A boisterous chant of "Hip-Hip-Hooray!" filled the Cloudsdale Superdome.

Mares in cheerleading uniforms gathered around Lightning Dust and her baby sister. They hoisted the siblings off the ground and carried them aloft on a bed of upturned hooves, cheering and slapping at their rumps. Lightning's skirt flounced in the breeze, granting onlookers a peek of her lacy panties and bare upper thighs.

Rainbow Dash was one such onlooker. Scowling from the sidelines, she watched Lightning cradle a first-place trophy earned via her usually dirty tricks. Lightning answered Rainbow's glare with a derisive flick of her tongue. Her baby sister did the same, aiming her snark at Scootaloo, who was fuming beside the rainbow-haired pegasus.

A cloudless stratosphere hung above their heads, perfumed by the sharp chemical scent of ozone. Magically cultivated grass tickled the frogs of their hooves. The Superdome was modeled after a typical earthbound soccer stadium, though it was smaller and more intimate. Here, a beer can pitched from the cheap seats actually had a chance of cracking some poor, unsuspecting athlete in the skull.

Today, however, such spontaneous violence was unlikely to occur. The stands were mostly empty, except for the odd squealing tween filly and her visibly bored parents. Cheerleading, after all, was an earth pony sport; it wasn't terribly popular this high above the ground.

Rainbow disliked the "sport" herself, but even so, she wasn't about to accept Lightning's underhanded victory. She did not - not! - just spend the last six months of her life attending rehearsals, dressing up in girly outfits, and prancing around like a brain-dead showpony so Lightning Dust could cheat her way to first place.

Nope, nuh-uh, not gonna happen - Fluttershy and Scoots had worked too hard on their idiotic cheer. This stupid competition was important to them, and that meant it was important to Rainbow too.

"Dash," said Fluttershy, hovering at Rainbow's side. "I know you're upset, but let's take a minute to settle down and approach this like calm, rational adults."

"What, I'm calm," said Rainbow. "In fact, I think we're all pretty calm. Just look at Scoots there. She's pretty calm, aren't you, Scoots?"

Scoots glared at the celebrating squad. "Oh, yeah. Never been calmer."

"What about you, Cloudkicker?" said Rainbow.

"Me? No worries, Dash. I'm a monk on a freakin' mountaintop."

"And you, Derpy? You feeling calm about all this?"

"As a cucumber."

"See, Fluttershy, we're all plenty calm," said Rainbow. "In fact, I say we march over there and show those cheating bimbos just how calm we are."

"Wait, Dash, no, don't," said Fluttershy. "I think we should fly into town and celebrate instead. We all did such a good job. We should treat ourselves to a nice, constructive, non-violent lunch."

Rainbow ignored that. She and the others started forward, and, flustered, Fluttershy had no choice but to follow. Together they strode out to meet their foes, an army of faux girly girls in a loose phalanx.

Their armor: unpleasantly snug bike shorts, cute baby-tees, hair clips and homemade capes. (Scoots was in charge of uniform design, and had based their outfits on her CMC costume, thus the capes.)

Their weapons: pompoms, adequately applied makeup and enough sass to fill every empty seat in the stadium.

Their enemies: The Bolties - a cheerleading squad composed of liars, cheaters and conniving bitches (albeit ones with admittedly superior taste in clothing and probably an overall higher uniform budget). They were sponsored by the Grackle City Shadowbolts, and wore skirts and tops bearing the flight team's signature dark purples and streaking yellow lightning bolts.

In hindsight, Rainbow figured she and her Wonderettes should've dressed in colors matching their sponsor's uniforms, the world famous Wonderbolts. But, ugh, whatever, that hardly mattered now. In fact, exactly none of this had mattered to Rainbow Dash up until recently. Six months ago, before her training for this idiotic event began, she'd never even heard of the annual Bolt Vs Bolt cheer off.

The competition was one part beauty pageant and two parts acrobatic stunt show, and it was entirely restricted to the artificial turf. Contestants were expected to somersault through the air or stack themselves one-atop-the-other in intricate pyramidal formations. But flying was strictly prohibited.

Because that would be too awesome, Rainbow supposed.

The Wonderettes bombed the beauty pageant section of the contest. They had Fluttershy on their team, who was technically an ex-model, and Flitter and Cloudchaser too, both runway divas in their own right. But whatever sway they held over the judges was undermined by Rainbow, Derpy, and Scoots, who, collectively, were about as feminine as a flying elbow drop delivered from a turnbuckle.

That didn't matter, though, because Rainbow and the others hadn't come all this way to win Miss Cloudsdale. The team worked harder on their cheer than their hair and makeup, and they were confident it would wow the judges enough to win them the contest.

And they were right; their cheer did wow the judges. One problem though: they weren't the ones who had performed it.

"S'up, Dashie. You and the goon squad come to congratulate your betters?" Lightning Dust leaned on her pony-sized first-place trophy, using it as a solid gold cane.

The tension between each party was thick. By now most of the spectators had left the stadium, but a few stragglers remained in the stands, where they watched the rival squads with mild interest.

"You brats stole our cheer!" said Derpy.

"Chill, Derps. I got this," said Rainbow. Then, to Lightning: "You brats stole our cheer!"

"That first-place trophy belongs to us!" said Flitter.

"That's right!" added Cloudchaser. "Hand it over or we'll, uh... write a thorough and abrasive complaint to the athletics commission!"

The others murmured and nodded in general agreement.

"Guys. Guys. Easy, you're stepping on my lines," said Rainbow. "Except you, Cloudchaser. You keep quiet - nopony is gonna write some stupid complaint."

"I'll write the stupid complaint," Fluttershy offered helpfully, her hoof raised like a school filly intent on volunteering to clean the whiteboard. Rainbow shot her an annoyed glare, and the eager hoof slowly lowered back to the ground.

"You goons are such a mess," said Lightning, laughing. "So what if we stole your dumb cheer, it's not like you dorks could've pulled it off anyway. If anything you should be thanking us. We did your routine justice."

"Yeah, we did it justice!" said Lightning's sister, the filly standing at her side. She was a smaller, brattier version of her older sibling, with dimpled cheeks and a sneer you just wanted to punch. Her name was Zephyr Breeze, as evidenced by the HELLO MY NAME IS ZEPHYR BREEZE nametag pinned to her lapel.

"Ha!" said Rainbow. "So you're not even gonna deny it, are you? How low. Though, I should've expected as much from -"

"You! Lightning Dust! I finally found you, you cheating rat!"

"The hay?" Rainbow turned at the sound of the intruding voice. She watched another cheerleader, a pegasus dressed all in pink, drift down from overhead.

"Who're you supposed to be?" said Lightning, sneering.

"Yeah, who are you!" said little Zephyr, also sneering.

"I'm the team captain you cheated at last year's Bolt Vs Bolt Cheer Off," said the mare dressed in pink. "Figures I'd find you here. Just couldn't help returning to the crime scene, could you?"

"Uhhhh...?" said Dust.

"Uhhhh...?" This was Dash, an eyebrow arched on her forehead.

"And you're not the only one she's cheated!" came the voice of yet another cheerleader, this one swooping down on jade-green wings, her skirt and pigtails swaying with girlish spunk. She landed a foot from Lightning and made the meanest face her curled lashes and meticulously plucked eyebrows would allow.

She shouted epitaphs square in Lightning's face, prompting Fluttershy to flush and clamp her hooves over Scootaloo's ears. Her fury leaked from her pores and seeped into those of the other cheated mare, who joined her half-coherent beratement.

Soon the other Wonderettes joined in (except for Fluttershy, who presently resembled a friendly woodland squirrel somepony had dropped into a piranha tank). Which was cool, except Rainbow hadn't come all this way to let Lightning Dust upstage her. And she certainly hadn't come all this way to let her friends (plus a couple of strangers) upstage the upstaging.

She was about to jump in the verbal dogpile when even more cheerleaders began spinning themselves from the wild blue and swooping down on the mob of bickering mares. They came from every direction and gathered overhead, like horror-film ravens come to foreshadow some ominous plot development.

It was really weird. Those still lingering in the stands fled as if in sheer terror... but then returned shortly with popcorn and sodas and overpriced candies.

"What the hay is going on?" said Scoots, shocked, and once again treading on Rainbow's lines. Rainbow, however, was willing to overlook this, seeing as how her least favorite apocalypse scenario was playing out right before her eyes.

She'd had nightmares about this very moment: the sky blotted out by pompoms and various color coordinated outfits. The air scented with perfume. The doom harbingers plummeting toward the earth, wearing masks of anger and rage and cherry almond lip gloss by Marebelline.

Lightning Dust, however, was reminded of a more realistic nightmare: the one where a lifetime of lying, cheating and scheming finally caught up with her.

She was pondering this when Scoots repeated, "Seriously, what the hay is going on?" Her tone suggested that she was perhaps, by this point, over the whole bloodthirsty mob experience.

Luckily, a little after that, one of the Bolties shouted "This is what's going on!" before bounding over Lightning and headbutting Derpy on the bridge of the nose.

A riot broke out - well, insofar as a gaggle of mane-pulling, face-slapping girly girls can be considered a riot - and Lightning used the confusion to scoop up her sister, plant the filly on her back and beat a hasty retreat. Since the sky was full of squawking enemy cheerleaders, she had no choice but to gallop toward the nearest exit.

"Rainbow, they're getting away!" said Scoots, who was already breaking from the riotous mob and giving chase.

"Uh, duh," said Rainbow. "Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious. Now hop on and help me run 'em down."

Rainbow dipped her shoulders in mid-stride, allowing Scoots to hop aboard her caped back. The filly's own cape flagged as Rainbow darted across the field, as did those of the other Wonderettes who managed to follow her.

Derpy and Cloudkicker remained hopelessly mired in the mass catfight. Flitter and Cloudchaser joined Rainbow in her pursuit of their real enemy, Lightning Dust. Fluttershy trailed behind, more concerned with escaping the riot than catching the runaway Boltie.

The field was long(ish), and because Lightning could never hope to outfly her rainbow-maned rival, let alone beat her in a hoof race, Rainbow caught up to her at the foot of the bleachers. She bit down on Lightning's tail and skidded to a stop. Then she spun around, tore Lightning off her hooves and chucked the shrieking, flailing mare behind her back.

Zephyr fell off her sister's back, and the two rolled toward Flitter and Cloudchaser, who were seconds from pouncing and doing Celestia-knows-what to the cheating siblings.

But before either could reach the sisters, the mob, which had been lagging behind in its pursuit, finally caught up to and swarmed over Flitter and Cloudchaser. A great frothing mass of running mascara and grass stains, it sucked the Wonderette pair into its belly, swallowing them whole. They somersaulted tail-over-head, like wet clothes stuffed in a tumble dryer.

And then they vanished.

Fearing a similar fate, Fluttershy galloped up the bleachers and through the exit, followed shortly by a recovered Lightning Dust and Zephyr Breeze.

"Flitter! Cloudchaser!" shouted Scoots. But it was too late and both she and Rainbow knew it. Together they scrambled up the steps, scraping their knees along the way, then bustled through the exit and slammed the double-doors behind them.

The mob barreled into the shut doors, making them bulge and creek on their hinges. Rainbow and Scoots jumped back. Calls of "Give us the cheater!" echoed through what suddenly seemed a precariously thin layer of steel - steel that rattled as the mob pounded it from the other side.

Rainbow and Scoots hung their heads, panting.

"Okay," said Rainbow, "I realize our friends just got trampled half to death back there, but that was pretty freakin' awesome."

"For sure!" said Scoots. "Like something out of a zombie flick!"

They laughed, snorted, bumped hooves.

More pounds rattled the door.

"How long do you think that will hold them?" asked Scoots?

"Long enough, slowpokes!" shouted Lightning. She reared up on her hind legs, fores kicking in the empty air, then dropped back to all fours and bolted down a cement corridor.

Rainbow and Scoots resumed their chase, and Fluttershy galloped behind them, but only to put some distance between herself and the rumbling door. They pursued Lightning and her sister all the way to the food court, where Rainbow pounced and tackled the older sibling.

A couple sprang up from their plastic patio seats, visibly alarmed, raw spinach leaves falling from their mouths. They moved just as Dash and Dust tumbled into their table and knocked it to the floor, along with their salads and drinks.

"Get off me, you psychopath!" said Lightning.

"No way! You get from under me first!"

"I can't with your fat ass on my chest!"

"Ow ow ow! Watch the cape! The cape!"

They rolled about on the ground, like a couple of fillies fighting in a sandbox.

"Kick her croup, sis!" said Zephyr.

"Pound her stupid face!" shouted Scoots.

"Communicate your feelings and consider a more constructive alternative to violence!" Fluttershy added helpfully, though it was clear her message of love and tolerance, usually so effective in Equestria, was presently falling on deaf ears. Even the couple who'd had their meal interrupted gleefully egged on the fighters. Soon other patrons began wandering nearer, to discover what all the commotion was about.

Meanwhile, Rainbow was learning a valuable lesson in choosing her fights more carefully. Because, as it turned out, Lightning Dust had some pretty sick moves.

She popped Rainbow in the mouth with an upward hoof-thrust, dazing her, then braced both rear hooves against her chest and kicked. Rainbow tumbled through the air, tried to right herself with some frantic wing beats, then crashed into another nearby table.

Oww. Okay, that was unexpected.

Kinda awesome, though.

She scrambled back to all fours, only to be shoved into a front headlock and hoisted off the ground in an epic vertical suplex. Lightning held her overhead for a long moment, just to show that she could, then fell backward and sent Rainbow crashing into the cement floor.

Double-oww. Rainbow twitched where she lay like a trampled mosquito, her wings flared at odd angles.

"Quit messing around, Dash!" said Scoots, her voice echoing from miles and miles away.

Or, no, wait, that was just the ringing in Rainbow's ears. She tottered back to her hooves on shaky legs, eyelids drooping as she wondered if the beetle-sized alicorns circling her head were real.

"No worries, shrimp," she told Scoots. "I got her right where I want -"

An elbow to the back of the neck cut her short. She belly-flopped onto the floor, limbs splayed and pointing in four separate directions.

"Something wrong, Dashie? You seem surprised." Lightning sat on her rivals back, grabbed her mane. "FYI, I was a pro wrestler before I tried out for the Wonderbolts. Also, pro wrestling, not as fake as you might think."

Grinning cruelly, she clapped her forehooves together under Rainbow's chin and yanked it skyward, craning her rival's neck in the process. At the same time she rocked her shoulders backward, folding Rainbow's spine into a deep crescent.

With her forelegs pinioned behind Lightning's stifles, all Rainbow could do was grit her teeth and endure the fiery pain that engulfed her backbone. Her hind legs kicked feebly. Noticing them, Lightning twisted slightly and seized one at the fetlock. Then, still clutching Rainbow's chin, she leaned further back while simultaneously pulling a cyan hind hoof up toward her head.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Rainbow mewled as her body curled into a ball.

"Hey, you're actually pretty flexible," Lightning said through a low grunt, muscles tense as she held her rival in the compromising position. Her hips twisted left and right as she ground her butt against Rainbow's back, stirring her pleated skirt. It flounced with the jerky movements, now and then rising to reveal snatches of her underwear.

Velveteen cotton panties rubbed against a cheap polyester cape, wrinkling it. The cape felt like sandpaper against Rainbow's skin. It chafed more and more with every grind of Lightning's haunches, and the friction sparked a sudden burning sensation.

Rainbow was moaning in pain when Fluttershy decided she'd seen enough. She charged headlong at Lightning Dust, though admittedly with less resolve than a word like 'charge' implied. Angry bulls and rams charged at their enemies, whereas Fluttershy's gait was more of an especially deliberate jog.

She was seconds from ramming Lightning when one of the rabid cheerleaders came tearing into the food court. It was the mare dressed all in pink - the one who'd started this whole crazy mess.  

"Mine! Don't touch her, she's mine!" the cheerleader was saying before she stumbled and accidentally blindsided Fluttershy. The two of them tumbled across the floor. The mare in pink cursed up a storm, while Fluttershy muttered "owws" and apologies.

Other cheerleaders came flooding onto the food court patio, apparently having found another way into the back of the stadium. They went for Lightning all at once but ended up tripping over each other. Soon they were fighting amongst themselves.

Lightning ignored their bungling. She broke her hold and let Rainbow flop on the floor, then reared upright and seized both her rival's front fetlocks. balanced on her hind legs, she stomped a hoof on Rainbow's back and wrenched up on both cyan forelimbs, bending her spine all over again.

The hoof twisted and dug into Rainbow's backbone, leaving grass stains on her cape. The chafing worsened. She thrashed in her captor's grip, which only further inflamed the ache in her lower back.

Her spine felt ready to snap when Lightning grew bored of this torture and decided to inflict to another. After dropping Rainbow, she rolled her rival face-up and straddled her neck, her forehooves tangled up in that famous rainbow mane.  

"This was my signature move back in the day," she said. "And honestly, I've been wanting to use it on you since the moment you betrayed me."

Rainbow squealed as Lightning hiked her head off the floor and pressed her muzzle to a velveteen pair of purple panties. Her nose wrinkled with disgust. A sheen of fresh sweat coated the panties, and they reeked of salt and dirt and artificial grass.

The smell stunned her like an electric jolt, giving Lightning all the time in the world to gradually close her hinds around Rainbow's head and neck. She took her time, delighting at the feel of her inner thighs rubbing against two cyan cheeks as she searched for a comfortable grip.

When she found such a grip, her fetlocks crossed and her hind muscles went taut and tense. Surprisingly brawny quads bore into the sides of Rainbow's throat, choking her, making her sputter and cough into her rival's muggy crotch. But more than that, the strong quads locked Rainbow's muzzle in place, forcing her to gag on the sweat-fumes that wafted off the damp panties.  

Her face disappeared under the pleats of a crinkled skirt. The damp panties ground hard against her nose and mouth. They moved up and down in a subtle wiping motion, smearing perspiration into cyan fur.

A mix of body odor and breathlessness made Rainbow's eyes water. She tried to buck and twist her way to freedom, but Lightning drove her hips toward the floor and flexed her quads harder, keeping her pinned.

"Trouble breathing?" said Lightning. "Maybe you're just not trying hard enough. Go on, flare those nostrils and inhale. Take a big whiff!"

The Boltie rolled to her side and rested her cheek on an upturned hoof, smirking as she made her dominance look easy. And indeed it was. Rainbow fought to pry away her captor's thighs, but only managed to ruffle Lightning's skirt with her frustrated tugs.

"Don't bother, Dashie. These babies have reduced stallions twice your size to tears." She gave her outer thigh a loud smack, utterly pleased with herself. "So until you admit I'm the better cheerleader - no, the better athlete - you're gonna stay right where you are."

Unfortunately, Rainbow was in no position to admit any such thing, at least not verbally; the best she could do was mumble curses into the stretch of cotton laid over her mouth. It was sticky with sweat and flecks of her own spittle, like a strip of duct tape adhered to a hostage's lips.

"Say it," Lightning taunted. "Tell me I'm the best. Go on, I'm listening."

Rainbow couldn't, of course. But then, that was the whole point.

When she failed to speak up, Lightning tucked a hoof behind Rainbow's head and pulled, taking even more of her rival's snout between her hind legs. Scarlet cheeks turned purple between her thighs. She crunched Rainbow until her tugs and thrashes ebbed into distressed writhes, then splayed her hinds, adjusted her hold and crunched her some more.  

"Hang on, Rainbow! I'm coming for ya!"

Like Fluttershy before her, Scoots rushed to aid her idol. And also like Fluttershy, she didn't fair very well...

--------

Before Scoots managed to reach Rainbow, Zephyr swooped down and stomped on her back. Scoots flopped onto her belly, and the little brat stood on her cape, using it like a welcome mat on a rainy day.

"Fighting two-on-one is for losers," said Zephyr. "So stay out of my sister's way!"

"You tell her, sis," said Lightning, who was still choking Rainbow with her thighs.

"Oh, I'll do more than that."

Zephyr hopped off Scoots, tiny wings flapping, and dropped a sharp elbow on the filly's spine. The blow stunned Scoots, giving Zephyr plenty of time to roll her face-up and take a seat on her muzzle.

"Nice," said Lightning. "You're an even better than I was at your age."

Lightning muscled Rainbow to her back and straddled her face, mimicking her little sister. Her skirt fell over her rival's forehead, and Zephyr's did the same to Scoots. Both Wonderettes bucked and shoved at their captor's hips, but neither was going anywhere for awhile.

"Shall we?" said Lightning, tossing a knowing glance at her sister.

"Let's," Zephyr returned.

Scoots hit at Zephyr's outer thighs until the brat snagged her fetlocks and pinned them to the floor. She drove her full weight down on Scootaloo's muzzle, impairing her breathing, and locked her head in place between two teal thighs.

Scoots bridged in a reflexive bid for freedom - her stifles bent at acute angles, spine arched, pelvis raised as if seeking something in the sky. She held the pose for all of ten seconds, then inevitably tired and crashed back to the floor.

"Not bad, sis," said Lightning, "but I think we can do better."

"Oh?"

"Let's make a game of it. First to knock out their bitch wins."

Zephyr grinned at that. "You hear that, Scoota-tool? You're my bitch now!"

With that she grabbed Scootaloo's mane and yanked it upward, entombing her victim's face deeper in the valley of her lap. She didn't roll her hips or grind on the Wonderette's face, only pulled on the purple mane and drove her hips downward, as if trying to flatten her prisoner's skull.

Scoots gagged on the foul taste that permeated Zephyr's panties. Seasoned by an afternoon's worth of sweaty play, they tasted like a used gym towel. Choking and coughing, she tried desperately to twist her face away, and nearly did. But Zephyr was too heavy, and the hold on her mane was tight.

Both sisters utterly dominated their so-called rivals, much to the amusement of the small crowd that had formed. Cameras chirped like a flock of taunting birds. Noticing the cameras, Zephyr lifted her skirt to give her adoring public a better view of the action.

Scoots couldn't believe this was happening. Lenses tilted downward and zoomed in on her squashed face, her wrinkled nose and forehead, while flashbulbs blinked and blinked and blinked, immortalizing her humiliation.

She was close to passing out when Zephyr reared up off her face. Cool, sweet air flooded her lungs, but only for as long as it took the little brat to turn around and plop her butt on Scootaloo's muzzle.

Meanwhile, Lightning had given up trying to knock out Rainbow and had taken a greater interest in her sister's triumph over Scoots. She stood up on Rainbow's back, her hooves idly trampling all over her cape as she watched Zephyr dominate.

"Okay, okay," said Rainbow, coughing, her voice hoarse. "You win! You're the better athlete or whatever! Now call off your little sister."

"That's it, sis!" said Lightning, flatly ignoring her rival. "Show that little twerp who's boss!"

Indeed she did, and now Rainbow was being forced to watch. With her full weight heaped anew on Scootaloo's face, Zephyr snatched up the orange filly's hinds and tucked them under her fores. From there she clapped her front hooves together and leaned back, hips driving down as she pinned Scoots and continued smothering her nose and mouth.

Scoots kicked and squirmed in her captor's grip. Her shorts rode up, offering Zephyr and the crowd a sliver of her plain white undies. Amused by the sight, Zephyr yanked on the shorts and gave Scoots a wedgie, showing off more of the filly's underwear.

"Make her pucker up and kiss your ass!" said Lightning.

"You hear that, bitch?" said Zephyr, neck craned as she looked down at Scoots. "My big sis wants you to kiss my ass."

She wagged her hips from side to side, and really ground her cotton-clad butt on Scootaloo's face. The crowd joined in with Lightning's taunts, chanting, "Kiss it! Kiss it!"

But before Scoots did, her tormentor got an even better idea. She told Lightning, who then rolled Rainbow to her back and stuffed her in another scissorhold. Not holding back this time, she choked the rainbow-haired pegasus till she very nearly passed out, while Zephyr smothered Scoots into near-unconsciousness.

When they finally released their respective rivals, both Rainbow and Scoots were groggy and spent.

"Let's see how they like this," said Lightning Dust to Zephyr Breeze, snickering.

"Yeah, let's see how they like it!" Zephyr returned, also snickering.

With their opponents too exhausted to move, Lightning picked up Scoots and sat her down on Rainbow's face. She pushed down on Scootaloo's shoulders, driving the filly's crotch onto her idol's nose and mouth.

By now all Rainbow could do was shut her eyes and bear it. She listened to the crowd as they laughed and took pictures, and beyond them, to the rumble of the zombie-like cheerleaders who were still fighting each other to get at Lightning Dust.

The chants of "Kiss it! Kiss it!" started anew. Rainbow's eyes watered beneath the crotch pressed over her mouth, and her lungs grew tighter and tighter. She made gross retching-choking-sputtering sounds, all of them muffled by the boggy stretch of nylon glued to her lips.

Her pride in tatters now, she felt her lips starting to moisten and pucker, practically all on their own.

Then: a furious shout.

"ENOUGH! GET AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!"

And then Fluttershy burst from the mob of brawling cheerleaders, batting several of them to one side or the other. Tatters marred her uniform. Bruises and scrapes covered her limbs. She launched herself at Zephyr first, punting the little brat like a football, then circled behind Lightning and lassoed both fores around her trunk.

The crowd marveled as she snatched the Boltie off the ground, arched her body and let her shoulders and head fall backward. Lightning flailed, her body sailing through the air. Then the sailing abruptly stopped, and her skull struck the floor with an echoing thud.

Cement fissured.

It was a perfect suplex. Somewhere in the crowd, a lone tear rolled down a single cheek.

"Owww..." said Lightning, who, miraculously, was still conscious.

Finally, the zombie-like cheerleaders stopped their fighting and surrounded her. She was still rubbing the back of her head when they pounced. Zephyr Breeze tried to zip away, but the mob swarmed her too.

Rainbow, Scoots and Fluttershy sat and watched the ferocious attack, their clothes in tatters, manes matted and sticky with sweat.

After awhile, Rainbow looked to Scoots, who looked to Fluttershy, who brought things full circle by looking back to Rainbow.

"We never talk about this," said Rainbow. "Agreed?"

"Agreed," the other two said in unison.

The three of them considered staying to watch the beating but decided to turn their collective attention to those who had cheered and taken photos.

Fluttershy led the way. They chased the crowd around the stadium well into the evening, snatching away cameras and smashing them against the floor.