Exposure Therapy

"All right..." It took them all a few minutes to sweep up the remains of the bag, but after they were done, Spitfire wheeled out a bin filled with various sports gear. "Let's try something else. How good's your throwing arm?"

Spike scratched the back of his neck. "I...I'm not sure. I was banned from holding any ball at school after the incident with the principal's new Ferrari..."

Spitfire waved it off. "Don't worry. Celestia drives an INKAS truck. Now, let's start off simple." She threw him a baseball, then pointed to the cutout of a catcher. "Show me your throwing arm."

"Ok..." He drew his arm back, and..."

"Luna?" Celestia watched her coffee ripple with mild interest.

"Yours too?"

"Mm-hm. Well, Spitfire did say something about the gym."

"Right, I'll let maintenance know."

Twilight, Sunset, and Spitfire stared at the slightly charred remains of the cutout, heads slowly tilting.

"Not that you were wrong to, because you apparently needed it.... " Twilight's head tilted further. "But, why did you have a block of ballistic gel behind the cutout?"

Spitfire shrugged. "Either way, let's try another." She tossed him a football this time.

"That...frightens me." Sunset stepped behind Twilight.

THOOM!

"Huh.." Celestia looked out the window as something rocketed over the school. "Didn't know a football could cause turbulence."

Luna took a long sip of her coffee. "Hope no one's in the landing zone.

Spitfire stared at the neatly drilled hole that now existed in the gym wall. "I'm not paying for that..."

Twilight sighed. "I'm so glad Rainbow didn't see that. She'd be unbearable."

"You said 'as hard as possible!" Spike whined.

"I know." Spitfire exhaled. "Let's try something different...what's the maximum pushups you've done?"

"Uh..."

"Right...well, let's try that."

"I...I should be surprised; or at least alarmed. But...I'm not." Ember scratched the back on her head. She'd been following the path of what she'd thought was a rogue football after it impacted somewhere in the woods behind the school.

It took a few minutes to work out things...until she spotted the hole in the wall of the gym. "Definitely not." The doors creaked slightly as she opened them, but peering in, she noticed they were too preoccupied to hear her.

"H-how are you not tired??" Spitfire asked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"Should I be?" Spike asked, looked up with a puzzled expression.

Spitfire just stared at the clicker.

"Well, that explains the football, at least."

"YEEEK!" Sunset shrieked, jumping into an equally surprised Twilight's arms. "Don't DO that!" She said, glaring at Ember.

Ember shook her head. "...I came in on this side to avoid that reaction from Spike.

"Ember?" Spike looked up. "When did you...?"

"Just now. Tried to be quiet so I didn't spook you."

Spitfire looked at the clicker. "I got it! More weight."

"Weight?" Twilight asked, dropping Sunset.

"One of you get on his back."

"B-ba..." Twilight squeaked as her glasses promptly fogged over.

"I'll do iiiTT!" Sunset started to say, only to get yanked back by Twilight. "Oh, come on!"

"We have enough to deal with Sunset." Twilight muttered.

"I'll do it." Ember said, walking over to him. "You ok with this, Spike?"

"I...uh...huh?" The brief nervousness was replaced by confusion. "How come I'm not scared?"

"Wha??" Both unicornbloods whirled around to face them.

"Well, I've been doing my best not to spook you here..." Ember replied, shrugging a little. "Didn't realize it was that successful-h-HEY!" She yelped as Spitfire suddenly lifted her up and plopped her right between his shoulder blades.

"H-hey!" Ember protested, throwing her hands back to brace herself. "Warn a girl before you..." She trailed off, feeling more than just shirt under her hands.

It was then she realized something else. "Wh-why isn't my tail on the floor...?" Looking behind her gave the answer: the tip of her five foot tail was just dangling off Spike's side.

Her face flushed when it hit her, namely the heat coursing across her backside from the muscles flexing under her cheeks.

PAMPF!

"Ladyboner..." Sunset whispered.

"What was that sound?" Spike asked. "Was kinda like... Something landed on the floor in his field of view. A piece of red fabric, a sizeable piece to boot. "What's that?" He craned his neck around to look at Ember. "Ember, that y-"

Wait a second...he looked back at the fabric. What was it called...it was the only kind of piece of clothing one of his cousins would ever wear...a halter top! His eyes widened; wasn't that what Ember had been wear-

His head snapped back to her. Eyes nearly bugged out at what he saw. Dragonbloods couldn't tan normally due to to their scale-like skin texture; it just reflected off. So a magic variant was designed, allowing them to get the shade they wanted.

Ember's whole upper body was that tone, save for a small ring around her pale blue areolas, the nipples sticking out like tiny sapphires, complete with a tiny bit of sparkle. That, combined with an hourglass figure, noticeable abs-

"Wh-whaaaOHH!"

Spike froze as his vision was suddenly filled by two soft, cantaloupe-sized objects, followed by his face getting buried in them. "!!?!,!??!" The shock, surprise, and befuddlement hit him like a car, and his natural reflex; to start flailing in panic, sent him to the floor with a thud. Instinctively, he grabbed for whatever could have broken his fall...and he found something.

Two, firm, skirt-covered things, to be exact.

Everything went quiet for a minute.

Both Spike and Ember lay there, frozen as they tried to process the situation.

Spitfire scratched her head. "Um, not quite the result I was looking for."

"Ok, probably shouldn't say this, but..." Sunset tilted her head. "Kinda jealous of her"

Twilight said nothing. Instead, she stood there, stock still. Her only indication of reacting was the rather violent eye twitch and slightly sparking tip of her horn.

Spitfire looked at the two of them. "Hopefully that doesn't make him scared of her when he wasn't before."

Sunset blinked. "He...he wasn't before?"