said it so simply that it did not need to be followed by anything. No mention of anyone's legal standing. No mention of the many ways that a well-endowed pony ranch might have to bribe public officials. No mention of anyone's relative credibility. Patrick slouched in defeat. He looked back at the filly standing crossly in the corner.
"How much money?"
"More than you'll ever have, kid." Yah. Didn't Maxon say he was never going to sell her?
The silence wore on painfully. When Hannah spoke again, to deliver the coup de grace, she sounded almost sympathetic.
"You can fuck her if you like. Or you can have her hitched to a carriage and ride her. Or you can whip her."
There was a long silence. Turquoise heard Jewel Box sniffle, a beautiful little touch. Probably fake. She imagined Jewel Box was feeling more contempt than shame.
"If you'd rather fuck one of the other ponygirls, that's fine with me, too. But my boss gets back in an hour."
"I have to get out of here." Patrick whispered.
"Good boy." Said Hannah. He ran for the door.
Emily and Ingrid were talking over a bottle of wine.
"Maxon says we need to raise two million four before the Dawson Creek race."
"Because of this deal he made with Kimiko?"
"Yes."
"Goddamn it, he's an idiot. Does he really think we're going to get all this extra business?"
"I don't know, maybe he's right. Some of the Japanese, the Taiwanese, they like a flutter, and they don't mind spending fifty grand a night to come stay on a farm afterwards. Get out of the city, you know? Get the rural agricultural experience."
"Oh yes. We'll have to get some roosters."
"Good idea."
"Joke."
"Well, ok, but it's still a good idea." She scribbled on her notepad. "Roos-ters. Now. Two million four."
"What are you thinking?"
"Well, Chessy and Orion obviously we can sell to Pondlen, that's maybe four hundred each. We happen to know that she's interested in Dancer mares as well as geldings. She doesn't have any ponygirls at all, I think. And no Dancers. So we could sell her Minka or Turq; we'd get more for Turq, maybe six hundred?"
"Maybe seven." Said Ingrid. "She's a hell of a pony."
"Yes, but we don't know if Pondlen can tell. Anyway, let's say seven. And we know Gigi will drop five on Coral"
"What about the stallions?"
"Well, we need to keep a stud, and Syzygy has a shot at the Saint Angelique. Probably a better shot if Pondlen gelds him, but that doesn't do much for us. I figure we can sell Sirius to Pondlen for another four hundred. But you remember what Gigi's buyer said? They might make a better offer on him. So either/or. That brings us to two million four hundred even."
"Fine. Is there any way to do this without losing five ponies?"
Emily rolled her empty wine glass back and forth on the table, figuring in her head. In the semi-dark, Sirius watched her lips moving silently, like a pony's lips, and felt chill. He could almost feel the cold steel of the ecraseur piercing him. Oh god, Emily, don't send me to Pondlen, don't have me gelded like Orion. Gigi will outbid her. Gigi will take me. But if Turquoise is going to Pondlen, too? He shuddered. Maybe Gigi will buy Turquoise back. What does Pondlen want ponygirls for anyway?
"We..ell." Said Emily slowly. "Maybe if we sold Syzygy and Turq and Minka and Coral, and we got top dollar on all of them."
"Not worth it."
"No. Let's ditch the geldings and hang on to the stud. And the little Greyson."
"Well then. I guess we should see if we can a bid from Gigi, see what she's thinking."
"Yeah, and see if anyone else that is in a mad buying frenzy and we don't know about it."
Sirius managed to fall asleep, fantasizing that he and Turquoise would both be sold to Gigi. He would have a new brand on his thigh, a new owner, a new set of grooms, a new stable. New torments, no doubt. But Turquoise would be there by his side. The alternative was too dreadful to think about. If he was to be gelded at Pondlen's, he could decide if it would be better to have Turquoise there with him or not. He remembered the nights Orion had spent after being gelded, with Jewel Box there in the stable to torture his every glance. He couldn't even imagine it. But nor could bear to see Turquoise taken off into the truck without him, never to be seen again. We will both be sold to Gigi. Somehow. That's it. And with that rock to cling to, he fell asleep.
Late in the night, he awoke with a cold realization. Gigi would never buy Turquoise back. The buyer had said they didn't take any mares with nipple rings, even mares that had had nipple rings. You could moor a ship on the hardware that hung from Turq's breasts. His fantasy crumpled into despair, and despair into a bitter hatred of Emily. If they are going to geld me like they did Orion, he thought, I should at least get a chance to break some ribs like he did. One shot at her, that's all I want. Goddamn human.