Chapter 22: The Epilogue

Canopus In Paradise

“Freddie! Ellie! So good to see you again, safe and sound.”

“And you, Steve,” replies Ellie. “For your information, Steve, at the moment, we are Gordon Firth and Kristen Keller. He is British. I am German.”

“OK, that’s good, really good. Did you have any trouble setting that up?”

“Not really,” Freddie replies. “I had an inkling that a tactical retreat might be needed one day, so we have had these ready for some time. Others, too, in Bank safety deposit boxes in various countries. There are a couple of new chaps with you now?”

“Ah yes,” says Steve. “A guy called ‘Peter Barker’ and another called ‘Tommy Arthur’.”

“Tommy had a girl friend... ?” asks Freddie.

“Sure, but did you know she got arrested at Heathrow?”

“Got arrested or got herself arrested? Not that it matters much now, but I am sorry Thomas — Tommy, is that what you call him? — came empty-handed. Of course, travelling with merchandise is always difficult. Perhaps we should have left that to Peter?”

“Well, always have a plan to deal with the unexpected is what I say,” replies Steve and then says brightly, “ah, coffee...”

A naked black girl glides in with a tray, a jug of coffee, a second jug of milk, a bowl of sugar, and three cups. After a second look, however, it is plain to see that she is not quite naked: around her neck she wears a seamless silver collar with a ring in the middle with similar bands around her wrists and ankles. The anklets have been shaped to fit her properly, to allow movement but not to provoke any chafing.

“Nice! I like the collar especially,” says Ellie — but nowadays Kristen — “is she for sale?”

“Everyone’s for sale in the right circumstances and at the right price,” says Steve, ever the businessman.

“Yeah. The collar is nice. German, Frauline Kirsten. You can have them made so once they are snapped on, that’s it. They can’t come off. Her’s is closed permanently, of course.”

“Ah,” says Ellie, “yes, I am pleased to know that. It is always good practice to take care of valuables.”

“Take that girl,” Steve continues after his technical explanation, “take that girl Peter had air-freighted over here. She needed some work but she will make serious money. I am going to have to charge you for use of facilities, board and lodging and so on but, yeah, she will do well. Sorry to hear about Pam Jordan, by the way.”

Gordon Firth glances down. He does not like to be reminded of his own mortality too often. Kristen says, “She was a very helpful and effective colleague and a good friend.”

Kristen is also aware that Suki is “out and off the leash” but so does Steve. He asks, “So, what happened to Suki? She was with Larry, but I mean Tommy, for a while. Is she another slave he lost?”

“No,” says Gordon quickly, aware that the drift of the conversation seems not to be in Larry’s favour. “She was not lost by Larry — sorry, by Tommy. Pam Jordan bought Suki off Larry, and Pam and Suki lived together as partners. Pam developed a tumour and, rather than endure a humiliating final few weeks manacled to a hospital bed and under arrest by the police, she committed suicide. Her affairs were all in order. We have steered very well clear of Suki.”

“But Suki knows about the Island,” Steve points out. “I mean, Suki is off the leash wandering free, able to talk to anyone like the cops and Larry’s girl is free and must have been squeezed like a lemon by the same cops for information. So: Larry’s girl. Suki. Island. Never mind that six degrees of separation crap. That’s just three degrees of separation.”

“I think,” says Kristen, “I think that Rachel is a squealer, but Suki is a different girl. She is realistic. She wants to stay free. That means mouth shut and disappear.”

“OK, but, for me, it’s not a nice feeling to be in the hands of a slave. I prefer it the other way round.”

Gordon Firth says, “But you always used to tell me you had connections in Washington?”

“Yeah. Washington. Pick you up. Put you down. You never know exactly where you are with Washington people. Maybe I should offer ‘use of facilities’ for people Washington would like to have disappear? Take ‘em. Train ‘em. Sell ‘em. Make some money for the Treasury Department?” Steve says with a broad smile.

“Ah, and here they are,” says Steve, as Tommy and Peter arrive.

Ellie notices at once that Larry has changed. He has lost weight, he stands more erect, his body is toned and — curious the effect island life can have — there is a small gold stud on the side of his left nostril. He is also perspiring, as if he has come from the gym.

The black girl returns, this time with orange juice, but — for Tommy — water.

“Guys,” announces Steve, “let me introduce my good friends, Gordon and Kristen, but maybe you have met somewhere before?”

...

Sarah is being tacked up. A tail plug is introduced into her rectum, a fat dildo vibrator is placed in her vagina, and a harness passes over her shoulders and between her legs, to hold her two guests in snugly and securely in place, and even more so when the harness waist belt is fastened.

Sarah’s forearms are folded into an arm muff which straps to the back of her belt, encouraging her to stand tall — and in her pony boots she is very tall: Sarah was always tall for a girl and standing in her hoof boots takes her to over six feet in height.

Sarah, like the other slaves on Steve’s island, is kept naked as a rule. Under the guidance of her “tutors,” the slave had developed a deep brown tan accentuated by her hair, which was cropped short and bleached blond after she was “unpacked.”

The one remaining sign of Sarah’s unorthodox journey is a small scar on the front of her neck, left when the cricothyroid valve placed by Dr Jordan was removed.

Sarah has, by and large, enjoyed her pony girl training, although she hopes this will not be her life’s work. She has enjoyed the physical training and being outdoors after so many months inside, in London.

She has also noticed that the sting of the whip and cane across her buttocks, delivered when her rider wishes her to move off, is really quite pleasant when it is delivered after the vibrator is switched on. Both her plug and her vibrator seem to have minds of their own: they can buzz and even bite unpredictably, but Sarah suspects that wi-fi technology has been used to increase the interest of the invaders and keep the pony’s constant attention.

One of the tutors is at her side. He strokes her bum as he would stroke the flank of a bio horse.

“C’mon, Sarah,” he says as he climbs into the sulky. “That ass of yours needs the whip!”

Sarah begins to feel wet and her mouth waters around her pony bit. She feels the whip crack just on her flesh (it always feels good that way) and she moves off, walking then trotting, and enjoying the sensations from her plug and dildo as fine rivers of electricity meander across them.

Virtual Reality

A Text From Charlotte

Jenny is shopping in Ely when Charlotte’s text arrives:

Hi, Jenny.

I wondered: do you think you and Joe might like to come to IWB any time soon? Ylena and I have got our hands on some new kit which we would like to try out — and I thought of you! It’s Kink meets Tech. Do you want to call me?

Love, Charlotte

Charlotte was the first person Jenny encountered on her Great Adventure. The woman who came from Inward Bound to speak with her after she had submitted her enquiry questionnaire. Jennifer always feels hot when she thinks about Charlotte: she is reserved but yet approachable; confident yet friendly; calm yet enthusiastic; beautiful yet encouraging. The sort of person who makes you feel you could be as attractive as she, if only you had the correct training. Jenny also remembers an evening at IWB when Charlotte sat in front of her and she rubbed her lips across Charlotte’s feet and kissed and licked her toes. Jenny remembers the sweet leathery smell of Charlotte’s feet in her thong sandals and the pepper-minty taste of her skin. Yes, Jenny would very much like to visit IWB to try wild new equipment with Charlotte and Ylena!

Jennifer is in the gymnasium room at IWB with Charlotte. Jenny is now an accomplished judge of gymnasiums. She has assiduously kept up her physical training since her return. Just as pumping iron helped her cope with the terror and stress of her abduction when she was at the Dacha, it helped again after Joe’s assault in London and during the weeks of his recovery. Now, after the resolution with Anatoly Sergeyevitch, and now Joe has a new job, it helps again. This time to maintain in her a feeling of serenity and “grounded-ness.”

The IWB Gym is good, but good for beginners, Jenny decides. However, it has an important feature, almost as important as the range of equipment: it has space.

Against the window wall, pointing outwards, are three treadmills. Behind both the left and right treadmills stand lightweight sulkies, for pony play. The shafts of each sulky rest on the deck of the treadmill in front so when the “pony” stands on the treadmill the pet can be harnessed into the shafts.

The wheels rest on the gym floor and can move forward or backward to match the pony’s movement when the deck of the treadmill begins to move.

“Who on earth thought of this?” asks Jenny, beaming in happy contemplation of clever kink engineering.

“Me!” replies Charlotte. “You know Corinne and I were friends when we were at University in Cambridge? Everyone in Cambridge uses bicycles because the whole town is as flat as a pancake but, if you are a runner, a treadmill is good because you can change the gradient, the treadmill deck, so you can do ‘hill work’ and so on.

“One day a few months ago, I was using one of our treadmills. My mind was wandering and wandered to where we are now!”

“So, is this the first flight of the equipment?”

“Not exactly but if we are talking ‘aeroplanes, ‘ this is just the airframe. The best bit is the avionics and that’s the kit I should really like to try out today and when we get our two ponies tacked up, you are I are going for a ride. I thought after the meal tonight? We have arranged to eat a bit early...”

“I expect Joe is going to be my Pony, but who is yours?”

“Do you think Joe will be up for it? If he is definitely against, you can both watch me working with Benjamin.

“Benjamin?”

“Ben came on a Course about eighteen months ago. His Significant Other has gone away on business, so she has left him with us. That will tell you all you need to know!”

“What’s he like?”

“Handsome and polite — with a lively imagination. He is nice. What have you done with Joe, by the way?”

“I left him...” and as Jenny gazes out of the windows, she sees Joe and smiles: “Look! There he is in the garden. He has gone running.”

“Oh yes, I see. He has lost quite a bit of weight since he came here looking for you, so to speak. You are a lucky girl, Jenny!”

“Yes I know I am...”

“So what’s it been like now you are together again? Is it something you can talk about?”

“Well, up to a point ... In a nutshell, I had counselling — am still having counselling — then Joe lost his job when his company went through restructuring, then he got assaulted in London when he was attending a job interview and ended up in hospital with facial fractures, then our house burnt down then he unexpectedly landed a new job with a firm of engineers from Italy and then finally, there was a resolution with the people who had abducted me. That’s about it.”

“Jenny! For goodness sake ... so there was a resolution with your Abductors?”

“Yes, there was ... Well, it’s hard to describe ... the Police were involved and they managed to identify who was responsible.”

“But you knew all along.”

“Yes, I knew but I could not say. For me, they had become family and it is not easy to turn your family in to the Police, especially if you can’t understand that they have done anything wrong.”

“But they had, surely?”

“Yes, on one level but, on another ... the longer I was with them, the less wrong it all seemed. I had a new name, a new language, a new country and I finished my thesis. I got my PhD — and from a more famous university than Warwick. And I still have all those things. When I was away, I got to a turning point where I was able to be glad for what I had, not always distraught at what I had lost. After that, denouncing my new family to the Police did not feel right. I mean, why would you?”

“So what did the resolution involve? Surely if the police were involved, there would be a prosecution?”

A diplomat, who I had never heard of before, phoned one evening and said he and the policemen in charge of my case were in Moscow and would I consider a settlement? I suppose, legally, you can have a criminal process and a civil process and they thought the ‘civil’ route was the most productive way to go.”

“You know, your story could be a film screenplay...”

“I suppose it could, one day, but I would not go to see it. I can watch the real events in my mind and, anyway, the memories often come back, all by themselves.”

“Oh?”

“Like here: I remember doing gym time and being ... what’s the right word?... disquieted by the way my body was changing. I used to get frightened that I would be unrecognisable to Joe and Mummy and Daddy if I was ever to see them again. They might walk past me in the street and they would not know me any more.”

“Jenny, Jenny, I am sorry. I feel so very clumsy now. I must have stirred up all sorts of bad memories? Can you cope with being here? We don’t need to play with all this stuff.”

“No, please, Charlotte. Look, don’t worry. Talking is important. The Police would just love me to be able to talk like this, but I don’t want to talk to them. Here, I am talking with people I trust. The funny thing is that when I was first here, I was so much the sub and now I am not really much of a sub at all.”

“No?”

“No. A sub is not putty. Well, you know that. A sub has to be brave enough to be frank about themselves and brave enough to put themselves in the hands of their lover. I was a sub because I wanted an adventure and it was easy to put myself into the hands of people who were more experienced than me and I hoped that I could play these sorts of games with Joe.”

“How is Joe with this now?”

“Joe wanted to treat me like a china doll. His father was not always very nice, especially to his Mum, and boys tend to be ‘easier’ with their mums, like the way girls often have a special bond with their dads. Anyway, here was Joe trying ever so hard to be kind and gentle and the perfect husband to me, and I wanted him to be the tough and scary but ultimately the gentle Dom. Now you are going to say ‘Surely you should have sorted this out before you got married, ‘ and yes, maybe we should have, but there is a limit to what you can do or find out about before you get married or start living together. Some things only get discovered later.

“Anyway, I have had two years as a professional sub. No, I am going to use the right word. I was a slave and now I want to be the Domme for a change — and I think Joe reacts quite well to being a sub, a bit of a sub, as far as tough engineers can.

“Charlotte, it’s a bit like chemistry. Think ‘Periodic Table.’ Lithium reacts. Sodium reacts but more strongly. Potassium more strongly again. Cesium yet more so. If I am mixed in with Cesium, I can be the sub. If I am mixed in with sodium, then I am the Domme.”

“Jenny, what a wonderful picture! I shall make sure we get a copy of the Periodic Table hung up somewhere. Maybe in Ylena’s studio?

“Well, Mistress Potassium, let’s go have something to eat and you can get your hands on a new sub called sodium!”

The New Avionics

“So, do I get a say in what we are doing tonight?”

“No, Joseph, this is an exercise in trust. Husbands trusting wives. You are here to do as you are told and who knows what else?”

“So what’s next?”

“Get undressed, please, and then put your socks and trainers back on. Have you a clean pair?”

For my trainers? No I haven’t — we are only here overnight. Are we going outside or something?”

“No and yes. No, we are not going outside the building, so you will have to be barefoot; but yes, we, and especially you, are going outside in your imagination.”

“I’m not sure to be relieved or nervous.”

“You definitely need to be nervous — of me, mainly! Anyway, IWB is full of naked people from time to time so there is no reason for you not to be one of them ... Are you ready yet? ... And one last thing: a blindfold here for you and a nice leather collar and lead for me, but you are wearing the collar ... Well, Joe, look at this! You are getting big. That’s nice.”

“Where are we going? Is it to Ylena’s?”

“To Ylena’s? Would you like to go there? To be stretched up and have your back and bum whipped with a nice soft flogger? Wow! You are still big! Maybe even bigger. I like that! So tomorrow, it’s Ylena’s, if you are good! But for now, just be patient...”

Presently, Joe stands with Ben in the Gymnasium Room, each on his own treadmill deck. They each wear a pony boy harness so that the pony boy and the sulky he pulls will be as one.

The harness begins with a broad, padded leather waist strap, rather like a weight lifter’s belt, shaped to rise over the pony’s hip bones. At each side, there is a sturdy D ring to attach the shafts of the sulky.

From the belt, a strap rises between the breasts (the harness is unisex) and splits into two padded shoulder straps, one left and one right. Each shoulder strap has a connection to the pony’s neck collar, to help position the shoulder straps in the optimum place.

Below, a strap travels to a ring large enough to easily take the cock and balls, which are pulled through and “presented” to the audience in a very satisfying and nicely erotic way. The harness resumes as a thinner strap, rounded to pass comfortably between the buttocks (and to retain a butt plug, according to experience) and connects to the lower edge of the waist belt at the back.

Over the pony’s back, a strap from the upper edge of the waist belt on the right passes diagonally to meet the shoulder strap on the pony’s left shoulder and a second strap from the upper edge of the waist belt on the left travels to meet the shoulder strap over the pony’s right shoulder.

All the connections are made with adjustment buckles to allow the harness to be fitted precisely.

The harness waist belt closes at the front so, when the pony’s forearms are secured in an arm muff behind his back, the pony cannot break free from control.

On the treadmill, the only direction the ponies can move is forward, so bits, bridles and reins are not needed for the ‘test flight’.

Finally, the ponies wear Virtual Reality headsets to provide them with a view of the journey they will make, in imagination.

Sitting each in her own sulky, Charlotte and Jenny can see a laptop screen on a table placed behind the unoccupied middle treadmill and Ylena has a script of the virtual journey the ponies will make, so she can adjust the speed and incline of the “active” treadmills, to match the VR image the ponies will see.

Charlotte says, “Eventually, we want to have software which will automatically adjust the treadmill speed and incline to match the terrain on the pony’s VR image, and we need a large screen TV mounted above each treadmill so riders can see both the virtual images and also see their ponies in actual reality, but that is for the next stage of development.

“The boys need practice to use this set-up just as much as we do and, if they need ‘encouragement’ on the journey, you and I have a whip for their buttocks, which is another reason why we need to see them in actual reality

“Charlotte, this is just so ingenious!” says Jenny.

“Well, they say VR is going to be the next big consumer IT thing and Charlotte thought of this wonderful Kink Application,” Ylena replies.

“We are also hoping that money might be made. I do not think there will be any more sponsorship from FCE — who have changed their name, by the way, to avoid the brand being contaminated by news of their erstwhile Chairman and Chief Executive.”

“I am going to use one of these,” says Charlotte, taking a thin single-tail whip in her hand. “Like everything, it takes practice but, basically, you flick your wrist back, point it in the direction you want the tail to fly and flick your wrist forwards.” As she demonstrates the action, the tail of the whip obediently performs and lands with a bright Crack! on Ben’s left buttock. He can’t move much and stands clenching and unclenching his buttocks to deal with the hot kiss Charlotte has given him.

Ylena says, “Charlotte will use the whip and Jenny, you can use the long stable cane on Joe, which will be easier technique for you, and then we will swap you over so the boys have a new Mistress and both get encouraged in the same way.”

Jenny can’t see the effect on Joe’s cock but, in her imagination, it stands hard, tight and tall, like a character in a Michael Manning illustration and her mouth waters.

“OK, last question before we go,” says Jenny. “Where do the VR images come from?”

“I took a Go Pro camera, mounted it on top of my cycle helmet, and went for a ride. The ‘footage’ will provide some other interesting incentives to the ponies to perform to their best!”

Ylena leans over to press <start> on the dashboard of each treadmill and the decks begin to move. The ponies begin to walk forward in response. The sulkies sway just a little, move forward a short distance as the ponies move, and begin to move gently up and down, matching their walking.

Jenny takes her cane — it’s long enough to reach Joe’s bum easily, but flexible and nicely whippy — and Jenny gives him a tap, just to let him know she is there.

The computer screen is now playing the VR images seen by the boys. They are walking down the drive, out from IWB. They pass through the gates and turn onto the public road. They reach the wooded plantation and the place where, ever so long ago, Charlotte stopped the coach bringing Jenny and her fellow adventurers to IWB, to let them relieve themselves and endure the potential humiliation of getting caught peeing in public. Ah, so long ago! How much had happened to her and Joe since then...

As the treadmill programs move to their next stage and the treadmill decks begin to move faster, Charlotte says, “Now ponies, speed up and look your best!”

As the road curves in front of them, they see a family, also on bicycles approaching! There is a mother, father, and three teenage children, two girls and one boy. The ponies, now getting caught up in the VR simulation, begin to slow. Charlotte delivers another kiss with her whip to Ben’s buttocks, ‘ and another and another. He responds by improving his running gait and moving more quickly.

Joe is also slowing to try and avoid the VR encounter with the general public. Charlotte calls, “Jenny, whip him!” and Jenny lands her cane along the side of Joe’s right buttock — and he moves, much faster and perhaps more confidently.

Several more “encounters” follow: a farmer on his tractor, a car, the local bus, another two cyclists, and a walking group. The walkers are friendly. On the morning Charlotte shot her “Go Pro” footage, they waved and called out “Good Morning!” and now they do once again in virtual reality, greeting Charlotte and Jenny and their pony boys, Joseph and Ben.

In the real world, Jenny says to Charlotte, “This is completely brilliant. You could never take the boys out ‘properly’ like this.”

“Not unless you have you have grounds as big as Bavaria,” Charlotte replies.

As the minutes pass, Jenny gets caught up in the game just as much as Ben and Joe and is taken by surprise as the VR images slow and come to a halt.

“Time to change over,” announces Charlotte. She examines the half dozen cane marks on Joe’s buttocks. “I will match him up on the other side,” she says reassuringly to Jenny, “as we go back.”

Cool Down Challenge

“Enjoy?” Ylena asks Jenny.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Jenny replies. “That was just so good, and the way the boys became so completely adsorbed into the simulation — the way they thought the people they saw on their VR sets were really real. That must be mind-blowing. Ylena, Charlotte — this is pure genius. Where are the boys anyway?”

“Charlotte has put them in the stables. We thought it would be a suitable end to their session.”

“Stables? I don’t remember...”

“It was not part of the building we used when you were here. Many years ago, it had been built as a stable and so Gerry was able to have its original use restored without too much bureaucracy from the Local Authority. They wanted it to be warm and dry, I think he said — and so did we, but for different reasons! Anyway, I think she has gone to water and feed them and put them down for the night. There is a water trough and what looks a bit like oats in each stable.”

“But you surely not actually... ?”

“Why not? Let’s round out their equine experience properly.”

“Will they be OK?”

“Of course! We have done this before to other adventurers. We have even put two of them in together, head to toe. It’s surprising what can happen, especially between straight guys...”

“No, surely not?”

“Yes, it definitely can!”

“Oh...”

“Has Joseph ever... ?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“But you have...”

“Yes, I have, especially when I was in Russia. It was girls mostly, but not entirely.”

“Aha ... how do you feel about it now?”

“I suppose sometimes I feel a bit guilty, but I had no proper choice. I did what I was expected to do but, if I am honest, I got to enjoy it, which is where the guilt comes from.”

“Did Joe have other girls when you were away? He did not know if you were ever coming back?”

“I don’t know. He has not said and I have not asked but I would not mind, in the circumstances.”

“No. Of course. Erm, do you want Charlotte to...”

“Huh?”

“Do you want Charlotte to leave them together, so that you will both have had some similar experiences?”

“Goodness, I mean, I don’t know if Joe would ... er...”

“Like his horizons broadened?”

“Yes, that’s about it. He tends to the conservative end of the spectrum.”

“But you don’t anymore?”

“I don’t think I ever did. I have just had, I mean, my time in Russia gave me sort-of permission to express what I am really like.”

“So why not give Joe the chance to broaden his horizons?”

“Do you think I should?”

“I can tell you he came to see me when you were away and he reacted very well to training...”

“Erm ... I don’t know... , I mean, I would like to know what he might do, if the opportunity came up...”

“There might be more than an opportunity that ‘comes up’?”

Jenny remembers how Joe grew as the harness tightened around him and as his package was so deliciously presented. She recalls the Michael Manning drawing. She notices her mouth is watering and there are “butterflies” in her tummy ... she says, “OK! ... Let’s do it!”

Owl Song

“Well, ponies, this evening, Ylena, Jenny, and I are going to have some girl time together and a few glasses of wine. Ponies do not drink — don’t drink wine — so you two are bedding down here for the night. Have you both had a drink, because you will be all alone until morning?”

“Do you mean... ?”

‘Yes, Joseph, I mean you two are sleeping on straw in the stable till the morning, with your hands strapped to the harness to keep them out of the way and, in case you were planning an escape, we locked all the buckles shut with tight ball closure rings when we tacked you both up, so even with hands free you will stay harnessed.”

Joe sighs. Well, he might have expected this sort of thing. He says: “No, Ma’am, I have not had a drink and I am thirsty.”

“Here,” says Charlotte, “let me lead you over to the trough. You don’t get food. Only water. Just a minute,” she says. Charlotte has a soft charming voice and it is easy to cooperate with things she says and orders she gives. She takes a soft leather blindfold and applies it to Joe’s head. She takes him over to the trough and pushes his head down until his lips touch the water.

“That’s not enough,” says Charlotte. “You have not had enough.”

“I don’t want to wet myself,” says Joe.

“I can guarantee, you will not do that,” replies Charlotte.

Joe drinks more.

“Ponies need vitamins,” says Charlotte, “and most humans do not get enough.” She is the sort of girl who probably grew up with horses, thinks Joe, but maybe she is taking this human pony thing a bit far?

“Open,” says Charlotte.

He opens.

Charlotte takes a small syringe and squirts liquid into Joe’s mouth.