Broken Oak

by L. Lenore

- do not use without the author's permission.
- GNU public license, L. Lenore.



Chapter 25: Sirius: Tomas gets Fired.

It was a little after midnight, and Ingrid was doing the rounds to make sure everyone was asleep. Sirius wasn't. He had an itch at the top of his scalp, and he had tried to direct Ingrid's fingers there by nodding and prancing, but she had missed it and moved on down the line.

He was not wearing much tack - no bit, no blinkers, only a bosal and his ever-present tail.

"Listen." Said Emily, primly but in a weary voice, "I had Maxon fire Tomas. Since you're going to be talking about it anyway, I thought one of you should hear me say it. I had him fired."

"Because he rubbed you the wrong way in bed?"

Emily sighed with annoyance. "Because he never gets to work on time. Because he's wrecked two perfectly good saddles. Because Sizzy had a shot at the Saint Angelique, and now he's so lazy he barely trots, and because he's fucking Magda. And yes, sure, because we have a little sexual friction. That's real; that's part of my motivation."

There was a long silence. Sirius inched around to get a better view of the two of them. He could see that Syzygy was watching as well, impassive.

"I can't believe you'd be jealous of the Magda thing." Said Ingrid after awhile. She said it kindly, though.

"No, no, come on, Ingrid. She's just a pony."

"Well then?"

"Well?"

"Yeah, well, what's the story? You want me to back you up with Hannah and everyone, I want to hear some juicy details. My cut, eh?"

"All right. Ok." A pause as Emily gathered her memories. "It has to do with Magda. But it isn't what you think."

"Let's hear it."

"Well, about a month ago I'm waiting for Tomas. We've made a date, but he's late, see? It was the night of the big windstorm, and I had taken a sauna in the warming room and gone swimming and I was in the mood. You know. So Tomas isn't there and I wonder if there's any trouble out at the barn, and I came out here to check.

Anyway, I came in up in the hayloft, and I even hollered for him, but between the wind and the rain he couldn't hear me. And then I saw him in the stall with Magda. I was above them, right, so I had a sort of bird's-eye view. Magda was still in the yoke, and she was trembling with readiness for him. He takes out his cock, and he lets her sniff it, let's her kiss it, get acquainted. He's stroking her hair. I just watched. I guess I was kind of turned on. I mean, if he wants to fuck a pony, that's his business. Actually, I felt a bit guilty about watching him do it, not jealous, but guilty.

So he circles her, and lifts her tail - I mean he really yanks her off her hind legs by her tail. I'm sure she was neighing, but everything got lost in the wind, so it was almost like a silent film. And he goes in there like a madman and he's reaching around to play with her nipple rings. She started shaking and rocking on her hooves - you know how she looks when she comes. And I was a little cross, because I thought he might be spoiling her, putting her off her training. But she had been good that week, so I figured what the hell, let them have their privacy, and when he wants to come fuck a real woman I'll be back at the cottage. So I left.

He shows up about ten minutes later, all smiles, and I ask him if there was any trouble in the barn. Not to be nasty, just to see what he comes up with. And he says something evasive but pretty accurate, I think he said 'No, I just wanted to check up on Magda.' Something like that. Well, whatever, I think. We start to get it on, and he wants me to go down on him."

"Aha."

"Yes. My reaction was 'Hell, no.' I didn't say that. I mean, I didn't say it in quite those words. And it would have been one thing if he had said, you know, I want to fuck a ponygirl and then have you lick me clean. I'm not saying I would have done that, but at least it would have been up front. Honest, right?. But I could just see that he was getting off on this idea that I would blow him, and I'd be sucking up the juice from some pony's pussy, unbeknownst to me. Uh-uh. Anyway, I lied to him; I said I didn't like to give blow jobs. That's all I said."

"You'd never given him a blow job?"

"No, actually not. We were pretty focused on the penile-vaginal thing. Cock in cunt. Insert tab A into slot B. We were good missionaries; very boring. And we'd only been hooking up for what, three and a half months? On and off. So it had just never come up."

"Wow." Said Ingrid, obviously astonished. "I mean, I'd usually blow a guy two or three times before I'd sleep with him."

"That's so…so…look, never mind. The point is, I said no. And I was a bit upset about the whole thing. But I was also kind of turned on by watching him with the filly. It was a voyeuristic thing - like watching your lover masturbate. So the next time he had night shift alone, I snuck out there to watch. I mean, I wanted to check up on him, but I also wanted to watch." Emily fell silent for a moment and fetched some of Maxon's brandy from the cabinet. She poured two tumblers. Sirius thought he could smell it.

"So, this is a few nights ago. Tomas comes out here with a ratchet from the shop, and he goes in to Magda's stall and takes out the silencer."

"Oh my god." Ingrid finally sounded genuinely sympathetic.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I mean, these are Dakota Striders. The silencer is part of their goddamn breed."

"You're right."

"It's not a bridle, it's not a bit, it's not even like their fucking tail. It's part of their mouth. It doesn't come out just because some stable boy wants a blow job and his girlfriend turned him down."

"You're totally right, Em." Said Ingrid. "I'm sorry."

"Well, fuck it, you know."

"Yeah. Well, he's gone."

"Right."

"What you need is a retired ponyboy."

Emily seemed to consider this seriously for a moment. "Naaaah." She groaned. "That's not it at all. I want a cowboy, you know? Rugged guy, doesn't talk much, great in bed, has deep insights, and before you start fighting all the time he rides off on his hoss, playing the guitar."

"Whoopee Ti Yi Yo," Ingrid sang, making Emily laugh at last, "Git along, little doggies."

"How does it start?"

"Uhh. As I was a-walking one morning for pleasure, I spied a cow-puncher out riding alone…"

"No, along…"

"Along. Hmmm nmmm nmmm. Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git along, little dogies, It's your misfortune and none of my own. Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git along, little dogies, For you know that Wyoming will be your new home."

Emily clapped, happy to be distracted from herself. Sirius couldn't get the old song out of his head for days. He thought if he could sing it, it would stop playing and replaying in his head. But of course, he couldn't sing it. It was, he decided after a while, a worse torture than anything Emily had ever done intentionally.


Chapter 26: Turquoise: Sirius becomes a stallion.

It was the ninth of July. Turquoise was out on the track with Ingrid, training for the high jump. It was the safest place. Emily was on the warpath since breaking up with Tomas. Anyway, Turq appreciated Ingrid in this capacity. A day of field practice with Ingrid left Turq's back welted and her buttocks raw, but it got results. Ingrid was a good coach, much better than Tomas had been, and that was something Turquoise craved and respected. She had just beaten her own record by two centimeters, and the business end of Ingrid's whip inferred that she thought Turquoise could do even better.

"You need to be reckless," Ingrid would hiss. "When you get to that bar, it isn't about form. It isn't about how cute your ass looks. The only thing that matters is whether or not you clear the bar. You need to just launch at the fucking thing, and you can worry about your landing when you're on the other side. That's what the high jump is. It's not a big, wise-ass endurance race that's all about pacing yourself. It's about going crazy and clearing the bar. Got it?"

But Turquoise wasn't really as focused as she could have been. Because it was the ninth of July, and no one else seemed to notice. It was Sirius's birthday. He wasn't a yearling anymore, he was a true stallion. And Turquoise was fascinated, in a way, that she had remembered this date, just as she was fascinated that everyone else seemed to have forgotten it. For she had long ago told herself that she was not interested in yearlings. That yearlings could not possibly have a pony-mind.

Sirius seemed to have a pony-mind already, or more of it than most yearlings did. He had a lot to learn, of course. But he was a quick learner, and Turquoise enjoyed watching him learn, watching him struggle, in a way she never had before. 'Was this love? Was this a proper pony emotion?' She wasn't sure. But she was sure that she had remembered the date, when no else had. 'Sirius included,' she thought. Remembering betrays our desires as surely as forgetting does.

She did not have so very long to worry about this. She knocked the hundred-centimeter bar down, and Ingrid - who was perhaps getting hot and tired - decided to spread her hind legs, shackling them to the posts that had held the bar. And then, of course, she must need get her crop. Such a carefully spread crotch could hardly be left unmarked.

Turquoise moaned, supporting herself on her forelegs, as Ingrid's crop whistled down the funnel of Turq's taut thighs into her gaping vulva. Ingrid lectured Turquoise on recklessness, on the high jump, transparently worried about the human intrigue between Emily and Tomas. Between agonies, Turquoise only wished that it was Sirius - Sirius the stallion - parting her labia, instead of the stinging leather of Ingrid'crop.


~~~~~

In the evening, really and truly sore, Turq huddled with her legs clenched together. She ignored Hannah, who had offered to rub her down. She only got up after dinner, when Maxon came to barn. This was quite unusual, unless something in particular was happening. Turquoise winced to the stall door to watch him.

Maxon went in to Jewel Box'es stall, and fondled her ass for awhile. It was still ruby red from Emily's constant attention to details. (Emily alleged, at least two or three times a day, that Jewel Box had delicate skin and so her rump looked much worse than it was. Turquoise believed this was probably true, but knew that Emily's real target was neither Jewel's microscopic misbehaviors nor her delicate rump, but rather Tomas - who was quite out of reach.) After getting a few moans from the filly, Maxon took out a camera and took several pictures of her shoulders, very close up, with and without a flash. Then he left, silently smoking his pipe. The point of this little exercise eluded the ponies and the grooms alike. The former could not ask any questions, and the latter did not.


Chapter 27: Sirius: Emily flipping out after the Tomas breakup.

Emily was obviously in a dangerous mood, and it was made worse because she was trying to channel it all in unexpected directions. Stupid human behavior, Sirius thought. She wants to punish Magda, but no, that would mean she was jealous. So instead she goes after everyone else, grooms and ponies, even the toaster oven. She had, in fact, destroyed the toaster oven in an overzealous process of cleaning it, and then settled in for a morning coffee, which was the most peace the barn saw for a while. After that, she bawled Hannah out for mis-measuring the feed. Then Comet had the misfortune to knock over her water bucket, and Emily had her brought out of the stable and bound over one of the bar-stools by the coffee table. Her bit and her hooves were tied to opposite sides of the bar-stool's footrest, and then Emily lashed her with a leather strap until she was bleating piteously. Finally Hannah stepped in to murmur "Ok, that's enough."

"Leave her there." Said Emily. "I'm going to take Scorpio out for a ride." Better him than me, thought Sirius. Comet was still whimpering, her ass swaying as if in a breeze. Her mournful gaze seemed directed at Magda's stall, but Magda was wisely keeping her head down.

"She's in a fierce mood." Said Hannah, coming over to hose and scrub Sirius down. "You should best try to keep out of her way."

'Cute, Hannah. How does a stabled, bridled ponyboy with his reins tied to ring in the wall "keep out of the way?" You don't understand, do you?' But at least Hannah always seemed sympathetic. It was Emily who didn't understand, who pushed the ponies to their limits without any thought of what those limits might be. Afraid of her, he was angry at her, and as Hannah scrubbed him and shaved him, his anger settled into an agreeable mix of indignation and self-pity, without much actual fear. After all, Emily was gone, and Hannah was there to protect him, with her warm sponge and soapsuds and the cool, pure, feeling of a clean shave.

After she toweled him off, she put on blinkers and a curb bit, and then went away for a while. Sirius dared to peek around the floor at one point. Comet was still doubled over the bar-stool, her ass now glowing a splendid rich crimson, as if it had been well-rouged. She caught his glance for a moment, and she murmured a fatalistic complaint. Sirius shrugged. 'Yes, it should have been Magda. But what can you do?' No one else dared to look up out of their stalls.

A while later, Hannah came back with Syzygy pacing primly beside her. She was carrying a large canvas bag. She let Sirius out, too, and, taking both their reins in one hand, she led them out to the barnyard. In the home pasture, Emily was still driving Scorpio around and around the track. He looked exhausted, and she looked implacable. Hannah led them gratefully out to the pasture with the cedars, well away from both Emily and the barn, and let them run free. Across the fence in the hillside pasture, Ayesha and Jewel Box were running about. Syzygy and the new filly started nuzzling and kissing through the fence. Hannah ignored them, taking out a hammock from the canvas back and stringing it between two of the cedars. She started reading one of her five-pound paperback novels.

Sirius sprawled happily on the grass. He watched Syzygy kissing at Jewel Box's earlobe, happy for him and a bit envious. He listened to the occasional crack of Emily's whip against Scorpio's straining muscles, and he hated her. Mostly he just enjoyed the sunshine, and the grass, and the songbirds. Soon he was asleep.

He dreamed he was out in the pasture with Turq. Turq had on a lovely bridle of emerald leather like the ponygirl at the gymkhana. She wore a tight snaffle bit that pulled her lips back prettily. He was quite naked. They were kissing and nuzzling; he was licking at her backside, and then ducking beneath her to tease her breasts. And then they were galloping over a huge field, which for some reason was on the coast, galloping and galloping. Finally he caught up with her, and he covered her, but they were still galloping, and they made love in time to the drumbeat of their hooves.

Then the sea surrounded them completely, and Turq ran out on it. She was standing right on top of the waves, swaying. He knew that this was possible, because she had crossed the sea before, to Belgium or Holland or somewhere. But he couldn't step onto the waves. There was too much weight on his two hooves. He would break through it like crusted snow. And Turq was getting farther and farther away, and Emily was coming…

He woke up with a start, and shook himself. Stupid dream. Hannah was sleeping too, now. After awhile, David came out to wake her up.

"Better get back inside. Em is on the fucking warpath."

"Yeah, I know. What's she up to?"

"Oh, she whipped Comet for something or other."

"Again?"

"Uh…I guess so. You want me to get Yeesh and the filly?"

"Yeah, maybe you'd better."

"Jeez, Syzygy's going to rub her nose off, huh?"

"I think they're cute."


~~~~~

Emily had taken Turquoise out for a million rounds on the track, and she must have done something wrong - although Sirius was sure it could not have been much - because Emily decided to punish her as well. She brought the ponygirl in and hobbled one of her fore-hooves to a ring on the threshing floor. Then she tied Turquoise' bit to the same ring, forcing the mare to kneel with her head to the ground, rump in the air. Turq murmured only slightly, and Sirius felt indignantly proud of her.

Emily fetched a thin wooden paddle, and ran it menacingly along Turq's thighs, along her labia which were so shyly half-exposed under her beautiful tail.

"What's up, Em?" Said David in his most conversational, let's-be-reasonable-here voice.

"She's getting lazy in the harness. Doesn't pay attention. Almost flipped us over." David started to respond, but thought better of it. Emily grabbed Turq's tail and hauled straight up on it, revealing the ponygirl's magnificent ass and vulva. For a brief moment Sirius looked hungrily at the two globes of smooth, perfect skin, joining into that cleft of pink-pearl vulnerability. Then Emily began slamming the paddle down as if she was beating a rug. Sirius thought she would pull Turq's tail out by mistake, and hoped that this wouldn't happen. To be fettered or beaten on the threshing floor was nothing unusual - especially today - but to have one's tail pulled out in front of the other ponies, that would be strange and shameful.

Turquoise did not have to suffer that indignity, but nor was she enjoying herself. She kept almost silent, pawing at the floorboards with her free fore-hoof, and did not begin to howl until Emily landed a few blows directly on her vulva. Even then, her complaints seemed controlled, modest. Sirius prayed that she would look at him, gain some strength from knowing how sympathetic he was. But she could not or would not turn her head.

"Yo, Em!" David shouted over the din. Emily stopped momentarily, but she did not let go of Turqoise's tail.

"Yes?"

"You should check this out. Her halter's broken."

Emily stood there for a moment, indecisive, then placed the paddle gently down on Turq's ass, dropping the tail over it and muttering "Hold that." She went over to where David was examining the tack on the coffee table. Turquoise remained motionless, balancing the paddle on her glowing buttocks. She was so reddened from the blows that Sirius could not tell where her birthmark began. "Ok, what's wrong with it?"

"See, the leash to the snaffle is ripped. So you pull back on the reins and it goes like this, see?"

Sirius could not see, but he got the impression that Turquoise had been unjustly accused. Of course.

"You're right." Said Emily slowly. "But she should still be able to feel it."

"Barely."

"No, look." Said Emily. She hooked a finger into the corner of her mouth, demonstrating, and David did the same. Sirius almost laughed to see them play at bitted ponies. Why don't you put the bit in your mouth, bitch? See how it feels. The humans discussed the matter a bit.

"Ok, obviously we need to send this back to Kevin. Put it on the desk, all right. And get me some coffee while you're in there."

She went back to fettered ponygirl, and slowly grasped the handle of the weapon which Turquoise had been so admirably balancing. With the tip of the paddle, she nudged Turq's tail back and forth. She prodded down the damp oyster of her vulva with the tip of the paddle. At the bottom, she found the little pearl, and prodded harder, till Turquoise moaned.

"Ok, girl. Ok." Said Emily, with what sounded like grim resignation. "No more mistakes. How would you like a zipper harness like the fillies in Argentina?" Turquoise began to whimper again, her composure finally breaking down. "Yes, you've seen them in Mexico, haven't you? You'll like it." Emily slid the smooth edge of the paddle up and down between her labia. She was wet, and the paddle came up glistening on that edge. "It's the second best harness for control, isn't it? And you like to be controlled. And much as we'd both love to, I don't think Maxon would approve of giving you a lotus hitch." At the mention of this Turquoise groaned very softly, and Sirius wondered what it was. 'There is always one more mystery. And my Turquoise knows them all.'

Emily got up and put the paddle away. David brought her a mug of coffee.

"I'm going to give her a zipper harness."

"Really?"

"Yes. No more arguing with the snaffle bits."

"Right. Well, that will be kind of interesting," he said, bemused. "Mind if I drive her afterwards?"

"Not at all."

Emily went upstairs and was gone for a while. She came back with a little toolbox, and sat down beside Turquoise on a milking stool. Turquoise gave a brief yelp, and then another, and Sirius realized that Emily had just pierced her ears. No, not pierced - grommeted them, so that little holes flared a quarter-inch wide in each ear, ringed by silver. A few tears were flowing now, but no blood - whatever Emily had sprayed on them must have seen to that.

"All right, that wasn't too bad, was it?"

She untied Turq's bit from the ring in the floor, and then took it out. Then she produced a pair of reins whose traces ended in thin silk cords. She ran one of these cords through each of the two ear-holes, down over her shoulders, and tied them off on the rings that already tunneled through Turquoise's nipples. Emily pulled back slightly, and Turquoise immediately snapped up into perfect posture, her face a mask of helplessness.

"Mmmm." Said Emily. "That's wonderful. Here." She untied Turq's foot. The ponygirl pranced a bit, as if to shake the stinging of the paddle off her ass. "Here, David. Go have fun with her."

David led her back out to the harness track without any show of resistance. Sirius watched her ass swaying behind the tail, as red as the sunset. When they rounded the corner, he glanced furtively at Emily, who finally seemed tranquil, even tired. Indeed, when Ingrid returned, Emily was pleasant, and she went off to go to sleep. Before Turquoise had returned from her second run around the track, Sirius had gone to sleep as well.

In the next few days, Emily was still in a savage temper, but it only came out when she very specifically provoked. Sirius continued to despise her, but found her easier to ignore. Most of her wrath was now vented on Orion and Jewel Box. She whipped Sirius once, and well, but he had earned it - he had knocked straw into his water bucket. And Sirius much preferred to be whipped by Emily than by Hannah. Emily struck harder, but he liked Hannah. After that, she had left Sirius alone.

Turquoise, too, seemed to be off Emily's shit-list for the time being. She seemed proud of her new leashes, although her ears were still terribly sensitive, and Maxon was so happy that he wondered aloud if all the fillies should not get zipper harnesses. You could hear whinnies of protest up and down the whole barn. No, they had decided, Turquoise was enough. Sirius loved to watch Ingrid lead her out to the pasture. At the slightest twist of the reins, Turq would correct her posture or movement, to prevent the traces from pulling on the rings that dangled below her breasts. It made her completely alert, and completely spectacular.

Jewel Box and Orion were not as lucky. The new filly had a bad habit of soiling her magnificent tail when she pissed, and for this Emily kept her whipped so regularly that Sirius never saw her buttocks their proper color. Which was too bad, he thought. Out on pasture, the freckles that were confined to Melissa's human face had spread deliciously over her back and flanks, and over her ass as well. She had become a dappled Appaloosa, and now part of this was obscured by the constant welts Emily marked her with.

That Friday, things got even worse. Jewel Box was shy, probably because she could not bear Orion's weight on her tortured ass. They opened her legs for him anyway, of course, but Emily was furious. She had Jewel Box moved to Orion's stall and bound achingly over the door, in the hopes that Orion would "fuck her until she sweats sperm out those freckles of hers." No such luck. For three days and nights, Orion covered her only once or twice each day. Which is surely the most tenderness a bound filly can expect from a horny stallion in his position. After all, he can cover seven fillies in two hours if he wants to. If he wanted to play Emily's game, he could easily ravish her until she couldn't close her legs for the swelling.

This reticence, of course, had enraged Emily, who moved Jewel Box back out of Orion's stall and started treating them both as public nuisances. Orion, merciful or not, had been quite happy about sharing his stall with a gorgeous, curb-tied ponygirl, and when she left he became grouchy. He kicked and bit, and generally gave Emily reasons to punish him even if she had not been looking for them.