"Here they come!" Faith whispered to Charity. "Raise your arms like this so they know we don't mean any harm."
They had positioned themselves at the top end of a long straightaway.
The two people pulling the cart stopped when they saw Charity and Faith. The third individual came around from the back side of the cart. She yelled something - supposedly a greeting of some kind.
"Let me do the talking," Faith whispered to Charity. Then she screamed, "Hello!" waving her hands.
"All three are female," Charity whispered.
The leader waved back and they began slowly making their way up the road again.
"Should we move towards them," Charity whispered, "or just wait?"
"I don't know," Faith said. "Wait, I guess... They are taking their time. Maybe they are afraid and they are trying to figure out if this is a trap..."
"It's making me nervous... just standing here..."
When the approaching group was about a quarter mile down the road, the lead woman raised her hand again and said, "Hello!" with a British accent. She didn't have to scream. It sounded as if she were no more than twenty feet away.
"Holy shit!" Charity jumped slightly. The woman and her companions WERE only twenty feet away, suddenly.
"Well, you two must feel quite lost," the woman said.
"We are looking for someone who calls herself Dammasch," Faith said, somewhat uncertainly.
"The Goddess Dammasch?" the woman said. "Well then, you've got yourself a bit of a journey ahead, I'm afraid. But, I'm the one who can get you to where you want to go. My name is Empusa."
"I'm Faith. And this is my sister, Charity."
There was a moment of silence. Empusa apparently suddenly realized that Faith and Charity were staring at the other two women pulling the cart. "Oh! Forgive me! These two magnificent beasts are Garnet and Hazel."
Charity's mouth dropped open as she stared at the pair. Garnet and Hazel were both well over six feet tall and, also, mostly naked. All they wore was a series of leather straps pulled tightly around their torsos. The straps descended from stiff collars, wrapping underneath and supporting their modest breasts. They crossed tightly around their waists and slid down between their legs, framing their naked, hairless crotches. They wore stiff leather boots on their feet and were laced up a few inches above their ankles. Their leg muscles were massive.
A number of straps and chains connected the women to the shaft of the cart which was a fairly small, simple, two wheeled wooden vehicle laden with some crates.
Most stunningly, as Charity had guessed before, the women had no arms. Nor any sign that they had ever had arms.
Charity could not help but imagine how the tight straps would feel around her torso. She imagined herself running through a field, the wind blowing her hair back, her mistress directing her to go one way or another with a snap of her reins. She imagined her aftercare as groomswomen brushed her long hair and soaped the sweat from her torso - fingers lingering on her hardened nipples. Would she be hand fed sweets after a hard workout - maybe a nipple from which to drink?
Charity could feel a swelling in her crotch - a tightening beneath her impregnable chastity belt. She heard a quiet moan of arousal grind its way up her throat.
"They are pony girls," Empusa said, snapping Charity out of her daydream. Charity noticed that the two ponygirls were staring back at her - seemingly equally enthralled.
"They are... beautiful," Charity said, breathlessly.
Faith cleared her throat. "We... we were... We've been on the road..."
"Ah, you are wondering where exactly the hell you are, I'd imagine," Empusa said. She raised her arms majestically, turning to look out over the valley below. "This the Edge of Paradise. It is my queendom and you are my honored guests!"
<>--+-
"You must have many questions," Empusa said.
Charity and Faith had resumed their journey with their new host and her team of ponygirls. They were walking along at a healthy pace. Charity did her best to be discreet each time she looked towards the forest. Certainly, Hope was tracking along somewhere out of view.
"Does everyone here speak English?" Faith asked.
"Oh, no!" Empusa laughed. "I have had the privilege of an excellent education. I actually have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. Uh... that is, London, England in your version of Earth. You see, your Earth is much more technologically advanced than ours and that provides a certain set of advantages over the Goddess's Earth. Ours meanwhile is more advanced in the art of magic. As part of the royalty, I have the benefit of traveling between worlds and getting a more well rounded view of the universe."
"So, if you have a mechanical engineering degree... Why are there no cars here?" Faith asked "Why are you using women... er... ponygirls to transport things?"
"Do you know how many lives have been lost or drastically shortened by the use of leaded gasoline on your version of Earth?" Empusa asked. "That is one of the main reasons why your universe is generally considered to be categorized as 'Failed'. No offense, of course. Besides, it's so invigorating to get out and see the beauty of our world. Just look." Empusa waved her arms around. "And the girls," Empusa said, indicating the ponygirls, "love getting off the estate and traveling. It's their calling."
"So, how long," Charity asked nervously, "will it take to walk to where Dammasch lives?"
Empusa laughed. "You can't walk there. This is the Edge of Paradise. The Goddess reigns over Paradise, of course. First, it will take about ten days to walk to the Royal Estate, er... my estate, that is. Then, I'm expecting an airship from Paradise to arrive just after the second new moon past midsummer... Uh... that's about a month and a half from now. Then another ten days on the airship return trip. So, hmmm... about sixty or seventy days before you could request an audience with the Goddess. Then you'd probably have to wait six months to a year... Oh dearie! Are you OK?"
Charity had dropped to her knees. The world was spinning. The muscles in her crotch were clenching. She was doomed. What would be left of her brain if they ever made it to speak with Dammasch? Her vision became gray.
The next thing she knew, Faith was holding her in her arms. "Baby! Are you OK?"
"I'm so fucked," Charity whispered. "Maybe we should just go home..."
"I think that she is just hungry," Faith said to Empusa. "We haven't eaten much since we've been here. She's probably running on fumes."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Empusa said. "I should have thought of that. Here, this fruit is a lot like an apple. The girls love them as snacks. Maybe this will keep her going until we reach a good spot to camp and I can make a proper meal."
"Thanks," Faith took the red fruit and held it up to Charity's mouth. "Take a bite of this, baby..."
The fruit was very much like an apple. Maybe she was half starved, because it was one of the best tasting things Charity ever remembered sticking in her mouth. And when Faith pulled the fruit away from her mouth Charity grabbed her hand and forced her to push the fruit back into her mouth for another bite. The juice ran from the side of her chin and dripped down onto her chest.
"Easy, babe," Faith said. "You're going to choke on it if you put too much in your mouth. Swallow."
"It's really good," Charity said and she pulled the fruit from Faith's hand so she could feed herself. "Mmm!"
Faith lifted Charity up onto her feet. "Wow! She really needed that. Thank you," she said to Empusa.
"My pleasure," Empusa responded.
Charity made quick work of the fruit. "The seeds. Is it ok if I ate a seed?" she asked with her mouth still mostly full.
"Typically, a person would not choose to eat the seed," Empusa said. "But, if you wish..."
Finally, Charity was left with only a narrow core. "Oh!" She looked at her hands which were covered in juice. She wiped them on her pants, then used a corner of her shirt to wipe her face. "That was deli... deli... uh, really good."
Charity looked around. Empusa had a grin on her face. Faith had a very concerned look. The two ponygirls were both staring very intently at her. "Sorry..."
<>--+-
"Every woman in the Goddess's universe rises to their highest potential," Empusa explained.
Charity looked over at the two ponygirls bound to the cart, loyally pulling it up the mountain road in the late afternoon sun. While Charity remained quiet, Faith seemed to be having a similar thought.
"How can you say that while there are two women, who once had arms, that are now subservient to you?" It was a bold question for Faith to ask of the top monarch of the local region, but Charity was particularly curious of the answer as well. The Queen seemed to take no offense.
"You have subscribed to some belief that suggests that a ponygirl is in some way not equivalent to some other life path, for example, a queen. That is a fundamental mistake, for which I forgive you since it is endemic in your Earth's philosophy of life. It is the core reason why your universe is a failed universe," Empusa explained.
"Yes, but," Faith countered, "you may make a decision which, I presume, affects a vast number of other lives. Whereas, Garnet's choices would only affect Hazel."
"You are completely correct," Empusa suggested. "However, based on the paths that led us to these positions, the choices that either I or Garnet make are the most perfect choices for our world and they are equally impactful upon the order of a successful universe. Not only that, but if the choice was, say, a binary choice either resolution is exactly perfect."
Charity's brain was beginning to hurt listening to this discussion and she drifted off into a daydream as she plodded along the road. She glanced out into the forest and wondered where Hope was. She had listened for the telltale rattle of chains in the distance, but had heard nothing. She thought back to the last time they had sex. Charity was incredibly horny. She needed Hope very badly.
"A girl is raised in her community until the age of ten," Empusa was explaining when Charity refocused her attention on Faith's conversation. "Then all girls convene in Paradise, regardless of their origin or physical characteristics or race or anything. They spend the next ten years experiencing everything that our beautiful world has to offer - science, medicine, art, magic, wonder. At the age of majority, that is 20 years old, they are set free to achieve whatever it may be they wish to become. Whatever choice they make is the perfect choice for the young woman and the perfect choice for the Goddess's Earth and our universe."
"But," Faith was sounding exasperated, "what if someone changes their mind? If you suddenly chose not to be Queen, you could resign. If Garnet decided to not be a ponygirl... Well... she can no longer even speak! She has had her arms surgically removed!"
"But every past choice that either of us made is perfect! I am in my ideal position as Queen. Garnet is in her ideal position as a ponygirl. We are both completely ecstatic about our positions because it is exactly what we are meant to be. It's in our makeup to be what we are." Empusa laughed. "This discussion is so much fun. Observe our universe and you will see. Perhaps, as you and Charity are now part of our universe, you will find that you, too, rise to your full potential whatever that may be!"
They had descended into a small valley along a bubbling stream. "This is a good place to rest for the night," Empusa declared. "Let us stop and eat and make camp."
