Mare Training: The Warhorse Drill
Hero Sonia, her means of speech temporarily confiscated by a bright-red ball gag.
The Horse Spirit — a uniformed figure with a pair of adorable donkey ears sticking straight up — had dragged Sonia deep into the mountains of Sky City for one purpose: to open a portal to the training grounds, drawing on the vital energy of the surrounding greenery.
Beyond the shimmering portal, nothing was visible but a dense green field. Stepping through, however, revealed an unrealistically vast plain stretching all the way to the horizon.
To Sonia, who had lived her entire life in the highly advanced artificial metropolis of Sky City, this endless horizon — free of a single man-made structure — struck her with a grandeur and awe that was almost overwhelming.
In the far distance, a cluster of buildings resembling a small ranch came into view, along with a massive athletic field that looked for all the world like a race track purpose-built for warhorse training.
Just as the spirit had said, this place seemed to have been created and maintained for one sole purpose: warhorse training.
"First, we shall begin with a tour of the facilities, Sonia! How long it has been since last I conducted warhorse training — my heart swells with emotion! And since you are the sole trainee this time, I shall instruct you in every detail, one by one!"
"Just… one person? Then in the old days… the people who received warhorse training… it wasn't one at a time?"
Sonia asked with pure, unfiltered curiosity. The spirit bobbed lightly into the air, then settled once more upon Sonia's shoulder. Following the direction of the spirit's pointing finger, Sonia set off across the plain toward the only cluster of buildings standing upon it.
The closer she drew, the more clearly the facilities came into view.
There was a vast dirt track of the sort one might find at a racehorse training ground, and a strangely designed bathing area with multiple shower hoses dangling from the ceiling — built so that one could wash without using either arm. Everything had been designed not for human convenience, but for something else entirely.
"Is that not only natural? A warhorse, after all, is an honorable being who protects the king upon the battlefield — and at the same time, an object of admiration and respect for all!"
Seeing ten running tracks laid out side by side, it seemed that in the past, each rider had trained no fewer than ten girls into proud, magnificent warhorses.
The bathhouse, the sleeping quarters lined with the softest silk of the highest grade — all of it installed at floor level, requiring one to bend at the waist to use — yet even to Sonia, a native of Earth, it was a complete training facility that left nothing wanting.
"That is the general shape of the facilities, Sonia! If aught else piques your curiosity, speak it now!"
"Um… one last thing I'm really curious about… what on earth is that?"
The ball gag forced Sonia to thrust out her chest and rise onto her tiptoes with increasing frequency whenever she needed to communicate. With every repetition of the pose, she found herself — without quite realizing it — straightening her back and standing on her toes with the unhesitating confidence of a proper warhorse, as though it were simply a basic virtue she was expected to possess.
The moment she assumed the posture, her nipples rose stiff and erect once more.
Sonia had begun to accept the phenomenon her own body produced as a natural signal that she was ready for training.
With her hands bound and unusable, Sonia pointed toward the vast sky with eyes newly freed by the temporary removal of her blindfold. The spirit gave a firm little nod.
"Heh heh… I knew you would ask that, Sonia! That, my dear, is… the login bonus!"
"Lo… login bonus? When you put it that way, Spirit… it really does look like one…"
Of all the things in the spirit's personal domain that Sonia might have demanded an explanation for — the boundless plain, the bizarre living facilities built for warhorses — she had chosen to look up at the clear blue sky and ask about that.
"Uh… um… Power Carrot… Carro…?"
🥕 Power Carrot × 1
"…?"
From the moment one entered this place — the spirit's domain — time in Sonia's world did not flow at all, she had been told.
She already knew this was no ordinary world, but the strange characters floating in the sky like white clouds, numbered from one to thirty, looked rather like a calendar — or, after hearing the spirit's explanation, like the attendance-reward notice board of a mobile game.
Day 7, Day 14, Day 21, Day 28… It was no illusion that the rewards looked progressively better at the end of each week. On the final thirtieth day, the board promised a single carrot that glowed with a luminous rainbow sheen.
Still unsatisfied, Sonia once again assumed the basic warhorse posture — chest thrust out with proud confidence.
"Power… Carrot?"
Today's reward was one Power Carrot. Tomorrow would be an Endurance Carrot, and the day after that, an Agility Carrot. There seemed to be no carrots corresponding to stats like Intelligence, Charisma, or Luck.
Though she was not particularly sharp, Sonia was well-read enough to realize that these items corresponded directly to the stats managed by Sky City's System.
"Ah, so you have figured it out! Your thinking is correct! These carrots are the very core and secret of the warhorse privilege…! Warhorse carrots that permanently raise the essential stats a warhorse requires…! Sacred carrots permitted only to the noble mares who undergo warhorse training!"
"Per… permanently?!"
"Did I not say as much in my own home? Heh heh… the strength of a warhorse! I told you plainly that I would transmit it to you in full, Sonia! …If you are so astonished, then perhaps the warhorse's oath… even now, just a little…"
"Ah, that would be a bit… I'm sorry…"
Sonia firmly refused once more the oath to live as a warhorse for the rest of her life. As the spirit proudly fluttered her donkey ears and launched into her explanation, Sonia collected herself and focused on listening.
"A permanent stat-boosting item…! Isn't that the kind of legendary-grade goods you only see in auction-house ads? Then… even just one of these would be incredibly… expensive, wouldn't it?"
"Mm-hmm! So you have already grasped their value, Sonia! But to raise one's stats with these carrots requires a most exacting set of conditions…!"
Just as Sonia said, permanent stat-boosting items held enormous value in Sky City. If a D-class hero like Sonia happened to get her hands on one, the moment word got out she would become a target for every villain organization imaginable.
And yet it was an item she desperately wanted. Selling even a single one would easily buy a mansion she could live in for the rest of her life, complete with the latest model of maid robot.
"Regrettably, you must abandon that hope. A pity, Sonia! Should one without the talent of a warhorse eat this carrot, it is nothing more than a very fresh, organic, pesticide-free carrot!"
"Hiiing…"
It had been a sweet possibility — that Sonia's shabby apartment might transform into a grand mansion.
Sadly, the spirit went on to explain that if someone without warhorse talent ate the carrot, or if it were taken outside this training space, it would be nothing more than a very delicious carrot.
Sonia accepted the Power Carrot that descended from the sky and bit into it with a crisp crunch, crunch! The snappy texture and the sweet juice that burst forth filled her mouth completely.
Just a tiny bit… truly no more than a speck… she felt as though she had grown a little stronger.
"Hmph! Congratulations on claiming today's login bonus, Sonia! And now… the real beginning is at hand…"
The Horse Spirit's declaration rang in Sonia's ears with a dignity all its own. Despite the spirit's small, adorable appearance, her voice carried the weight of long years.
I've heard "this is where it begins" at least four times by now…
"…In any case, it begins now!"
There was no need to point that out. Sonia offered only a light internal retort to the Horse Spirit's declaration that training was starting, and once more corrected her posture.
Full, generous breasts thrust confidently forward; her entire body balanced on her tiptoes, spine held straight — the posture of a mare.
It had felt awkward only moments ago, but now she was growing rather accustomed to it. The pose revealed the curves of her body at their most beautiful while simultaneously producing a subtle tension that sharpened the mind.
The bright-red ball gag — an indispensable fixture of any Nebulix video tagged [Bondage] — filled Sonia's mouth completely.
The object that had thoroughly stripped her of the human ability to speak made her jaw ache just a little, yet at the same time it gifted her the sweet sensation of helplessness.
Only after the ball gag had been pushed deep into her mouth had Sonia been able to grow familiar with the strange yet convenient technique by which a warhorse conveyed her will to her master: mental empathy.
More and more naturally — as though she had been born this way — Sonia formed the perfect standby posture of a warhorse.
The training restraint suit clung to Sonia's body without a single gap. Merely holding the pose sent a faint, tingling pleasure through the insides of her thighs, racing up her spine and spreading through her entire body.
"What do you believe is the single most important point for a warhorse… for one warhorse, Sonia?"
"The poin…t? Of a warhorse…?"
Against the backdrop of the endless plain stretching in every direction, and the humble farm buildings that stood as its sole structures, Sonia stood motionless.