Exposure Therapy

"Ready to lose, Rainbow Dash?" A cocky-looking pegasusblood girl with amber and gold streaked hair and light turquoise wings scoffed as she strutted over to another girl stretching by the school's running track. This one had rainbow streaked hair and light blue wings, slightly bigger than the first. Both had slim, athletic builds and were wearing track uniforms.

"Huh? Oh, hey, Biting Crust." The one named Rainbow said, glancing over at the now frowning first girl. "You say something?"

"It's Lightning Dust." She said, quickly schooling herself back into a smug expression. "And I said are you ready to lose to a better athlete?" Lightening sneered some. "You may've gotten the accolades of the other losers on the track team, but their gonna be eating crow while YOU eat my dust!"

"Yeah, that's great, Fighting Rust." Rainbow said, though it looked like she was barely paying attention.

"It's Lightning Dust." She ground out. "You think your so cool, acting like you got nothing to worry about when you KNOW I'm going to stomp you!" The sneer returned when she noticed Rainbow hadn't responded. "What's wrong? Finally realizing that I'm gonna win?" She looked to see the girl had her back to her. "Admit it, you're scared now that someone better than you has finally stepped up to knock you off your throne!"

"What in the hell...?" Rainbow asked. "What's everyone doing on the track?"

"Are you even listening!?" Lightning demanded, looking to see what her (in her mind at least) rival was looking at.

"How about donuts? You can add the cream filling!"

"Pinkie! Cut it out!" Twilight yelled, trying to keep up. Sunset, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy were right behind her.

"Guys! What's going on!?" Rainbow called out. "You aren't even dressed for run-ing..." She trailed off when she saw who they were running after. "Holy....where'd the hunk come from!?" The whole thing was just too odd to ignore and she took off to catch up to them.

"Wow, he's-HEY! Get back here!" Dust shouted, running after her.

It took her a moment, but she was able to close the distance and reach Applejack. "Hey, AJ, why are you chasing the beefcake?"

"Pinkie got a little too forward." She replied. "Tryin' to catch her so Twi can wrangle her male friend."

Rainbow nearly tripped when she heard that. "Twilight...Twilight Sparkle...She's friends with a stud like that!?"

"We'll explain later!" Sunset yelled back to her. "Right now we gotta stop Pinkie so Twilight can calm him down!"

"That's all? No problem; I have GOTTA hear this story!" Rainbow unfurled her wings, taking flight and easily catching up to Twilight.

"Not if I do it first!" Lightning yelled, going airborne as well.

Unfortunately, Spike had heard the yelling and glanced behind in time to see the two pegasusbloods flying straight towards him. The realization that the pink-haired one wasn't the only one chasing him, coupled with the (to his currently terror-filled mind) predatory look on the face of the one near Twilight was enough to, once again, set him off.

'Oh no'Twilight thought, seeing her friend pale rapidly when he looked back. 'I forgot the others were with us!' "Pinkie!" She yelled. "Stop chasing--"

"YII-HIIEEE!!"

THOOM!

The group of girls came to a quick and VERY sudden stop at what they just saw. Rarity stared at the set of fading afterimages he left behind. "D-di-d-did he...??"

"H-he did..." Fluttershy squeaked, her wings twitching.

Applejack just let out a low whistle.

"Twi...!"

"I...I saw, Sunset..." Twilight replied weakly, her glasses hanging loosely off her face.

"He...the track..." Sunset pointed frantically at the slightly smoking footprint left embedded in the track. "That's not physically POSSIBLE!"

"I know Sunset..."

Pinkie slowly turned to look at them. "Hm..maybe he's allergic to gluten?"

They both just started at her.

POMF!

They all glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was staring in the direction Spike had ran, sporting a silly grin and raging wingboner.

"Homina..!" Was all she said.

"Down, girl!" Sunset poked her. "You haven't even met him."

"Yet." Came the reply, followed by a rather perverted giggle.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Luna commented, watching the scene with her sister from their office window. "I've heard Dragonbloods are a bit stronger than most others; that, however..."

"Indeed." Celestia replied, "Though I'm a little more concerned about the students unintentionally aggravating his phobia. Especially if that's going to be a common occurrence. One hell of a sprint, though."

"I'll second that." Luna craned her neck to see if she could spot him within their field of view. "Here, I'll go find him. He could probably use someone to talk to."

"Are you sure, Luna? Age doesn't seem to matter to his..." She stopped when she felt her sister's finger on her lips.

"I think I can handle this. I used to be an elementary teacher, remember?" She winked and teleported off.

"Please tell me I lost them..." Spike said to himself once he stopped. A look around found him standing at the back of one of the school buildings, with a handful of cars parked in the small gravel lot nearby. All he could hear were birds in the nearby trees and a distant train.

Hoping that he had solitude, he slumped against the lot's lone lamppost to try and settle his nearly frayed nerves. He was in the middle of taking a deep breath to try and settle himself when a voice spoke from up above him. "Yeah, you're good. I don't see anyone."

With a startled yelp, he scrambled to his feet and spun around, looking up at the top of the post. There, perched on the top. knees spread wide and hands braced between her feet, was a Dragonblood girl dressed in a dark purple strapless halter top and denim shorts. Her spiked hair was cyan with large, grey pigtail-style bangs, and he noticed her chest and shoulder scale patches were the same color along with her tail, which she currently had extended to keep her balance.

"W-who are...are you??" He asked, taking a step back, ready to run.

"Oh, I'm Ember." She glanced back in the direction of the track area. "Go ahead and relax." She added calmly, noticing he was starting to panic again. "I'll stay up here. You can just lean back against the lamppost so you can't see me. I'll let you know if anyone's coming."

"Oh...o-ok." He asked hesitantly, slowly moving back to sit, but still keep a wary eye towards her. "Why are you doing...well, that?"

"To be honest, I can smell how terrified you are, so I'm making sure I try not to trigger it." She watched as he finally settled back against the post. "So, what brings you out here? The school I mean."

He signed "My mom and dad enrolled me here..."

"Come again? Your parents had you....a boy enrolled to an all-female campus?? Seriously!?"

"Yeah...turns out my mom's old friends with the deans. They pulled some strings somehow...and here I am." Ember heard him drag his fingers through the gravel. "Apparently they think this'll help with my phobia."

"Um, not to sound like rude, but what kind of phobia would have them put you here??"

"I'm Gynophobic."

She looking back down at him. "Whata-phobic?"

"Gynophobia...I'm literally terrified of girls..."

Silence.

"Y-you're serious?" She asked, seeing him nod. "Wow...and given that you're a serious beefcake, that's probably not gonna help matters."

"Yeah...whatever 'beefcake's supposed to mean." He exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. "Like I told Twilight, if it wasn't for the fact she's here, I'd be running like hell."

"Twilight Sparkle? She a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, to be honest. She's one of the only two girls I've ever met, outside of my female relatives, that didn't frighten me. The other's Sunset Shimmer, who I just met a couple hours ago."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...when I first met Twilight...I didn't know she was a girl till about a year later." For a second, he thought he heard her fight back a laugh, but shrugged it off. "When I did, I was more confused about why I wasn't scared when I found that out. Same thing with Sunset."

"Wow. Well, at least you have someone looking out for you, right?"

"Yeah. Speaking of that...you're acting a lot calmer than the other girls I've ran into here. At least, you can chasing after me for some reason."

"I'm just happy to have another Dragonblood around, in all honesty. Right now that matters a little bit more than you being a hottie."

It was then that they heard the telltale crackle of a teleportation, combined with a winded Twilight appearing in a flash of lavender light.

"Spike!" She panted, running over to him

"Twi?" Spike asked, getting caught in a tackle hug before he could stand.

"Oh, Spike! I am SO sorry! I did NOT mean for that, honest!" She said, her face buried in his chest so her voice was slightly muffled. "She didn't mean anything by it, but I forgot Pinkie Pie can be a bit more friendly than necessary!"

As she watched the petite Unicornblood hug him as best she could, Ember frowned slightly, feeling a small twinge of jealousy at just how easy she was able to do it.