“Sooooo… can you?” asked Scootaloo, gazing up into the impassive rose sunglasses.

“Hey, didn’t I see you talking to Lyra once, kid? Last year’s Nightmare Night, I think?” said Vinyl Scratch.

Scootaloo glowered. “That’s not what I asked you!” She blinked, and did a double-take. “Whoa. Maybe it should be. Do you know if Lyra still has one of those magic bit things?”

Scratch regarded the pegasus filly. “Aren’t you a little young to be asking about that stuff?”

“Hah!” snorted Scootaloo. “As if! Anyway you brought it up. Are you friends with Lyra?”

“Kid, I’ve had lots of ponies claim acquaintance of bigshots to try and curry favor with me, but this is the first time I had anypony trying to talk to me just to meet freaking Lyra. Are you for real? How about you piss off, I have a gig in Mareheim tonight to get ready for.”

“No, no!” squeaked Scootaloo. “Pretend I didn’t even say it. I got distracted. Seriously, me and this friend of mine, we were wondering if you could help us do this. It’s not about Lyra at all! Please?”

She gazed up at DJ Pon-3 imploringly. The DJ hesitated, studying her small inquisitor…

Scootaloo wasn’t done. “But the thing is… you’re like a secret weapon, okay? So it’s gotta be totally, totally secret! You mustn’t tell… eep!”

Two other young ponies trotted by, and Scootaloo blanched, but Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom were too busy arguing even to notice who else was on the street. “I tole you, we ain’t got time for this foofaraw, Diamond Tiara! I got to fix th’ roof and…”

“I’ll do it,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “I’ll fix the silly roof myself, if that’s how you’re going to behave. Hurry up!”

Apple Bloom stopped dead in her tracks. “You did not jes’ say that. Aw HELL naw. Don’t you understand…”

“Move!” insisted Diamond. “My father’s time is very valuable, and I will not tolerate you dawdling!”

“Listen. This ain’t about me bossin’ you, or at least that ain’t the only thing,” said Apple Bloom. “We got safety concerns to think about.”

Diamond glared at her. “Fine! Tell me about them while you hurry to keep our appointment!”

Apple Bloom began to trot again. “Appointment, she says. It’s your stinkin’ DAD, girl, he won’t wait for you?”

“Of course he would. It’s a respect thing,” sniffed Diamond Tiara, “and perhaps that’s why you’re bad at it.”

Apple Bloom sighed, rolling her eyes. “I swear, I don’t know why Ah’m puttin’ up with this-all…”

Diamond’s trot didn’t slacken, nor did she so much as look around. “Mad animal lust, of course. Isn’t it obvious?”

“Oh, really?”

“Now come along. You shall dance and you’ll like it, and we’ll beat all the other ponies. Silver Spoon,” added Diamond with a wrinkled nose as if even the words smelled, “probably thinks she can win from a few paltry lessons with so great an expert as my Dad. But my new servant is, I think, a much harder worker.”

“Let’s put that servant crap aside for th’ time being,” said Apple Bloom, “and talk sense. Since when is Filthy Rich some kinda dancer? You spit yer bit or somethin’?”

“You’ll see,” said Diamond blithely. “Hurry up! If it helps, you will be holding my beautiful mare body very close at times. You’ll watch me closely, and don’t even try to pretend you aren’t. You’ll twirl me and then strain me tightly to your rather drab but sturdy chest…”

“An’ then I’ll buck ya into next week,” suggested Apple Bloom.

That got her a sidelong glance that set her heart thumping, another wicked gleam of the eye and confident little smile. “That’s later, when you get me alone. If you’re good,” said Diamond Tiara.

Apple Bloom shook her head as if to clear it. “I ain’t the only one with them animal lusts y’all speak of… crazy pony… well then, I’m hurryin’ for you, so you gonna listen to me about them scaffolds. You will not go up them scaffolds, Diamond Tiara! You hear me?”

“Oh, nonsense,” said Tiara. “I quite understand that you don’t want those great huge crude farmponies up there, but it is churlish ungratefulness to carry on this way, just because I said I’d do your stupid repair for you.”

“Dammit, Diamond Tiara!” yelled Apple Bloom, her ears back in alarm. “Ain’t you listenin’? I tole you, ain’t NO worker ponies goin’ up there…”

“I am NOT a worker,” hissed Diamond, and Apple Bloom shied away for a moment without breaking stride.

She gulped. “Listen. Diamond. This ain’t just about me gettin’ bossy and dominant, okay? I tole you, I was buildin’ them ramps an’ boards an’ things even when I weren’t nothin’ but a lil’ filly. The folks got used to me doing it, an’ I got used to doing it, and din’t think nothin’ of it until I saw you pokin’ around there. An’ you ain’t what Ah’d call obedient.”

“Of course not,” snorted Diamond. “I’m your superior in every sense. I tell you what I require, and you give it. I enthrall your mind and arouse your body and you’d do anything to serve me. I suppose I’d better make a pretense around those crude farm ponies, lest they ignore you and flock to me for instruction about farm things. That would be appalling, your farm things are stupid and inefficient and I neither know or care about them.”

Apple Bloom’s ears were laid back, reinforcing her horrified expression. “Um… let’s not get into an argument about that right now, sugarcube, wouldn’t end well. Ah don’t even know where ta start with you. Let’s try this from another angle. Them scaffoldin’s might be sturdy—hell, I know they’re sturdy, nailed ‘em in myself—but they are designed for one filly who grew up walkin’ em! There’s a difference between sturdy an’ safe, is what I’m sayin’.”

Diamond snickered. “So you’re not claiming them to be a rickety structure poorly designed and not worth trusting a pony to?”

Apple Bloom glowered. “I’m sayin’ Ah won’t trust YOU to ‘em. Don’t you dare set hoof on them ramps.”

“But you claim they are strong and well built,” teased Diamond. “What do you think would happen to me if I did?”

“Ah’ll tell you!” yelled Apple Bloom. “You’d get halfway up. Maybe you’d be goin’ for that loft tucked up in the rafters I made so’s I could eat lunch on the job. It ain’t that easy to balance but if you don’t think about it I reckon you could get right up there. And then what would you do? Ah’ll tell you what you’d do, Diamond Tiara. You’d look DOWN!”

Diamond sniffed dismissively, continuing to trot along. “So what?”

“Dammit!” snarled Apple Bloom. “Even I avoid that when I’m up there! So you’d look down, and you’d get dizzy. It’s like balancin’ on the edge of a cliff. We earth ponies ain’t used to seein’ the ground so far below. There’s times I walked real careful to the loft and lay down a spell, jes’ to make it the rest of the way to the barn floor! Heck, one time Rainbow Dash grabbed me and brought me down ‘cos she saw me wobblin’ up there! You would look down, and you would get dizzy, and you ain’t familiar with that sort of thing…”

“Most embarrassing, I’m sure,” said Diamond, “if anything of the sort happened. Which it wouldn’t. You’re the one that’s dizzy, I am perfectly in control of myself at all times.”

“You’d DIE,” hissed Apple Bloom between gritted teeth, and Diamond Tiara stumbled.

“Don’t you speak to me in that tone!” she said. “Threats, now? What will it take to render you civilized?”

“You’d die,” insisted Apple Bloom. “You’d get dizzy and fall. It’s three stories up, pret’ much. You might try to put out them pretty lil’ legs to catch yourself. It wouldn’t help. Your legs would break as you smashed into th’ ground. Your neck would break and your head would splat and there would be no saving you and…” Apple Bloom gulped, her face working, and then went stern again. “Don’t! Ah don’t care how crazy a pony you are. I cain’t risk it. I ought to rip them things down rather than trust you around ‘em.”

Diamond Tiara looked shaken as well, but within seconds she’d recovered. She gazed sidelong at Apple Bloom. “Such passion! My little servant is fiercely protective of my welfare, isn’t she?”

Apple Bloom glared. “That ain’t fair! This is not me findin’ new special ways to obey you, Diamond Tiara!”

“Yes, dear. Now run faster! We’re almost at your dance lesson. You can play with your silly ramps and planks later.”

“I just got to look after the welfare of my worker ponies!”

“And I told you, I am not a worker pony,” retorted Diamond Tiara. “Don’t pout. My father awaits.”

“And he told you himself, you got to go be a worker pony at Sweet Apple Acres. So there!” said Apple Bloom, trotting angrily.

“Then there are some things Father will just have to be deprived of, aren’t there?”

The two fillies ran up the steps of the Rich house, their hooves rattling on the clean new paint of the porch steps. As they approached the door, it swung open, and Filthy Rich’s head lifted from the handle as he greeted them.

“Welcome to our home, Apple Bloom. I understand that you are interested in dance?” he said gravely.

It was odd how he smiled, and yet seemed so terribly, crushingly sad at the same time.

Apple Bloom looked up at him. “Somethin’ like that, Mister Rich. Anyways—here I am! Whatcha got for us?”

Filthy Rich closed the door behind them. From inside the house’s palatial living room, his voice came forth: assuredly, as if it was a lecture he’d been asked to give before.

“I must beg you firstly to respect my absolute retirement and never ask for public demonstrations of what I’ll show you now. It was another life for me, and it pains me to revisit it, but nothing is too good for my precious Diamond, and so here we are. My dear Miss Bloom, dance is an art form of miraculous depth and expressiveness. One can dazzle with technical facility, one can depict fascinating abstractions in time and space, or even portray emotions in a visceral sense such as rebelliousness, or contentment… or love.”

That self-assured voice hesitated for a moment, but continued as if nothing had happened.

“Now, we won’t be showing you all the finer points of dance, though I feel it behooves me to permit a glimpse behind the veil, as it were, to inspire the student. You likely won’t be learning this, for it’s not a form that one would use at a prom. I’ll teach you several forms that are appropriate to the venue. Nevertheless, at the higher peaks of the art you’ll find dance offers sophistication and mastery that rivals any other mode of expression, and we… I mean, I… can perform using only our bodies, if they are trained diligently. Some of this comes from the equine soul flooding out through the performance, while some of it requires the highest fitness and training. Ah, your ears perked, did they?”

“Uh,” came Apple Bloom’s voice, “that’s okay, Ah hope? Cain’t blame me for gettin’ more interested. I ain’t much fer sophisticating but Ah’m healthy as a horse, Mister Rich, an’ farm work’s good trainin’!”

Filthy Rich’s voice was gentle. “That was not a rebuke, child. Perhaps it was showing off, for your ears didn’t change much: a dancer can perceive the finest subtleties in his partner. Or, ah, his student, I should say. You certainly are not my… Anyhow! Let us not dally, we will begin your lesson momentarily. I should point out, though, since you’re interested in training and fitness, that a dancer is the highest celebration of such fitness and health. Why, even now, though you might not believe me, I daresay I could put more beats in a bar of music than a drummer could with drumsticks—using nothing but my own hooves.”

Diamond Tiara’s voice rang out, imperiously. “Show her, Daddy!”

“Naw, that’s all right,” began Apple Bloom’s voice, but it was cut off.

A volley of hoof-taps resounded inside the elegant living room, emanating in patterns that shifted and changed, suggesting an irresistible and propulsive beat that itself danced and lilted, though it was composed of nothing but clacks against the floor. It rollicked, spouting out frills and rhythmic decorations, and then fell silent again, and the silence echoed with the absence of the sound that had lived.

“Don’t gape, Apple Bloom,” chided Diamond Tiara proudly. “Just because you will never be as amazing as my Dad, that’s no reason for you to gawk so.”

Apple Bloom could be heard gulping. “Dang,” she said. “Mister Rich, that is somethin’! You even moved your head around while your hooves was a-tappin’, and you reared up and waved your forelegs and everything! An’ did you wave your tail at the same time, even?”

“That is actually the one part I’d better teach you,” said Filthy Rich, “and we’ve only got about a half an hour before I must return to my accounts. In traditional equine dancing it’s considered good form if you can make counter-movements with your tail while also lifting your hooves high, and we will start with the absolute basics: a collected gait, nothing more than artistic trotting. I’m not sure how flexible your hooves are, Miss Bloom, so we’ll do what we can. Let’s start with the gait, shall we? The hooves must lift high and seem to hover, even if you are crossing them over while pivoting or in piaffe. Your neck must be high and arched—I see that you’ve got admirable posture already, that’s good—and your gait should be collected to an extreme. Perhaps you’ve not moved like that before? We won’t get into change of lead until you’ve mastered a collected gait. Prance high, but without moving forward, or only the slightest amount… that’s it!”

“Good girl,” crooned Diamond Tiara.

The sound of little hooves trotting in place abruptly stopped, and Filthy Rich spoke up. “Is it not comfortable, Miss Bloom? I quite understand and I don’t hold it against you. The art of this is first to make it look easy even if it’s not comfortable to do, and then at the highest levels to rejoice in it as it becomes second nature. But it’s a lot of work, make no mistake, and we won’t continue if you are unwilling.”

There was a pause, and then Apple Bloom’s hooves were heard again, resuming that stationary prance, their sharp clacks against the floor indicating how high she was raising them in her attempt to match Filthy Rich’s effortless and elegant movements.

Her voice came through the closed door, breathless but determined.

“Apples… don’t give up… easy!”

“Good girl,” repeated Diamond Tiara.

---

“We’re back!” called Apple Bloom, trotting into the barn with Diamond Tiara bouncing at her side.

“Indeed we are!” cried Tiara. “A thousand hoorays at the return of your mistresses!”

Apple Bloom cuffed her, as farm ponies looked up from their hay, startled.

“Hush, you! It’s work time, not silly time.”

Diamond Tiara pouted. “It looks like it’s lunch time. Look, they’re still stuffing their faces.”

Apple Bloom gave her a long-suffering look. “That ain’t nothin’ but the time-honored tradition of the farm pony.”

Diamond blinked. “To eat hay?”

“Ta shirk until the boss is back to kick your tail!” cried Apple Bloom, and she reared and charged her farm ponies, whooping and nipping their hocks and smacking their butts with her hoof. “Git on, now! Lunch is over! Line up!”

They laughed uproariously, but all the same they lined up with astonishing speed. Diamond Tiara tried to mimic what Apple Bloom was doing, but shrieked as Apple Bloom whirled quick as a snake and bit her rump as well. Before she knew what was happening, Tiara had lined up alongside the farm ponies, dwarfed by them, her hind legs shivering.

“Oakback,” ordered Apple Bloom, “you take two or three ponies out and keep on plowin’ the north fields. Knothole, get on out by the east fields and check the banks of the stream! Ah want that canal neat, Granny’s still cranky about the new stream bed and we ain’t losin’ earth to erosion on my watch. Check where it turns and see if we got to throw some more rip-rap and rocks an’ crap in there to bust up th’ flow. Streams don’t sleep, we gotta watch that new channel like a hawk, gentleponies…”

Diamond Tiara’s jaw dangled slightly, as she watched Apple Bloom effortlessly command the hulking stallions. A delicate wet noise came from behind her as she winked just looking at the display of power and authority. Then, she seemed to catch herself, reeled in her dangling jaw, and frowned… resisting her tendencies, redirecting her energies.

Apple Bloom was finishing up. “And Ah’ll be…”

“Working in the west fields,” said Diamond Tiara. Stallion heads turned, startled, to look at her.

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “Happens I wasn’t going to say that, girl.”

“You’ll be working in the west fields,” decreed Diamond Tiara. A smirk twitched the corners of her mouth. “I’ll assist.”

Apple Bloom stared at her for a moment, and then said, without particular emphasis, “Shut up.” She turned back to Knothole, whose eyes were very wide. “Ah want you to check out them willow saplings we planted. Ain’t nothin’ like a willow for holding a stream bank together and in time we might be workin’ twice as hard just to prune them things back, but right now I don’t want it washin’ down the stream…”

Diamond Tiara’s mouth had been opening and shutting in amazement. Finally, she regained her voice. “Don’t you tell me to shut up!”

Apple Bloom regarded her levelly. “Ah repeats: shut up. I played along with your dancin’ this morning and that was all fine. That’s your world and you’re welcome to it. But now it’s time for work, and this is my world, Diamond Tiara.”

Diamond glared at her. “Equestria is my world! How dare you challenge me in this…”

“Send her out to the east field to pick daisies,” ordered Apple Bloom. “Silver! Hollyhock! You kin herd even full-growed ponies, git her lil’ butt outta here and off to work! And don’t let her eat them all, either!”

The two ponies sprang into action, and Diamond Tiara shrieked, cornered before she knew what was happening. She tried to evade the farm ponies’ advance, and her eyes widened as she realised she was making for the door, just like Apple Bloom had ordered.

“Fine!” she squealed, laying her ears back… and Diamond Tiara stalked out of the barn, toward the east fields, followed by the two herd-ponies.

Apple Bloom glared around at the remaining farm ponies. “An’ in case you’re wonderin’, what I am going to do is this: Ah’m fixin’ this here roof before it rains, which Rainbow Dash tole me was comin’ this evening, ready or not. All the more reason to make sure the new stream’s right before it swells up with the rains! Aw, what now, Hollyhock?”

Hollyhock had poked his head back into the barn. “She gittin’! Do we gotta follow her the whole way?”

Apple Bloom considered this. “Prob’ly not. How much trouble could she get into? If she eats all the daisies she’s supposed to be pickin’, she’ll just get a tummy-ache. Serve her right. Go on, get to your own jobs!” she said.

She turned to look up speculatively at the succession of ramps and planks that ran right up to the top of the barn. There was the loft, high above, a cozy little platform to rest on. There was the hole in the roof, not large but letting wind and water through to weaken things further. And there was the plank that ran far, far above the barn floor, leading from the one to the other.

“Gonna need a board, an’ some tar, and my hammer, and some nails,” Apple Bloom muttered. “But this ain’t waiting one more day. Crazy pink princess thinks she’s gonna do this job? HAH!” She shuddered, and began gathering her supplies.

---

Diamond Tiara sulked, annoyed beyond endurance. Bending down, she plucked another daisy, carrying it over to the stupid wooden bucket. As she bent her head to drop the daisy into the bucket, she thought of how it felt for Apple Bloom to rear up and mount upon her, and she shivered, her eyes unfocussing for a moment… and then stamped on the ground and cursed, laying her ears back.

“Shut up, she says!”

“Are you all right, miss?”

Diamond’s head jerked up in startlement, to glance over at the nearby stream. A dark brown pony with white fetlocks and a white blaze across his forehead was looking back at her, while above a glimpse of yellow and pink indicated a passing pegasus. She ignored that more distant pony and focussed on the nearer one, her fellow ‘worker’. For a moment she couldn’t place him, as all the farm workers seemed one big mass of dumb horse to her, but then she remembered: Knothole, who was told to check on the stream banks for erosion.

Diamond Tiara’s ear flicked. Not only that… Knothole, who’d run off with a big stiffie the other day after failing to hide his arousal. That farm pony. He’d tried to conceal his body’s reaction, and that meant vulnerability and weakness…

“No!” cried Diamond. “I’m not all right, not in the least!”

Knothole’s ears were splayed to the side in concern. “What’s th’ matter? Ah’m afraid you got to pick them flowers. Boss said so.” His voice was thrillingly deep and rumbling, yet entrancingly uncertain. Weakness, again.

Diamond turned, and began to walk toward him.

“She said much more than that, and I can’t bear it! She told me to shut up, when I’d offered her utter bliss in the west fields! You were there, you saw it! How could she be so cruel?” lamented Diamond. “Have… have I lost it? Am I not beautiful?” Her eye glinted.

Knothole shied away as she continued to approach. “Miss, we’re workin’, don’t you remember? It ain’t bliss time. None of us would cross Apple Bloom if she says it’s time to work. That’s what she’s for, miss.”

“And what about me? What am I for?” pleaded Diamond Tiara, a look of woe on her face and that little twinkle in her eye.

“Couldn’t say, miss,” said Knothole. He gulped. “Y’all excuse me, I thought maybe this here stream could use a lil’ more riprap on this bend…”

“Oh!” squeaked Diamond. “Let me help! Daisies are boring. I ate three and the ones my father gets are much better. I can help you… move your rocks.”

Knothole’s eyes widened, but the pink filly had already charged up, getting her hooves wet, to investigate. “Uhh—I reckon I kin handle this.”

“I can handle it too!” replied Diamond, flicking her tail with enthusiasm. “Except I am heartbroken and sad, because dumb Apple Bloom is scorning me and how am I supposed to face myself in the mirror now? Maybe I’m ugly and awful!” Her lip quivered, almost convincingly.

“Aw, miss, of course you ain’t that,” protested Knothole.

Diamond pouted. “That’s easy for you to say! You’re a farm pony, and you’re not paying attention, even when I completely deserve attention. I have expectations to meet! It’s Apple Bloom I need to appeal to, and how am I going to do that if she’s lost interest?”

“Ah’m sure she thinks you’re jes’ fine,” stammered Knothole, “if only you’d get to work and be good…”

“Fine for picking daisies!” wailed Diamond Tiara. “That’s all she wants me for now, is picking daisies! I’m telling you, Knothole… Knothole, was it? I’m telling you, it makes me think she has no erotic interest in me at all, after all the glorious sex she gave me in the west field! Is this it? Is it over for me? Have I lost the capacity to arouse and entice?”

“Aw, don’t say that, miss! I’m sure you’re the most excitin’ lil’ filly ever, don’t take on so!”

“Am I?” breathed Tiara, whirling to face him, and Knothole whimpered, backing away.

“Uhhh…”

“Or are you just saying that so I’ll return to plucking daisies?” purred Diamond, advancing, her tail flicking to and fro.

Knothole’s face worked. “Miss, don’t press me. We all agreed, you’re Boss’s girl. Besides, you ain’t but a filly, miss!”

“But I don’t feel like one,” purred Diamond. “I feel like a mare. A very… adult mare. And I’m dreadfully upset with Apple Bloom right now. She makes me feel like I’m not sexy anymore. I don’t like that.”

“She’s just tryin’ to work, miss!”

“And what of my needs?” protested Diamond. She pirouetted, presenting him with her pristine pink rump. “Look. Look, you great oaf! Does a filly… do this?”

Knothole whimpered. He peered out of the corner of his eye, trying to turn away, as Diamond swayed her behind at him, and he flinched as she deliberately winked her labia. She gazed back over her shoulder, and licked her lips.

“Miss,” said Knothole, “don’t.”

“But now you’re treating me like a child as well,” said Diamond, a quaver in her voice. “Is it so wrong to hope for some reassurance on the matter? I trust you, after all. Shouldn’t I?”

Her legs were shaking. A drip of delicate fluid dripped off her swelling clitoris as it winked out again.

“Miss, stop…”

“Stop what?” crooned Diamond, her eye sharp as she watched his every move. “Is it so much to ask for?”

Knothole trembled, his eyes wild and panicky. “I’mma run like hell in a minute, miss. What you askin’ me, exactly?”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes fixed on his body, and not just his body but under it. She stared and stared, and in turn he stared helplessly at her dainty flicking tail, those fresh pink rump cheeks, and the small pink glistening spot under her tail that winked out again and again, taunting him with its unattainable treasures.

Knothole’s ears were laid back so hard they were flat against his head, and as Diamond watched avidly, his cock dropped and swelled before her eyes. At first a bulky sausage, it filled out with alarming speed, swinging forward, and neither pony moved an inch as Knothole’s penis hardened and thickened. Diamond’s legs shook worse, and she licked her lips. It looked about the size of her entire body. The flare was a battering ram. She wriggled her hips, dripping a little more mare-ooze as she stared at his stiffening cock and watched it become utterly, unforgivingly rigid.

“Miss…” whimpered Knothole. His eyes were crossing, yet he couldn’t look away.

The lavender and white tail swished across to veil Diamond’s tiny, swollen, eager pussy from view.

“That will do,” panted Diamond Tiara. Her ear flicked, and she shook her head. “Thank you, Knothole.”

He gulped. “Beg your pardon, miss?”

“I’m satisfied. I won’t tell Apple Bloom if you won’t, and it will be easier for you to behave if I go home. You won’t tell Apple Bloom I did that, all right? If you do, I’ll tell her everything.”

Knothole was shaking. “What? What?”

Diamond turned, and stepped closer to him, keeping her hindquarters turned well away. She stretched up, and gave him a little kiss on the muzzle.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Knothole. I do appreciate it. You’re a fine figure of a stallion, too: I remember the last time you let your feelings get ahead of you. I’d hoped one day I’d see the whole glorious sight. Very nice.”

Knothole’s eyes rolled in a panic. “But, but…”

“Don’t you tell anypony,” ordered Diamond. “I think you know why. It won’t do, you know. You’re three times my size and you are a subordinate. All the same, I’ll remember this for a long time.” She licked her lips. “I think I need my Apple Bloom’s attentions, and I won’t take no for an answer, now. This time I’ll persuade her. I just needed… inspiration.”

All Knothole could do was stare, as Diamond Tiara carefully backed away from him, refusing to show him her vagina again. Her eyes gleamed, but not with a desire to seek delight under him: what she’d said was true, and both pink filly and hulking earth pony stallion knew it. Those eyes gleamed with command and intelligence, and they held his dismayed, tearful eyes and scoured them for any sign he was losing control, and betrayed only satisfaction that he was holding himself in check.

“Good boy,” said Diamond Tiara. She stumbled as she walked backwards, and gave way to the shakes: she glanced back where she was going, then her head whipped forward again to check on the massive, erect stallion before her. “That’s a good boy. Maybe you should jump in the stream. I swear I would do the same but I have better plans. Goodbye, Knothole, you glorious beast. Don’t tell. And really, what’s to tell? You’ve been a perfect gentlepony, as far as anypony knows. Everything is all right.”

Knothole whimpered, frozen.

“Goodbye,” breathed Diamond Tiara, and then she whirled and ran for her very life, back to the farmhouse, and he watched that pert pink rump disappear in the distance… and he sobbed, tears coming to his eyes, hanging his head in despair as his maddened cock throbbed its outrage.

Leaves rustled directly behind him, and Knothole screamed.

“I saw everything,” announced Fluttershy, sternly.

Knothole whirled around, panicking, and went bright red in the face as his erection bounced stiffly around under him. “I didn’t… I…”

“Poor thing!” added Fluttershy. “Of course you didn’t.” She glowered. “That is a wicked, unkind girl and I always suspected the worst of her. I think I understand Miss Diamond Tiara all too well, and I’m sure I know what she’s done to you.”

“We din’t do nothin’!” begged Knothole, his heart pounding. “Aw, Celestia, please, we din’t do nothin’, Ah was jes’ minding my own business when…”

“Ssh!” said Fluttershy. “Of course you didn’t! I don’t really think you could have even if you tried. That is a handsome and large stallionhood, and it would never fit in her.” Fluttershy frowned. “Promise you won’t try. Even if she was very foolish with you, rather than just manipulative and mean. Promise!”

“Ah promise! Aw, Celestia, Ah would never, ever…”

“I’m not Celestia! I’m Fluttershy. And you are?”

“Knothole,” sobbed Knothole. “Ah’m so sorry, Ah’m so very sorry, miss Fluttershy.”

“Poor thing!” soothed Fluttershy, coming forward to rear and hug him, her wings flaring high and held well clear. “There, there!”

Knothole hung his head again, allowing the solicitous pegasus to stroke his mane with a hoof, weeping bitter tears. “Ah b… better go jump in th’ stream, Miss. But thankin’ ya all the same, Miss…”

He went to rear and hug her back, but unexpectedly Fluttershy flinched. “Not the wings! Don’t, you mustn’t, that’s so important! Don’t you even touch!”

Knothole shrank back, his face a mask of horror. “Ah am so sorry, Miss Fluttershy! Aw, Celestia, cain’t do nothin’ right today!”

Fluttershy shrank back as well, breathing hard. “No, it’s okay, you didn’t, thank goodness. Oh my! Oh gosh. I think Rarity would call that the worst possible thing!”

Knothole was blushing scarlet. “Ah will be going now, Miss Fluttershy. Don’t worry, some of us farm boys, we know about a pegasus lady. That Braeburn pony, he sired a foal with a pegasus and it weren’t even him touchin’ her wings or nothin’! Ah apologize so very much for being an awful fool horse and a cold stream ought to be enough ta set me right…”

“Wait!” squeaked Fluttershy, and Knothole froze in his tracks.

She stepped deliberately toward him. “No, it’s not. That’s not okay. You didn’t do anything wrong, Mister Knothole.”

“Then why do Ah feel jes’ completely terrible?”

Fluttershy licked her lips. The innocent afternoon seemed to freeze into another crystalline, eternal moment. Knothole could see her legs trembling. Then, almost imperceptibly, her feathers began to bristle out, already stiffly aloft but going beyond that.

“Please let me help you feel better,” breathed Fluttershy. Her eyes glanced up to his, dropped, glanced up again, dropped…

“Aw, miss,” moaned Knothole, “not again?”

That got her attention. Her eyes shot up and held his, and she squeaked, “You think I’m like her? Like that wicked little filly?”

Knothole licked his lips. “If you ain’t, why you leadin’ me from bad to worse?”

She stamped a hoof, which barely ruffled the grass. “I am not!”

“But, miss, you warned me not to touch your wing… an’ I know you’re with that nice Pinkie Pie pony, ain’tcha?”

Fluttershy dropped her gaze, blushing, but then she looked up from under a sweetly glowering brow. “Yes, I did, and I meant it. You mustn’t touch my wing. I’ve gone for days without wing-playing and it was awkward to arrange, but there’s no chance of you impregnating me if you don’t touch it. And that’s important.”

“And you’re with…”

“Yes, I am,” continued Fluttershy. “I’m with Pinkie Pie, and she’s my mate and we’re raising my foal together. And Pinkie Pie had her tongue in not one but two other mares just yesterday so I won’t have you shaming me over my own desires, okay? It’s very difficult to ask for this!”

Knothole’s eyes bugged out. “Two… at once?”

It broke the tension, and Fluttershy blinked. “No, silly! One at a time. Neither of them were me, before you ask. How would she even… I really don’t think I want to know. I’m just saying, never mind Pinkie Pie, mister Knothole! She won’t mind… much.” Fluttershy dropped her gaze, and blushed, scratching her hoof in the grass.

Knothole gulped. “I ought to go jump in that stream right now an’ that’s a fact.”

“Please don’t!” cried Fluttershy. “Not now that I’ve finally met you and dared to talk to you and ask for sex! You don’t know how long I’ve been watching!”

“What?” gasped Knothole. “How long you been watching, then?”

Fluttershy couldn’t meet his eyes. She’d been bouncing back and forth between assertive confidence and total cowering, and his question made her blush brightly and turn away, her wings standing up still higher. “F… for all week. You looked at that pink filly, and dropped such a manly erection, and then you reared and galloped away. And ever since, you’ve tried not to look, and I hoped to see more of it…”

“You an’ that filly, you mean!” snorted Knothole.

He froze, as Fluttershy’s sidelong, sultry glance transfixed him. “I’m no filly,” she breathed. “I’m a healthy adult pegasus mare, and you are a healthy earth pony stallion. If you don’t handle my wings, I won’t get pregnant.” She hesitated. “Maybe you don’t… like grown mares? You’re drooping. But I know what I like, Mister Knothole. Please.”

Knothole’s ears were laid back. “Now see here!”

“I’m sorry!” squealed Fluttershy. “I told you I knew what she was like! I just tried to manipulate you in a very sneaky way! I’ll stop. Of course you like grown mares. Please, please?”

Knothole hesitated. Suddenly, it seemed insane to him that he was arguing not to have sex, confronted with a truly lovely and very feminine pegasus begging for his dick. “…Miss Fluttershy, do you swear that it would be okay? I ain’t touchin’ no wings, I ain’t no dumb horse. Do ya mean it, really mean it?”

Instead of answering, Fluttershy bit her lip. She padded up to him on gentle, silent hooves, and she stretched upward—not as far as Diamond Tiara, but noticeably—to rub noses with him, those huge heavily lashed eyes wide and vulnerable. Knothole could just about feel her desire as a physical presence, though her every motion was submissive and soft. She backed off a pace, her lips parted, and then she pivoted, presenting her buttery hindquarters, peering back over her shoulder past those tremblingly erect wings, batting her eyelashes.

Knothole’s gaze went from those ravishing eyes, to her lissome model’s body, to those full curvy hips and that silky pink tail, so impossibly long and lush… to under it, and the dainty pegasus vagina coyly veiled and unveiled by flicks of Fluttershy’s tail.

“That look suspiciously like a ‘yes’,” Knothole mumbled. Fluttershy bit her lip again, making a little suppressed squeal of excitement, and winked at him as she watched his cock swing forward and stiffen eagerly, aching to taste her charms. He gulped. “Ah’m a mite worried, Miss. Ah’m sort of a big boy, you said that was what caught your eye. Are you sure you kin take a…”

“Big Macintosh fathered my foal,” said Fluttershy simply. “Please, please, please…”

Knothole’s eyes widened. “Uh-huh. Yep, Ah hear he’s a good husky fella. So, you gits to have him but you wanted to give me a try?”

“I haven’t had a stallion inside me since then,” said Fluttershy. “Pl…” she broke off, and just moaned, her eyes going unfocussed and her whole body trembling until her feathers rustled.

Knothole’s eyes bugged out. “Dang!” He gulped. His hard-on was threatening to explode. “Aw. Aww. Mah poor sweet lady…”

Fluttershy sobbed, hyperventilating, shaking. Knothole reared, mounting, clinging.

“To th’ rescue,” he mumbled, and prodded her.

Fluttershy reeled, letting out a breathy shriek. Thick, erect stallion-meat brushed her breasts, swung and thumped against the inside of her leg turning her whole pelvis into jelly in an instant, nuzzled against her vulva even as she dripped lubrication in a frenzy of mare-ly eagerness. She whimpered, the world whirling around her dizzy head. He held his own head so proud and high, well clear of her wings, and she could feel that massive stallion body resting so heavily on her hindquarters, a feeling she’d never ever had even when she’d conceived Rock; she’d never done it with a stallion in that most traditional of ways and now he was upon her, his forelegs wrapped around her waist, she could hear his manly hooves scuffing the ground behind her as he jockeyed for position…

Knothole’s massive, stiffened equine flare shoved brutally against her mound, and plunged into her body, squeezing wetly through her hysterically aroused vagina’s tightness and stuffing her so incredibly, throbbingly full in a single virile stallion thrust.

Fluttershy let out a wild, guttural shriek of sheer ecstacy as Knothole shoved in another few inches. Her pussy squelched enthusiastically as she clenched, winking in crazed spasms against his thick earth pony hardness. She screamed again, a cry of unearthly pleasure as if she was being rendered into luminous clouds of joy by the force of her own orgasms, and Knothole held his position for a moment, thrust deeply into her.

He tugged his hips back, and a shower of mare-come squirted from around his stiffened cock, as Fluttershy reeled and shook, melting down with outrageous suddenness. He plunged sloppily to her womb again, and again, letting his hips take over, rutting his mare excitedly to her wild satisfaction and drinking in her squeals of frantic overwhelmed delight as his stallionhood flared and plunged within her in heedless haste…

Knothole grunted sharply, and his balls clenched and through the deep-thrust, hard horsecock blasted a bucketload of earth pony semen. It flooded Fluttershy with an unmistakable sensation, gushing directly into her womb as his cock throbbed rigidly inside her. He’d not been laid for weeks, and the wicked pink filly had worked him up terribly, and Fluttershy’s pussy was incredible, and he’d never come so hard in a mare.

Fluttershy let out a squeal of delight that wavered with her climaxes and kept going for second after second as she felt the come pumping into her, to the last viscous spurt… and then dropped her head, panting, stunned.

Knothole pulled back, pivoting and dismounting, and his bulky flare yanked out of Fluttershy with an obscene sploop, and a waterfall of horse semen gushed out of her body to splash onto the ground.

She wobbled, and then all at once, her legs gave way and she settled lightly to the grass, her wings flapping dazedly, little cries of pleasure and emotion emerging from her lips. She was sniffling, sobbing incoherently. Knothole, breathing hard, trotted around to lean closer, fretful and solicitous.

“Oh thank you… thank you… finally…” sobbed Fluttershy.

Knothole scratched his head with a hoof. “Um. Gosh. Mah pleasure, honey…”

“Th… thank you… oh thank you…”

He smiled, his ears splayed in perplexity. “Dang. Heh. You okay? Dumb question, Ah’m sorry… you need anythin’? I’mma stay well clear of them wings, sweet thing, ah drenched th’ heck outta yer snug li’l coochie.”

Fluttershy’s eyes began to focus, though her head swayed drunkenly. “Ooooh! Yes, yes… oh so wonderful… I’ll, I’ll go to the spa, there’s a thing we mares can do there. Yes… I’d better…”

“Ah hope,” said Knothole uncertainly, “ah din’t git you in trouble? Sure am grateful, sweetheart. An’ it seems, so’s you?”

Fluttershy panted. She tried to lift her head to kiss him, but couldn’t, so Knothole bent to meet her halfway, collected the kiss on his nose without trying to match its reckless passion, studied her disheveled state.

“Are you gone be alright, Miss Fluttershy? Did ya say you was goin’ to the spa?”

“Yes,” panted Fluttershy, a tragic look coming to her eyes. “Yes. To douche. I, I… maybe they won’t tell Pinkie. I suppose I should tell Pinkie. I’m not sure I should tell Pinkie now…”

“Aw, Miss Fluttershy!” said Knothole, in dismay. “Y’all said it would be okay!”

“It would. It will,” said Fluttershy. “I’m going to keep her, I’ve just got to. I mean… oh, this is complicated, so complicated. Maybe I shouldn’t say. I just don’t know!”

Knothole gulped. He held his hoof over his heart. “Miss Fluttershy, I din’t mean to cause you no trouble or make you sad. I swear to you, I won’t never tell NOPONY what we done if that’s gonna help you. Ah’m awful sorry. If it’s any consolation, you are the most incredibly mare-ly mare in all Equestria and that’s a fact.”

Fluttershy was still breathing heavily, swooning from the aftereffects of her shatteringly euphoric experience. “Don’t be sorry,” she managed. “It’s not your concern. It’s not your business, it’s my relationship and it’s complicated though I didn’t realize it would be this complicated… how am I ever going to make this work?”

Knothole blinked. He gazed down at the lovely mare he’d fucked, who lay as a blissful pegasus puddle and talked of things being complicated, and he said, “Well then. You jes’ tell me what to tell or not tell, darlin’, and you got it. So, mos’ beautiful mare in all Equestria who graced me with her sweet body, since it’s your business, who do I or don’t I tell?”

Fluttershy gestured feebly with a vague, blissed-out hoof.

Knothole leaned down to hear her whisper.

Knothole’s eyes went very, very wide at what he heard.

“Tell all your stallion friends!”

Fluttershy sagged, still twitching, and passed out. Knothole sat there a long time, gazing at her in astonishment as the sun slowly set.

---

Apple Bloom was pressing the tar-coated board against the leak, inspecting the nails sticking out of its four corners in preparation for hammering, when she heard the voices from below.

“Stand aside, farm pony! I need to talk to my paramour!”

The haughty little voice could only be Tiara. But it was no time for distractions—she needed to bang in the nails while the tar still adhered the patch to its target. Apple Bloom pressed on the board more firmly, sticking it against the hole, and looked for her hammer.

“Oh, no you don’t! She tole you not to climb up them… oof!”

“Hah!”

Apple Bloom groaned. She called down, “Trouble, boys?”

“Your little pony girl’s tryin’ to git up the… ow!”

“Have at you!”

Apple Bloom scowled. She yelled down from the rafters, “The hell you doin’, Diamond Tiara!” She took the hammer in her teeth, and turned to the board stuck up against the roof.

“I need your attention, immediately!” declared Diamond Tiara. Her voice was a lot nearer, and Apple Bloom’s eyes bugged out.

Hastily, she put down her hammer, and trotted as quickly as she dared across the plank, down the ramp, to intercept Diamond before she got too far. This turned out to be the second landing, where Diamond was trying to work out how to get across the quirky little gap twelve feet in the air, made when one plank didn’t turn out to be long enough to reach.

“Don’t you take another step,” snarled Apple Bloom.

Diamond, cornered, stared right back at her. “Do you not understand I have needs? Take a break. I’ll go down if you agree to come with me.”

Apple Bloom glanced down. She saw Oakback. He’d positioned himself under them, and she knew he’d fling himself beneath either or both of them to break their fall, and probably not suffer any harm by it. Perhaps he couldn’t catch both ponies—but she wasn’t going to be the one that fell.

Apple Bloom growled, and jumped across the little gap to charge Diamond Tiara, down on the second landing.

Diamond shrieked in alarm, and scrambled backward, barely maintaining her balance. Fear came to her eyes. “What are you doing?” she cried.

“I’mma finish my work! And YOU gone climb right back down or I’ll damn well knock you down, you hear me?”

Diamond’s face worked. She scrabbled back another few steps, and her hind hoof slipped off the plank. She squealed and barely caught herself, and Apple Bloom saw Oakback lunge, but the pink filly didn’t fall: she backed away, as Apple Bloom stood implacably.

“You go up there this instant, Apple Bloom,” ordered Diamond Tiara, “and fix that roof! And then come down at once and take care of me!” Her eyes were wild.

Apple Bloom snorted. “We’re gonna have a talk, missy. You get worse and worse, what is your problem?”

Diamond stamped a hoof on the plank, and then wobbled and let out another shriek as she looked down and remembered. She began to creep back down the ramp, trembling.

“That’s right,” said Apple Bloom, and she turned and headed back up, feeling about a thousand feet tall, taking her hammer back up in her teeth and preparing to bang in nails.

“There, you see?” came the strident little voice. “She’s doing what I told her!”

Apple Bloom put the hammer down, and spat. “Y’all hear me down there?”

“Sure do, Boss,” called Oakback. Other farm pony voices murmured assent.

“Keep her down on th’ floor for safe keeping. Sit on her if y’ have to,” ordered Apple Bloom.

Her mouth twisted in a wry smile as she heard another shriek of outrage from Diamond Tiara.

“Don’t you dare!” she screamed. “I’ll have you know, my father holds title to this barn and I can have you thrown out on your crude peasant ears…”

“Nope,” called Apple Bloom, from the rafters.

Diamond, below, drew a deep breath. “That pony up there might be your boss, and she might be my sta… I mean… She’s my servant, in case you didn’t know that little detail…”

“Nope,” called Apple Bloom firmly. The farmponies stirred and muttered.

Diamond Tiara drew another deep breath. Apple Bloom could almost hear her thinking, racking her brain. “Okay,” said Tiara, “so that pony up there is your Boss and I suppose my Boss, technically, but you better understand that just as you answer to her, you are also answering to me…”

“Nope!” yelled Apple Bloom, with determination.

There was a pause.

“Why can’t you peasants learn respect, curse you?” wailed Diamond Tiara. “Obey me!”

Apple Bloom got ready to yell even louder, but Oakback spoke first, and something in his voice silenced her.

“Why are you cryin’, child?”

“How DARE you?” wailed Diamond, and Apple Bloom could hear it plain, and her face fell.

“Please don’t cry,” coaxed Oakback. “It’s gonna be okay. We’s all friends, ain’t we?”

All he got for a response was an anguished scream. Then, as Apple Bloom’s heart pounded, as she half expected Diamond Tiara to burst into bitter tears and bawl, there was a sharp rattling of hooves and a sudden hubbub of adult pony voices, a few yelps of pain, a receding drumbeat of filly hooves outside the barn…

“Crap! Sorry, Boss. She kicked Fern Gully in th’ personals and run off!” called Oakback. “Should we go corral ‘er?”

Apple Bloom gulped. “Let her go! Hear me? We’ll deal with this later. Let her go, for now.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Apple Bloom stared at her hammer, balanced atop the precarious plank. Across from her, the board sagged gently, trailing strands of tar waterproofing, and then came loose and fluttered down three stories, like a heavy four-cornered leaf that twirled and finally dove, corner-first.

“Ow!”

Farm pony voices raised in laughter. “Fern Gully, this jes’ ain’t your night!”

Apple Bloom stared at her hammer, high up on the scaffolding. Picking it up now would be about as useful as trying to reason with Diamond Tiara.

“Hoo boy,” she sighed.