Celestia's eyelid twitched in frustration as she glared at the ruined document on her desk. The culprit of this heinous crime was none other then her own sister!
“Luna! Look at what you made me do!” She demanded in vain as he sister simply ignored her.
The darker alicorn was far too busy skipping in place rapidly while squealing in excitement, “A Dream Walker, Sister! A Dream Walker!” the moon princess giggled merrily, “There hasn't been one to awaken since before my Banishment!”
Celestia looked at her sister dully before placing a hoof to her forehead, “I know you are excited Luna, and while this is a momentous occurrence; I really do not see why you need to barge into my office and ruin my paperwork!”
Her only reply was more squealing.
The elder sister sighed and frowned. The younger sister may be happy about the news but the re-emergence of Dream Walkers would have long reaching repercussions.
---
A day after the rather hectic series of events in which he encountered the three 'Crusaders' and the filly he learned was named 'Dinky' Skywinder couldn't help but thank the spirits. After leaving Dinky's home his journey to his own residence was uneventful and he had been able to spend the next day helping his parents set up the shop without interruptions.
A full twenty four hours of peace and safety from the madness of Pony Kind.
But now he must face the greatest challenge a young transfer student could possibly be confronted with... returning to school after a weekend...
---
Rays of morning sunlight pierced the veil of the intricately decorated fine silk drapes, casting their radiance on the restless form of a pink coated filly. She tossed and turned atop the fluffy mattress of her four-poster bed and kicked her delicate sheets off herself before pulling them back over herself without even opening her eyes.
Suddenly her eyes shot open as she let out a gasp and buried her face in her pillow as she let out a groan of frustration. The feeling of that Wild-Colt's lips against her own and the feeling of his tongue exploring her mouth had been plaguing her for the last two days. The memory insistently gnawed at her mind to the point she had barely slept since the incident.
It was bad enough he had kissed her at all; but he had done more then just kiss her. That kiss had been her first, and that colt had stolen it from her. Worse still he had even had the gall to use his tongue! The pampered filly couldn’t believe the humiliation he had inflicted on her.
While she admitted she had indeed been the one to instigate the confrontation, and had spoken poorly of his upbringing, certain things just where not done! Kissing a filly out of the blue with no explanation and no apology before fleeing the scene was one of those things!
But it wasn't the humiliation that annoyed her.
Her own mind betrayed her and refused to allow her to sleep as it replayed that moment over and over, each sensation just as intense as it had been the first time. The tingling sensation echoed over her lips as if a ghost of Skywinder's own kept brushing against them, leaving them desire his touch again.
She hadn't been get any sleep over the last two days and even worse, had completely failed to say focused enough to feed herself or even hold a conversation. A part of her was amazed she hadn't been a walking disaster whenever she retired to the bathroom...
She was Diamond Tiara, daughter of Filthy Rich, heir to his fortune and future proprietor of Barnyard Bargains, one of the most profitable enterprises throughout Equestria, and yet here she found herself unable to think of anything else besides some no-name colt! Who, to make matters worse, was raised by Gryphon Tribals from some Flank-End region of Equus.
Yet she couldn't bring herself to hate him. She, the one who had hated and bullied anyone mercilessly for something as juvenile as not having a Cutie Mark, couldn't hate the colt who stole her first kiss. That brief contact had conveyed as much as if he had spoken to her for ten minutes.
He hadn't acted out of malice or anger, she hadn't hurt his feelings or pride. All he wanted was for her to leave him alone.
It was a strange feeling knowing that she, the terror of Ponyville Schoolyard, the one that had belittled every last one of her classmates for having less than her for every reason under Celestia’s Sun, hadn’t even made an impact on somepony whose very upbringing she had insulted. For the first time she felt like she had encountered somepony who truly had the will to not bend their knee to her.
It both scared and excited her.
For the first time in her short life her go-to tactic to assert her dominance, a tactic that had never failed her in all the years she had used it had backfired. And it did so utterly. The only reason Diamond felt she could maintain her carefully crafted superiority was due to the small fortune of herself, Silver Spoon and Skywinder being the only ones present at the time. The only way word could have gotten out was if Skywinder was secretly a blabber mouth or Featherweight had snapped a photo.
Since her maids weren't gossiping about it and she hadn't seen the flash of a camera going off she knew neither event had happened...
On that thought she realised she never did figure out how the maids managed to keep up with all the latest gossip when they never left the mansion...
Still, that left figuring out how to deal with Skywinder. She couldn't just leave him alone; if she was seen leaving the new guy alone after being so unrelenting to the rest they would see it as a chink in her armour. If that happened it was only a matter of time before they rebelled.
If she couldn't verbally abuse him into submission like she usually did that logically meant she should resort to a physical approach, but that presented it's own issues. First among those was the fact that hitting colts was simply something a young mare of her breeding simply shouldn't do, not even a farm working pony like Apple Bloom would baulk at the idea of physical violence against the fairer sex.
The second was that Skywinder wasn't like other colts. While it was true some grew up to be physical powerhouses like Apple Bloom's aptly named older brother, Big Macintosh, Skywinder was already one of the most physically imposing ponies in the class, matching Apple Bloom for sheer muscle.
Add the fact he was raised by a male-dominant society and you get a colt that could not only over powering her but wasn't afraid to do so...
That... both terrified her and made her stomach flutter in excitement. Like any Earth Pony Diamond Tiara prided herself on her physical prowess, so even if she lead the pampered lifestyle of an heiress she still envied Apple Bloom for being stronger then her. That was part of the reason she singled her out more then their other classmates.
But for some reason the idea that a colt, the fairer sex, being able to overwhelm her strength brought the opposite feelings to what the other filly did. He brought her feelings of yearning and longing she couldn't understand.
She had always looked at colts as nothing more then tools, ways to help her rise further up the social food chain, hopefully high enough to have the ear of the Princesses, and to produce an heir of her own some day. Mere pieces on the board to manipulate however she desired.
Now this one was changing the rules on her. What she thought was just another pawn had turned out to have as much control over the game as she did... and she found herself desiring that challenge, when she had so often just been annoyed and beaten whatever resistance she had encountered into submission before.
To make her feel even worse Diamond Tiara remembered her heritage as the proud descendant of a long line of Earth Ponies dating back to at least the banishing of Princess Luna. Such a rich history and here she was pining for a Pegasus who considered a tribe of savages, from farther south then where the Pegasi gather the migratory birds during Winter Wrap Up, to be his family.
She wasn't sure how but she knew that she had to keep the colt from challenging her authority constantly. There was no debate in her mind about the necessity of her staying on top at school.
As a maid entered her room to announce the morning, and the need to prepare for the day of school to come, the heiress reached her conclusion. If she couldn't dominate him by undermining his own self worth and brute force wasn't a solution, then she still had a third option.
She would convince the colt to join her, if she could make him throw his support behind her then nopony in the school would dare try and challenge her again. A happy smirk crossed her lips at the idea of having the colt standing side by side with her as she looked down on all the lesser ponies...
---
“Not interested.”
Diamond Tiara's bottom eyelid twitched in frustration. She had just wasted the last twenty minutes intercepting Skywinder and presenting him with all the benefits of being her left-hoof stallion. And he responded by rejecting the offer the exact moment she finished the last syllable of her offer.
The colt just sat there impassively as the heiress sputtering as she tried to get her brain to understand this turn of events. It was her friend who regained her senses first and made her presence remembered by poking the colt in the chest.
“Don't you know who you're talking to? She's Diamond Tiara! The richest and best connected filly in town! You should feel honoured that she's being so nice to you, Featherbrain.” Silver Spoon hissed, her hoof jabbing the colt with every word.
Skywinder shrugged his wings and replied, “I should care, why?”
The grey Earth Pony snarled, “Because a Cloudmuzzle is hardly deserving of her attention let alone one that is a mere colt.” She poked him again, though this time it was more of a shove.
The pegasus barely budged, which Silver Spoon hadn't been expecting. Unlike Diamond Tiara she had no reservations about getting physical with a colt. She also didn't expect to find herself falling onto her back after Skywinder threw her off with enough force to take her off her hooves.
“I don’t know who you do things around here.” The gryphon raised Pegasus growled as he loomed over Silver Spoon, “But where I’m from, we don’t lash out at another without reason.” His eyes narrow as he leaned his snout down to within an inch of the filly’s, “But if another attacks first, we are free to strike back with as much force as we feel appropriate.”
With that the colt flicked his tail in irritation and proceeded to trot towards the schoolyard. Silver Spoon rolled back onto her hooves as he called back, “Be glad we also teach our males not to hurt the females.”
Silver gulped slightly and glanced at Diamond Tiara, “Well… that could have gone better.” Even as she said that she couldn’t help but think about how strong Skywinder seemed to be. She also couldn’t stop thinking about that hint of rainbow light she saw in his eyes the moment after she prodded him…
“Yeah…” Diamond Tiara snorted, “I think you just made my plan even harder to pull off.” She observed with a grunt as the two followed the colt towards the school, hoping to at least get into class before the bell chimed.