The Menagerie · Part 2 (2/2)
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ess had a name.
She remembered Dr. Vetman addressing her with that name. Mistress Gray was her mistress proper name. Although she still though of her a just ‘mistress’.
Only her mistress and Dr Vetman where allow to remove her harness and clothing to give her a very special bath. Her fur was combed and tail where combed.
Her horn and hooves where polished. Special soap was used to make her smell like lilacs and lavender.
She loved these times when her mistress paid such attention to her. She wished her mistress would be with her always. She would whine and whimper feebly and her mistress would tell her that she had a lot of important thing to do and Snowflake should not keep her from them. To do so would be wrong. Snowflake interpreted the word wrong into punishment.
She would whine a little and some times her mistress would come back to stroke her mane some more or touch her in all the ‘nice’ places the stable boy could not. When her mistress was gone she would think of happier things. Anything to keep the bad girl away. The controll over her tail was getting better. It moved in the opposite direction of when she twisted her body. So with little side to side movement of her hips she could get it to swish back and forth.
She liked that because is tickled the back of her rear legs a little.
She also was allowed to feed her self and could use her fore hooves to push her food, which was grain and dried fruits, into piles so she could eat out of her food tray. She would sip water from a bottle. Snowflake was almost to the point where she would nearly be able to move quite freely on her padded island. She was always chained by either her neck or hooves to the island but could practice prancing around. Her balance had much improved. She liked the sound of her hooves beating out a rhythm on the polished floor. He even beat out a kind of tune but from where she got it from she did not know.
Her mistress was very proud and spoke of taking her on a ride and seeing the rest of her friends.
That word. Friends. What friends did Snowflake have? She could not remember any friends. But then there were many things Snowflake could not remember. All the while she could only whinne or let out a throaty grumble but never speak. But at times her mistress acted like she could.
Could she?
It would be so wonderful if she could talk like her mistress.
One ‘day’ Her mistress led her out of the only room she had ever know. Snowflake was told she was going to a new home and Dr. Vetman said she was well enough to go. She was excited and scared to be led out of the only room she had ever known.
She needed a little coaxing from her mistress. She gave the ‘recovery’ room as Dr Vetman had once called it, a final glance and went down then brightly lit hallway. It was a slow curving hallway and sloped slightly down. Mistress made her canter the entire way. Every fourth beat mistress commanded her to whine. She did but her voice was not used to it. Perhaps this way why her mistress made her do so for such a long time.
Snowflake was near exhaustion when she could whinny and respond the way her mistress wished her too. She was given a sugar cube for her effort.
She suckled on it and even licked off the few granules off her mistress finger when offered.
Although she was extremely tired she notice things on doors as they passed them. What she noticed the most was that she could read what was on them How did she know how to do that? Things like ‘Room b’ or ‘exit’ even longer words like ‘emergency’ she could read and even understand what they meant. She also knew how to count and add. Again. How did she know these things? She could not remember learning them and why would a unicorn need to know such things. Snowflake pushed these questions out of her mind. Thinking of these things tended to invite the evil girl into her thoughts. Like the girl was some how making her know these things. Snowflake concentrated on the beat of her hooves.
She began to smell something.
Aside from Dr Vetman alcohol like smell and her mistress perfume along with her food of course. She never smelled anything else. But now an assortment of smells came to her. She did and did not recognize them. And the ones she did recognize she could not put a name to. But she knew them some how.
Was this the evil girl doing?
Snowflake held her head up and sniffed around. Her mistress noticed this.
“You smell something my precious.”
Snowflake voice was totally gone and just nodded.
“It is your friends. We get you to your new enclosure soon enough.”
They came to an open door.
But there was no light beyond the door. Her mistress tried to make her go in but she balked.
It was dark in there.
In the darkness bad things lived. Pain was there. The evil girl could be in there. Snowflake stained against her reins. No amount of coaxing or encouragement would make Snowflake go in. Only the light would make the darkness go away. In the light her mistress lived. That was where Snowflake wanted to be. Closing her eyes to sleep was different. She could controll her dreams. Sleeping was good.
It heals you but walking into darkness was bad. Her mistress seemed oddly pleased that Snowflake would not go in. Her mistress turned on the light and all Snowflake fears vanished. Only her mistress could make the light appear and chase her fears away.
Only her mistress.
But it seemed such a simple thing to do. But she was not allowed to touch or do anything unless her mistress trained her to command her to do so. The switch that brought the light was colored in red. Red was a danger color. To touch or interact with anything red meant punishment. Her mistress told her this once and she always listened to her mistress.
Snowflake was high steeped into the light. And into a large room with a glass wall. A curtain was drawn on the other side of the wall to block her view. The room looked like a small forest glade with knee high grass and few trees. The trees where strategically placed to hide the place she could go. There was a little pool where she could drink or stand up to her hooves in water in.
But never roll or bathe in it. That was her drinking water. Her fore hooves where secured to her waist by a chain threaded through the metal loop.
The chain allowed her hooves to be at her sides, which was much more comfortable than when she had a shorter chain. Snowflake could remove her lower part of her harness by sliding it down her legs when she needed to go. She just had to care of her beautiful tail. She found it hard to manipulate the lower harness with her fore hooves but was proud that she could do it.
Her enclosure was not as big as the recovery room but with out her lead to keep her near her padded island. She did have more room to run. She paced it off; She was in a 60 by 50 hoof room. Snowflake paced off measurement by a very steady measured stride. She counted these paces as hooves. She could smell others. She heard sounds of others. Some growled others squeaked, bayed, and one whinnied.
She tried and did respond. She did not know what she was saying but she was communicating.
Snowflake measured days by her mistress visits. It was three days of her getting used to her new home and being refitted for a harness so she could go riding.
“Would you like to see the rest of your friends.” Asked her mistress.
Snowflake nodded and grunted an affirmative whinny.
The curtain parted as if by magic. She looked out and saw she was in circle of similar looking enclosure.
By press her face against the glass being careful of her horn not to scratch the glass. She could see to her left another Four hoofed animal. A female dear. A nameplate said Bambi.
Then to Bambi left was another male dear spouting a magnificent rack of horns was Buck. Then to Buck left was an enclosure that was half full of water. It was a half woman and half fish. A mermaid. Her name was Marina, then and another tank with a male half man half fish called Tydal.
To Tydal's left continuing the circle was an enclosure with a female with a catlike eyes and face with black and white stripes. She made a show of displaying her claws and giving her an evil cat like grin and licking her paws. Her name was Tigress.
Tigress mate seemed to be lounging in a low branch in his enclosure. His name was Stripe.
Across from Snowflake through an empty cage with a few colored feathers on its floor was another cat person. A female. All covered in black short fur and long twitching tail.
Glowing yellow eyes looked at her and she sniffed the air. The black panther person walked on all fours pacing back and forth. She was right across from Snowflake enclosure. Her name was Ebony.
Snowflake shivered. Given a chance Tigress and other Ebony would eat her. Ebony mate also paced on all fours but her was clearly trying to catch his mate scent. His name was Blackie.
Next to Blackie was female horse. Her golden mane shown brightly in the light. She pranced in from of her glass showing off her polished hooves and golden tanned skin. Her sign said Moonbeam.
She could see Moonbeams mate. A hansom stallion called Sunbow.
Then by pressing her face against the glass and looking right she could barely see her mate. She was excited to see that she had mate. His name was Blizzard.
He was perfect. She was everything Snowflake imagined her mate would be. His snow-white fur and golden horn was perfect. She sniffed and tried to catch his scent. She became excited. And he did too.
Snowflake stamped her hooves in excitement.
“You remember Blizzard don’t you Snowflake.
Actually she didn’t but it did not matter. She wanted him. She came into heat and Blizzard seemed to sense her excitement.
“Now behave. Tomorrow we will go riding.”
Her face was glued the glass as her mistress left.
Then for a moment the evil girl made a final assault. Snowflake could sense her desperation. She showed each person had a different body and face other than what they now had.
Snowflake fought back and the other friends seemed to sense her distress. Snowflake was not sure who they where routing for but snowflake had too much to lose now. She wanted Blizzard and letting the evil girl win would mean losing him.
Snowflake forced the bad girl to go away. She fought with new purpose and being. She is Snowflake a unicorn. Property of her mistress. Mate to Blizzard. She is Snowflake.
The bad girl retreated somewhere and seemed to have given up.
She won and whinnied triumphantly.
Dr. Vetman watched the monitor.
Snowflake had taken to her adjustment well. Just like the others. It was a bold move and Lady Grey planned every detail. Not that the entire chess club made the cut. There where one or two set backs but she wanted a mating pair of each member of her Menagerie. Her special zoo that she could show her select friends. And in turn contract her services to others who wanted to have a very special pet. Controll was achieved through a number of ways.
Isolation and sensory depravation, and drugs used in the right combination could make anyone believe anything. But the real proof was time.
Time to make any adjustments and eliminate any flaw in the system. Plus there was always the random factor of the human will.
How to beat it. Shape it.
Mold a person very essence to mind set that you wanted them to be.
In other words.
Play God.
His only failure was the parrot. Giving a creature full vocal ability prove to be a pain. She looked good perched in her cage and covered in feathers. Except the damm parrot would not shut up. The full ability of speech promoted higher learning and eventual memory recall. She tried to encourage the others in their recall of their former selves. He looked at his fish tank in his office.
The word fish tank was far from it. The tank was eight feet long and three feet square. Suspended in a rubber cocoon that permitted no movement what so ever was the now defrocked parrot. The complete sensory isolation where every second of her life was controlled. Regulated, monitored. Anything she saw or heard was controlled by him. Right now the parrot was devoid of any sensory input.
Her mind would starve itself and slowly be driven mad. It was at the brink of madness where he could take controll of her life. Shape her to his will.
She would be reborn in his image. In a few weeks what ever the parrot remembered would be a bad dream.
Positive and negative reinforcement along with drug, Gene manipulation, and psychological conditioning plus surgery to fit her to what ever he wanted would leave her a vegetable to be his little sex toy. Like all the others. The implanting of a simple fear. Noctiphobia. The fear of the night or darkness would cause them to freeze in place. An unknown fear would grip them and they would be afraid of some unknown yet terrible awaited for them in the darkness. So severe a case of the phobia carefully controlled would keep them in line. It would simple to keep them in check. Just turn off the lights. They would go cationic and freeze in place if caught in darkness. But would never go into darkness no matter what the motivation.
The recovery processed reinforced their station in life. Anything that happen before the change was bad or brought on pain. Thus making any attempt to recall their former lives as a bad accident. So bad that they would try to find other means of escape and then in turn mentally hide in there new personas. No matter where they looked in the room they would be confronted with who and what they where.
Physical evidence was often the most damming. Hence they would be there own worse enemies by they proof of what and who they where. Another plus was having a sexual partner. The reward of having a mate made the subject more pliable. A reward or brass ring to go for. If one got out of hand deny them there mate and eventually they will comply. Sex was often an excellent motivation for a number of thing.
One other item that was burned into their very psyche was the use of symbols and there meaning. Color and shapes representing a pecking order. Masters and trainers then himself then stable hands or handlers. He looked bank at the tank. He was just tempted to keep her this way. The former parrot was Vetman toy to do with as he wanted. A bonus if you will. She was damaged goods as far as Lady
Grey was concerned. But even damaged goods looked good in the tank. Her shapely curves in the tight cocoon reminded him of some of his early work.
Like the mermaid, Marina, she could be that. But it seemed like he was lacking originality. He had time before he could make a final decision.
After all god had seven days. He could wait that long.
Unicorn -Snowflake
Fawn-Bambi
Mermaid-Marina
White Tigress-Tigres
Panther-Ebony
Horse-Moonbeam
Empty parrot cage
Deer- Buck
Merman- Tydal
Unicorn-Blizzard
Panther-male Blackie
Tiger-Stripe
Horse-Sunbow
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The Menagerie · Part 2 (2/2)
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