It turned the route to the stables was out through the back of the house. Lacking my shoes left at the front, Catherine supplied me with a pair of rubber Wellington boots, explaining,
"We are often going in and out of this door, so we keep a collection of boots ready to go."
Exiting the manor, I saw night had fully overtaken day rendering it difficult to see much more of this strange farm. But from what I could make out, the house backed onto wide gravelled area. A distance from the house and on the left of the open area was squat building, with a long slanted steel roof on each side. Classical painted with white sides and a red steel roof. These colours were revealed by electric lamps hung up periodically between shuttered windows along the long side of the building. On the shorter front side facing the house were wide barn door, which stood slightly propped open, revealing lights were on inside.
I took in these details of the barn during our short walk over to these doors. Up close, I found that a simple wooden box was what was propping them open. Isabella casually scooped it up as she slipped inside. I on the other hand, felt a great deal of trepidation at passing through the threshold. Catherine noticing my hesitation, hung back with me, and after a moment of me not moving, gave me some encouragement,
"Don't be worried, remember open mind."
"Yeah, I know, I'm trying. It's just... just this building feels like such a normal farm thing. But I know when I go it there, there going to be some tied up woman. Just feels weird, you know, the contradiction."
"Yes, that's true, but I call it more of a juxtaposition. Plus Lily won't be greeting you like a woman, she'll be introducing herself as a pony. It's actually a bit past when we normally put Lily to sleep, but we kept her up in just so you could meet her. So you can see what a real ponygirl is like and don't go on fretting about what we told you."
"Wait, you forced her to stay up just for me? How does she feel about that?"
"Well, that's the thing. How she feels about it isn't the primary concern. We needed her up to demonstrate and she doesn't get a choice in the matter."
"I thought you said you cared for the girls here."
"We do! But we care for them as ponygirls. Isabella is in there right now getting her ready. Non-pony visitors, especially outsiders to the lifestyle, like yourself, are a great rarity around the farm. So Izzy will make sure she is comfortable and feels safe for when you go in. You aren't the only nervous one/ It's all about trust. Lily trusts that we will make good decision, and we have to back up that trust with good decisions."
"And you thought it was a good decision for force her to stay awake?"
"Yes. Ponygirls are already adapted to different sleeping styles already and this is for her benefit too. So you two can meet as smoothly as possible."
"Okay, so she won't flip out when I go in there. She'll just be normal calm women... just all wrapped up?"
"Only one way to find out for yourself. I'll be right behind you, and remember, open mind."
Catherine underscored this last like by gently rubbing my back, but also acting a slightly physical pressure forward. Throughout our conversation, I had been intently staring at the gap in the door, where Isabella had slipped through with such ease. All I saw was a low light emanating from within, but staring hard, I thought I could make out the subtle dance of shadows on the wall, but nothing more. Nothing to sate my curiosity.
Turning to look up at Catherine, I gave the bravest smile I could. In return I got the confident and sympathetic smile I can come to expect from her. And, with that, we closed the last few steps to the door. Me slinking in first, followed elegantly by Catherine.
We entered into a central corridor of the barn, flanked on each side by stables. The front walls of the stables were half wood paneling nearest the ground and vertical metal bar on the upper half. Separating each stable from each other were wooden walls.
A couple stalls down and on the left stood Isabella, smile at us as we entered. She was leaning up against the lower half of the stall's door she was at, with the upper half swung out of the way. Although Isabella's body was turned towards the barn's entrance, she had one arm extended into the stall. From the movement of her shoulder she looked to be petting what was inside. The woman that was inside, petted like a horse. But this casual absurdity didn't seem to bother her as she smiled exuberantly at me.
I crept slowly down the left side of the aisle, all the while with my eyes glued to the edge of the stall I could see Isabella at. After we had separated to pass through the doors, Catherine now resumed her steady hand placement on my back, gently ushering me along. As we drew nearer, she spoke to Isabella,
"How is she?"
Isabella briefly glanced into the stall before she answered,
"She was a bit on the excited side, quite giddy when I told her a guest was coming, but I think she well settled now."
"Good", Catherine replied, before addressing me, "Jane, I know you have conflicted feelings about this, but I won't accept an outburst like when we first told you. Remember, Lily is happy and consenting to be here, and I will not tolerate you being harsh or disrespectful with her. If you can't do that, you can leave the stables."
Taken aback by Catherine's sudden seriousness, I could only nod meekly and respond, "Yes, I promise."
"Good then, Jane, met Lily." As Catherine said this we came abreast with the stable door and suddenly giving me a full view into the stable and the creature within.
The first thing I noticed was that she was almost completely naked. Her entire torso was exposed, including her pert breasts, which being at eye level were the first thing to catch my eye. But beyond the pure display with nakedness, it felt like there was something off. After a moment it clicked that I could only see her torso. Her arms were well pulled back behind her back by series of black straps, leaving the impression from the front that her shoulders ended. This also worked at thrusting out her chest, and clearly changed her overall posture and balance to something less human. Admittedly, towards something more regally equine.
My eyes continued their upwards trajectory on their own, past her shoulders, and settled on the task of taking in her face. Or at least what I could see of it. Protruding from her mouth was a metal bar gag with a pair of inch wide rings on the ends. Threaded through which was a leather lead that hung loosely in front of the girl.
Running up the sides of her face were that straps that connected via a wider band that encircled her head. All of which working for frame her face in leather. This top band also separated her face from the light brown hair pulled up in a high pony tail. Also from these two straps, on the outside of each eye, was a flat almost circular piece of leather that looked like a blinker. Denying her access to her peripheral vision.
But that didn't seem to be an issue for her at the moment, as I found those eyes pinned squarely on me. Finally giving focus to the face bound up in all that leather, my gaze came into contact with a ponygirl's. And in those eyes, I found a great humanity, that which the rest of how her body was arranged to deny.
They contained a mix of curiosity, trepidation, and defiance. Her eyes shocked me. Despite all of Catherine's and Isabella's reassurances, I had fully expected to see scared dumb eyes not looking back at me when I met Lily. Instead I found myself the dumb one, unable to reconcile the contradiction that stood before me.
While at first my eyes had swept all over her body with ease, now meeting Lily's gaze I was the passive one being observed. Her evaluating this strange, possibly disrespectful, visitor. Determining if I was worth her time, time she had no control over, but nonetheless, still judging if I deserved it.
Eventually, she looked over at Isabella beside me with a silence question. One Isabella seemed to eminently understand for she responded,
"Yep, this is Jane. She'll be around for the weekend. But this is her first time meeting a ponygirl, or even knowing about the practice, so she is understandably a bit skeptical."
At this Lily's gaze swivelled back to reexamine me while Isabella continued, now addressing me,
"And as you can see, this is Lily. She's been coming to the farm for years and she's a model ponygirl."
Now with a 'proper' introduction by Isabella, I found my voice,
"And you like it here, you like being..."
In response I got a
look
. One that lasted enough time for me to realize my stupid mistake, trying to chat with a gagged person. But then just as a I began to stew in embarrassment, to my surprise she stamped once. It was not a normal stamp, it rung with the sound of metal hitting the ground and with much more weight than that of a foot.
This prompted me to lean forward to look over the edge of wood door we were meeting across. What I saw was a pair of legs, but not legs as I expected them. At about the knee, her naked upper legs disappeared into high leather boots that terminated in an artificial horse hoof. Just above the hoof, one could see how a foot would fit into it as if into a high heel. But unlike a high heel there was no actual heel, evidently forcing the wearer to have all their weight position on the front of their feet.
In the course of my examination, Isabella spoke up to explain the stamp,
"Ponies, can't talk and so neither do ponygirls, whether they're wearing their bit or not. But we still need to communicate with them, so they use stomps, inspired by real ponies pawing the ground of course. One stamp means 'yes', and two stamps mean 'no'."
With my focus still fixed on the boots, I replied,
"And that counts as communication? There's way more someone would want to say outside of 'yes' and 'no'."
"But nothing that pony needs to say. Plus, they still get their point across. What was Lily's answer to your question?"
Total sidetracked by Lily's bizarre footwear, I had utterly forgotten what I had asked her. Thus, raising my eyes a bit sheepishly, I looked back at Lily's face. She stared right back at me, then very deliberately, stamped once.
Yes.
Yes. Yes, she does like it here. Yes, she loves being a pony. The stamp only said yes, but her eyes said everything else.
Lily and I stared at each other is once more silence. Now, after the initial shock of meeting a woman so tied up, I found her to be quite beautiful. Not just as a woman but as the ponygirl she was.
Isabella spoke up, after Lily and I took each other in this new light,
"You can touch her you know."
