The Last Straw (new 11/24)

[Azrael]

Can't choose just one.

[Bucket]

Definitely would love more of this story. It's starting to get quite spicy too!

[Freesub]

I have plenty of interest! I'm also holding out hope for more Dare Me as well!

Just curious…if you could only pick one to get updates in November?

Personally, given the tension is accelerating here, I would prefer this. Of course , nothing like both

[perseus]

I have plenty of interest! I'm also holding out hope for more Dare Me as well!

Just curious…if you could only pick one to get updates in November?

Tough call. But I would probably pick Dare Me for an update. That's just my personal preference, but I'm enjoying this story as well . I am behind on it at the moment. I'll try to make an account today to cast a vote.

[neverdoubted]

Can't choose just one.

Noted. I'll see what I can do

[Bucket]

New chapter incoming.

[neverdoubted]

Putting my camera away, I started walking toward the edge of the building we had been standing behind. Dreading our destination, Mary followed me, but only reluctantly. From the way she was dragging her feet, it's a good thing I was there to set the pace. Otherwise, I'm not sure she ever would have made it.

I rounded the corner and exited from a short alley without a second thought. Still naked, Mary took longer to emerge back into the open. When she did, she was back to covering her body as best she could. She hadn't earned the use of my clothes yet and would have to make do with just her hands until Percy's show was over.

With the sun high overhead, it took me a minute to orient myself. But eventually, I figured out which way was north and started walking up uphill away from the riverbanks. My naked stepsister, never far behind, turned heads the whole way, drawing confused or fascinated looks.

Channeling my father, I did a pretty good job projecting confidence and control over the situation. I didn't turn my head or dart my eyes around in guilt. I did not act like her nude state came as a shock me. I didn't engage with anyone or try to deliver flimsy excuses about some supposed condition she might have. My stern, set face said everything I wanted to say.

I'm handling it and you should mind your own business.

Cresting the hill, the barn was easy to locate. And just like Percy had said, there was a small, fenced-in area at the back of it. Seeing the corral, Mary's breathing pace accelerated. But when I resumed walking, she did follow me.

It was a simple construct - just log fence attached to the barn and surrounding a circle of dirt with a gate on the opposite side. Percy was standing alone inside the corral fiddling with his lasso, but I could see other people hanging out in the shade beneath a huge tree which grew just outside the fence line. At first, I was pleased at the size of the crowd he had already collected. All those paying customers! But when I got closer and saw that the people under the tree were all men and were dressed as cowboys like Percy, I guessed they must also be locals. Wouldn't get much money out of them.

Percy could not contain his grin when he saw me approaching with my naked stepsister in tow. Meeting us at the edge of the fence, he offered a warm greeting. "Glad you made it. I take this to mean you're on board?"

I looked to Mary who was staring bashfully at the ground and trembling. Her anxiety level was already off the charts, and she couldn't bring herself to look at him. The deal was that she had to go through with this, but I never said she had to look people in the eye or smile. Keeping her head bowed, she managed a slight nod without ever lifting her gaze.

"Excellent!" Percy replied, not constraining his excitement at hearing this news. Turning to me, he explained how this was going to go. "I'll start out with a few rope tricks. Once I have everyone's attention, I'll call for volunteers from the audience. That's when you have your little lady here step forward. I'll take care of the rest. It's gonna be a great show!"

I'm not sure Mary was listening, though. She was too busy counting how many cowboys under the tree were drooling over her from across the way like she was a particularly juicy cut of steak.

Percy returned to his supplies near the middle of the ring and picked up a large coil of rope. Mary and I both jumped when he called out a deafening whoop followed by, "YEEEE-HAAAAA!!".

Like a carnival barker, he shouted his words, trying to grab the attention of every tourist within earshot. Twirling the lasso high over his head and leaping through it, he put on a lively display that did manage to attract quite a few random visitors. The cowboys at the fence looked bored, like they had seen his performance before and weren't impressed. Much to Mary's dismay, their focus remained solidly on her.

After performing a slew of rope tricks, he finished with a flourish and took a bow to a smattering of applause.

"On behalf of the historical preservation society of New Felicity, I want to thank each and every one of you good folks for visiting today."

Percy introduced himself and talked a little about the importance of remembering America's noble past. But now that he was no longer swinging his rope around, people lost interest quickly and started to wander off. If they had known that my naked stepsister was about to take center stage, they would have stuck around. But that's what you get for leaving the show early.

I assumed the cowboys were all locals and not likely to make a donation. Of actual tourists, there weren't as many as I would have liked. But I'm sure Mary would take the opposite opinion - far too many for comfort. Also of concern, except for her, they were all men and boys. I guess the womenfolk didn't venture this far beyond the river.

Walking over to his small pile of supplies, Percy sat down his lasso and made an announcement.

"As a precaution, I would like to remind all guests not to cross the fence during the show without permission. However, at this point, I will ask for a single volunteer from the audience who might be interested in helping me educate everyone about horses. Who would like to come up and join me?"

An eager boy who was standing beside his very distracted father did raise his hand while Percy pretended to survey the audience. But Percy intentionally overlooked him and just kept scanning.

"Come on, now, folks. Unlike my horse, I won't bite."

He was intent on picking Mary but couldn't do so until she volunteered. Cradling her private parts, she was frozen in place and staring at the ground again. When, at my prodding, she took the puniest little step forward, his eyes immediately jumped over to her.

"You, miss? I would be honored," he said with a bow. Then he motioned toward the gate where she was supposed to enter.

Mary flashed me a look of sheer terror. "Come on," I whispered, "that's your cue."

A murmur followed the hesitant, naked volunteer making her way to the gate which Percy helpfully held wide open. I accompanied her that far, but did not join her inside the corral. I found an empty spot along the quickly crowding fence to watch the show while Mary shuffled to the middle of the arena. It being a circle, the middle was the furthest point she could find from the gawking crowd. Percy closed the gate with a fateful "chunk" then approached his lovely, nude assistant.

Stepping close, he spoke to her in hushed tones that I couldn't hear, before turning back to address the now utterly captivated crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming...Mare! You'll have to excuse her unusual state of dress. Apparently, she has a condition," he explained, flashing me a knowing wink.

Ladies and gentlemen? That was funny! Looking around, I saw no ladies in the crowd. Only leering men with a few grinning teenagers and a sprinkling of squinting boys.

When Percy started clapping vigorously, everyone contributed their own applause. Hearing him mispronounce her name, Mary lifted her bowed head and opened her mouth to correct him. But when she saw the whole group clapping for her and heard several unrefined cowboys whistling their own bawdy greeting, she lost her nerve and shut her mouth.

"There's nothing more important than the bond between a cowboy and his horse," Percy continued, "It saddens me to report that after twelve years of faithful service, my dependable steed 'Trigger' recently retired to the great prairie in the sky."

One of the grizzled locals beside me spat and muttered, "retired, my ass. He lost that horse in a game of cards."

I was confused by Percy's statement as well. I thought he had said his horse was sick - not dead! But I figured it was just a sympathy play to get more donations from his audience when the time came.

Percy continued. "Without my horse, I won't be able to demonstrate any of the daring riding feats I'm known for," several old-timers snickered at Percy's claimed equestrian skills, "but we'll just have to improvise and make do. With Mare's help, I will show you some of the tack and techniques that cowboys famously employed to tame the wild west - be it breaking the wildest filly or caring for the gentlest pony. If you find this demonstration informative and worth your time, all I ask in return is a small contribution at the end to further our conservation efforts here in historic New Felicity."

From his pile, he picked up a couple of different pieces of rope that I didn't immediately recognize. One coil, smaller than his lasso, he latched to his belt. The other was even smaller and had some metal and other bits dangling off it. Mary eyed it warily, but Percy was mostly just ignoring her and holding it up to show the crowd. With a beautiful naked woman joining him in the arena, he was having trouble keeping people's attention on himself. But this was where the presentation really got interesting.

"There's a good reason why the bridle is the first piece of tack you turn to when working with a new or unfamiliar horse. This is not a real bridle, of course - just something I patched together." Holding his improvised bridle up where everyone could see it, he approached the shy, stationary girl, circling around behind her. "You see this piece of soft leather here? Normally, that would be made out of sweet iron so that...well, I'll let Mare show you."

So far, Mary had not been required to do anything except stand there and be a pretty little piece of eye candy. When Percy approached from behind and started to slip the bits of rope and leather over her head, I'm not sure how much even registered. It sure caught me off guard and the whole contraption would have been completely foreign to her. As the harness slid across her vision, she tilted her head back in confusion.

Percy issued a few calming noises. "Chh-chh-chh, easy there." If she hadn't already dedicated her hands elsewhere, she might have tried to fend him off or at least brush the strange contraption away from her face. But caught by surprise, she offered little resistance. And before she really knew what was happening, his makeshift bridle was right where he had intended to put it.

A stirring washed over the audience as spectators crowded even closer to the fence. The beautiful young lady with no clothes on was already a rare and unexpected sight. But watching her be fitted with a harness was not something they were likely to ever see again. Confused, Mary chomped at the strange leather bit he had placed between her teeth. It didn't appear painful, but did look out of place and pulled the corners of her mouth back into an unnatural position.

The harness loosely encircled her head with the back half, a few more knots and bits of rope, hanging empty and unused between her shoulder blades. From the embarrassment factor alone, I can't say I would have liked to be wearing it for any length of time. A short rope with a small metal ring on the end had been tied right into the middle of the bit and hung down past her chin. From the way she kept pulling her lips back reflexively, she didn't seem to like how the rough fibers of the large knot felt against her soft, plump lips. That, along with her wide eyes, gave her an expression of permanent surprise which probably wasn't far from how she was really feeling.

"As I was saying," Percy resumed with a calm, almost casual voice. I found it kind of hilarious when I realized he intended to use Mary as a visual aid for his horse tack presentation. While I do wish he had told me his plans for her, I guess it didn't bother me. If Mary had known he would be demonstrating the equipment on her in place of his horse, she never would have agreed to it.

Seeing how it had already been placed over her head, she was slow to react. But deciding things had gone too far, she eventually tried to eject the bit using just her lips and tongue. When that didn't work, she turned around to face the barn so she could employ one of her hands to help. In such a public arena, this move provided no extra privacy. The only real thing it accomplished was to give the bulk of the crowd a better look at her spectacular bottom. But I guess it made her feel better about removing her hand from where it was covering her breasts.

All the while, Percy kept circling her. "A bridle and lead rope are all you really need to break an unruly horse - that and a steady hand. The metal bit sits behind their back teeth, you see, and doesn't hurt them at all. It's just there to send turn signals. As long as you control the head, the rest has to follow."

With no one directly in front of her, Mary had risked sliding her hand up to her face. Using her forearm to keep her chest semi-concealed, she tugged on the harness. When that didn't free her, she worked around to the back of her head to try and loosen it further. Not knowing how it was constructed, she was at a disadvantage locating whatever knots or buckles were holding it in place. But she seemed intent on finding them.

Percy stopped talking when he saw her fiddling with the bridle. This was one major way a young woman differs from a horse. Horses don't have hands. Something needed to be done if he didn't want her interfering with the rest of his demonstration. But unbeknownst to poor Mary, the clever cowboy had already built a solution right into the harness.

Grabbing the extra rope on his belt, he came to stand right behind her and called out to the audience, "once you properly secure the bridle, the lead rope will be your best friend. But you have to be ready - especially with the skittish ones."

Mary did not expect a hand to reach around and latch another rope to the front of her bridle. It was just a long, straight rope. But something about the way it shifted the weight or hung directly down from the knot in her mouth distracted her just long enough for Percy to pick up the other ropes already hanging down her back. With a few, deft flicks of his wrists, he slung one loop around each of her upper arms and lashed them back to the middle. Then, with a final yank, he cinched the whole assembly tight between her shoulder blades.

Her arms were yanked backwards - the harness lifting her elbows and drawing them together behind her back until they were touching. At the same time, the leather bit tightened against her cheeks and the large knot of rough, dusty cord that had been on her lips was suddenly pulled past her teeth and fully into her mouth causing her to sputter.

It was a lot to process at once, and she still did not seem to fully realize the extent of her predicament. In a single motion, both her arms had been rendered completely useless both as tools and, more importantly, as coverings. When she looked down in confusion at her newly bared chest, her eyes bulged. Her boobs were positively huge with her elbows drawn back like this. With both massive melons jutting out obscenely and her prominent nipples impossible to miss, I think it shocked even her how big this position made them look.

With growing alarm, she jerked her arms, shaking her head as if the bridle would magically come loose or fall apart and her hands and mouth would be free. But Percy knew what he was doing and had constructed it well.

I might have thought to jump the fence and help her, but like the rest of the audience, I was stunned into a dead silence watching this naked beauty struggle against her simple but effective bondage. When one of the locals pierced the silence with an appreciative whistle, it startled her into taking more drastic action.

Finding she had just lost the ability to keep her spectacular tits hidden from the excited audience, her flight instinct kicked in. She couldn't talk. She couldn't use her hands. But she could still run...or so she thought.

[Skylar21]

Her arms were yanked backwards - the harness lifting her elbows and drawing them together behind her back until they were touching. At the same time, the leather bit tightened against her cheeks and the large knot of rough, dusty cord that had been on her lips was suddenly pulled past her teeth and fully into her mouth causing her to sputter.
...
Finding she had just lost the ability to keep her spectacular tits hidden from the excited audience, her flight instinct kicked in. She couldn't talk. She couldn't use her hands. But she could still run...or so she thought.

Wow! I didn't expect a pony girl component to this story! Great descriptive writing, great description of bondage! I applaud you. Now you really have to continue this quickly. Don't leave us hanging long at this point of the action.

This has been a great story from the beginning, and it just got better with this pony show! Humiliation factor; off the charts. Thanks.

[student]

RUN, MARE, RUN!

[mikewozere]

The last chapter was spectacular! Can't wait for the next.