Dark Horse: Tales from the Ranch Ch. 01

//Back by popular demand!//

"Your stall reaks."

Belle didn't look up. The necessities of the body had forced him to slowly move along the outer wall a few inches at a time, but he'd otherwise remained silent and still as often as possible. The others had been coming and going the last few days. His sister Nora had to be bound, cursing and fighting like a banshee each time they were separated, but if he was being honest with himself, he was glad for the alone time.

The stall door slid open. In the corner of his eye, Belle saw the shine on the black boots as they stepped on his sawdust . He heard her tsk'ing. Slowly, his gaze lifted. The steel haired woman folded her arms across her chest, crop extended over her left shoulder. Her head tilted slightly, with one eyebrow arched.

"Belle, I've given you the last few days to yourself to help you... recover. That first night was quite a show." She smirked and fixed him with a stare, and his eyes went right back to the floor. "However, it seems like you taken the opportunity to throw yourself a little pity party. It's pathetic. You've had quite enough sulking. Get up." At first he didn't respond, but she started walking toward him, snapping her riding crop sharply against her heel. "I really hoped I wouldn't have to discipline you so early." The pony scrambled to his feet, bowing to the pressure. Winters cupped the small mare's chin, smirking at his nervousness.

Belle kept his hands over his groin. His nakedness didn't seem to be bothering her in the least, but he was shaking as he straightened. "That's adorable,' she said, as she reached into her back pocket, producing a leather collar with a ring opposite the clasp. "By now, you've seen the doors? The locks? Do I really need this, or are you going to follow my orders?" Belle's cheeks flushed as his face lowered.

"Don't do it, Stephan," Nora said, tiredly, from the other side of the wall. "Don't listen to her."

The older woman smirked but did not turn, only spoke louder. "Oh, you wanted Velvet to spend the night with you?" Silence. "I didn't think so." Belle stared forlornly at the wall separating his and his sister's stalls, and nodded his head. "Good girl." She turned on a dime and walked across the long room to the heavy wooden door, leaving his stall open behind her. "Come along."

Belle stepped out onto the cool concrete. Stepped out of his stall for the first time. The door to Nora's stall bucked as she threw herself into it. Belle whirled around as she snarled and spat past him... and his eyes popped as he really looked at her for the first time in days. The hair on the sides of her head had been shaved in a short imitation of Velvet's mane. Her arms were bound behind her in some sort of latex thingy, and-

He spun back around, facing the door and trying to focus anywhere except his twin sister's exposed breasts. His shoulders hunched forward as he walked, each step closer to the grinning steel-haired woman taking him one step further from his rampaging sister. As he stepped into the room on the other side of the heavy wooden door, he stopped and turned around. A slow creak of the second stall door opening preceded Velvet stepping out. Her scowl in his direction faded to a grin as she headed towards Nora's cell, but the heavy wooden door shut before anything happened.

"Don't worry about them. Velvet likes to make a strong first impression, but she won't go too far tonight. I think your sister is more afraid of her than me..." She thoughtfully tapped her index finger against her lips. "I'll have to correct that."

She led him underneath the wide shower head, and flipped the red handle on the wall. Belle kept her in the corner of his eye at all times. A little more than the corner of his eye once she stripped down and joined him under the water. For an older woman, she had a fantastic body... extremely fit.

Shampoo, and her fingers in his hair. "You've been down in that hole for a while, so, while you are a little behind, it's not like you didn't have good reason to be there. I want you to know Velvet was punished for her actions against you." Suddenly, Belle was hyper-aware of how exposed he was, and that Ms. Winters was right behind him. "Steady, steady," she whispered. Her hands closed around his biceps, and her grip stilled him. "This is not a sex farm. I did not bring you and your sister here to be raped for my amusement. This is a safe place." Soap, and a sponge. Her hands across his shoulders and back. "It will take time for you to see that.

"Look at the form of you," she said distantly, her hands tracing the contour of his hips. "It's everything I knew it would be." She knelt behind him, using the sponge vigorously along the backs of his legs. His cheeks colored in embarrassment, knowing what must be down there.

"Your training will begin tomorrow, Belle. Tonight, I wanted to take some time to lay out for you what that entails. You," she said, stepping around in front of him, "are going to be one of my..." She tilted her head, angling it toward his gaze, but every time she moved toward where he was looking, he turned further away. "Belle," she said firmly, pinching his chin between her thumb and the side of her index finger and pulling him up to her. "Reluctant little thing, aren't we? Not to worry. We'll draw you out yet." Her smile was so... sincere.

"You are going to be one of my show ponies." Her hand fell away to lather his chest with the large yellow sponge. Her eyes continued to hold him, although he grew increasingly uncomfortable the longer she did. He... shrank into himself. "Don't worry, there aren't any actual shows," she said with a wink. "Could you imagine? 'Hey, here are the people I enslaved!' " She laughed lightly as she knelt down in front of him. Belle nearly jumped as she ran the sponge behind his testicles. Not intrusively, or forcefully, but utterly without regard for his personal space. "The FBI would have a field day," she added, almost to herself.

"Now you may be asking yourself, 'But Miss Winters, what is a show pony?' Good question, Belle. Excellent, excellent question. Lift your foot." Belle balanced on his left and lifted his right. She pressed her shoulder against his supporting leg, buttressing him as she curled his foot around behind him to inspect the sole.

"Why... Belle?"

"The name?" Belle nodded when she looked up at him questioningly. "Oh sweetie, isn't it obvious?" She grinned and looked back down. "Switch feet. Now, as a show pony, you have a deceptively hard job, which is to be pretty." She put down his right foot and rose to her feet. "You will help Peep fulfill a certain... aesthetic... that I require at my ranch."

"P-Peep is a show pony too?"

"Yes," she said as she shut off the water. Belle stood in the mist as she stepped over to grab a large white towel. "You will be paired with her for a little while." She carefully patted herself down with the towel before setting it aside and approaching him with a fresh one.

"Peep is the b-uhhh... blonde one?" He'd almost said busty.

"Yes. The blonde one," she said, grinning and grabbing her own breasts. His widened eyes darted away. "You're precious!" She raised his arms out to the sides, and he held them there while she meticulously dried him off. "Despite the fact that you are already pretty, you and Peep have a regimen of exercise and yoga, as well as a series of housekeeping duties. Cooking, cleaning, et cetera."

She led him over to a stool, situated in front of three full length mirrors, and sat him down. "Close your eyes," she said, as she stepped back around in front of him, and he did. "Haven't been sleeping well, hmm?" His neck retreated as Ms. Winters spread a cool lotion over the bridge of his nose, and underneath his eyes. "That will pass as well. In the meantime, we have this." Her thumbs pressed gently against his skin, ebbing outward. "The miracles of modern science." A fingertip lingered over his lips, prompting him to open his eyes again. Her face loomed, but her eyes ran over his features like a rollercoaster. "You are pretty..."

She laughed lightly to herself as she strode around behind him and grabbed a brush from the third wooden wardrobe along the wall behind him. He suspected each pony had a wardrobe of their own as he watched her in the mirror. "The only time you will not be paired with Peep is during grooming and during the care for the horses."

"Aren't... aren't we-"

"No, silly. You're a pony." She placed a firm hand on his shoulder, and began running the brush through his light brown hair. "Velvet and Peep groom each other, and they care for my horses; Pronto and Stiletto. To start, I will groom you in the mornings, and Peep will come back to collect you as soon as she has finished her morning chores."

His short hair did not take long to tame. She went to the wooden wardrobe and came back a third time. "What about my sister," he asked tentatively.

"Spread your hand. That's right, each finger out flat. Good girl." The older woman grabbed his fingers in turn, and delicately ran a file over the nail. The vibrations sent shocks through the bones of his hand, but her hold had a calmness to it that absorbed his discomfort. "Your sister is a race pony. Like Velvet. Their regimen is also deceptively hard; they run. A lot."

Belle watched as she rounded and smoothed each of his fingernails on his right hand, and then stepped over to attend to his left. He raised it for her without being asked, despite his dazed expression.

"They run, and they run, and then they run some more. In another life, Velvet was a distance runner, and she was quite good. Your sister is more of a sprinter," she added with a smirk and a knowing glance in his direction. Belle blinked. Did she know Nora was the shoplifter that kept them fed? She couldn't...

The more he stared at her...

"Beau has quite a ways to go to catch up to Velvet, but I know a good confirmation when I see one." Belle's mind continued to turn. There was something about that knowing look. "It will take her a little while to get her stamina up." It tickled at the back of his mind. "She may never beat Velvet over very long distances, but I think her short game is going to be formidable." Did he recogni-

"Wait, Beau?!"

Ms. Winters sighed happily, shivering. "That's the stuff," she mumbled. "Yes. Belle and Beau. See all the lovely things you've been missing while you had that little mope marathon?" She stared at him again, daring him to look away. "You are unrestrained while I give you a manicure. She is trussed up like a mental patient, flinging herself against the walls to get to you." Her gaze intensified. "You'll find that, more often than not, I know you better than you know yourself."

Sheer dumbfoundedness had kept him silent while she talked, but he found his voice a moment later. "Are you blind? I'm not the girl!" Belle yanked his hand back, and reached down between his legs. His fingers wrapped around the underside of his balls, and as he brought his thumb down, squeezed the whole package out toward the older woman.

Her hand followed a second later, forming a cage around his distended sack that grew increasingly smaller. He yelped and tried to grab her wrist, but every movement he made resulted in a tighter hold on his sensitive jewels. He was so busy looking down that he didn't see her lean in until her face was inches away. Inches and closing. Her narrowed eyes transfixed him, stared through him. He hadn't fooled her in the least.

"You were doing so well," she enunciated. He whimpered as she gently pressed her lips to his, a kiss so soft he almost didn't feel it. "You disappointed me, sweetling. Time for the leash." One final, crushing squeeze.

Belle bent forward and gasped as she released him and strode over to her neatly folded pants. "Please, no," he croaked, as he saw her returning with the collar in hand. He wheezed and curled in tighter on himself, unable to evade or resist as she slipped the leather strap around his neck and latched it behind him. He tenderly cupped his fragile sack as his vision blurred from the pain. The leash, a fuzzy brown line extending from just beneath his slackened jaw, draped over to the hand she held before him. For him to see. For him to process.

"I hadn't thought we'd get to this tonight, but perhaps it's time you become familiar with the punishment system." Belle more fell off the stool than stepped off as Ms. Winters stalked over to the heavy wooden door, dragging him in her wake. The door had done a tremendous job as a noise eliminator because, as soon as the door opened, he was assaulted by a cacophonous mixture of his sister crying, Velvet grunting, and the dull thud of dry skin on dry skin. Winters sighed in exacerbation. "Ok, sometimes it is a sex farm."

Belle took a few stunned steps toward her stall, but the leash pulled tight and he was brought short by Winters' firm hold. "Now, now. We have our own transgression to concern ourselves with, don't we?" The sight and sounds overwhelmed him, and he took a deep breath. He hobbled through the door at the far end of the long room, and followed her up the stairs into the playroom.

He had seen rooms like this before. It had always been his experience to go along with the client in these situations. Fighting and arguing always made it worse. Shutting down came naturally. Nothing in front of him, or around him changed, but he went into a comfortable place in his mind. It gave him distance.

His reaction was mild when she lead him over to a plush armchair in the corner of the room. She bent over and looped the handle of his leash through an eyehole in the floor. She sat down in the chair and moved him to the side, and as she pulled up sharply, Belle's neck was dragged down until he bent over her crossed legs. She whirled her hand at the wrist, taking up the extra length of the leash around her palm until it was snug in a comfortable position for her, and delivered the first spank without warning.

"This will not be a light spanking, Belle." Another one. "I believe in being firm and decisive." Another one, and Belle whimpered. His hands gripped the leash, pulling back and fighting to free himself, but there was no give. Another one. "There will be no rod sparing." Another one. "But you should know that when I'm done, I will consider the matter closed." Another one. The skin on his rump, seared. His hands moved from the leash to float over his behind to try and cover himself, but she growled deeply and his arms slowly fell. "I have high expectations of my ponies, and, one way or another, you will learn to meet them." Another one, louder. Belle whimpered again, sucking air through gritted teeth as Ms. Winters blurry bare foot worked circles in the air. "The reason the punishment is harsh is because I know you can meet these expectations. When you fail me, you fail yourself!" Another one, harder.

"Right now, you fear punishment. You want to run from it. That's unavoidable because you do not trust me or my intentions." Another one, harder. The air crackled. "You will try so that you do not end up here. Soon, though, your efforts will be focused on finding yourself. Bettering yourself. Becoming who you were always meant to be!" Another one. Belle began to sob wordlessly.

"Eventually, you will report yourself when you fail. Not because you like being spanked, but because you will know that I am here to help you. I'm here to shape you. To cut away the trappings and the baggage you've collected, and let you shine." Belle's bawling continued to ramp up in between each sentence, expecting more spankings, though none had come in a while. "You have a light in you, Belle. Something none of your johns ever saw, but I see it."

Belle came rushing back unbidden. Her casual mention of his sexual exploitation was too much. He found himself present in the moment, and extremely uncomfortable. His mind raced through the torrent of emotions he normally kept at bay, and was overwhelmed. The dam broke.

"I saw you," he lashed out, nearly unintelligibly.

"You'll find that I'm the one that sees, Belle."

"No," he said, sniffling loudly. Belle knew he'd known that look she gave him downstairs. He turned and lifted his head to look back at her defiantly. "I saw you. At the soup kitchen. Helping." His voice dripped with acid. "Volunteering. And volunteers sign in. It's only a matter of time until the police find you, and we'll see how much you like living in a hole, you bitch!" For a long minute, he continued to hold her gaze. His eyes burned with righteous indignation, drawn from the knowledge that he would get out of here. He would survive. He would testify.

"Are you finished?"

And then he saw her. How her cold matched his heat, and he quailed. Always go along with the client.

"The police are not going to find you," she said quietly. "No one is looking for you. No one even knows you're gone, nor do they care. The one person in the world who knew you existed is in the stall next to yours, and no one is looking for her either." She took a moment to breath slowly through her nose, and out through the mouth. Her physique was imposing, but it was her ice cold calm that sent a shiver down Belle's spine. "I have already won. I always win. What's left... is for you... to accept it."

Belle cried out as she pushed him off of her knee. He landed with a meaty thud against the wood plank floor. He felt the leash go slack against his neck as she planted her feet and stood, but a second later he heard the telltale zipping sound of the near side of his leash being pulled back through the eyehole bolted to the floor. His arms flailed as she lifted his torso, desperately trying to brace himself and never quite getting purchase before she lifted him even further. He staggered to his knees, followed shortly by his feet, his hands wrapped inside his collar to alleviate the pressure on his airway.

He staggered along behind her, trying to keep pace, but she yanked hard on his collar all the same as she led him through the double doors on the opposite side of the room. She strode over to the edge of her bed and tied off his leash on a corner post. "We're going to cover all the bases tonight, aren't we Belle?" She frowned in determination as she walked back into the playroom. Her voiced echoed across the space as she talked. "You will learn to respect your betters, Belle." His fingers hovered over the knot. He could see how it came loose. A drawer slammed shut behind him, and Ms. Winters stomped across the floor to rejoin him in the bedroom. "You are a pony. Later, we'll discuss your improper use of pronouns. What's important right now is that you understand fully that you..." She leaned in behind him, her voice a mere whisper. " ...you are beneath me." Straps latching into place, and the creaking of leather. "You are a show pony. You are a mare." The older woman's fingers knotted in his hair, pulling him upright and back against her body. Her breasts mashed against his back, and the strap on rode up into his lower back. "You know what else mares do? They're bred. You're going to get fucked. A lot."

Belle turned his head slightly, staring back at her out of the corner of his eye. Her snide grin set his teeth on edge. The way she cooed as she started grinding her hips against him made his hairs stand on end. The dildo felt slick as she ran it up and down his cheeks. Her hand loosened from his hair and both settled on his hips. "You've been an insolent little pony, Belle." Her thumbs reached across his cheeks, parting and stretching, and he whimpered as the tip of the dildo came to rest against his anus. "We're going to have to work on that."