Author's Note

Okay, I realize the irony of me saying that updates might slow down and then posting a new chapter the very next day, but in my defense 1) I did say we were working on the chapter, and 2) I also said I'd upload chapter's when they are finished from now on. So new chapter immediately! Don't question it, enjoy it! 👍

Chapter 8: Self Defense for Dragons

Chapter 8: Self Defense for Dragons

The bell rang loudly as the second class ended for the day. Spike sighed as he shuffled out the door and into the hallway, others pushing past as he slowed down. He’d woken with quite the headache this morning, and wasn’t sure of the cause. A hot shower hadn’t helped, nor had a good bit of orange juice with breakfast. Even the aspirin he’d taken before heading off hadn’t really done much, merely reducing the sharp pain to a light, dull throb along his temple. It had made it very difficult to concentrate all morning long, and the few times he’d been called upon to answer a question, he’d been woefully underprepared, leading to a few embarrassing giggles from his classmates.

Lunch couldn’t come soon enough. Maybe he could take another pill with the food and hopefully take care of the rest of this. But for now, he was heading over to the library to pick up a few books before the next class started. He was grateful for the generous gaps between classes. It gave everyone a chance to stretch their legs, take care of some personal business, mentally prep themselves for their next class, and so on.

In this case, he wanted to grab a few old articles that he would need for research purposes, and once that was done, he started down the halls towards his next class, figuring he could just use the remaining time before the next bell to start reading one of the articles. He vaguely wondered if he could have been given a more boring topic for a research paper as the development and implementation of the Equestrian World Stock Exchange, but he had to admit, the idea of looking over something that helped to form the mercantile and middle class back when there wasn’t such a thing was kind of intriguing…

And if he had difficulty, he could just get Celestia to tell him all about it. She’d lived through it, after all.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of something like an argument nearby. He frowned, tilting his head and following the noise. If he’d learned anything at this point, it was that there was usually something ‘interesting’ at the other end of the noise. Plus, one side of the argument was starting to sound a little bit familiar at this point. His sleuthing eventually led him down to one of the empty classrooms, this one an advanced biology classroom with a sign on the front informing everyone that the class and professor were out in the field at the moment, and wouldn’t be back until the end of third period. He was somewhat envious of students who were taking classes that let them get out into the fresh air for an extended period of time. But there wasn’t time to worry about that now.

The door itself was caught half closed. Apparently the hinge was too tight to close by itself, hence why the sound had carried as far as it did. It was easy to see why they’d overlooked that issue, though; the two inside were focused heavily on arguing with one another.

“You stay away from me, you absolute brute! You touch me again and I’ll… I’ll…”

“You’ll what, little pony? Spark some magic at me? Step on my toes? Cry to your mom? Well, you’re gonna be doing that anyway. I think it’s time for another lesson on respecting your betters! C’mere!”

“No! Not again! Don’t you dare!”

Spike’s eyes widened. Yet again, Garble had cornered Rarity and was preparing to humiliate her yet again. The tall, muscled dragon reached out and grabbed her by her arm, yanking her forward, despite her valiant attempts to resist. Her horn was glowing brightly, furiously, as she attempted to use the magical leverage to get him to release her, to no avail. He was yanking her over to the desk, laughing at her attempts to get free. “Maybe we’ll try something more than my hand this time, huh? Bet the teach’s got a spare paddle hidden away somewhere in here. Or I could always just take off my belt…”

“NO! DON’T!” Rarity howled as he became more forcefully in his yanking of her.

Spike tensed, shivering as he thought back to the first day of school, what he had witnessed taking place in the janitor’s closet. How he hadn’t jumped in to help, hadn’t gone to help anyone. How he’d confessed that to Rarity. Guilt and worry surged through him, immediately pushing back any doubts from his mind. He wasn’t about to let history repeat itself now that she was a friend, one who trusted him, something that he’d always had difficulty finding and keeping. If it was Pinkie or Twilight in there, he wouldn’t hesitate either! Tossing his pack down against the wall to the side, he took a deep breath and shoved the door open all the way. “Hey!” he shouted.

Garble blinked and glanced up, in the middle of trying to turn Rarity over the edge of the desk. The mare in question, both hands planted firmly on the edge of the desk in an attempt to keep herself standing, glanced over as well, eyes wide with fear, but also curiosity as to who could have been shouting. Her face brightened up considerably when she saw who it was. “Spike!” she called.

The beefy dragon raised a brow, though he kept one hand on the back of Rarity’s neck. “You got something to say, small fry?”

“Yeah!” Spike said, taking a few bold steps forward. They became just a bit less bold when he realized just how much bigger the other dragon was compared to him. But he soldiered on, regardless! “You better let go of Rarity right now!”

Garble’s face twisted into a light sneer. “Playing the hero, are we runt?” he snorted. “Tell you what, you turn around and walk out of here right now, and I’ll pretend I didn’t even see you.” He clapped one hand down on Rarity’s skirt clad behind. “Hell, stand right there and I’ll even let you enjoy the view.”

Spike’s face flushed about as red as Rarity’s at the action, but he shook his head and took one more step forward, this one bringing him close enough to Garble that he had to crane his head upward to keep eye contact with him. “I said let her go. And I mean it, Garble.”

“And what are you gonna do, welp?” he challenged. “Pretty bad idea to announce yourself if you were gonna stop me. I’m sure as hell not gonna let you just walk out of here if you want to go and get help… but that wouldn’t be very ‘heroic’ of you, would it?” He finally released Rarity, shoving her over and causing her to stumble to the side, onto her rear. “So, you wanna save the fair maiden and ride away? Then let’s go, little man.” he put up his fists.

Spike gulped lightly, glancing at him. His self defense classes, the few he’d actually taken, had mostly settled just on that: self defense, and had made the assumption that the one he was trying to defend himself against was not only untrained, but also a lot closer to his size and shape. Garble was massive, which would make him slower, yes, but he looked lean enough to still be able to move relatively easily, as well as put a lot of power behind his blows. His form also meant that the grapples, holds, and takedowns that Spike had been learning probably wouldn’t be that terribly useful, especially if he couldn’t take him by surprise. If he tried to charge, he’d probably just get pounded. Add to it, Garble’s long reach meant he wouldn’t be able to get in close for a punch or a kick, not that he really knew the proper form for such things anyway. Oh, and then there was Rarity to consider too, he didn’t want her to get hurt and-

KA-CRACK!

Spike’s world went blurry and he cried out in surprise and pain as a knee was delivered straight to his crotch. He curled up and flopped over onto his side, cupping his injury as tears stream from his eyes, all the wind rushing out of his lungs. He felt paralyzed from the pain. “Nnngh…” he groaned,

“Spike!” Rarity gasped, turning a glare on Garble. “You fiend! You leave him alone!” she threatened.

Garble turned a powerful glare on her and she gulped, shying away from him as he turned his attention back on the helpless Spike. He gave the groaning purple dragon a kick in the side, forcing him to roll over, and then put a foot up on his hip. “Pathetic,” he snorted. “And you call yourself a dragon? Tch, at least a pegasus would put up a fight. They’d lose, but at least they’d try. You wanna be a hero? Next time, try beefing yourself up.”

“Th-the faculty will hear about this!” Rarity threatened.

Once again, he glared at her. “You really think I care about whether or not I get expelled from this place? I’ll probably just end up back in a school in dragon territory. At least there I’ll actually get a challenge. Dragons fight all the time in our normal school. You ponies should try it sometime!” He laughed and reared back to give Spike another good kick, but as he turned around to look…

WHAM!

A fist connected with his face, hard enough to make him stumble back against a bookshelf behind him. He coughed, gasping and grabbing his chin, rubbing at it. “What the hell…?”

“Howdy!” a southern drawl greeted. “Sorry to barge in like this, but I get mighty riled when I hear a friend of mine havin’ a tough time.”

Spike finally managed to get his vision to clear enough for him to see who was speaking. Applejack, the big, tough earth mare he’d seen before, stood over him, fists raised, a grin on her face. He flushed as he realized he was right underneath her, able to peek up her skirt. A pair of bright green panties with red apples printed on them greeted him, and he quickly averted his gaze, realizing that if she saw him doing that, he’d most likely get crushed into dust. His focus instead turned to the second pony walking in, a dark yellow unicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane. Sunset Shimmer, he realized, the two mares who had been comforting Rarity after her first run-in with Garble.

“Yeah, pretty stupid of you to just assume no one else was going to come running. Especially after that second scream.” She pointed at Spike, who flushed and glanced away. Had it really been that bad, he wondered. “Anyway, this is your chance to walk away. Leave Spike and Rarity alone, walk out of here, and all you’ll get is that shiner Applejack just gave you.”

Garble’s eyes narrowed. “You think I’m afraid of a couple of ponies who just wandered in here and got the drop on me?” He snorted, cracked his knuckles and lunged forward, slamming his fist towards Sunset. She just smiled and put her hands on her hips.

CRUNCH!

Now it was Garble’s turn to rear back and howl in pain, as he cupped his fingers, which had impacted some kind of invisible barrier. Sunset smirked and waved a hand, the barrier shimmering in front of her. “Reflection Barrier,” she stated. “Awesome defensive spell. It takes whatever force is applied to it and reflects it back twofold. You might wanna go to the nurse after that, you might have broken a finger or two.”

Growling, Garble lunged again, this time at Applejack. “Alright fine, maybe someone with magic is a bit of a problem, but you aren’t going to get in another cheap shot.” He jumped over Spike’s prone form and lashed out at her with his good hand.

“Nope, I sure won’t,” Applejack responded, grinning. She flicked her hand up, knocking away his arm, and stepped back as he attempted to kick her. She ducked under another strike and pushed her palm forward, catching him in the stomach. He grunted and took a few steps backwards, blinking, snarling at her.

“You really think you can hurt me?”

“Naw,” she said. “But you ain’t hurtin’ me or my friends, are ya?”

Eyes narrowing, he threw another kick at her. She drew closer to him, raising her arm up, taking the kick in her side, but didn’t even flinch as she flicked her arm down, grabbing his leg, and yanking it up. “H-hey!” he gasped as he tumbled backwards, falling against the ground. He hissed as he tried to soften his landing by using his injured hand, but, instantly regretted it. Snarling, he pulled himself back up, cupping his injured wrist before glowering at the two of them. Again, he tried to attack Applejack, who deftly moved out of the way, sliding left and right, always backing just out of reach, dancing around him until she put herself between him and the others, him near the door. “I’m getting real tired of this,” he snarled.

“I ain’t really a fan of this either, but it can end whenever you want it to ,” she stated, waving a finger to him. “You just gotta turn around and walk out and this’ll stop.”

His eyes narrowed. “Like I’m going to let a pony get away with humiliating me.”

“Sugar cube, no one here’s embarrassin’ you ‘cept yerself.” she warned. “Now, we ain’t got time to keep playin’ here. We’re gonna be late for class if ya keep this up.”

He snarled again and whirled around, attempting to whip his tail at her. Applejack ducked under the strike and lunged forward herself, bringing her leg up as she got into range and catching him in the stomach yet again, hard enough to send him flying backwards, out of the room and into the hallway. He coughed and hissed as he hit the wall, groaning and growling loudly, narrowing his eyes at them before writhing and hurrying down the hall.

“Well, look at that,” Applejack said, gently taking off her stetson. “Looks like there is a pony who can give him a run fer his money.” She glanced down at the floor and helped Spike to stand up. “You okay, hon? Where’d get get ya?”

“F-fine,” he groaned, taking a deep breath. “Eerk… hope I can still have kids,” he grumbled.

“You sure?”

“Y-yeah, just… super sore right now.”

“And what about you?” Sunset asked, walking over to Rarity. “Are you okay?”

“Yes dears, I’m fine,” she said with a sigh, hurrying to Spike’s side and gently wrapping her arms around him, concerned. “Oh, you, that was so incredibly brave of you, standing up to Garble for me!”

He flushed a bright red, smiling a little. Suddenly, the pain in his groin wasn’t nearly as bad. “Y-yeah, um… no problem, Rarity.”

“Mighty brave, but mighty stupid too. Ain’t many around the school the same age as him that can take on a dragon. Should’ve gone and grabbed someone to help you out. I think he would’ve beat you down pretty badly if we hadn’t happened along.”

“W-well I couldn’t just stand around and let him do as he wanted, could I?”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah, but there’s a lot of other things you could’ve done, stuff that would have been a lot less dangerous than trying to take him on head on like that. I mean… didja really think you could’ve taken him on like that?”

“W-well, I… I don’t… I mean, I couldn’t…” he trailed off, feeling another blush raising on his face.

“Never mind that now,” Sunset interrupted, turning back to Rarity. “What happened? Why’d he start harassing you? I thought you were going to take steps to make sure this didn’t happen again.”

“I did,” Rarity said, turning up her nose with a huff. “I have been doing my best to completely ignore him and stay out of his way.”

Sunset blinked. “Really? You seriously that was going to keep him off your back for the whole school year?”

She flushed lightly. “W-well… it was worth a try,” she mumbled.

“Uh huh… and you didn’t talk to anyone about it, he hunted you down, and he tried to do the exact same thing again, right?”

“M-maybe.”

Applejack blew a few strands of hair from her face. “Sugar cube, we told you to get in touch with someone and let em know what’d happened. Any of the teachers, maybe even Celestia or Luna to let them know that there was a bit of a bullying problem in their school. You know they’d put a stop to it immediately if they thought there was a problem.” She crossed her arms. “So… why didn’t you?”

She flushed and bit her lip. “It was… embarrassing, what had happened.”

Sunset sighed, massaging her temples for a moment. “You realize that corporal punishment is a legit thing here, right? The teachers are as likely to spank you bare for forgetting an assignment as a bully is for no real reason.”

“Well yes, but… but…”

“But nothin’, Rares, and yer lucky I’m so worried about ya, or I’d probably put ya over my knee myself fer bein’ so foolish. Now, first things first, we’re gonna get you and spike to the Nurse’s office, and then yer gonna get in touch with someone about what’s been happenin’ with Garble, okay?”

Rarity groaned, running a hand through her hair, but she gave a light nod. “You’re right, Applejack. I shouldn’t let my vanity get the better of me like this. But would you three mind coming with me when we do so? I’d feel a touch more confident.”

“Sure, I’m pretty sure we can get out of being tardy if we explain the situation.” Sunset glanced up as the next class bell sounded. “Speak of the devil.”

Spike sighed. “I-I don’t think I need to go to the nurse…”

“Oh hush yer fuss,” Applejack said, putting a friendly arm around his shoulders. “You looked like you took a pretty bad shot, we should at least make sure.”

“A-alright…” he sighed, looking down for a moment and then back up at Applejack. “Hey, AJ?”

Her ear flicked. “Yeah?”

“I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“Teach me how to fight like you did?”

After school, Applejack stood with Spike in the middle of the gym. She’d changed into workout clothes, and had done some preliminary stretching. Spike had also grabbed a change of clothes out of his own locker, at her behest. Sunset was there with them as well, though she hadn’t bothered to change out of her school uniform, instead tapping away on her phone, occasionally glancing up at them. Why she was there, Spike wasn’t sure, but he wouldn’t question it. “Alright, Spike,” the earth mare said, a hand on her hip. “You wanna learn how to defend yerself, huh?”

“Yes ma’am!” Spike said, his eyes drifting down over her, eyes wide as he took in the rippling muscles and abs she had, her workout top covering her chest, but leaving her stomach, her rock-hard, powerful looking stomach, totally exposed. She’d tied her hair into a much tighter ponytail than usual, knotted up near the back of her head, and didn’t wear anything on her feet.

“And why do you wanna do this?”

“Because… I want to be able to protect myself, and those I care about,” he said, still focused on her stomach as she approached. She gently grabbed hold of his chin and pulled his head up so that he was facing her.

“Eyes up here, Sugar,” she said with a smirk. “I know I’m a work of art, but you ain’t here to browse a gallery.”

He blushed deeper and nodded to her. “Uh, yes, sorry about that.”

“S’okay, I get that sort of thing all the time.” She smirked. “Nice to know someone likes a strong looking pony.” She winked at him. “Anyway, gotta know, you done any sort of training before?”

Spike shook his head. “I learned some really basic self defense techniques when I was younger, practiced them for a while, but they all assume I’m going against someone who’s close to my size, height, and weight.”

She nodded again. “I see.” She rubbed her hands together. “Alrighty, well, that means you know some of the basics, which’ll save us some time. But here’s the thing, Spike. My way of fightin’ ain’t that special beyond the fundamentals. It ain’t about learnin’ fancy moves or styles or anything like that. It’s just about keepin’ yerself loose and ready. You go with the flow of yer opponent, and let them do most of the work for ya.”

“What do you mean.”

She smiled and took a fighter’s stance. “Hit me,” she ordered.

“What?”

“C’mon, you ain’t gotta be worried bout hurtin’ me. Come at me and throw a punch. Hard as ya like.”

Spike frowned. There was no way he’d be able to hit her and actually do any sort of damage, she was built like a brick wall. Shrugging, he took his own fighter’s stance and drew forward, throwing a firm punch, as he had been taught. Applejack leaned back, but grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward. He let out a yelp as he tumbled forward, smacking head first into her chest. She didn’t seem to mind as she steadied him. “Ya see? And you know how to throw a proper punch. But I was still able to use the force of that jab to pull you off balance, and to me. Coulda done a bunch of other stuff too. Dodged to the side and punched yer ribs, kicked out at yer legs to try and make ya stumble… It’s defensive offense, basically.”

“Pretty sure that’s used in a bunch of martial arts,” Sunset called from her seat.”

Applejack ignored her and put her hands on her hips. “That’s all ya gotta know, really. Just go with the flow.” She took up her stance again. “Now, you try.”

“But wait, I’m not sure if I-”

“Too late!” she called, lunging forward and chambering a kick. Spike gasped and tried to dodge out of the way, jumping to the side, but she twisted and caught him in the hip as he did so, forcing him to fall backwards. He grunted, but stood up quickly. She’d gone easy with the kick, mostly for his benefit, though a part of him really didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t able to dodge even when she wasn’t trying very hard. “Yer too stiff.” she walked forward and took his wrist. “Relax yerself, totally. Move like yer a leaf in the breeze. Or like the ocean. You tense or tighten up too much and your opponent’s gonna see your moves comin’,” she told him. “Plus, you’d be surprised how much power you can put behind a punch or a kick when you’re whippin’ yer arms or legs around right.”

“I’ve just always fought like this,” Spike admitted. “Tense up, throw a punch or a kick, and put power behind it while keeping your guard up. I’ve never been relaxed, even when I was learning how to fight. I’ve never figured out how not to be stiff.”

“A problem that most boys have,” Sunset commented.

Spike flushed and Applejack frowned, turning towards her friend. “You just gonna make smartass remarks the whole time you’re here?”

“Pretty much. No point in going home until you go anyway.”

Spike blinked and gave Applejack a questioning glance. She shrugged. “She’s stayin’ with me and my family while some stuff’s goin’ on at her house.” She shrugged. “Anyway, off topic.” She shook her arms a little bit and took Spike’s wrist. “Let it go limp,” she said.

Spike nodded and took a deep breath, relaxing his arm totally, his wrist and fingers flopping forward as she held it up by the forearm. “Like this?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Remember how this feels. And when I let go, only use the muscles absolutely necessary for holding it up in front of you.” She started to lower her hand away and Spike concentrated slowly tensing up each muscle one by one, until it was only enough to keep his arm raised, palm outstretched. He felt like some sort of zen monk with how strange the feeling was.

“There ya go,” Applejack said with a grin. “You just gotta practice feeling out how stiff you gotta be fer this to work.”

“I’ll bet that’s what plenty of girls say to their boyfriends when-”

“Alright, that’s it!” Applejack said with a huff, turning and storming over to Sunset quickly, before the latter could react. She ended up dropping her phone on the mat as Applejack grabbed her arm, just below the shoulder, and hauled her up to a standing position before bending over and pulling her up onto her shoulder, like she was a sack of wheat. The unicorn gave a few very unlady-like hisses and grunts as she kicked and flailed her feet about, pounding her fists against her back. This proved to be ineffective.

“H-hey! Let go of me, you big gorilla!” she ordered.

Applejack ignored her, smirking and reaching up, grabbing the hem of her skirt, flipping it up over her backside, revealing the bright purple panties she’d been wearing. “This is also a pretty good way to practice keeping yer arm and wrist real loose,” she stated. The hand holding Sunset over her shoulder curled around her panties and gave them a yank upward, giving the mare a massive wedgie, making her squeal loudly as they disappeared into her bottom crack, revealing her soft, bouncy cheeks. “Just find yerself a smart ass and then make her ass smart.”

“Applejack, don’t you dare! I’m warning you!” she said, gasping and squirming harder as she arched her back in an attempt to get her underwear out of her crack, but all it did was stick her rear out further.

“Warn away, sun buns,” she teased, raising a hand up and flicking it forward with a satisfying SMACK!

“Oooh!” she yelped loudly, tensing up and bucking cutely as her cheek wobbled upwards from the impact.

SMACK!”

“OOH!”

Her opposite cheek got a similar treatment.

Spike flushed deeply, mouth agape as he watched the display. Applejack didn’t seem to mind, and Sunset seemed a little preoccupied to bring up his being there.

“Oop! Ack! AJ, you better let me down! AAH! O-or else!”

“Or else what?” Applejack challenged, swiftly alternating from one jiggling mound to the other, making the mare hiss and groan a bit. “If yer gonna make a threat against me, ya better make sure you can back it UP!” she yelped, her voice raising several octaves on that last word, going up on her tiptoes and making an pained expression. Spike tilted his head to see what was going on. Sunset, a soft blush on her face, had managed to activate her magic, something that Spike found quite impressive given how difficult it was for a unicorn to maintain a constant magical aura when their body was under stress or in pain, and had gripped Applejack’s underwear, underneath her gym shorts and hoisted them high.

“Heh,” she scoffed, as Applejack let go of her in an attempt to get her underwear into a less frustrating position. “Of course you’d be wearing panties like this,” she teased. Applejack’s light green and apple print panties were exposed again. But it took Spike a second to notice this, as Applejack was forcing her gym shorts down in an effort to get hold of her undergarments, giving him a good look at her own rear end. Like the rest of her, it was made of muscle. He could only imagine that if anyone tried spanking that, they’d probably break a finger or two. It reminded him of his recent experience with Limestone, actually. But then he noticed the speckles all over her rear and he shuddered.

“F… Freckles,” he mumbled to himself, feeling his body heat up far more than usual. He had a bit of a… thing for freckles…

Once free if her shoulder, Sunset smirked and gave her panties a twist, forcing Applejack to arch her back and turn her bottom to face the unicorn. “You really shouldn’t mess with a professional smartass… emphasis on ‘smart.’” she teased, holding up a hand. Her horn glowed brighter and a fiery energy enveloped her palm as she whipped it forward, giving Applejack a nice, hard underhand slap against her rear, making a pleasant clapping sound. She did the same with her other hand against her opposite cheek, making the mare jump forward and start smacking at her own butt.

“ACK! Hot, hot, hot!” she yowled. She flushed and glared at Sunset as the unicorn released her magical grip on the farm girl’s panties, laughing softly. “You were tryin’ ta set my buns on fire!” she accused.

“Oh come on, it was just a little bit of magically induced heat. Not like smacking your butt was gonna do anything otherwise.” She continued to laugh a little, but gasped and tried to turn Tail as Applejack advanced on her, but she was a touch too slow, and the tough earth mare grabbed her and flipped her down onto the mat. She’d stepped out of her gym shorts, leaving her in her stretched out underwear. She smirked, grabbing Sunset’s legs, pulling them up, lifting her lower back up off of the ground as she lowered her own rear downwards, sitting atop Sunset’s surprised face, making her flail and gasp and smack at the farm pony’s rear in an attempt to get free, though it did little to help her.

Applejack smirked and, still holding her legs up, removed her skirt and pried her panties from her crack, sliding them up and off. Once her bottoms were to the side she then started to smack at her exposed cheeks, once again starting to make them wobble and bounce painfully. Spike could still hear the muffled yelps and whines Sunset was giving off under Applejack’s cheeks. “You give up yet?” Applejack said, though she didn’t cease her smacking at any point. “I’ll get up offa ya when you say sorry fer being such a brat! ACK!”

She jumped up and gasped, writhing a bit and rubbing at her backside as she looked back at Sunset, who was taking a few deep breaths and sitting up slowly. “Too far, AJ!” she said, shaking her head. “Seriously, sitting on my face?”

“Well, you didn’t have to go bitin’ my bum to get me off like that!”

“It was the only way I was going to get your attention!” she countered.

“Sides, last I checked, you don’t mind a lil bit of face sittin… least that’s what your net history says.”

Spike wasn’t sure if it was possible for a pony to go pale and blush at the same time, but the odd look on Sunset’s cheeks right now probably was a good approximation of the phenomenon. Her eyes narrowed and her horn flared up, with so much of an aura that it might have rivaled Twilight and Trixie’s duel from a few days ago. “Alright, that’s it, you asked for it!” Sunset declared.

Applejack yelped as both of her wrists and ankles were gripped by Sunset’s magic. She was forced down to the ground as her feet were pulled out from under her, her legs spread, her wrists pulled together behind her back, forcing her into a very… subservient looking pose. The farm mare gulped a bit as she looked up at the magic user, who was rubbing her arms and pushing up her sleeves as she approached. “Er… sorry?” she tried.

“I’m gonna see just how tough that butt of yours is, AJ,” Sunset stated, walking up behind her and cracking her knuckles. “Try not to yell too loud, huh?”

“Um… should I still be here?” Spike asked, squirming self consciously at the display.

Blinking, both mares glanced up, as though remembering that he was there for the first time since they had started their horseplay. Sunset blushed deeply and quickly covered her front while releasing Applejack from her magical grip. Applejack, for her part, sat up on her knees and tried to yank her panties out of the crushing wedgie they were still in. “Er uh… g-guess we got a little carried away there.”

“A-are you two…” Spike started, pointing between them with two fingers.

They both shook their heads. “Nope, just real good friends!” they both said at the same time.

“Uh-huh…” He didn’t look convinced, which made the two of them blush more furiously, and become more self conscious. “AJ, um, thanks for the lesson, I promise I’ll practice when I get time, but um, right now, I think it might be a good idea if I headed out for the day?”

“Y-yeah, might be good,” she muttered, reaching for her discarded gym shorts while Sunset dressed and adjusted her skirt. “Er, we’ll have another lesson whenever you’re ready.”

“Is uh… Sunset gonna be there too?”

One said yes, and the other said no. Then they reversed their opinions before finally settling on ‘maybe.’

“O-okay then,” Spike said, clearing his throat. “Then I’m just gonna… you know… go away for a while?”

“Yeah, uh sure…” Sunset mumbled, looking away.

“S-see you tomorrow,” AJ said.

They continued to stutter and mumble goodbyes to one another as Spike backed his way to the gym entrance, grabbed his bag, and finally slid out the door, groaning loudly. He immediately walked to a nearby water fountain. A sign above it stated, ‘Out of Order, Do not Use, Water Pressure Too High.’

Spike ignored the warning and stepped onto the pedal at the base of the fountain. With a hiss, a massive spray of water shot forward, dousing his face and dribbling down his neck and chest, soaking his gym shirt. He sputtered and groaned, but shook his head, letting the cold water cover his head entirely before shaking it furiously to flick off the excess, and ran a hand over his head spines. “Stupid sexy ponies!” he declared to the ceiling, before stumbling out of the gym and into the fresh, afternoon air. He took out his phone to call his mother for a pick up, resolving to banish the encounter from his mind and not think about it, or what would have happened had he not interrupted them.

Not thinking about it.

Nope, definitely not thinking about it…

REALLY not thinking about it.

...Dammit…

He was totally thinking about it...