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The above art piece was commissioned from the amazing 
Professor Pinecoon depicting my character (Blake) after finding out that his horse form might be permanent if he doesn’t do something!
With no time left and limited options, will he and Abby be able to return to their normal lives and find a way to escape the ranch? Read the below to see how the story ends! ^^
Galloping for the Hills:
One week later…
By now, Abby and I were almost completely used to our new forms and routines on the ranch. But we were uneasy. The more time passed, the more we knew our families must’ve been worried about us.
Apparently, as Abby said, we were practically being fed to the sharks when we were made by the feed store to do deliveries to Andrea’s ranch. Abby told me all about some kind of deal the store owner made with Andrea. And some of the other higher up employees knew about it too.
Just days ago, not long after Abby and I first spoke, some of our co-workers (the ones I didn’t particularly bond well with) came to collect the truck and admire us. They were led by Andrea to our stalls and looked at us as if we were actual livestock, even making jokes and calling us mockingly by our human names. Abby even tried attacking them, looking like she was about to break down her stall gate, scaring them quite good actually to my amusement.
That aside, the store was no longer our concern. Only Andrea. She apparently had connections to a mysterious organization that created magical objects, including her crop she’d always hit us with. Once it hit a living being, and a vocal command was given by someone, that living being would obey the command for a certain amount of time, based on certain conditions. For example, I noticed very early on, that the more times the crop hit me, the longer my body obeys Andrea’s commands.
We were being fed promises of Andrea having our last day as horses designated for a specific date based on our performance and behavior. Mine was today as of now, and Abby’s was 3 days from now. To Andrea, I was the more obedient beast of burden on the ranch, while Abby was always more defiant; hence her extended time frame. But by now, I had suspected that leaving my fate in Andrea’s hands and trusting her word shouldn’t be my only option to get out of here, nor Abby’s, especially since Abby was aware of some sort of potential arrangement to sell us off as we were.
On the third night since my own transformation (the sixth since Abby’s), after a day of hard, grueling work hauling around heavy round hay bales to avoid them collecting moisture from sitting too long, Abby revealed a plan to me for escaping. And we spoke to each other through the barred wall separating both of our stalls, which only had small openings for us to see each other.
“I’ve managed to hide this,” Abby said as she nuzzled aside a pile of hay in the corner of her stall, revealing a turned off phone.
My eyes widened. “No way!” I neighed happily. “Does it still have charge left?”
“Yes, but it’s an old phone with battery that drains quickly,” she whinnied back. “Unfortunately, the night I was transformed, I had unwittingly used up most of my battery for the day and got it down to around 40%. And now, because of battery drain, even though it’s unused, it’s now down to 25% last I checked, even in low battery mode. It’s a long story how I got it, but let’s just say I used the chaos of an escape attempt early on to swipe it when no one saw me.”
“Nice!” I whispered back enthusiastically. “I think Andrea took mine. I passed the area where I transformed and didn’t see my phone there. Have you tried using yours?”
Then Abby’s ears drooped, and a sad smile formed on her face. “I did. But it’s harder to use this small phone when you have hooves the size of the phone itself for hands.”
At that, I held out my own hooves and looked longingly at them. Having fingers to do things was such a convenience.
“I can’t call anyone because, you know. And when I tried typing out a text, it was soooo difficult. The phone screen didn’t recognize anything I typed with these even when I used them as accurately as possible. Even turning the phone on and typing in my passcode was hard enough. And by the time I managed to type one word, I went from 40% to 25% in one try. I haven’t touched it since.”
Abby turned her head slowly to look in my direction. “I’m afraid of wasting my chance to use it in a way that can save us. Thankfully, if there’s one thing Andrea isn’t, it’s careful. Otherwise I’m sure I would’ve been caught with it by now.”
Then, smiling sweetly at me, Abby said, “But it’s something right? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. Even though you were transformed like me. I didn’t trust anyone from the feed store. They’re the ones who gave me the water that did this to me. And I know for a fact that Andrea’s promises to change us back into humans with the promise of good behavior is a complete lie. No way she is at all trustworthy. We have to gamble it all and create our own freedom if it turns out to be a lie, and I think you’re the only one I can trust to help us both win it back should it come to that.”
That prompted a smile from me in turn. The first in a while actually. Then I realized something, and paused. “Hey Abby,” I told her. “Remind me again, how is that water enchanted with magic?”
“I’ve seen how,” she said, trotting over to the stall window to check for Andrea approaching before getting close to the barred wall where I was, then looking back at me. “Like I said before, she gets it from that well over there, not far from our stalls.”
Abby raised her snout in the direction of the well to the left side of my stall window, which I had grown quite accustomed to seeing every morning. “I’ve seen Andrea issue commands down the well like ‘make the drinker have more meat on their bones’, lift a bucket full of water up, pour it into a special-looking bottle, then have her pigs drink it from the bottle. And suddenly, the pigs simply became…fatter, and I think you understand why she did that to them. It seems the magic of this water is capable of doing things her crop can’t. When I tried to escape from here, I attempted to do the same thing and command the water to turn me back into a human. But even after I barely managed to get some water out of the well and drink some of it straight from the bucket before Andrea caught me, nothing happened. I think I needed to put the water in one of the bottles Andrea has stashed somewhere, then drink it out of the bottle for it to work.”
I’ve heard Abby explain this to me before, early on while I was still shaken from the change. But now, I was paying better attention. “And I doubt the water would’ve recognized your commands since we don’t have human voices,” I neighed, holding a hoof up to support my chin as I looked down at the hay and thought for a moment. Then, smiling at Abby as something hit me, I said to her, “I have an idea.”
Back to the present…
Today was the day we would go free, one way or another.
If there was any sincerity in Andrea’s promise to free us, she would have to prove to me on this outing that she would make good on her word to transform both myself and Abby back into humans. Even if she transformed me back today, how would I know Abby wouldn’t be sold off stuck in her horse form before her remaining 3 days were up? It all depended on what Andrea told me on this last ride of the evening.
It was sunny outside all day, and now the sky began to shift color to an orange glow as sunset approached; much as it had on the evening of my transformation. Andrea sat atop my back, taking me around the dirt track next to the forest bordering her property. And for once, she was riding me without a brindle on. I think she believed she had fully broken me by that point and that she had no need of it.
Throughout my time doing her chores, like pulling that wagon of hers, racing down this dirt track, jumping over obstacles, I knew she was testing not just my ability to follow directions, but my physical abilities in general. And by this point, it appeared I had apparently gained Andrea’s favorability.
As that day’s trek around the track came to a close, and the sun began to start setting. Andrea spoke to me for the first time in a long time as if she was speaking to my human self, not simply giving me commands or orders like any other horse as she often did.
“Well Blake,” she started. “You’ve been doing such a good job at the ranch!”
Then my ears pricked up as I looked back curiously at Andrea while trotting along, nodding my head up to adjust my glasses further along the bridge of my nose. Sometimes they slid down my snout as I walked. But by now, I found a way to always keep them on.
“Too good, actually,” Andrea added as that devious smile I hadn’t seen in a while crept back onto her face. “In fact, we’ve been thinking…”
By “we,” Andrea probably meant those people from that organization Abby had mentioned not long ago.
“Since it’s your last day working here,” Andrea continued with a beaming smile on her face, as if she actually expected me to be thrilled at the news. “We‘ve thought of turning your punishment into a permanent promotion as our new racehorse! You’re very welcome!”
At that, I felt my stomach drop as if the news came in the form of a large boulder Andrea was carrying; with its added weight dropped onto my back, and dragging me down to the ground. I was horrified. As I feared, the only way off of this ranch was under our own power. I knew my face must’ve looked sad and shocked to Andrea, because she started to grimace upon seeing it. And she lifted her crop she had been holding in her left hand. Upon seeing it, I simply closed my eyes, turned my head away, and continued trotting somberly forward.
“That’s right,” Andrea said behind me with a laugh, apparently lowering the crop and believing I was incapable of resistance. “No need to be ungrateful, young stallion. I think you’ve realized by now that your human life is over. Any horses who don’t make the cut will have to be put down, so consider yourself lucky! Abby is the one who will regret her choices in the end.”
I resisted the urge to shake with anger hearing Andrea’s plans for Abby. Talking about her like she didn’t have a soul or aspirations of her own. I’ve always tried to see the good in people despite my ability to get along with them, but Andrea really couldn’t see beyond herself, could she?
“I think we’re done for the day,” she said patting me on the neck. “Let’s get you back to the stables. We’ll have a think on your new name for the owners arriving tonight, shall we? How about Echo? Since you follow commands so well? Yes! That’ll do nicely! Wouldn’t you agree?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the crop being held threateningly next to my face. I nodded my head slowly, and Andrea was satisfied. “Well done, Echo! I hope you realize you’re making things very easy for yourself.”
She kept talking to me the entire walk back to the stables; telling me what to do when my new owners got here within the hour, how to act, what to do while in their care, what’ll happen if I don’t obey, and more. But I kept my focus on breathing rhythmically and slowly, as if I wasn’t panicking inside and feeling like hyperventilating. The closer I got to the stables, the more I knew my chance at humanity was slipping away forever.
It felt like a combination of the shortest and longest walk I had ever taken in my life. But I made sure to keep up appearances to Andrea. It was just another trek back to the stable was all.
As I finally approached the stables from the direction of the barn, I could see Abby’s head peeking out of her stall. Upon seeing her, I snorted loudly.
That was the signal.
Then, Abby nodded. Even from this distance, I could see the fear in her eyes. She knew, like I did, that this was our only shot. If it failed, we knew we both had to assume the worst.
As we approached my stall in the fading light, I began to slow down somewhat, before stopping right in front of Abby’s stall; unmoving.
Andrea, apparently taken off guard, roughly prodded me forward after a short pause, clutching my mane tightly with one of her hands. “Hey…Move,” she said commandingly to me. But I didn’t budge. I just kept my head low to the ground, neck arched, still looking forward.
Then, in my widely increased range of peripheral vision, I saw Andrea reach again for her crop and wave it in my face threateningly, as she often did.
“Get in your stall, Echo!” She shouted menacingly at me. “Or I’ll-“
Then, in one swift movement, I whirled my neck around to my left to bite down on the crop handle, then tear it away from Andrea’s grasp. In the next instant, centering the crop in my mouth with my teeth and tongue, I turned back towards Andrea and whacked her back and forth with it 3 times, not enough to hurt, but enough for it to make contact and catch her off guard while she shielded herself with raised arms.
“What are you-“ she started in confusion, still unable to make sense of what was happening.
I then turned towards Abby with a wild, hopeful expression on my face. And when I did, I saw that she had by now grabbed the tip of the phone in her mouth and placed it gently onto a wooden beam by her stall window, with the speaker pointed in our direction. Then, with the volume all the way up as we had planned, Abby used her tongue to accurately tap the touch screen once, and a loud, robotic voice came from the phone.
“Grab the crop, hit your face hard with it 100 times, then use the bottled water to change Abby and Blake back into humans before waiting for more instructions,” the voice assistant from the phone said.
Then suddenly, I felt Andrea stiffen on my back. And when I looked back again, crop still in mouth, Andrea was glaring at me with the most hateful glare I had ever seen in someone’s eyes before. She quickly took the crop out of my mouth with a gasp, and as a look of realization came onto her face, she began slapping herself across the face non-stop with the crop’s end, trying to shout insults our way in between slaps.
I was still breathing heavily, in disbelief that the plan actually worked, while Abby was struggling to hold in whinnies of laughter in her stall at the sight before her.
With Andrea being hit this many times with the crop, it meant that she would be under the control of any external command for a solid amount of time. With Andrea still on my back, I trotted closer to Abby’s stall. And after Andrea had finished 100 hits to her face, which by now was very red, Abby stretched her neck out to grab the crop back from Andrea’s hands with her mouth before Andrea dismounted me and quickly ran off in the direction of her house; presumably to grab the bottles.
With a joyful laugh, Abby nuzzled me while I looked onward in Andrea’s direction, and the beginnings of a smile formed on my face. “We did it, Blake!” Abby said to me. “You were amazing!”
“So were you!” I said to her with an excited grin. “But let’s not celebrate just yet. Let’s wait until we’re both human again. Can you pass out that extra horse blanket you have in your stall?” I asked her.
“Will do!” She said, before using her mouth to pull a dark blue blanket off one of the wall handles and through the v-shaped opening in the window. I used my own mouth to pull it through the crack, out of the stall, and onto the gravel.
As I did, Andrea appeared to be running back across the grazing field with two bottles in her hands. Then, breathing heavily, she reached the well and began using the pulley system to lower a bucket into the water below.
“You two!” Andrea said through gritted teeth, with a snarl in her voice. “You really think I don’t know where you both live? I’ll find you two again! Maybe next time, I’ll turn you both into pigs for slaughter! How would you like that?”
After she said this, her voice suddenly changed and said in a strained tone down the well, “Make the…drinker turn…into a…human.”
Then, after a moment, Andrea began lifting up the bucket, and then used its water to fill one of the bottles she had. Then, she ran past me and went up to Abby’s stall, continuing to shout insults and threats our way. Then, unwillingly, Andrea held the bottle up to Abby’s mouth, and Abby drank down the whole bottle in one gulp, before Andrea ran back to the well to fill up the next bottle.
Then, Abby looked at me with one last beaming smile in her mare form. “See you on the other side!” She neighed, before retreating into the privacy of her stall.
“You as well!” I huffed back with a huge grin on my own face. I then trotted up to the well where Andrea was filling up my bottle, and waited while sitting impatiently on my hind legs. She kept sending merciless threats my way. But I tried my best to ignore them. They were only words.
Then, at long last, Andrea filled up my bottle and held it up to my own mouth. It was the best tasting water I had ever drank in my life.
As the magic water settled in my system, I started trotting back towards the horse blanket. And as I did, I saw a human person climb out of the window of Abby’s stall, and run past me with another dark green horse blanket wrapped around her. She had the same dirty blonde hair Abby had, the same hazel eyes, and the same freckles I remembered her having when she worked with me at the feed store. It had worked!
As we passed each other, we both nodded at each other with satisfied expressions on our faces. It was funny to me. For this moment at least, I was still a horse, and she was the human; a sharp contrast to our first meeting on this ranch a week ago.
But as soon as we passed each other, I started to feel the changes beginning to affect my body as well. I took the blue horse blanket in my mouth and quickly dragged it back with me into my open stall. And there, I groaned and grunted as my body once again contorted and re-shaped itself.
There was that same element of discomfort from my initial transformation, and it caused me to fall on my side onto the hay. My neck and snout both shortened, and my tail began to shrink. My body also quickly became smaller and smaller. All the while, my fur disappeared and most of my body became hairless. Appendages grew from my hooves on all four legs, becoming my fingers and toes.
And when the dust settled, I was human again! Completely naked, but human again!
I laughed with glee and felt my flat face and human body all over with my hands. It felt familiar, like returning home after being away on a long trip. But I knew the job still wasn’t finished. So, I snapped out of my moment of joy, adjusted my glasses on my face, wrapped myself in the now-heavier horse blanket, and ran out of the stall to join Abby, who stood in front of a frozen-stiff Andrea next to the well.
Andrea was fuming at something Abby was saying to her, arms at her sides and standing straight up as if at attention in front of a drill sergeant in basic training, unable to move. Upon hearing my footsteps approaching, Abby turned and smiled gleefully as she saw me in my human form for the first time in a week. She held Andrea’s crop in her hand.
With a laugh, I opened my arms wide, blanket still wrapped around me, and embraced Abby. And with a huge giggle, she embraced me in turn.
“You fools,” Andrea said with a snarl. “Your owners are on their way here now. It’s too late! Even if you somehow escape from here, you’ll never get far before they find you again and drag you both back where you belong!”
“That’s enough talking,” Abby said, turning towards Andrea and saying, “You will answer my questions now. Where did you put Blake’s phone?”
Then, with an unwillingness to her voice, Andrea said, “In the kitchen, in the…left drawer by the…sink.”
“Thank you,” Abby said, tapping her check thoughtfully with one finger. “Now, the other matter…what to do with you.”
Then Andrea gasped softly, unable to speak.
I then turned to Abby, a bit unnerved by that last part. “Abby, I thought we decided, we should command her to turn herself into the police. I won’t agree to doing anything that harms her!”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” Abby said with resolve on her face. “But I’ve told you already, if she goes to the police, who knows what lies she’ll make up about us? Who knows what she’ll accuse us of when the spell breaks? And this organization I overheard her talking about. If they find out about us, they might have really good lawyers who know how to spin a story against us. I refuse to put our fates in her hands again.”
“Then…what are you going to do?” I asked her, as Andrea sat still, looking at Abby with a worried face while sweat started to fall down from her jockey helmet.
Then, Abby’s face lit up with an idea that she must’ve thought up then and there.
“Andrea,” Abby said to her with a mischievous smile on her face. “Take this crop and hit yourself with it 500 more times while you’re running back to the house, and dispose of your crop there in the fireplace. You can hit yourself more softly this time.”
We both knew the fireplace was lit due to the smoke coming from the chimney of her house at the time.
“Then,” Abby continued. “Use the bottled water to permanently erase your memory of anything about Blake and me.”
With a growl, Andrea started towards her house and began slapping herself again rapidly with the crop.
“And!” Abby said in her direction, causing Andrea to stop and listen, “While you’re at it, why don’t you also use another bottle of water to transform yourself into a horse for 10 years, then wait patiently at the driveway for your new owners? Before you do, give them a call and tell them one thing: that the horse you selected will be waiting obediently for them there!”
“Abby!” I said to her with shock in my voice.
“What?” She said with a serious look on her face. “This way, she loses the ranch and never does something like this to anyone else ever again.”
I guess…that makes sense, I realized reluctantly, as messed up a fate as that sounded to condemn anyone to; even someone like Andrea.
Then, Andrea turned and continued to her house, with a muffled “Nooooooooooo!” coming from her direction, as she continued to hit herself.
“Now let’s get out of here!” Abby said to me. “Grab your phone first! We’ll need it.”
I nodded back, and together, we ran to the house after Andrea with our blankets wrapped around us. The front door was wide open, and we rushed inside; adrenaline pumping through our veins.
Quickly rushing into the kitchen, we found the drawer where my phone was hidden. While I slammed the drawer open and frantically grabbed it, Abby checked to make sure the crop was burning in the fireplace, which it was. We both heard the pounding of loud footsteps as Andrea rushed down some stairs, then passed by us with two more bottles in her hands; staring at us menacingly, before running out the front door.
Abby and I quickly followed. And as we came outside and sprinted down the driveway towards the front gate, we saw Andrea running back up towards the well while holding her phone in hand to make a call, still under Abby’s spell.
“My phone is dead after that little stunt,” Abby said in between breaths as she looked at me. “And yours?”
Looking down to check, my phone still had over 50% battery, nearly exactly where I had left it before! As expected, I could see many, many worried texts from my family and friends, wondering where I was and if I was ok.”
“54%!” I said to Abby with a smile. “We can both use my phone to call a ride home. I guess now we need an alibi.”
Then, as we neared the front gate, which was closed, Abby looked back towards the ranch, with a pang of sympathy on her face. I followed her gaze and looked back towards the stables we had spent a whole week living in. It was odd to look back and realize that this whole experience really happened to us.
“Does she deserve this?” Abby asked me, the first hints of regret creeping onto her face. “I think she does. But what right do I have to condemn her to a similar fate as ours? Maybe I could’ve done something else?”
The same question bothered me. I shared that sentiment, having been put through the same thing as Abby. “Well, she did have plans to kill you,” I said to Abby, which prompted a shocked expression from her. “I don’t think we had a right to do what we did to her. But actions like hers should have consequences. And what goes around always comes around.” Even I think I didn’t sound too sure of my own answer right then and there.
“Right,” Abby said, looking down with a sulk at the ground. “I guess what’s done is done now.” But then, another smile formed on her face. “Still, I will admit, being a horse was kind of cool. I felt a lot stronger, faster, agile, and in the small moments when I wasn’t being ridden or stuck in my stall. I felt free. Kind of like this feeling we both have right now!”
As she said that, we both hopped the fence to leave the premises for good, and ran back down along the highway in the direction of the suburbs; sticking close to the trees in the fading light of the day.
“I definitely have to agree,” I told her with a laugh, knowing exactly what she meant. “There are things about that experience that I felt I couldn’t appreciate as a human, like in these brief moments when we were left to freely graze on the fields and run about. It felt like I wasn’t constrained by problems in these moments, just…free. But honestly, even outside of that form, I think I am experiencing that feeling right now!” Then I stretched out my arms and continued running, taking in the evening air.
“That’s the spirit!” Abby said to me with a jolly laugh, holding out her arms and running after me. “By the way, I don’t think I told you this, but you had the biggest butt I’d ever seen on a stallion in my life.”
At that, I snorted loudly with laughter, before saying with a retort, “Haha so did you!” meaning every word of it. But then I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth and realizing what I had said. “I’m…sorry.”
Abby was looking at me just then with a fierce glare. But not long after, she broke into another fit of laughter and playfully hit me upside the head. “I guess we both did, didn’t we, Blake?”
Happy I had found a new friend through all this, I smiled back, and said, “I guess so, Abby. Now, let’s get our big butts home!”
“Hey now, don’t push it,” Abby said with a smile. “Race you to the gas station! Our parents should meet us both there!”
“Right!” I said happily to her, as we continued running down alongside the highway, while the sound of a neighing horse pierced the evening air from the direction of Andrea’s ranch.
Thanks again to the amazing Professor Pinecoon for the art! I hope everyone who read the story to the end enjoyed it! My deepest thanks for taking your time of day to read it! ^^
Previous Part:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/64536351/
Professor Pinecoon depicting my character (Blake) after finding out that his horse form might be permanent if he doesn’t do something!With no time left and limited options, will he and Abby be able to return to their normal lives and find a way to escape the ranch? Read the below to see how the story ends! ^^
Galloping for the Hills:
One week later…
By now, Abby and I were almost completely used to our new forms and routines on the ranch. But we were uneasy. The more time passed, the more we knew our families must’ve been worried about us.
Apparently, as Abby said, we were practically being fed to the sharks when we were made by the feed store to do deliveries to Andrea’s ranch. Abby told me all about some kind of deal the store owner made with Andrea. And some of the other higher up employees knew about it too.
Just days ago, not long after Abby and I first spoke, some of our co-workers (the ones I didn’t particularly bond well with) came to collect the truck and admire us. They were led by Andrea to our stalls and looked at us as if we were actual livestock, even making jokes and calling us mockingly by our human names. Abby even tried attacking them, looking like she was about to break down her stall gate, scaring them quite good actually to my amusement.
That aside, the store was no longer our concern. Only Andrea. She apparently had connections to a mysterious organization that created magical objects, including her crop she’d always hit us with. Once it hit a living being, and a vocal command was given by someone, that living being would obey the command for a certain amount of time, based on certain conditions. For example, I noticed very early on, that the more times the crop hit me, the longer my body obeys Andrea’s commands.
We were being fed promises of Andrea having our last day as horses designated for a specific date based on our performance and behavior. Mine was today as of now, and Abby’s was 3 days from now. To Andrea, I was the more obedient beast of burden on the ranch, while Abby was always more defiant; hence her extended time frame. But by now, I had suspected that leaving my fate in Andrea’s hands and trusting her word shouldn’t be my only option to get out of here, nor Abby’s, especially since Abby was aware of some sort of potential arrangement to sell us off as we were.
On the third night since my own transformation (the sixth since Abby’s), after a day of hard, grueling work hauling around heavy round hay bales to avoid them collecting moisture from sitting too long, Abby revealed a plan to me for escaping. And we spoke to each other through the barred wall separating both of our stalls, which only had small openings for us to see each other.
“I’ve managed to hide this,” Abby said as she nuzzled aside a pile of hay in the corner of her stall, revealing a turned off phone.
My eyes widened. “No way!” I neighed happily. “Does it still have charge left?”
“Yes, but it’s an old phone with battery that drains quickly,” she whinnied back. “Unfortunately, the night I was transformed, I had unwittingly used up most of my battery for the day and got it down to around 40%. And now, because of battery drain, even though it’s unused, it’s now down to 25% last I checked, even in low battery mode. It’s a long story how I got it, but let’s just say I used the chaos of an escape attempt early on to swipe it when no one saw me.”
“Nice!” I whispered back enthusiastically. “I think Andrea took mine. I passed the area where I transformed and didn’t see my phone there. Have you tried using yours?”
Then Abby’s ears drooped, and a sad smile formed on her face. “I did. But it’s harder to use this small phone when you have hooves the size of the phone itself for hands.”
At that, I held out my own hooves and looked longingly at them. Having fingers to do things was such a convenience.
“I can’t call anyone because, you know. And when I tried typing out a text, it was soooo difficult. The phone screen didn’t recognize anything I typed with these even when I used them as accurately as possible. Even turning the phone on and typing in my passcode was hard enough. And by the time I managed to type one word, I went from 40% to 25% in one try. I haven’t touched it since.”
Abby turned her head slowly to look in my direction. “I’m afraid of wasting my chance to use it in a way that can save us. Thankfully, if there’s one thing Andrea isn’t, it’s careful. Otherwise I’m sure I would’ve been caught with it by now.”
Then, smiling sweetly at me, Abby said, “But it’s something right? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. Even though you were transformed like me. I didn’t trust anyone from the feed store. They’re the ones who gave me the water that did this to me. And I know for a fact that Andrea’s promises to change us back into humans with the promise of good behavior is a complete lie. No way she is at all trustworthy. We have to gamble it all and create our own freedom if it turns out to be a lie, and I think you’re the only one I can trust to help us both win it back should it come to that.”
That prompted a smile from me in turn. The first in a while actually. Then I realized something, and paused. “Hey Abby,” I told her. “Remind me again, how is that water enchanted with magic?”
“I’ve seen how,” she said, trotting over to the stall window to check for Andrea approaching before getting close to the barred wall where I was, then looking back at me. “Like I said before, she gets it from that well over there, not far from our stalls.”
Abby raised her snout in the direction of the well to the left side of my stall window, which I had grown quite accustomed to seeing every morning. “I’ve seen Andrea issue commands down the well like ‘make the drinker have more meat on their bones’, lift a bucket full of water up, pour it into a special-looking bottle, then have her pigs drink it from the bottle. And suddenly, the pigs simply became…fatter, and I think you understand why she did that to them. It seems the magic of this water is capable of doing things her crop can’t. When I tried to escape from here, I attempted to do the same thing and command the water to turn me back into a human. But even after I barely managed to get some water out of the well and drink some of it straight from the bucket before Andrea caught me, nothing happened. I think I needed to put the water in one of the bottles Andrea has stashed somewhere, then drink it out of the bottle for it to work.”
I’ve heard Abby explain this to me before, early on while I was still shaken from the change. But now, I was paying better attention. “And I doubt the water would’ve recognized your commands since we don’t have human voices,” I neighed, holding a hoof up to support my chin as I looked down at the hay and thought for a moment. Then, smiling at Abby as something hit me, I said to her, “I have an idea.”
Back to the present…
Today was the day we would go free, one way or another.
If there was any sincerity in Andrea’s promise to free us, she would have to prove to me on this outing that she would make good on her word to transform both myself and Abby back into humans. Even if she transformed me back today, how would I know Abby wouldn’t be sold off stuck in her horse form before her remaining 3 days were up? It all depended on what Andrea told me on this last ride of the evening.
It was sunny outside all day, and now the sky began to shift color to an orange glow as sunset approached; much as it had on the evening of my transformation. Andrea sat atop my back, taking me around the dirt track next to the forest bordering her property. And for once, she was riding me without a brindle on. I think she believed she had fully broken me by that point and that she had no need of it.
Throughout my time doing her chores, like pulling that wagon of hers, racing down this dirt track, jumping over obstacles, I knew she was testing not just my ability to follow directions, but my physical abilities in general. And by this point, it appeared I had apparently gained Andrea’s favorability.
As that day’s trek around the track came to a close, and the sun began to start setting. Andrea spoke to me for the first time in a long time as if she was speaking to my human self, not simply giving me commands or orders like any other horse as she often did.
“Well Blake,” she started. “You’ve been doing such a good job at the ranch!”
Then my ears pricked up as I looked back curiously at Andrea while trotting along, nodding my head up to adjust my glasses further along the bridge of my nose. Sometimes they slid down my snout as I walked. But by now, I found a way to always keep them on.
“Too good, actually,” Andrea added as that devious smile I hadn’t seen in a while crept back onto her face. “In fact, we’ve been thinking…”
By “we,” Andrea probably meant those people from that organization Abby had mentioned not long ago.
“Since it’s your last day working here,” Andrea continued with a beaming smile on her face, as if she actually expected me to be thrilled at the news. “We‘ve thought of turning your punishment into a permanent promotion as our new racehorse! You’re very welcome!”
At that, I felt my stomach drop as if the news came in the form of a large boulder Andrea was carrying; with its added weight dropped onto my back, and dragging me down to the ground. I was horrified. As I feared, the only way off of this ranch was under our own power. I knew my face must’ve looked sad and shocked to Andrea, because she started to grimace upon seeing it. And she lifted her crop she had been holding in her left hand. Upon seeing it, I simply closed my eyes, turned my head away, and continued trotting somberly forward.
“That’s right,” Andrea said behind me with a laugh, apparently lowering the crop and believing I was incapable of resistance. “No need to be ungrateful, young stallion. I think you’ve realized by now that your human life is over. Any horses who don’t make the cut will have to be put down, so consider yourself lucky! Abby is the one who will regret her choices in the end.”
I resisted the urge to shake with anger hearing Andrea’s plans for Abby. Talking about her like she didn’t have a soul or aspirations of her own. I’ve always tried to see the good in people despite my ability to get along with them, but Andrea really couldn’t see beyond herself, could she?
“I think we’re done for the day,” she said patting me on the neck. “Let’s get you back to the stables. We’ll have a think on your new name for the owners arriving tonight, shall we? How about Echo? Since you follow commands so well? Yes! That’ll do nicely! Wouldn’t you agree?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the crop being held threateningly next to my face. I nodded my head slowly, and Andrea was satisfied. “Well done, Echo! I hope you realize you’re making things very easy for yourself.”
She kept talking to me the entire walk back to the stables; telling me what to do when my new owners got here within the hour, how to act, what to do while in their care, what’ll happen if I don’t obey, and more. But I kept my focus on breathing rhythmically and slowly, as if I wasn’t panicking inside and feeling like hyperventilating. The closer I got to the stables, the more I knew my chance at humanity was slipping away forever.
It felt like a combination of the shortest and longest walk I had ever taken in my life. But I made sure to keep up appearances to Andrea. It was just another trek back to the stable was all.
As I finally approached the stables from the direction of the barn, I could see Abby’s head peeking out of her stall. Upon seeing her, I snorted loudly.
That was the signal.
Then, Abby nodded. Even from this distance, I could see the fear in her eyes. She knew, like I did, that this was our only shot. If it failed, we knew we both had to assume the worst.
As we approached my stall in the fading light, I began to slow down somewhat, before stopping right in front of Abby’s stall; unmoving.
Andrea, apparently taken off guard, roughly prodded me forward after a short pause, clutching my mane tightly with one of her hands. “Hey…Move,” she said commandingly to me. But I didn’t budge. I just kept my head low to the ground, neck arched, still looking forward.
Then, in my widely increased range of peripheral vision, I saw Andrea reach again for her crop and wave it in my face threateningly, as she often did.
“Get in your stall, Echo!” She shouted menacingly at me. “Or I’ll-“
Then, in one swift movement, I whirled my neck around to my left to bite down on the crop handle, then tear it away from Andrea’s grasp. In the next instant, centering the crop in my mouth with my teeth and tongue, I turned back towards Andrea and whacked her back and forth with it 3 times, not enough to hurt, but enough for it to make contact and catch her off guard while she shielded herself with raised arms.
“What are you-“ she started in confusion, still unable to make sense of what was happening.
I then turned towards Abby with a wild, hopeful expression on my face. And when I did, I saw that she had by now grabbed the tip of the phone in her mouth and placed it gently onto a wooden beam by her stall window, with the speaker pointed in our direction. Then, with the volume all the way up as we had planned, Abby used her tongue to accurately tap the touch screen once, and a loud, robotic voice came from the phone.
“Grab the crop, hit your face hard with it 100 times, then use the bottled water to change Abby and Blake back into humans before waiting for more instructions,” the voice assistant from the phone said.
Then suddenly, I felt Andrea stiffen on my back. And when I looked back again, crop still in mouth, Andrea was glaring at me with the most hateful glare I had ever seen in someone’s eyes before. She quickly took the crop out of my mouth with a gasp, and as a look of realization came onto her face, she began slapping herself across the face non-stop with the crop’s end, trying to shout insults our way in between slaps.
I was still breathing heavily, in disbelief that the plan actually worked, while Abby was struggling to hold in whinnies of laughter in her stall at the sight before her.
With Andrea being hit this many times with the crop, it meant that she would be under the control of any external command for a solid amount of time. With Andrea still on my back, I trotted closer to Abby’s stall. And after Andrea had finished 100 hits to her face, which by now was very red, Abby stretched her neck out to grab the crop back from Andrea’s hands with her mouth before Andrea dismounted me and quickly ran off in the direction of her house; presumably to grab the bottles.
With a joyful laugh, Abby nuzzled me while I looked onward in Andrea’s direction, and the beginnings of a smile formed on my face. “We did it, Blake!” Abby said to me. “You were amazing!”
“So were you!” I said to her with an excited grin. “But let’s not celebrate just yet. Let’s wait until we’re both human again. Can you pass out that extra horse blanket you have in your stall?” I asked her.
“Will do!” She said, before using her mouth to pull a dark blue blanket off one of the wall handles and through the v-shaped opening in the window. I used my own mouth to pull it through the crack, out of the stall, and onto the gravel.
As I did, Andrea appeared to be running back across the grazing field with two bottles in her hands. Then, breathing heavily, she reached the well and began using the pulley system to lower a bucket into the water below.
“You two!” Andrea said through gritted teeth, with a snarl in her voice. “You really think I don’t know where you both live? I’ll find you two again! Maybe next time, I’ll turn you both into pigs for slaughter! How would you like that?”
After she said this, her voice suddenly changed and said in a strained tone down the well, “Make the…drinker turn…into a…human.”
Then, after a moment, Andrea began lifting up the bucket, and then used its water to fill one of the bottles she had. Then, she ran past me and went up to Abby’s stall, continuing to shout insults and threats our way. Then, unwillingly, Andrea held the bottle up to Abby’s mouth, and Abby drank down the whole bottle in one gulp, before Andrea ran back to the well to fill up the next bottle.
Then, Abby looked at me with one last beaming smile in her mare form. “See you on the other side!” She neighed, before retreating into the privacy of her stall.
“You as well!” I huffed back with a huge grin on my own face. I then trotted up to the well where Andrea was filling up my bottle, and waited while sitting impatiently on my hind legs. She kept sending merciless threats my way. But I tried my best to ignore them. They were only words.
Then, at long last, Andrea filled up my bottle and held it up to my own mouth. It was the best tasting water I had ever drank in my life.
As the magic water settled in my system, I started trotting back towards the horse blanket. And as I did, I saw a human person climb out of the window of Abby’s stall, and run past me with another dark green horse blanket wrapped around her. She had the same dirty blonde hair Abby had, the same hazel eyes, and the same freckles I remembered her having when she worked with me at the feed store. It had worked!
As we passed each other, we both nodded at each other with satisfied expressions on our faces. It was funny to me. For this moment at least, I was still a horse, and she was the human; a sharp contrast to our first meeting on this ranch a week ago.
But as soon as we passed each other, I started to feel the changes beginning to affect my body as well. I took the blue horse blanket in my mouth and quickly dragged it back with me into my open stall. And there, I groaned and grunted as my body once again contorted and re-shaped itself.
There was that same element of discomfort from my initial transformation, and it caused me to fall on my side onto the hay. My neck and snout both shortened, and my tail began to shrink. My body also quickly became smaller and smaller. All the while, my fur disappeared and most of my body became hairless. Appendages grew from my hooves on all four legs, becoming my fingers and toes.
And when the dust settled, I was human again! Completely naked, but human again!
I laughed with glee and felt my flat face and human body all over with my hands. It felt familiar, like returning home after being away on a long trip. But I knew the job still wasn’t finished. So, I snapped out of my moment of joy, adjusted my glasses on my face, wrapped myself in the now-heavier horse blanket, and ran out of the stall to join Abby, who stood in front of a frozen-stiff Andrea next to the well.
Andrea was fuming at something Abby was saying to her, arms at her sides and standing straight up as if at attention in front of a drill sergeant in basic training, unable to move. Upon hearing my footsteps approaching, Abby turned and smiled gleefully as she saw me in my human form for the first time in a week. She held Andrea’s crop in her hand.
With a laugh, I opened my arms wide, blanket still wrapped around me, and embraced Abby. And with a huge giggle, she embraced me in turn.
“You fools,” Andrea said with a snarl. “Your owners are on their way here now. It’s too late! Even if you somehow escape from here, you’ll never get far before they find you again and drag you both back where you belong!”
“That’s enough talking,” Abby said, turning towards Andrea and saying, “You will answer my questions now. Where did you put Blake’s phone?”
Then, with an unwillingness to her voice, Andrea said, “In the kitchen, in the…left drawer by the…sink.”
“Thank you,” Abby said, tapping her check thoughtfully with one finger. “Now, the other matter…what to do with you.”
Then Andrea gasped softly, unable to speak.
I then turned to Abby, a bit unnerved by that last part. “Abby, I thought we decided, we should command her to turn herself into the police. I won’t agree to doing anything that harms her!”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” Abby said with resolve on her face. “But I’ve told you already, if she goes to the police, who knows what lies she’ll make up about us? Who knows what she’ll accuse us of when the spell breaks? And this organization I overheard her talking about. If they find out about us, they might have really good lawyers who know how to spin a story against us. I refuse to put our fates in her hands again.”
“Then…what are you going to do?” I asked her, as Andrea sat still, looking at Abby with a worried face while sweat started to fall down from her jockey helmet.
Then, Abby’s face lit up with an idea that she must’ve thought up then and there.
“Andrea,” Abby said to her with a mischievous smile on her face. “Take this crop and hit yourself with it 500 more times while you’re running back to the house, and dispose of your crop there in the fireplace. You can hit yourself more softly this time.”
We both knew the fireplace was lit due to the smoke coming from the chimney of her house at the time.
“Then,” Abby continued. “Use the bottled water to permanently erase your memory of anything about Blake and me.”
With a growl, Andrea started towards her house and began slapping herself again rapidly with the crop.
“And!” Abby said in her direction, causing Andrea to stop and listen, “While you’re at it, why don’t you also use another bottle of water to transform yourself into a horse for 10 years, then wait patiently at the driveway for your new owners? Before you do, give them a call and tell them one thing: that the horse you selected will be waiting obediently for them there!”
“Abby!” I said to her with shock in my voice.
“What?” She said with a serious look on her face. “This way, she loses the ranch and never does something like this to anyone else ever again.”
I guess…that makes sense, I realized reluctantly, as messed up a fate as that sounded to condemn anyone to; even someone like Andrea.
Then, Andrea turned and continued to her house, with a muffled “Nooooooooooo!” coming from her direction, as she continued to hit herself.
“Now let’s get out of here!” Abby said to me. “Grab your phone first! We’ll need it.”
I nodded back, and together, we ran to the house after Andrea with our blankets wrapped around us. The front door was wide open, and we rushed inside; adrenaline pumping through our veins.
Quickly rushing into the kitchen, we found the drawer where my phone was hidden. While I slammed the drawer open and frantically grabbed it, Abby checked to make sure the crop was burning in the fireplace, which it was. We both heard the pounding of loud footsteps as Andrea rushed down some stairs, then passed by us with two more bottles in her hands; staring at us menacingly, before running out the front door.
Abby and I quickly followed. And as we came outside and sprinted down the driveway towards the front gate, we saw Andrea running back up towards the well while holding her phone in hand to make a call, still under Abby’s spell.
“My phone is dead after that little stunt,” Abby said in between breaths as she looked at me. “And yours?”
Looking down to check, my phone still had over 50% battery, nearly exactly where I had left it before! As expected, I could see many, many worried texts from my family and friends, wondering where I was and if I was ok.”
“54%!” I said to Abby with a smile. “We can both use my phone to call a ride home. I guess now we need an alibi.”
Then, as we neared the front gate, which was closed, Abby looked back towards the ranch, with a pang of sympathy on her face. I followed her gaze and looked back towards the stables we had spent a whole week living in. It was odd to look back and realize that this whole experience really happened to us.
“Does she deserve this?” Abby asked me, the first hints of regret creeping onto her face. “I think she does. But what right do I have to condemn her to a similar fate as ours? Maybe I could’ve done something else?”
The same question bothered me. I shared that sentiment, having been put through the same thing as Abby. “Well, she did have plans to kill you,” I said to Abby, which prompted a shocked expression from her. “I don’t think we had a right to do what we did to her. But actions like hers should have consequences. And what goes around always comes around.” Even I think I didn’t sound too sure of my own answer right then and there.
“Right,” Abby said, looking down with a sulk at the ground. “I guess what’s done is done now.” But then, another smile formed on her face. “Still, I will admit, being a horse was kind of cool. I felt a lot stronger, faster, agile, and in the small moments when I wasn’t being ridden or stuck in my stall. I felt free. Kind of like this feeling we both have right now!”
As she said that, we both hopped the fence to leave the premises for good, and ran back down along the highway in the direction of the suburbs; sticking close to the trees in the fading light of the day.
“I definitely have to agree,” I told her with a laugh, knowing exactly what she meant. “There are things about that experience that I felt I couldn’t appreciate as a human, like in these brief moments when we were left to freely graze on the fields and run about. It felt like I wasn’t constrained by problems in these moments, just…free. But honestly, even outside of that form, I think I am experiencing that feeling right now!” Then I stretched out my arms and continued running, taking in the evening air.
“That’s the spirit!” Abby said to me with a jolly laugh, holding out her arms and running after me. “By the way, I don’t think I told you this, but you had the biggest butt I’d ever seen on a stallion in my life.”
At that, I snorted loudly with laughter, before saying with a retort, “Haha so did you!” meaning every word of it. But then I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth and realizing what I had said. “I’m…sorry.”
Abby was looking at me just then with a fierce glare. But not long after, she broke into another fit of laughter and playfully hit me upside the head. “I guess we both did, didn’t we, Blake?”
Happy I had found a new friend through all this, I smiled back, and said, “I guess so, Abby. Now, let’s get our big butts home!”
“Hey now, don’t push it,” Abby said with a smile. “Race you to the gas station! Our parents should meet us both there!”
“Right!” I said happily to her, as we continued running down alongside the highway, while the sound of a neighing horse pierced the evening air from the direction of Andrea’s ranch.
Thanks again to the amazing
Professor Pinecoon for the art! I hope everyone who read the story to the end enjoyed it! My deepest thanks for taking your time of day to read it! ^^Previous Part:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/64536351/
Category Artwork (Digital) / Transformation
Species Horse
Size 1982 x 1859px
File Size 387.8 kB
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