Author's Note: I wrote this years ago and it still seems to be the most beloved of my stories for many people. Enjoy the read.


Chapter I

I caught her while she was throwing stones at my horses. She did it laughing and giggling as if it was a funny game. She obviously enjoyed seeing them jumping and trying to get away from her. Every time they fled out of her reach, she walked along the fence until she could hit them again. She picked the new stones with care. She cast them with deliberation, aiming for their heads or flanks, and she screamed in delight when one of the mares started panicking and screaming in fear and pain.

She had done that before, every few days for the last weeks. And I had seen her and had been close to just shooing her away, maybe asking her how I could reach her parents to tell them what a bitch their teenage daughter was. But for some reason I had not done that. I had just kept watching her.

I had a grudge on the girl, no question. But it was also more than that and I had started to make some plans for the girl. She needed a lesson.

She was a teenage-girl, tall and slender, red headed and pale skinned with freckles all over her face and grey eyes in the color of a winters sky. A thin girl, her arms and legs appeared to be just a little longer than you d expect, as if she was still a filly herself, moving as if she had yet to find out how to use them properly. She always wore colorful clothing like a girl from the city on a visit in the countryside and I suspected she might be a resident of the boarding school on the other side of the village. Rich city folks sent their daughters there to get an education and enjoy some healthy country air, but she didn't seem to enjoy her stay a lot, judging from her behavior.

I had started preparing things for her after I had seen her for the third time. First I had hesitated a bit when my plans got more and more extreme, but after that I had just smiled about myself and continued nonetheless. I am an experienced leatherworker, but I had never designed anything like this for a human being. On the other hand it was not that complicated at all: Once I had put some thoughts and planning into it things evolved quite easily. Bondage has always been something I enjoyed on women and I am not inexperienced in that resort. I worked each evening, adjusted straps and buckles, softened leather, modified a harness. It was fun, imagining her in the outfit. It was also arousing, no question about that.

It was a Friday evening when I saw her again, doing her routine once more. She was wearing a shirt, a blue jacket and short jeans. She didn't enjoy pestering my horses as much as she had before though: She was grumpy and serious when she did it this time, her pretty face angry and bitter. It was easy to see that she was in a bad mood and that even disquieting my horses didn't brighten her up.

"What the hell do you think you are doing there?" I surprised her a lot, since she hadn't seen me ever before. She whirled around, a stone in her hand, ready for the next throw. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape when she realized I had been right behind her all the time. And there was no chance she could escape me since the distance from me to her was not bigger than five or six meters.

She stuttered helplessly and took one weak step backwards, lowering the hand with the stone in it. She had been caught in the act and didn't know what to say. Now that I heard her talking for the first time I estimated her to be barely eighteen years old. Maybe she was even a nice girl, but frankly I didn't care much about that anymore. I had already made up my mind.

"You like torturing animals? That's an interesting hobby for a girl of your age. What's your name, copperhead?"

She went even paler than she naturally was, which made her freckles shine all the brighter in her face. Her cheeks turned scarlet and she shook her head in a defensive way.

"I m Laura. Laura Kruger. Please don't..."

"Don't what? What do you think I should be doing with you, Laura?" I didn't give her time to answer that question of course, I just pointed past the bushes to where my jeep was standing. Get into my car. We ll bring you to a phone and you can call your parents. But first I want to have a talk with you.

Normally when a stranger tells a girl to get into his car she might get at least a little suspicious. But Laura didn't, because she was shocked and ashamed. We made our way to the jeep without talking and she climbed onto the front passenger seat with her breath going nervously fast. She just stared out of the window during the drive. And since it was only a ride of three minutes to my house we reached it long before she had had time to collect herself and get any clear thoughts. No one saw us, because the whole countryside is as good as deserted once you leave the village. And when I lead her into my home I knew that I had her in my hands already.

Half an hour later we were sitting in the kitchen. Laura had taken off her jacket and was now just wearing her sleeveless green top with a smiley on it, faded jeans and a pair of mud-soaked sneakers. Her naked arms were as white and as freckled as her face.

I made us both a cup of tea and Laura held hers with long, delicate fingers. I even offered her some cookies. I made sure that I behaved austere enough to keep her scared but at the same time I calmed her down with some small talk. It was important that I gave her some hope, so that she would fall for the escape I was going to offer her.

"I am sorry that I teased your horses, Sir", Laura said with some tears in her eyes and a trembling hand. "I just hate it at that stupid boarding school. I hate being so far away from home and I hate the food and the other girls and the teachers. They say I should try to make friends, but I don't want friends, I want away from there."

"That's no reason to torture animals", I answered. "Because that's what you did - not tease them but hurt them. I am sure your parents didn't send you here to learn how to be a mean bitch."

She flinched when I used that word and I had to smile in spite of myself.

"I didn't want to be mean. I was just so angry and I wanted to ... I don't know...."

"You wanted to hurt something pretty."

"Maybe. Yes. See, I am sorry. Please, please don't call my parents. Please don't do that, I will be in so much trouble. My father is a doctor and he works all the time and he hates it when he has to even out things that I did. And my mother, she said it was just a thing for two months, they said that after that I could visit my old school again, but if you call them and tell them about the horses..."

"Frankly, I don't care about your parents." I looked at her in the most unforgiving way and she flinched once more. Would you prefer me to call your school? They'll wonder where you are by now and you'll have to tell them something."

"No!" Laura nearly screamed, shaking her head violently. "At school they thought my parents would fetch me for the weekend, but Dad cancelled that in the last minute. That's why I was so angry today. You don't have to call the school, so please, please don't do it!"

I shrugged. Laura seemed to interpret it as a sign of sympathy. She relaxed a little. "Okay. I am going to make you an offer and I will only make that offer once. Follow me, I'll show you something."

I got up and started leading her through the house. My place was large, like I already mentioned, and its interior was quite luxurious. My family had money, has always had money. I was not your typical country bumpkin. I just liked it out here. I enjoyed having some distance to other people.

"What kind of an offer are you talking about?" She snuffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand while she was following me. "And if I agree ... you won't tell anyone about this?"

"Maybe not. But I am not going to let you leave just like this either. I want you to learn a lesson, Laura. If I get the feeling that you understand what I want you to understand, there will be no phone call. Understood?"

"Yes!" There was so much relief in that one word that I had to smile once more.

I opened a door and lead her through it right into the stables. The smell of hay and horses was heavy in the air. We were standing in semi-darkness now, but in that semi-darkness Laura could definitely hear some of my horses moving in their boxes to the left and right. She looked around with some interest and then focused on me again.

"Do you want me to clean the stables? I can do that no problem, I would clean everything for you if we can make a deal! I clean everything and you don't call my parents. Is that okay? Please, please say yes."

"No, I don't want you to clean the place." To her visible disappointment I shook my head. "But I want you to understand that what you did was wrong. You can't even imagine what it is like to be a horse, can you? You think they are just animals and as a human you have the right to treat them any way you want?"

"No, honestly, I just wasn't thinking! And I will never do it again!"

"I don't know if I can believe that. Walk to that rack over there. Take the strap-harness and bring it to me."

She carefully walked over to the rack with the riding equipment and checked the items with insecure motions. Which one is this harness? This one? She showed me the harness I designed especially for her, several connected leather straps, some buckles attached to them.

"That is it, yes."

Laura brought it and handed it to me. I showed the thing to her with my sternest facial expression.

"Turn around. You are going to wear this for a moment, to see how it feels on you."

"But...!" She hesitated. And I readied myself to force it on her if she tried to resist, but after a moment she closed her mouth again and turned around. She was breathing fast and shallow and I was quite pleased that she was too naive to know what a ponygirl is or what an older man might get out of putting her into something like that harness. She didn't even realize that it could never have been designed for a horse.

I slipped it over Laura's head so that the straps encased her body. I started pulling them tighter and closed some of the buckles on her back. That made her gasp.

"It is tight..."

"It is supposed to be tight, Laura. A horse can hurt itself when the harness is not attached correctly." A collar, broad and heavy, was also part of the harness. I put it on her from behind and she flinched again, raising her hands in defense.

"Please stop, what..."

"Okay, that's it!" I took a step backwards and watched the girl with anger in my face as well as in my voice. "Get back into the kitchen. And tell me your parents' phone number. I am tired of you."

"No no no it's okay!" At this point she grabbed the collar herself and placed it around her neck. She found the fastener with her pale, thin fingers and closed it with a snap. "Ouh this is too tight..." She gulped and tried to move her head, but she had just made that as good as impossible for herself. I stepped behind her and took her hands - not forcefully but in a decided way - and put them to her sides.

"It is supposed to be tight, just like I said. Keep your hands down. How do you feel?"

"A bit ... stuck." And then she giggled. It was a sound originating from nervousness and fear, but nonetheless a very sweet sound. She is so full with adrenaline that it makes her behave silly.

"It will get a bit worse now, but we are nearly finished." I took her long, slender hands again. They felt cool, the palms a bit moist. I lead them to her back, just above her small ass. And then I pushed them through two separate loops and pulled these loops tight with a quick jerk, so that the straps closed around her wrists and pulled them against each other.

"Oh hey, what are you doing?"

She twitched in surprise, trying to move her hands, but I had already tightened the straps so much that they were securely restrained to each other. When I closed the buckle Laura started moving her arms, pulling on the harness and fumbling around, trying to reach the buckle with her fingers. She couldn't though; I had made sure that the lock would be out of her reach when I had designed the device.

"Hold still, Laura. The leather is soft, but you could still hurt your skin." By adjusting some of the other buckles I made sure the strap-harness wouldn't slip, while the girl indeed held still now, breathing even more nervous.

"Why... why are you tying my hands?"

"Because horses normally don't have hands", I answered a little mockingly and looped another strap around her forearms, a third one around her elbows. Then I started pulling. The leather accentuated very well against her white skin, especially when it started pressing itself in a bit. She moaned and instinctively stretched her back when the pressure on her arms increased, forcing forearms and elbows closer and closer to each other.

"Ouh please! Stop please, stop!" Laura screamed and tried to get away from me, but I had her grabbed by her harness and could easily tighten the straps further. Her muscles started showing under her skin as she fought against the straps, her hands flailed helplessly in an attempt to pull free of their bondage. But it was no use: I only needed to pull a little more and her arms were drawn together completely, elbows and lower arms touching. She stood very erect now, trying to ease the pull on her shoulders.

"Ouh GOD please you are breaking my arms!"

"No I am not", I said with an as soothing voice as possible. "You are young and flexible. Calm down, come on. Relax a bit, breathe slowly, stop fighting the straps." I made a calming noise and put one hand on her cheek from behind, stroking it a bit. I held her by the harness with my other hand. "Calm down. Shhhhh, It's okay."

"I... I can't! It... hurts!" But even while she was still protesting I could see her arms relax a little. Also she had already lowered her voice. However, her fingers kept searching for the buckle. Well, she'd soon grow tired of that. "I can't move my arms, please..."

I took my hand away from her cheek and patted her head. "We are nearly finished, like I told you. When we are done I hope you'll have learned your lesson. And then I can drive you home."

It took her a moment to think about that. No wonder, since I was sure she was starting to doubt the situation she had gotten herself into. But then she nodded, her voice coarse and a bit whiny.

"Okay, what do you have to do to finish it?"

"Open your hands."

She did so and I pressed one rubber ball into each of her sweaty palms. Press these together. When she complied I slipped a small leather-bag over each hand and laceed them tight, compressing her hands. With the rubber balls in her palms Lauras hands were forced into fists, rendering her fingers useless. I secured the bags with laces around her wrists.

She lowered her head and started crying silently, sniffing from time to time, her shoulders shaking a bit. No doubt she had begun to understand that this might be a scary, dangerous situation for her.

"Why are you tying me like this?" Her voice was very soft, nearly a whisper. "Please, I want to go home."

"You will be home soon."

She didn't comment on that. Meanwhile I walked over to the rack, reached beneath it and came back with the boots.

They were heavy, made from brown leather and amplified with rivets. Laces and some straps were attached to them. They had the form of hooves and would force her to walk in a high-heeled way with their shafts going up nearly to her knees, covering Lauras calves completely. When she saw them, she sobbed louder and tried to shake her head. Some first tears were running over her cheeks now.

"Th... these are not f... for a h-horse , Laura uttered. She looked at me with an increasing amount of fear in her eyes.

"No, they are not", I agreed. "They were designed for girls like you." I placed them in front of her, then kneeled down and unlaced her sneakers. I pulled them and the socks off her feet. She even had freckles down there.

"P please I want to call my parents now. It's okay if they punish me for what I have done..."

"No, it's too late now. You can call them when we have finished this. Understood?"

"P-p-please I would like to..."

"I don't care about what you'd like to, Laura. Put your feet into these boots now, or you can stay in this harness all night."

She blinked at me, shocked and helpless. By openly threatening her, I had without a doubt made her nightmare become more real. Until now she might have told herself that she was being silly, too easily scared. But now it got harder and harder for her to still believe I was just going to teach her a silly 'lesson'. She was shaking like a string of wire which had been pulled taught.

Laura gave in. She slowly lifted a bare foot, toes curled, and slipped into the boot with it. I had to help her to work it all the way down. Once it was set I laced it, so that she wouldn't be able to remove it from her foot without use of her hands and arms. She nearly overbalanced when she tried to stand on the booted foot, lifting her second one for application of boot number two, but I supported her with one hand on the inner side of her thigh. This way she managed to catch herself.

When both of her feet were booted I got up again, watching her with fascination. It was easy to see that she had some problems standing like this, but at the same time she looked beautiful. Like a scared, wide-eyed filly, long-legged and shaking a little. She had not yet completely given up on her arms: She tried to move them a bit, her shoulders rolled a little from one side to the other and her hands twitched as if she was trying to use her fingers within those bags.

"F....ff...." Her stutter had gotten worse and some tears ran across her face. She tried again to form the word. "F....finished...?"

"Nearly. There is one thing every horse usually wears. I ll show you."

Laura whimpered and shyly watched me as I walked back to the rack. When I came back this time, I was holding a head-harness in my hand. It was maybe the most complicated item I had created: There was a bit in the center, modified to fit into a girls mouth. It was leather-padded and a little thicker in the middle, and reaching deeper into the oral cavity then a real horse bit would. Blinders were attached to it. And there was also a cap made from the same brown leather that would fit on Laura's head. A hole in its center was designed for some of her coppery red hair to fall down her back in a ponytail. Her ears would be partially covered by something that looked like fake pony-ears, pointing upwards in a cheery, slightly floppy way.

She stared at the thing and shied away from it as if I was holding a poisonous snake in my hand. Once more she nearly stumbled, then took some very quick steps backwards and crashed against one of the boxes wooden wall with her back. She was breathing heavily now, shaking her head her head in disbelief. Her eyes were nailed to the head-harness as if she was hypnotized by it.

"I can't . I can't take th-this i-into m-my . m-m-mouth..."

"If you can't take it into your mouth then we'll just wait until you can. We have a lot of time." I smiled at her in a way of which I knew that it was mean and unforgiving. "If you still want to call your parents after I released you, I'll be happy to show you to the phone. But for now, you are going to do what I tell you to do or you won't be released so soon."

"N-NO! Laura now tried with all her strength to get out of the bondage that held her body and arms. But the leather didn't do as much as creak a little. She bucked like a newly-harnessed filly, which of course was exactly what she was at that very moment.

I watched her, waited, let her walk around on her wobbly legs and fight with her restraints until she toppled and fell into the hay with a scream. She just lay there, crying, her face red and her chest heaving. I kneeled down next to her and showed her the head-harness once again.

"This is the last piece, Laura. The last bit, so to say." I chuckled a bit. "If you let me apply it, we'll be finished. I promise."

Her eyes were large, desperate, but with a spark of hope still in them. She wanted to believe me. She started sobbing again when I slipped the harness over her head, but she didn't object any further. So I lead one of the straps under her chin, another one to the back of her head. I put the cap in place and pulled a good part of her hair through the hole on top. The blinders were already in place, limiting her field of vision to everything in front of her. I put two more straps over her face they were connected on her forehead, forming an opposite V.

"Open your mouth." I held the bit in front of her lips and she slowly opened them, trembling and shaking all over. I put the bit inside and set the straps taut one after the other. That resulted in the bit being pulled deeper into the corners of her mouth, being pushed deeper into her oral cavity, blocking her jaws but still allowing her some movement of the lips and teeth. The drawn back corners of her mouth exposed her canines, making her look a bit ridiculous and even the more vulnerable.

"Very good. And now give me a moment." It was time for the final step: I turned a small screw at the side of the gag. And turning it caused the inbuilt mechanism to unfold. A rubber-coated piece of metal flipped upwards in her mouth, pressing against the soft part of her upper palatal, forcing her to open her mouth a bit further. While I would have to take the bit out from time to time so she could be fed for example I would be abled to keep that second part of the gag in use almost permanently.

"Aahaaaaaghh...gck!!" She tried to tell me that the pressure was uncomfortable, but I already knew that or at least had expected it very much. I just didn't care and didn't react to her plead. Laura shuddered, her eyes turning to the side to look into mine, but I was already concentrated on checking if everything was in place. And indeed all was well: The straps were pressed into her skin tightly, the bit didn't move even as she now started pressing against it with her small, red tongue.

"You are finished see? Now get up, let s see how you walk in this."

I held her arm and shoulder and helped her to get back on her hooves. She was breathing heavily, still crying, some snot dripping from her nose and some flocks of drool hanging from her lips. She s shook and I had to hug her and pat her back again, even kiss her cheek, until she finally calmed down a bit.

"Come on, walk to the stable-door over there."

She did it, faltering, leering at me through the blinders. She managed to not fall again, but apart from that small success she moved like a new born filly, her long legs not used to walking with hooves instead of human feet. Blotches of sweat had already started to appear on her back as well as on her breasts and belly and I reminded myself that I would have to render her naked soon. But not right now.


Chapter II

When she reached the stable-door I opened it for her. It was almost evening now and the sun had begun to set. Laura looked around and took in the ample ranges I had in the back of my house, bordered by fences and hedges. She tried to look at me, but I had already hooked a leash to her head harness. I pulled it once and she screamed as the mouthpiece was pressed painfully against her palatal.

"Oaugkh!!"

"Shhh, don't scream. Horses don't scream, they whinny. Let me hear a whinny, as if you were a little pony. Can you do that?"

"Whugh!!"

"No, That's not really the sound I had in mind." I pulled the leash again, this time a bit more careful.

"Mrough! Mrouagh..." She tried to talk with more effort and more anxiety but couldn't form even one comprehensible word. I had to pull the leash once more to stop her babbling on like that. There were some more sobs and finally she submitted and aborted her fruitless trials.

"Wh... wheee!"

"Very good. For that you'll get a piece of sugar."

I took a small lump of sugar from my pocket and pushed it behind her bit with my fingers. She stared at me in disbelief, but she didn't spit it out. Instead her tongue moved to draw it in and she slurped on it until it started to dissolve. What she did not know was that I had combined the sugar with a drug that is normally used on mental patients. Higher doses would make her more compliant, calm her down and ease her mind. In fact, it would lower her IQ after some time and by thus make her more easy to control. But that would be a slow process - the effects would not set in like a steamhammer.

"Now come on, you can practice your walk a bit. You'll get used to your hooves much faster then you expect now, believe me."

She tried to shake her head once more, even tried to protest again. No wonder since she was clearly used to being treated like a human. I pull the leash once more to show her who was in control in complete, utter control of the situation. After that she followed me out into the range. I walked fast and she had problems keeping up with me. But I didn't cut her any slack. It would have been utterly wrong to do that. Instead I started walking her around, following the fences, making meter after meter while she panted and moaned and sobbed and sometimes screamed into her gag behind me. She fell to the ground twice, but she just needed one or to hash jerks on her leash to get her up again.

Laura was covered in sweat soon, tears and snot running down her face and foam dripping from her mouth. Her jeans and shirt were darker now because they were soaked. When I lead her back into the stables finally it was already dark, another hour had passed and she let her head hang like a tired mare after a day of work on the fields. My new filly didn't have much stamina. I knew I would have to work on that as well as on her behavior.

But for now Laura was just in the state I wanted her to be in: Nearly too tired to cry, just jerking in the harness from time to time, her eyes as good as closed. She was beaten and finished for today and she was too exhausted to think straight. Her hope of being set free had diminished and she was following me willingly as I lead her back into the stables. Just when I open a box for her, some life flushes back into her eyes.

"Hrgmaagh wheeheee!" This time I just had to raise her leash a litte and she remembered instantly what sort of noises she was supposed to produce. She whinnied with trembling panic and stumbled into the box, nearly too weak to lift her hooves anymore. She fell falls down there. She looks up at me from her place in the hay, still hoping with the rest of her mind that I would release her now. She gasped when I took a knife from my other pocket.

"Don't worry, I am not going to hurt you. But you will spend the night here and you should be able to use the bucket there in the corner. Which means that I will take your clothes off."

I pointed over to said bucket as I approached her. Subduing Laura in this state was easy. She moaned, gasped, started wheezing helplessly when I pressed her on the floor and cut her clothes away. She also trashed a little, but it didn't help her of course: I removed her jeans and the simple white slip she was wearing as well as her shirt and the bra beneath it. Her skin was warm and moist, nearly feverishly hot. And it was white as a sheet but covered with freckles everywhere, especially on her breastbone and her back. Her breasts themselves were small, her pink nipples got erected very fast once they were uncovered.

Once Laura was naked I let go of her. She clenched her legs as I stood up and crawled into one corner of the box as fast as she can, as if that offered any protection from me. What a shy filly.

"Get some sleep. I will look after you in the morning. And then we will start your training seriously."

That was the last she heard from me. I left her in the box like this: Naked, dirty, thirsty and hungry. I locked her box from the outside with a padlock. I could hear her scream and plead until I had left the stables.

I spent the night nearly without sleep, but it was okay that way. I knew that Laura would have a hard time in the box while I was drinking coffee, working out a bit, reading news on the internet. It was important that she got her time to be scared and helpless and weak, so that I could start the process of breaking her in. It was a good night for me and every minute I spent knowing that she was in my possession was as sweet and as delicious as a good wine.

When I returned to the stables the next morning and opened her box she was just lying there, only half-conscious, blinking tiredly. Of course she couldn't possibly have slept well during the night, most likely she had been lying awake and could only manage to drift away from time to time. Laura had dark rings under her eyes now. She also had to be extremely thirsty. And some flies had found her and were feeding from her salty skin.

"Raaagh." Her voice was more than just a bit coarse. I approached her with a cattle-prod in my hand and touched her left butt cheek lightly with it. She screamed, then whinnied.

"Hraagh... whee... wheehee...!" Some tears followed, but not many.

"I did that just to remind you: Behave, be a good one, or you'll be punished."

I walked over to the bucket and saw that she had to have have gotten up during the night to take a shit in it. I ordered her to stand up, and when she managed it after the third try I nodded. I took some straw and cleaned her with it, used a second hand full to wipe her grimy skin, until she was red all over, biting down on her bit hard. After I had finished I emptied a bucket with water into her trough. She stared at it with red-brimmed eyes, blinking helplessly and moaning. Yes, she was definitely very thirsty.

"I know. You can't drink with the bridle inside. Wait a moment... there, That's better, isn t it?"

She had surely thought I would take the gag out completely and that this would give her the opportunity to talk to me, ask me what I am doing to her, maybe plead for her release, promise me things to eel her way out of this situation. But even with the bit out of her mouth, hanging loosely around her neck, she wasn't any more capable to utter even one intelligible word. It was because of the second part of the mouthpiece, the one that was rubber-coated and pressed upwards against her palatal. It still forced her to keep her mouth half open permanently, giving her a stupid, helpless look with some spittle flowing from her lower lip as if she was some half-wit inbred.

"Eagh! Hi-eck!" She tried to talk nonetheless, like I should have known. I didn't have to understand the words, I didn't even want to understand them. What I wanted was that she started to realize that human speech was off-limits for her. I raised the electric cane and she twitched when she saw it move, a shriek escaping her dribbling mouth. When the cane hit her small, firm, pale ass she just jerked a little bit though. It was on a low setting, a little painful but no more than that.

"Be a good one. You want to be a good one, don't you?"

Tears in her eyes again. I knew this was natural, that it was part of the process. This transformation was nothing that could be achieved easily or without a lot of turmoil and I had known that very well even before I had taken her.

But she whinnied and I considered that to be a good sign. I awarded her with another piece of sugar for her compliance, pushed it between her half-opened, warm and wet lips so she could roll it around in her open mouth with her tongue. It made Laura drool some more, but that was okay. She looked gorgeous.

"I motioned her over to the trough with the cane in my hand, nodding at her."

Drink as much as you can. It's going to be a long day." She got down on her knees whimpering, clearly worried a lot about the long day I just had promised her. But that didn't stop her from putting her head deep into the trough, her face touching the water. She gulped it down with loud, slurping noises, not yet used to drinking with the gag. She got some of it into her windpipe, came up coughing loudly, water flowing from her mouth and nose, but dipped back in after some seconds.

I gave her some time before I grabbed her head-harness atits back and pulled her head up again.

"Ouaagh!"

"That's enough. Too much water in your stomach can give you cramps. And we don't want that, do we?"

She tried to shake her head - I could see the motion, even though her collar prevented her from really doing it. Another strike with the cane, another shocked yelp. But like the last one, this yelp also sounded a bit as if she was getting used to the feeling already, not liking it but accepting it as my way of correcting her mistakes. And I could see in her eyes that she was apt to not make any mistake twice.

"You need to learn how to behave. I don't want to punish you and you don't want to be punished either, do you?"

"Wh... wheee!" There was much frustration and even a bit of anger in that sound. But that as well was okay for now. I offered her a second piece of sugar, and since she hadn't eaten in nearly a day now she took it between her lips as quick as the other one.

"Good girl. Stand."

She did so, her legs wobbling a little bit, her nipples erect even though the air in the stable was quite warm, goosebumbs on her freckled skin. She looked at me shyly. But she didn't fight when I placed the bit in her mouth again and strapped it tight.

"Let s go. Like I said, we have a long day ahead of us."

The sun shone down warm on both of us as I took her outside and lead her onto the training grounds, made her walk with me so that she could warm up a bit. She still moved quite insecure on her hooves, but she had improved a bit since she tried them for the first time. After half an hour she was ready for the real training to begin: I locked her leash to a high pole, situated in the middle of our training grounds and made her walk around it. Then I started teaching her how to prance, correcting her walk, striking her buttocks and the backs of her thighs every time she did a wrong step or didn't lift her hooves high enough. It was hard work for her and once again she started sweating, moaning and crying, falling to piece in a despaired way. The frustration was tough for her and I could see her arms twitch in the straps. She shook her useless, leather-encased fists in the bondage, the muscles showing through the skin on her thin arms, as if she hoped that by some miracle she would find a way to free herself after all.

She didn't, of course. Her cries got louder now with every touch of the electric cane and I could see a lot of anger built up inside her. I didn't have to care about that but I did nonetheless. What I was doing with her was complicated and her mental reactions to it were as complicated as that. I wanted to break Laura without destroying her and that would take a good amount of strategy and psychology.

I decided that it was inevitable for things to boil up sooner or later. And I came to the conclusion that it might be better for both of us, if I let them boil up right now.

So I started correcting her more severely, watching her every move and penalizing every mistake, how small it ever was. My filly struggled with the punishments, sweating and drooling more severely, her face contorted into a mask of effort and pain. First she tried everything to meet with my expectations, but her legs were already too tired, the hooves too heavy on her feet, her restrained arms making it much harder to keep her balance. She stumbled twice, fell to the ground, got up grunting and crying and shrieking again when I hit her with the cane to make her move faster. After another thirty minutes she broke. She started to scream even louder, turned to me, shrieked hysterically and teared at the straps holding her. This fit was quite similar to the one she had had yesterday, just more extreme and more furious, fuelled by anger, desperation and disbelief that any human could treat a girl like that. She even stomped her hooves in a helpless, childish gesture of protest, tried to shake her head fervently. Her eyes were wide opened and there was a curious mixture of fear and hate in them, setting them ablaze.

"Mruuuugh! Aouuuuumh waah-uuu naaaaah! HROUAAAAGH!!!"

I set the cane to a higher power level and hit her with it while I repeatedly told her to calm down, to be a good filly, to behave. Of course she didn't. There was a bright blue spark when I slapped the instrument against her left side and the pain made her cringe, but she continued with her fruitless protest. She even would have jumped at me if the leash hadn't restrained her movements to the small area around the pole.

So I continued. While I ordered her to stand, to get into position, to obey, I punished her with a shock every some seconds, which made her more frantic and more hysteric, snot and tears and sweat flowing over her face and dripping down from her lips and chin as she did her little, useless dance. It took several minutes until she tired and fell to her knees, sobbing with her head lowered as much as the collar allowed.

"Haagh ... haaagh... gh... ouhgh..." Laura was wheezing with flaring nostrils now. Her hair hung in her face and stuck to her moist skin like some coppery mask. I bowed down and brushed it away, then started to stroke her face gently. That made her sob again, weak and exhausted.

"Maybe I was a bit too hard on you" I finally said. "You need more time to learn and you might just need a break and something to eat. don't you think so?"

She nodded, slowly and humiliated. She looked up to me, her grey eyes shimmering. Don't be angry , this glance said without words. don't punish me. Please understand why I did this.

"I know you are tired. But you can do better, I am positive on that. You didn't perform to bad. I just know you could be so much better if you really tried."

And then I smiled a comforting smile. It must have been surreal for her to see me smiling like this, but I knew that it was also What she needed. Against all sense it turned me into something like her accomplice in this, someone who rather offered support and understanding instead of using blind cruelty. It gave her some hope that I was maybe crazy, but that I didn't want to torture her. It built a connection between us. A very thin connection? Yes, definitely. But once it was there it could be strengthened.

I offered her another lump of sugar, pushed it between her slimy lips past the bit. She sucked it thankfully. And she whinnied weakly, obviously to thank me or to please me.

"Whee..."

"That's a good filly. Come on, follow." I gestured for her to get up and she did so, her knees still wobbly, legs still shaking. And as I lead her back to the stables she followed me without any resistance left.


Chapter III

For feeding I modified her gag by using the small screw at its side, so that Laura was able to use her jaw bit better. But I didn't give her much slack and I had the cane with me at all times, so that she didn't even think about trying to talk human. She seemed to understand that, since she just kneeled down while I filled the second small trough with cooked rice and vegetables. It is deeply degrading for every girl to eat like this, just diving in there with her head and swallowing the food only half-chewed, but Laura didn't even try to complain.

One reason for her good behavior was the training and the beating she just got, the second reason was definitely that she was more than just hungry, more like close to starving. I let her eat until she had a small ball-belly which looked weirdly sweet on her thin body and made me smile again. I wiped a rice corn from the tip of her nose and pat her cheek after she had finished. Her eyes were a bit glassy, maybe from the drug in the sugar that already started to kick in, maybe simply because she was so full now.

"Was that good?"

"Wh... whee..."

"Good girl. Turn around."

She did so and I checked her arms again - everything was in place, the straps were as tight as they had been before the training, the circulation was still intact. Copper moaned under her breath as I touched her forearms.

"They are a bit stiff, aren t they?"

"Whee..." She tried to nod once more, realized she wasn't allowed to do that and stomped her left hoof instead.

"Don't worry." I smiled at her and patted her head. "They look okay, they aren't damaged or anything. You'll just need to get used to it a little more." Copper did not look as if she was enjoying the thought that she might get used to her new state - but she didn't protest. So I ordered her to lie down a bit and get some rest.

She did so, still bothering to make sure that I couldn't see her small, rose-colored pussy as she slid to the ground. The attempt was sweet, but it also made me think about how much longer I would be able to keep myself from taking her for the first time. It would be too soon right now, no question about that. But I still wanted it badly. In order to not show her what I was thinking about I smiled at her as friendly as possible and then left her alone in her locked box.

We trained some more in the afternoon, and there was no more resistance at all it was so fascinating that I had to stop myself from grinning like a lunatic all the time while Laura trotted around the pole, training her style. She was exhausted but coped well with it, the food giving her some new strength. After every third round she had completed without a mistake she earned another piece of sugar. For every mistake she earned a strike with the cane. She was covered with red marks by now, but she didn't seem to notice them much. And she didn't try to free her arms anymore, just kept trotting and training and following my orders.

This is how the day continued until I locked her in again, ate dinner, worked a bit in my home office. I also called some friends, just to let them know I was still there, made some plans for visits and parties, the usual stuff you do to keep your life going. Yes, I have always been quite a reclusive person, but I still have some friends and I didn't want them to wonder about my changed behavior.

Later I returned to the stables.

Laura was lying on one side in her box, sleeping deeply, even snorting. Her lips trembled around the bit from time to time. I opened the door carefully, walked over and knelt down next to her. My hand touched her shoulder and I stroked her a bit, then couldn't stop myself from touching her left breast, one of my fingertips on her nipple. It hardened fast and I smiled a bit more as my hand traced down her body, stroking her belly and mons. She didn't have much pubic hair, but What she had felt as soft as warm summer moss would. My finger slid beneath it, reached her lips and I stroked these as well, as carefully as possible, in order to not wake her up. She mumbled a little in her sleep with a tiny bit of drool dripping down from her bit. I nestled my fingertip just so lightly between her pink lips until I could feel her clitoris.

I rubbed it gently, carefully, my other hand now playing with her nipples again. I took my time, enjoying the magic of this moment and I was a bit amused as well as a bit astonished when I started feeling the slightest amount of wetness beneath my finger. Laura moved a little and stretched in her bondage, inhaling deeper. Then she opened her eyes, looking directly at me. Her glance was clouded by sleepiness and she was visibly confused. She didn't move. She just watched me, a little enquiring and a little shy at the same time.

Just when I moved my fingertip a last time to take it away did she twitch and shudder, producing a helpless mewing sound, I got up and she still kept her eyes on me. Her face flushed. She stayed silent.

And I didn't say anything either, just smiled at her and filled her trough. I would have loved to take her now, just force her to accept me. To break her in.

But breaking in a girl like this copperhead would be more complicated and more faceted than doing it to a horse. And so I just fed her once more, gagged her properly again and left her in the stables for the night.

I trained her the next day and the three days after it. The greatness of it all didn't fade. It even improved, because was easy to see how Laura changed in even these few days. She was unhappy of course, still scared and feeling humiliated and degraded. But at least she slowly started to become used to it. The sugar wasn't the only aspect in this by far, but it definitely helped the drug made her more compliant like I had hoped it would, calmed her down noticeably and made her more accessible for commands. At the same time it took some of her worries away, like a good antidepressant should. It was not strong enough to completely change Laura by itself or make her like what was being done to her I was pretty sure she d still use every possible chance to escape but it eased things up for her. The effect would increase some more over the next weeks and months and I was quite curious about how she would turn out in the end.

For now, she moved with much more routine. And the drool that was constantly dribbling over her chin and had bothered her a lot in the beginning was now something which she didn't seem to register anymore. Her nakedness still had to be scary to her, but when we trained a bit longer the next day and I realized she needed to pee, I decided it was time for another test: I told her to pee right where she stood and she complied, just got into a crouch and emptied her bladder. Of course she had a tortured look on her face while I watched her pissing, but that look was much less intense than I would have expected. And when I gave her the same command some hours later she obeyed with even less reluctance. After that it became routine until she started crouching down by herself when she felt it was okay, and relieved herself without much thinking anymore.

I used one of the hidden light-sensitive cameras to check in on her at nights. Sometimes she got up and tried to free her arms, to open the box, to climb over the walls, to get rid of the bags that made her hands and fingers useless. When she failed to achieve anything she sobbed or cried. In the third night she didn't even bother anymore to try.

When she cried during the training on Monday I made her stop her trot and hugged her I patted her head and back and kissing her salty cheek.

"Shhh. It's okay, who s a good one? Are you a good one? You are, aren't you?"

"Wheee!" She sounded deeply distressed, but at the same time like a girl who indeed does want to be a good one. And why not? Being 'good' meant less pain and less punishments, more stroking and more sugar - she already had understood the basic rules. I gave her another lump when she had calmed down.

"You are doing great, Copper. We'll clean you up a bit on one of the next days, what do you say? It s time I take more care of you. You are doing very fine."

She was relieved to hear that. Another whinny and she stomped a foot, the gesture so sweetly helpless that I couldn't do anything else but chuckle. Of course she would have loved to be cleaned; of course she had come to hate her own sweaty smell by now. She had been trained hard for days and only been cleaned with straw from time to time. She was sweaty and grimy, emanating a sweet, musky and salty odour. I liked that odour because it constantly reminded her of her situation and because it increased her beastly appearance and added to her dehumanization. But I was ready to make some confessions in order to win a little more of her trust.

"I know", I said. "Yes I know, you'd love to get cleaned properly." I stroked her helpless arms and kissed the back of her right shoulder. "Warm water and soap, soon. I promise." And then I let my hand wander off a little further and stroked the side of her left breast.

I had repeatedly touched her like that during the last days and she was slowly getting used to it just like she was getting used to so many other things. But when I touched her breast this time, I did it a little differently, not as casual as I had done it before. The tip of my thumb also stroked her nipple. It erected within seconds and she bit down hard on her bit as she felt how her body reacted. I kept watching her as I slowly drew my hand back.

"Okay, get into position. Let s try another three rounds. And one ...and two... good pony, very good, keep going!"

The doorbell rang just when Copper was back in her box for the evening and I had returned to my living room. I activated my security system and the cameras at the front door showed me another young girl, but this girl I knew: She was nineteen, blonde, slim and well-trained, had green eyes and bronze-coloured skin, blooming breasts and a long, slender neck which every boy would love to touch and kiss. There was a winning smile on her face, the kind of face that can drive any male mad within seconds. That girl was my niece Hannah and she waved at the camera as if she knew I was looking at her right now.

I buzzed her in and welcomed her in the lobby. She threw her rucksack to a corner of the room as if she owned the place.

"Uncle! What's up, how was your week?"

"Pretty okay. And yours?" We hugged and I patted her back like I did when she was a child. I constantly needed to remind myself that Hannah was still a teenager. She already behaved like a woman who knows how she can manipulate men. Given some more time to practice she would wrap them all around her pretty fingers.

Hannah has always been quite precocious. And she has always been quite a wicked character, ever since she got old enough to spell the word. She normally stayed in the countryside during summers, in exact the same boarding school which former Laura, my new Ponygirl, had attended as well.

But where my new pony seemed to be quite the shy and introverted type, Hannah tended to be surrounded by flocks of friends and followers who jumped over each other to fulfill her wishes. She was kind of a princess, and she was the sort of princess who would gladly watch two men duel and kill each other for her brief entertainment. My stepbrother has spoiled her and he knew he had made some mistakes in her education, but it was already too late to change that by now. And frankly, I liked my niece. I had found out that she visited some dark chatrooms and websites on her laptop during last summer, toying with guys and enjoying chats about bdsm, bondage, all that stuff. Maybe the taste for it flows in our family somehow. Or maybe we are just weird people.

I took Hannah to the kitchen and she sat down on the very same chair Laura had been sitting on just some days ago. Hannah drank her lemonade quickly and we chit-chatted for half an hour, teasing each other with jokes. I sometimes got the feeling that Hannah liked to flirt with me, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure. Remember: She was a teenage girl and with teenagers you never know.

"And you won t believe what happened in school, uncle. A girl has disappeared. As if the ground opened up and swallowed her!"

"Really? Was she a friend of yours?"

"Naah." Hannah made a face and took another sip of lemonade. "Just some girl, not a friend. I didn't even like her."

"Why not? What was the problem with her. Didn't she enjoy jumping through your rings?"

"Very funny!" She made another face, but this time it was a sarcastic one and goo-mooded beneath its surface. "She was a new girl and you know, she let everyone know that her family has money and how good she is at math and so on. And she hated it here!"

That of course was something Hannah couldn't understand. She had known this area for years and enjoyed every summer here. It was her playground, her kingdom. She also enjoyed the big city life, parties and clubs and all that, but the countryside was a place she had fallen in love with as a child.

"Well, and she somehow crossed you. I can see it in your wicked little eyes." I smiled a bit when Hannah shrugged. "Admit it, she did something that pissed you off."

"Don't talk so dirty, I m still a teenager! Well ... I wasn't prepared for one of those stupid tests. And do you think that mean bitch would have helped me? No way! She scored an A, I scored D plus. And she was so nosy about it afterwards..."

Hannah's reaction to Laura's disappearance started a certain line of thought in my head: Remember, I had already known her since her birth and I knew more about her wickedness than even my stepbrother did. This situation did represent a chance, a great chance even. It was risky, but I didn't think it was too risky, compared to the possible gratification.

"Why are you smiling like that? Uncle? Hey, why are you smiling like that? Do you know anything I don't?" Hannah nearly jumped across the table. I guess she knew me at least as good as I knew her.

"I just had an idea. But the idea could get you into trouble. You'd have to be a good liar to be any help to me."

"Hah! I convinced Dad that I need a motor roller to be safe when I travel home!" She laughed, emptied the lemonade, looked at me with intense curiosity. "So yeah I can lie like a master and you know it. I just can never really lie to you for some reason and I hate that!"

"Well, you may hate it but I am quite thankful for that little flaw of yours." I leaned forward across the table, kept my voice down as if I was sharing a secret with her. I knew that Hannah was already on the hook.

"If you went to your principal and told her that you saw Laura on Friday afternoon. And if you further told her that Laura wanted to take the train and later hitch-hike home because she was homesick would they believe you?"

Hannah's eyes widened and she stared at me in disbelief for a moment. "Wow. I didn't mention the girls' name, Uncle..."

"I know you didn't mention it. Let's get back to my question. Would they believe you?"

She thought about that for a moment, hesitating. She asked curiously but without much empathy for the disappeared girl: "Is she alive?"

"Of course she is. But I won't tell you more right now. It would be a great help if you could persuade people that she disappeared after she left the vicinity. If you manage to do that, I'll show you something very special."

"Wow. Is she ..." Hannah looked around as if there might be a red-haired girl standing right behind her suddenly. "Is she here?"

"Let's say she is nearby. And I'll show you what happened, but only if you help me. I don't want people to search the whole countryside and I don't want the police to send dogs and whatnot. If you tell them she left for the city, many of my problems will be solved."

Hannah was shocked. But just a bit. A lot less shocked than you'd expect your typical nineteen year old girl to be. And she recovered extremely fast: It took only seconds until I received a nod and a curious, nearly feverish smile.

"I can do it, yes. And yeah they will believe me, no problem."

"Good. Start your motor roller, drive back home to school and tell the principal that you didn't say anything until now because you didn't want Laura to get into more trouble. And come back here tomorrow, okay?"

"I don't even have lessons tomorrow, I can be here in the morning!"

"Be here around nine then. Do you think that's fair?"

Hannah grinned. It was the grin of an ambitious young pirate who had just been invited to plunder her first galleon.

"Yes, dear Uncle. I think that is very fair."


Chapter IV

The next morning came fast - and when it did Hannah was over-punctual. She was clad in everyday-clothing: A pair of jeans and a pullover, a vest and black Doc Martens. She was a bit paler then I would have expected, maybe because she hadn't slept well that night.

"They bought it. I can't tell you they questioned me all evening. I got to bed soooo late Uncle, I m totally exhausted." She yawned like a cat and stretched her arms over her head playfully.

"And you didn't give anything away?"

"Nah, I m not stupid. I even think that I m very clever." She giggled, then suddenly had a stern look on her face.

"Can I see her please?"

"Yes, you can. But don't get over-excited. Just walk into the stables and I'll watch you via the cameras. You two can spend some time without me."

"The stables? Wow..." Another astonished look, another pirate-like grin. "Okay... I'll do that."

When Hannah entered the stables I was already sitting in my workroom. I had activated the Monitor and one of my hands was placed on the control-pad for cameras and microphones. I could see her close the door behind herself. She cast a glance upwards to the camera through which I was watching her. She gave me a thumbs up and started looking around. There was some equipment left on the rack . Equipment which had been designed for Laura, but which I had not put to use yet. Hannah studied it with care, trying to understand its purpose. I could see her draw her breath in sharply as she started to comprehend what the stuff was for.

The first two boxes she opened were empty. In the third box was Laura, lying on the ground and waiting. When she opened her eyes and saw Hannah standing in front of her both girls turned into frozen statues for a moment. Hannah's eyes were large and her mouth was one big 'O'. Laura's eyes were at least as large as Hannah's and she seemed to have stopped breathing.

I tried to think myself into Hannah's head: The girl she had gone to school with was in front of her, lying in the straw naked, dirty, degraded. A cap held most of Laura's red hair, straps ran around her body, secured her arms in an uncomfortable position on her back. Her feet were in thick hoove-boots, the face half obfuscated by the straps of her head-harness, her eyes partly hid behind the blinders, ears covered with the caricature of the pointy ears a horse would have. Her mouth gagged with the bit, drooling uncontrollably.

How would any sensible girl react to a sight like that? I knew the answer to that question and I had prepared for the case that Hannah might just panic, turn around and start running to call the cops. Or that she might r try to get Laura out of her bondage.

But I shouldn t have worried at all. The 'O' of her mouth first shrank back to normal size and then formed itself into a smile, her face flushed and she placed one tanned hand on the side of the door, leaning herself against it casually.

"I... wow. Just wow..."

Laura tried to get up, failed twice and fell back into the hay until she finally managed to get on her hooves, legs wobbly like on her first day in the stables. She tried to talk and stumbled towards my niece, calling for help.

"Hraaaagh! Maggmmmmh!" I could easily guess what my pony was trying to say.

"No wait, wait." Hannah evaded the other girl, took some quick steps backwards to keep some distance between them. She was still taking the sight in.

"Don't bump into me, don't try to touch me. Please, Laura, you smell ... ouh you smell like ten hours of working out!" And then she laughed with her clear, full voice, as if this was all a joke. "No, you know what? You smell like a horse or something!"

"Nraaaaagh!" Laura tried to shake her head but of course couldn't, with the strict posture collar around her neck. She retreated to just stomping twice with her left hoof, like she had been doing for some days now when she wanted to emphasize something. "Eoouuurrrrhh!"

"Shhh calm down! I can't even understand you with that thing between your teeth!"

Sitting in front of the surveillance system I started laughing. Watching this was splendid. A blind man could see that Hannah was just playing with Laura, teasing and tormenting her. But Laura/Copper was just too despaired to have an eye for the sadistic gleam in Hannah's eyes. I relaxed as I kept watching them.

"Is this a gag? I have never seen someone gagged before. Why did you gag yourself?"

It would be impossible to describe the look of distress that glowed on Coppers face right now. She tried to tell Hannah that she had not done this to herself but that rather it had being done to her, forced upon her against her will. But she didn't have the means to communicate that clearly. She started moving her arms as good as she could, even though they were stiff and had to feel quite useless and limp after these days in the strict bondage.

"Ghewaaaaagh!"

"I still can't understand you, silly. Turn around and let me see what happened to your arms, okay?"

Laura did so - hastily and with some futile hope that the other girl would comprehend as soon as she saw her strapped arms. But Hannah did nothing like that. She just ran her fingers over the straps and buckles and checked the bondage with curiosity.

"Wow this looks strict! I mean ... wow. I didn't know you were into kinky stuff like this, Laura... Could you get out of this if you wanted to?"

"Nraaaaghuuh!" Another tortured wail was the answer.

"Okay, I see. I guess I couldn t either." I saw Hannah pull on one or two of the straps to test their tightness. "And your hands are useless too? This is... this is really wicked, isn't it? You skipped some days of school to try something like this out? Laura, you even missed a math test!" And then Hannah looked up to the camera, winking at me. Her glance made me laugh some more.

"Let me see. I don't know if you even want to be freed..."

"Hraaaarrh!"

"... but maybe I can find out what these straps are for? This one goes from your arms to your body, so what happens if I..."

Hannah pulled the strap tighter so that Laura's arms were drawn further back and the skin on her shoulders shone white as snow. The girl screamed loudly into her gag and tried to step away from her tormentor, but Hannah grabbed her by her collar with the other hand, holding her close to herself, her face and mouth nearly touching Coppers left ear now.

"Hey, you even had some slack! See, it wasn't that bad at all. And now that I tightened it a bit more, is it still okay? You got an A in gymnastics, didn't you? I bet you are terribly flexible."

Despite Laura's moaning, wheezing efforts to prevent it, Hannah buckled the strap at this new, tighter setting. "Maybe you are doing this for training, so you can get an A plus next time? I just can't make any sense of all this..."

It began to dawn on Copper that my niece was just toying with her. She started sobbing again. Tears flowed over her face, snot was dripping from her nose.

"Mguh... muouumh..."

"Stop it already I understand that you want to be freed. But..." Hannah let that 'but' hang in the air for some moments. "...you are such a pretty thing! Frankly, this outfit fits you perfect!" She patted Laura's head from behind and then even pinched her naked ass. "You always wanted to be something special, didn't you? You are doing great, you are living the dream! My uncle has made you very unique, hasn't he?"

Another glance to the camera and my niece walked out of the box, returned to the rack while Laura stumbled behind her helplessly. That girl was her only chance to escape and she obviously couldn t believe Hannah would just leave her in this state. Laura did not have much of a mean streak, and it was nigh impossible for her to understand how sadistic Hannah could be.

Meanwhile Hannah took the electric cane from the rack. The sight of that made Laura gasp and shudder. Hannah tried it out, realized quick enough what it was for and then pointed to the ground in front of her. "Come on, kneel here. Be a good pony!"

But Laura didn't have any intention of getting closer to Hannah, who held the device in her hand she had already felt so often. The pony took a quick step backwards and mewed helplessly, begging for mercy. Hannah however didn't care about what she wanted or didn't want: She walked towards her, grabbed her by the collar and hit her with the cane across her breasts. The smack was loud, even after it had been filtered by the microphone.

"HRUAAAAGH!" Coppers scream was piercing. A bright red streak appeared on her pale skin instantly and she nearly sank to the ground. When she looked at Hannah again there was shear panic in her eyes.

"Wow", Hannah said thoughtfully. "How very cool. I wouldn't want to get a load from this thing. Did it hurt much?" She sounded just interested and not even a bit sympathetic.

"Wrrrrgh..." A gurgling sob was Lauras answer. It seemed that Copper had to fight down the urge to collapse. I had never used such a high setting on her and I hadn't intended to ever do so.

"Do you want another one?", Hannah asked with a wicked smile.

"Naaagh!"

"Okay, that's cool. If you don't want me to punish you again, just kneel right here and bow forward. I have found something else my uncle has made for you, but I guess he hasn't yet put it to use. So I will! Let s try it out!"

Laura obeyed and knelt down, shaking violently, her eyes widened by panic. And I enjoyed watching her, even though I began to develop something like a bad conscience for allowing Hannah to go that far. I simply saw the advantage I might gain from letting things evolve: After Laura would have spent some time with my niece it would be much easier for me to show her that I was not that cruel at all.

It was true that I had created the belt that Hannah was holding in her hand now for Copper. I had wanted her to wear it. But not in the beginning - only later, when she would have gotten used to her new life. The belt was the most degrading, dehumanizing item I had designed and it could very well have stayed on that rack for one or three more weeks.

The belt was designed a lot like a leather chastity belt, with two straps that would go around Coppers thighs and secure the thing on her. But the difference to a normal chastity belt was that there were two pieces that were supposed to be inserted into her body.

The first one was a small vaginal vibrator with an added tickle-pad that would be placed on her clitoris. The second piece was a hollow buttplug that was designed to make it impossible for the wearer to clench her sphincter. The thought behind it was that there couldn't be anything more dehumanizing than to take away that control from someone. Whenever Copper's bowels would push waste down deep enough it would just fall out of her, she would not be able to keep it back, like a human woman could.

It's not that I get aroused by excrements - the degradation was the important aspect for me. And it would also be the most disturbing aspect for Laura.

Of course she didn't know yet what wearing the belt would mean for her. She didn't fight at all when Hannah took the belt into her hands and started fitting it around the lower part of her body. I could hear her moan when she realized that there were dildos being pressed against her openings, but the instant she tried to pull away Hannah had already hit her back with a hard blow, making her scream again.

"Be a good pony and stop twitching like that! Or I will use the cane and make you twitch until you steam like a piece of cooked meat!"

As soon as she had pushed the vibrator deep into Copper, Hannah started working on the butt plug, pressing it into my ponies anus with effort. Another long, sobbing moan followed while Copper was - maybe for the first time in her life - anally penetrated. When the moan subsided the item was set. Hannah strapped the belt as tight as possible to Coppers thighs, closing every buckle at the last notch.

"There you go. Now how do I... ah, I guess there it is." She had found the correct button on the canes hilt and activated the vibrator by remote. I had it set on minimum power, but the feeling still had to be weird and disturbing enough for my pony. Laura shuddered, twitched, moved the lower part of her body like a girl trying to get used to her first G-string.

"There's just one thing missing." Hannah took the pair of scissors I had left down there, grabbed the part of Laura's hair that was hanging from the hole in her cap and cut it off. She fit the hair into the small halter that was part of the butt plug and closed the clamp at its end. And now Copper hat a red ponytail, shining brightly in the stables light and wagging from one side to the other whenever she moved.

"You have such beautiful hair. It makes a great tail! It really does."

Hannah grinned as if she had just passed an initiation-rite when she looked up to my camera again. And in some way, I realized, she had indeed just initialized herself. Even for a girl like her it had to be tough to do what she had just done to another female.

She appeared to be relieved. She seemed to be cooler, more in check of herself. And her cheeks had gotten quite red. I was as good as sure that she was aroused.

"Good pony, very good. Now get up." Hannah wiped some sweat from her forehead as she watched Copper stand.

Coppers face was beautiful to look at. The degradation, the pain and the fact that there were two dildos in her, both humming in what had to be a quite disturbing way, mixed in the most fascinating way. She clenched her eyes tight, sobbed, drooled, and then something fell from the hollow buttplug into the hay. She stared down in complete shock.

"Hruaaaaagh!!!" I can translate what that noise meant: 'You can't do that to me! I am a human! Don't you see what you are doing? Please stop and realize that you are torturing me! We are both women, so how can you enjoy this?'

But Hannah just giggled and shook her head. She took Laura's leash and pulled it hard, the cane still in her other hand. "I want to see how you can walk in these boots and with the other stuff in you. Let's do some training outside."

Hannah trained with Copper for more than three hours, and I had to get to a window to watch them on the grounds. I had never been as sadistic and cruel to the pony as Hannah turned out to be, chasing Copper around until she collapsed, then punishing her until she managed to get on her hooves again on shaking legs, checking her way of moving with glee, punishing even the smallest mistakes, making her prance more concentrated then ever. I was pretty sure she could have killed the pony if no one had stopped her.

So, after these hours had passed, I walked outside myself and took the cane from her hand.

"Aw come on Uncle, can we go on a bit? She s improving!"

"She s not improving, she's completely exhausted. She needs water and something to eat." I took Coppers leash from her as well and patted the ponies head reassuringly. She has trained enough for today.

"And ... can I visit her tomorrow?"

"We'll see. Now get inside and make us some tea. I'll bring Copper to her box."

While Hannah made her way back to the house I gave Copper some time to catch her breath. She looked gruesome, worn out and beaten. She cried from relief when she realized it was over and I was here. And it took some minutes before I was pretty sure she would get unconscious right here and now.

"I saw much too late that she found you", I said to her with sympathy in my voice. "Did she hurt you a lot?"

"Wh... wheee!" Copper whinnied in a relieved way, stamping a foot tiredly. I looked down at her and checked the plug-belt, loosening it a little. My hand touched her thighs as I did the checking and I could feel her wetness. No wonder that her cunt had started lubricating - she had worn the thing for hours by now.

"You will keep wearing this from now on. I would have put it on you later, but maybe it was time for you to make that new experience anyways." When I saw the scared, degraded look on her face I added: "It won't ever again be as tight as it was today. I promise you that. And by the way: You don't have to feel humiliated by the butt plug, do you understand? You aren't accountable for your waste. It's natural. It s what ponies do."

That was kind of an odd thing to say, no question, but now that she had made Hannah's acquaintance she seemed to perceive me as the favorable owner. She whinnied again, some spittle flying from her lips, and stamped her foot in a thankful manner.

Had I told her that she was a dirty girl I might have made things harder for her., and that was the opposite of what I wanted. I wanted her to be broken in, to accept her new existence. The best strategy to do that was a mixture of toughness and affection. It is always like that. Everywhere in life.

I took her back to the stables afterwards and cleaned her with hay like I had done every evening. Warm water and soap had to wait a little longer. I took the vib out but left the butt-plug inside, which made her whimper a little, looking at me with pleading eyes. But that look didn't get her anywhere of course: Now that the plug had been introduced it had to stay in her. She would have to get used to it, just as she had gotten used to the other aspects of being my pony.

Hannah was already back in the kitchen where she had made tea and dinner for both of us. She smiled at me as I entered and she handed me a steaming mug.

"I didn't ever know that you would do anything like this to someone! How did you know I wouldn't run to get the police?"

I didn't inform her about my doubts or about the tranquilizer gun I had prepared just in case. I just opened a cupboard and took some printed webpages out of it. They showed pictures of girls that were tied and gagged, some shaven or put into dog-costumes, some tortured with nipple clamps and similar devices. One of the girls was strapped into a gynaecological chair, obviously tearing at her bonds and screaming into a gag while a guy was tattooing her.

Hannah stared at the pictures for some time, not as surprised or shaken as I would maybe have expected. These were images I had found on the computer after she had spent last summer at my place.

"Yeah well," she said. I checked that stuff out when I was here last summer. "I didn't know you were supervising which sites I visit on the internet."

"It was coincidence that I found out", I answered smiling. "I found it interesting that you have a special taste. And frankly, had I not seen what kinds of things you find interesting , I would never have shown Copper to you."

"That's what you call her? Copper??" She nearly screamed in delight. "Oh my god this must be so humiliating to her! How long are you going to keep her like this?"

"Well... forever. What did you think?"

"Forever? But how can you..." Hannah nodded slowly. "Okay, if people found out that you kidnapped her you'd be in trouble. Big trouble." She giggled again.

"Well. We'd both be in trouble, beloved niece. I filmed a little clip of you and her on the grounds." I smiled and made Hannah squinted her eyes.

"That's really nice of you! But they wouldn't send me to prison. I'm too young for that."

"That's true. They would just make force you to undergo therapy for the next, oh about fifty years?" "Well! I wouldn t have given you away anyways. This is too ... it s too..."

"It makes you horny."

"Don't say that, that's dirty language! But yeah, it does. So what?"

"So nothing, I like you that way. It gives you an edge."

We looked into each other's eyes sternly, until Hannah got the giggles again.

"Well I will visit tomorrow if I can. After school again. Is that okay?"

"Absolutely okay. But I will have to teach you how to train a pony. You can't just torture Copper all day, there's more to it than that."

"And why can't I torture the bitch a bit? She's helpless anyways!"

"The reward is more fulfilling when you do it the right way. You'll see."


Chapter V

I visited Copper in the morning, and when I entered her box this time she looked worse than ever before, exhausted and scared, dirty and quite insecure. Some flies had found her again and kept landing on her sweaty, bruised skin until she jerked once or twice to fight them off for some more seconds.

She hadn't forgotten Hannah yet; I could see it in her glance. And she obviously still had trouble getting used to the plug in her. When she saw me - and just me alone, without my niece - some light returned to her eyes. She took the lump of sugar I offered her with relief and she even whinnied weakly when she saw me carry two buckets with steaming, soapy water into the box.

"You've been brave for the last days", I said friendly enough to her. "Especially yesterday, when you were treated so harshly." I gestured with the cane, ordering her to stand up, and she obeyed as quickly as possible, eager to please me.

I checked on her restraints once again, then took the gag out of her mouth and let her feed rice with vegetables, also some chicken mixed in, so that she would be able to regain some of her strength. I wanted her to stay as thin as she was now, because I liked seeing her like this, but I didn't want to starve her.

After she was finished I gagged her again, her soft lips trembling around the bit, but accepting it within seconds. Then I started cleaning her with a soft sponge that had been floating in the soapy water. I used it carefully, started with her shoulders and arms, then continued with her torso. She moaned and closed her eyes, some tears welling from them. But even though she cried she obviously enjoyed the touch of the warm sponge immensely. Her nostrils flared as if she wanted to inhale every last bit of that soapy smell. And when I took her collar off and cleaned her grimy neck she even produced a purring sound. She bit down on her gag hard right after that as if she expected a punishment.

"Shhh", I said with a comforting smile, at the same time reapplying the collar to her now clean and rosy red neck. "You are a good one, Copper. Relax, and just enjoy yourself.". I kept on talking in that soothing tone while I started cleaning her small breasts. Her nipples got hard and erected, but she didn't appear to care too much about that. I could only assume how good the gentle treatment felt for her, and I took my time, used new water and more soap as I started cleaning her belly and thighs.

"Spread your legs some more."

She complied, even though she had that shy look on her face again. I started soaping and washing her vagina. I let the warm sponge run gently between her lips, rubbing them carefully, prolonging the process for as long as possible. And while I did that her breath quickened. She still just stared at the opposite wall, but she relaxed further.

When I found her small clitoris again I attended to it for quite little longer than would have been necessary. Coppers lips started quivering and she snorted once, gulping hard and then looking at me with some left over fear, but mostly just with natural nervousness.

"Is that good?"

She didn't answer, but snorted again. Her cheeks had turned a deep red and I just leaned over and kissed her soapy cheek, then continued moving the sponge over her most intimate parts. She pressed her crotch against the sponge and against my hand with the faintest bit of pressure imaginable.

"You are a good one", I assured her. "You have been worked so hard these last days, and you coped with it. You really are a good one, don't you think?"

"Whu... wheee...", she whinnied with the same reluctant acceptance.

I smiled - not at all unfriendly, but more playfully and a little mocking - and pinched her clit in a teasing way. She jerked, but there was no pain in her eyes.

When I had finished cleaning her, Coppers skin had turned a bright pink with the bruises showing even more prominent on her skin. I used a towel to dry her, then ordered her to kneel. And again she obeyed quickly, without any hesitation.

"I will take the straps from your arms - but just for a moment. You'll be a good one and keep still."

"Wheee!", she agreed instantly.

"Good one. This item is called a monoglove. It is more comfortable than the straps, but it still works quite the same way. We'll make sure it doesn't hurt you, and when it's in place you'll keep wearing it permanently."

"Wh... wheee...."

I opened the buckles and took the straps away from her thin arms, checking on the impressions the strict bondage had left in her skin and flesh. She had not suffered any permanent damage.

Then I also opened the bags that had rendered her fingers and hands useless for more than a week already. Her hands were as grimy and sweaty as I had expected, her curled fingers obviously stiff and useless. I cleaned them like I had cleaned the rest of my pony, then slipped the monoglove over Coppers hands and worked it upwards until it covered and encased her arms completely. Its upmost part ending right beneath her armpits.

Compared to the straps she had worn over the last days the monoglove had to be an improvement to her: The armbinder had a thick padding on the inside and would put pressure on her hands, wrists, forearms, elbows and upper arms in a very even way, making sure that Copper wouldn't feel any more pain while her arms adjusted to their new permanent position. After some time she wouldn't feel much of them anymore, and after an even longer period of time she would come to forget about them, as they were packed and secured so uselessly on her back.

With that thought in mind I tightened and laced the monoglove. She wheezed when I made her elbows touch behind her back and connected the binder to her body-harness. Her arms were lashed up again, as tightly as possible. I secured the main buckles with small padlocks, making sure she'd never be able to free herself from the device.

"Very good. Good one." Another piece of sugar went into her mouth. "Now let me see what Hannah did to your hair."

I took the cap off her head and brushed through her dirty, matted locks. I did not want her to be without the cap for too long, since she still needed to accept that she would wear something like this permanently. So I worked fast: I got the hair trimmer I had brought with me and started shaving her head, cutting her red hair away completely. I used depilatory cream on her scalp to make sure that no new hair would grow for some months, then cleaned her head and put the cap on her again.

She kept her silence as she underwent the procedure, just drooling a bit and breathing quicker again when her hair fell down on her shoulders. There were no tears however - just some sort of a bleak, hopeless look in her eyes while she kept staring straight ahead.

"Stand."

She did so, blinking as if I had just pulled her out if a hypnosis.

"Would you like to train? Get into the sun, test what you've learned?"

"Wheehee!" She stomped her foot, emphasizing her affirmation, nearly thankful for a chance to distract herself from whatever thoughts she had just had. That made me chuckle, and I winked at her like an accomplice.

"I know that it can get very boring, being locked in the box for too long. We'll just do some light training. Just warm you up a bit, get some diversion into the whole day, so you can sleep a good sleep tonight."

She jerked a little when I took the small vibrator into my hand, but she didn't have the courage to move away from me.

"Wheee! Weheee!" Two stomps.

"I know you don't like the vib, but you mostly don't like it because Hannah has been cruel when she used this on you." I stroked her capped head. "This thing has been designed to make things nice for you, to make your life more enjoyable. Trust me, and I'll prove it to you."

"She looked into my eyes, lips quivering once more, and spread her legs a bit further. I smiled at her and stroked her face, kissed the tip of her nose ... and just after that I carefully inserted the dildo into her cunt.

"Hannah didn't use the tickler. It is like a special treat and I think you won't find it bad. Wait a second..."

When the vib was strapped in place, I took the tickle-pad and attached it to her clit. There was a lot of surprise in Coppers grey eyes when the mechanism started stimulating her, when it warmed up to a point just above her body temperature and started vibrating in the most gentle way. I just had to laugh, seeing that look in her eyes. She stared at nothing like a baby which had just tried candy for the first time.

"Can you stand it?", I asked with some irony. And Copper agreed that yes, she could.

"Wheee..." She needed to catch her breath, the lower part of her body twitching a bit, her nostrils flaring more than ever before.

I trained Copper as I had promised her, mostly just walking her around a bit and giving her the opportunity to enjoy the sun on her skin and the smell of warm grass. She did well, moving as if she never had walked and trotted with anything else than the hooves that were on her feet now. The armbinder forced her to keep her arms and back even more straight than the straps had and it looked great on her. I gave her only twenty minutes at the prancing pole, and after these twenty minutes I was certain that she was on a good way to becoming broken in.

Because what she couldn't hide anymore was the wetness between her legs. It was a natural reaction since her clit had been stimulated continuously from the moment we had left the stables, and the vibrator had been humming softly inside her all the same time. When I wiped some of the wetness away with my hand; that made her flinch in sudden shame, but I just smiled at her and let her prance for another five minutes.

"Wheee..."

"Good girl, keep going. Yes, that's good, don't stop... very good!" I even clapped my hands. "You've learned it, see? You've improved so quickly, and do you still remember hwo hard it was in the beginning?"

She was happy to hear the praise, which differed so much from the harsh treatment she had received during the rest of the week. She also looked more worried now, most likely because her crotch was by now so wet that it glittered like silver in the sunlight.

After I had her back in her box, after she was watered and fed, I took the vib out of her so she could pee. But I replaced it as soon as she was done. Again she didn't fight it, didn't try to prevent me from plugging her, but I saw the anxiety in her face. I cleaned her with hay like I always did after the training, then locked her in for the night with a last kiss on the strap running across her forehead.

And it was going to be a long night for her: She lay in the dark, staring with blind eyes upwards to the ceiling, the lower part of her body jerking and twitching occasionally. She felt an itch she couldn't scratch, and she coped well with that situation for about an hour.

After that she couldn't take it anymore, got on her hooves and tried to somehow reach her vagina with the tip of the armbinder in which her hands were encased. She was not able to achieve that goal of course, and a tortured sob escaped her mouth when she realized that she would never be allowed to bring herself to an orgasm anymore.

So she looked around frantically, got into a crouch and rubbed her crotch against the hay-covered ground. When she felt that wouldn't suffice by far she got up once more and stumbled around in the box, crying a little, biting down hard on the bit, wheezing and sobbing. Finally she laid back down and tried to again, but couldn't. So she rolled from one side to the other the whole night, not able to ignore her needs anymore and not able to ignore the stimulation her clit and vagina received, but also not capable to orgasm with what she got.

When I opened the door to her box at around two am, she looked at me with tired, tortured eyes. She was still scared and she would still turn me over to the police any moment she got the chance, but that was just no realistic possibility. Copper was learning right now how important it could be to make the best of a situation, how dire it ever may be. She was actually relieved to see me now.

"Can't sleep?", I asked her with a sympathetic tone in my voice.

"Whe...eeee..." A tortured moan. This was the first time I ever visited her at night and the change in routine obviously confused her. She stayed on the ground, waiting for my command to stand. I gestured at her with the cane to do it and she got up, hay clinging to her pale, rosy skin in some spots.

I walked up to her and started stroking her cheek, then her shoulders. She closed her eyes and relaxed a little, and I smiled and touched her breast, the nipples already firm and erected. No flinch anymore. She pressed against me lightly.

"You are in heat", I said matter-of-factly. "And you don't have to be ashamed of that." My hand stayed on her breasts, I stroked them more intensely and slowly leaned over to kiss her collarbone. Her skin smelt of leather and sweat and musk.

"Turn around."

She was shaking from humiliation and fear, but when I touched her small, firm ass - that had become even firmer through training - she moaned louder and pushed against me. I lifted her tail, touching her between the legs. I unlaced the front part of the belt. She was hot and wet, her juices already running down the insides of her thighs. When I pulled the vibrator and tickler away she moaned loudly, lowering her head as far as was possible with the collar that had been forced upon her.

It is impossible to explain how powerful I felt in that moment, how thrilled I was: I had forced her into this situation, had worked hard on her to make her accept something unacceptable. I had shown her strictness as well as kindness, and I had made her to come to terms with what was being done to her. She had never had another option than to be a pony, and she had finally, surely against her very own will, started to cope with the situation in the only possible way: By allowing me to break her in.

And here I was, standing behind her and opening my pants, slowly pushing the tip of my already erected penis against her pussy, and all she did was stand there, shaking a little and gasping a little and waiting for what I'd do next.

What I did next was that I grabbed her by one of the straps on the back of her hood, pulled her head upwards and back as far as possible and kissed her left ear. I tasted her skin and also brushed against the pointy piece of leather that half covering her ear, and then I started to increase pressure with my cock, bit by bit.

"Ough... ouaaah... whh.....eee..." She had to feel like a madwoman right now, everything in her head mixed up and confused. That was why she tried to pull away from me. I had to grab her with more force, whispering soothingly into her ear at the same time. She calmed down when my penis started sliding inside her. Her skin was hot as if she was in a fever. She was breathing as fast as a girl who prepared herself for a long dive.

She spread her legs wider, helped me enter her by pushing herself against me. Her cunt spasmed a little when the tip of my penis was past her lips and she moaned again, louder this time, with not much humanity left in her voice. I reached around her, still whispering calmingly into her ear, and I touched her vagina, stroked the lips, then pinched the small, glowing button of her clit. There was another jerk, a stronger one this time. She snorted, small flocks of spittle flying away from her gagged mouth.

"That's a good one. You are a good one, aren't you, Copper?"

When she tried to whinnie in lust and desperation alike, I pushed deeper. That sudden movement made her scream loud, the sound coming from deep inside her like the guttural moaning of an animal, a savage mixture of arousal and pain and desire and shiftlessnes.

"Whee...ouaagh! Hroouuuumh....!!!"

I started moving in her, holding her with one arm around her torso, my hand massaging her breast and nipple, while my other hand kept stroking and teasing her clitoris. Goosebumps were all over her body now, her muscles twitching, the leather creaking. She went to her knees slowly, like a beast of burden that had been forced to bear too much. A sob mixed into her moans, but whatever she still felt parallel to her arousal, it didn't stop her from pressing against me with even more determination. When she was on her knees, she leaned forward, resting her head in the hay, placed on her cheek.

I could take her with more force now, so I gripped her hips and moved with more force. Her tail waggled back and forth with every thrust, and with every thrust I could see her muscles work under her freckled skin, the arms in the monoglove jerking upwards and tearing at the laces. She was sweating again, a strong but pleasant smell emanating from her warm skin. She was grunting with every of my moves.

I took my time. I took as much time as I could, enjoying every second, and I can't remember anymore how much time we spent in that position, me riding my pony for real for the first time.

Then I reached around the lower part of her body and touched her clit like I had before.

That touch nearly made Copper orgasm instantly, but then something in her drew back and I could feel her trying to collect herself in some manner. It was easy to guess why - there was of course something left of the girl I had captured, and that girl knew what was happening and tried to regain control.

I didn't want her to achieve that goal, so I pinched her clit, stroked it with more intensity, then kissed Coppers sweat-glistening back. She bit down hard on her gag, but she couldn't stop herself from screaming through clenched teeth, a shrill mixture of pain and pleasure in that scream, And then she shuddered, jerked, her muscles spasming forcefully. She rocked beneath me like a madwoman, every muscle visible under her skin.

I continued moving in her, fucking her forcefully as she orgasmed and still several minutes after that. Her groaning and yelping subsided only slowly, and at some point there was no actual lust in her voice anymore, but pain and desperation. It had been a long orgasm, and now she was so sensitive she could have exploded and flown directly to the moon. When I pulled out of her she sobbed with relief.

"Very good", I said, petting her ass. I took plug and dildo and re-inserted them, causing her to shudder and turn her head.

She looked at me with calm eyes, beaten and defeated and kind of more mature in a strange way. Drool and sweat had formed into a puddle beneath her head, hay and mud were clinging to her skin, but she didn't mind anymore. She whinnied softly and coarsely, and when I got up she rolled on her side and just lay there with spread legs, looking up at me with so many unasked questions I would in fact never ever answer for her.

As I left her in her box, I promised her more soapy water for the next day, more training, more sugar. But there would be no more drugs in the sugar. I didn't think she'd need them anymore.

She'd of course continue to pray for some cops or private investigators finding her, but those would never come. She'd lose another little part of her former self every day she spent as my pony, and she'd get more and more accustomed to this life, until what had been before would be merely a blurred shadow in her memory.

And I'd continue to be strict and kind, to show her what she was and what she meant to me.

I have never felt better as in those minutes when I returned to my house, humming a cheery tune under my breath. I showered and afterwards went to sleep. In the darkness, just before I slipped out of consciousness, I started thinking about Hannah and how she had treated my pony. I came to the conclusion that I didn't like what she'd done, and I thought there might be a lesson waiting for my niece at some point in the future.

But that would be a completely different story.