A few days passed after the incident, allowing everypony to recover from the trauma of their arrests. In a sense, everything just went back to normal. Trixie herself was able to return to what she had been doing beforehand, which was mostly hanging out with the other members of the club, with another meeting happening the day after with each mare and stallion sharing their own versions of what happened with one another.

Everypony was excited, those who went to hear Celestia’s speech depicting their righteous deeds during the chaos of the riot. Even Trixie herself was able to recount how she defiantly resisted her interrogation, not giving the guards so much of a hint as to who had done the act that started it all. Yes, all in the group were pleased that they were able to help a fellow member of the group stick it to the inept establishment, but of them all the most celebrated was Star Bright. Having put himself in the line of fire, risking imprisonment in order to protect a mare and the organization itself, the stallion earned himself a bit of fame and praise from those in the group.

That meeting ended with Sunset throwing a small party in the name of those who went to the assembly, one that everypony enjoyed, even Trixie. She couldn’t help but notice how her attitude was changing since she joined the group, with her becoming less passive and more assertive, like she actually had some kind of control over her life again. With a feeling of control came the return of a bit of her pride, and most importantly some positivity and happiness.

That’s why, the following day, Trixie volunteered to help with the post party clean up, even though Sunset and Starlight telling her that they would take care of everything when the party finished. The other two unicorns had done so much for the blue mare, from giving her a place to stay to helping her get over the negative feelings that clouded her mind. They tried to tell her that she didn’t have to, but Trixie insisted it was the least she could do. Besides, this time, it was her choice to help, unlike the times in the shelter where she was always peer pressured into doing what other ponies wanted her to do.

“Very well,” Sunset relented, “You can help Star Bright. Me and Starlight will take down the decorations”

“Star Bright’s helping?” Trixie asked, not expecting the stallion to be there.

“Yes, he’s been staying here like you since we got back from Canterlot.” Starlight confirmed, “We placed him in a room further down the hall from you, so he wouldn’t disturb your privacy.”

Trixie became a bit embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed. For some reason, she assumed the guest rooms in the club were for mares only, but then again, there was no reason they should be if everypony in the group was trustworthy.

“Come on, you two,” Sunset directed, “We got a bit of work to do, and I already got Star Bright sweeping.”

Not long after, Trixie was handed a broom and put to work sweeping up confetti and juice cups off the floor, put on one side of the room while Star Bright was sent to work on the other. The two didn’t even get a chance to say ‘hi’ to one another before Sunset put him to task, but the stallion couldn’t hide his acknowledgement that Trixie was there. It would be hard to ignore the woman you raped being in the same room as you.

For a while, the two just did their jobs, doing their best to ignore one another as the tension filled the air around them. Occasionally, they would catch each other sneaking glances at one another, or try to say something only to silence themselves, until the mess they were cleaning up got pushed to the center of the room. At that point, they were nearly face to face, but still incapable of saying a single word to each other.

“You know,” said Sunset as she took down a banner, “You two can talk to each other while you work. It’s not against the rules or anything.”

Star Bright let out a sigh, still unsure where to begin, but Trixie knew exactly what she wanted to say.

“Why did you leave me with the resistance?” the blue mare asked the grey stallion, “After we were picked up by the royal guards and taken to Canterlot for protection, you just disappeared. I thought you would come back, but you never did.”

The topic drew the eyes of the other two mares in the room, putting the stallion on the spot. Avoiding the question was impossible, but that was fine, as a good part of him wanted to explain anyways.

“There were lots of reasons.” Star Bright started, “I wanted to protect you from what I had done, that’s always been true, but then I remembered that you weren’t the only mare I had ever raped.”

Star Bright expected one of the mares in the room to say something to that, but while Sunset and Starlight did stop what they were doing, they did nothing more than face the stallion, their silence telling him to go on.

“I had slaves… a couple of black collars I kept chained to my bed.” Star Bright went on to say, “I mean, every stallion had slaves, and the night I went out and snuck into that party, I left mine back at home. While I wanted to make sure you were safe, I couldn’t get them out of my head. I tried to tell myself that they were ok, that somepony would have gone in and freed them from… from me, but it kept nagging at me.”

“So the moment you found somepony who could protect Trixie better than yourself, you ran back to your home to make sure your victims weren’t left trapped and starving.” Starlight said, piecing together where the story was going.

“Yeah…” Star Bright admitted, “Along with other things. I wasn’t exactly the best pony when I was under the caribou’s spell. That was the other reason I wanted to leave, because no matter how much I tried to help you, it never felt right to be around you when I had raped you.”

“So you felt right around these other girls?” Trixie said accusingly, believing that Star Bright had replaced her with two other mares.

“I wouldn’t know…” Star Bright answered, “When I got back to my home, the slaves I had were already freed, since I lived in a town free of a caribou presence and all the stallions had come back to their senses at the same time. By the time I got there, there was nothing to save.”

“And you never thought to come back to check on me?” Trixie snapped, condemning the stallion since his one obligation aside from her, in his words, didn’t exist.

“I… couldn’t. After all that, I became distant to mares in general. Really, I thought that everypony I hurt would be better off without me in their lives. For weeks, I cowardly holed myself inside my house, until the memories of what I did in that place became too much and I left. By that time, the caribou threat was over, and I was able to wander around aimlessly, looking for something to take my mind off all the things the caribou had made me do.”

“That’s probably around the time he was recruited to our organization, back when it was first starting.” said Sunset Shimmer, “I remember seeing him come to his first meeting, not knowing what to do with himself, or how to deal with the things he had done while being controlled. I offered him the ability to make up for all those sins welling up inside of him, and he has been a very loyal stallion to our cause ever since.”

“That’s pretty much it,” Star Bright concluded, “I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me. Sometimes I really hate myself too, but I’m hoping that someday I’ll be able to make up for that horrible part of my life.”

Trixie didn’t know how to take this. On one hand, she still felt abandoned, left behind to eventually be sent to that terrible mare shelter, waiting fruitlessly for things to get better while Star Bright was able to move on without her. The very thought of it made her fingers curl up into fists, and tremble as she contemplated punching the stallion in the eye. Shifting her eyes around the room, she could tell that all three of the other unicorns noticed this gesture, though not a single one took any action to prevent the possible attack about to befall the stallion, not even Star Bright himself.

On the other hand, she could understand the need to move on. The desire to separate the version of themselves that existed during the Fall from the version that existed now. As angry as she was at the stallion for leaving her, she couldn’t bring herself to hit him. It wasn’t in her nature to physically harm another, even if they had harmed her physically and emotionally.

“I’m not going to forgive you for leaving me,” Trixie said, untensing her hand, “After the Fall, you were the only thing I had that was even close to being good, and when you left me I didn’t have anything. If not for Sunset Shimmer, I’d still have nothing.”

“Right…” Star Bright conceded, “I get that, and I’m sorry.”

Sunset gave a slight chuckle at the way Star Bright responded, “Do you really?” she said bluntly, “Yes, you understand that you’ve wronged Trixie, along with other mares, and you are working to fix that, but the way you speak to this mare you personally raped and abandoned was fairly weak.”

“Wait…” Trixie said, sensing a hostility inside Sunset’s calmly spoken words, “It’s not like it was his fault that he-”

“No,” Star Bright interrupted, “Sunset’s right. I should be getting to my knees and kissing your hooves for even allowing me to be in the same room as you after what I did. I had a chance to make things up to you, but I was scared and ran. I could have taken you with me, but some part of me knew that if I took you to my house, if you met the mares I raped and tortured, then you’d see how I had been and hate me forever.”

“But we know that wasn’t your fault,” Trixie reasoned, “It was the Crystal Heart that made you act that way.”

“Yes,” Starlight Glimmer agreed, “But in a sense, no. As you know, there were several small groups of stallions who were able to resist the enchantment the Crystal Heart projected, though the governing body has yet to discover why this was. Sunset Shimmer has been doing some research on the matter, interviewing stallions in our group to find some sort of connection.”

“You have?” Trixie asked Sunset, having a vague idea why she would want to look towards stallions in the group for answers, since only those who raped a mare joined.

“Yes, and what I found was a little disturbing,” Sunset replied, “Of all the stallions I interviewed, every one of them admitted that they often had inappropriate thoughts about mares.”

“Well of course,” Trixie said, “That’s what the Heart did to them.”

“Before the caribou,” Sunset added, making Trixie’s eyes widen in shock, “Every one of them admitted that on occasion they’d think of mares they saw on the streets naked, in their beds, having sex with them. Some of them even went so far as to say they had fantasies of tying mares up, restraining them as they had their way with them, having a female treat them as kings who were the only ones who could satisfy them. A few even admitted that they would have a fixation on a single mare, sometimes one they were dating and sometimes not, and that mare ended up becoming a slave to them after the caribou took over. It didn’t matter who the mare was either, as even authority figures and celebrities were brought up when asked who exactly they had fantasies about.”

That news was, as Sunset put it, very disturbing - not just to Trixie, but to Star Bright too. Both looked surprised, though Trixie’s shock was soon upon the unicorn stallion directly, which filled him with a large sum of shame.

“Star Bright, you too?!” Trixie said, offended that he had done such a thing prior to the caribou’s brainwashing.

“Y-yes,” he replied timidly, “There were plenty of times that I saw a mare on the streets and would imagine what it would be like to have sex with them. It was an awful thing to do, I admit.”

“Isn’t there something else you’d like to admit,” Sunset said, clearly knowing that there was more that could be added to this confession.

“I… I sometimes think about mares having sex with me, even after the Fall.”

Trixie let out a gasp, and suddenly felt incredibly exposed. Even now, it felt like Star Bright could be undressing her with his eyes, and the way he looked away, occasionally looking back to her only to avert his gaze again, felt to her like confirmation.

“Now this isn’t confirmable,” Sunset said, trying to break the tension, “But I believe that the caribou might have exploited a weakness within the stallions of Equestria, something that has been hidden, but deeply entrenched in our very nation - that even before the caribou came, we mares were little more than sex objects to stallions, and even now they have trouble keeping those thoughts out of their heads.”

Star Bright’s face turned a deep red, apparently agreeing with the sentiments Sunset was putting forth. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t, but every now and then, I look at a mare, and these ideas just come to me. No matter how hard I try, I’ll see some mare and start feeling myself getting an erection. I’m disgusted with myself, but it just keeps happening.”

“It’s ok, Star Bright,” Sunset said gently, getting up to move to the stallion and embrace him, “I think we all understand this isn’t your fault. Something about how Equestria was operated before the Fall instilled this in a large majority of the stallions who live here.” Sunset pulled away from Star Bright, and went to Trixie. “That’s why some of the stallions were helping the caribou without the need of brainwashing. Something seeded in their hearts, put there by our established social norms, that grew out till they believed what the caribou did before the caribou even arrived. Thankfully, even with this problem plaguing Equestria, most of our males were not fully corrupted by it, and needed a magical enchantment to pull it out of them to its full extent, but now that shadow in our kingdom has been brought to light, and it shows that we need to take drastic measures if we are going to fix it.”

“Drastic measures?” Trixie asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s any one thing that we can do to solve this problem.” Sunset replied, “It’s a matter that has to be taken care of on several fronts. Identifying potential threats to our way of life, removing those who want to destroy it, knowing how to attack a problem when it arises, and beginning preventative actions to ensure no stallion turns on a mare ever again. Equestria simply is not safe until these things are accomplished.”

“So… what are you going to do to help the males who don’t want to hurt mares?” Star Bright asked, concerned not for himself, but those he might hurt if he was once again used as a tool for female oppression.

“Don’t worry,” said Starlight, “Sunset has come up with all sorts of plans to both protect mares and make sure stallions who truly wish to never harm one indeed never do so again. In fact, she’s starting a new program in a week from now that will help immensely.”

“A new program?” Trixie wondered aloud, “Something other than the group meetings?”

“Yes,” Sunset answered, “Getting emotional help is all well and good, but it only fixes the damage, it cannot prevent more from coming down the way. I think you agree that if something like the caribou happened again, that it would be devastating to ponies everywhere.”

If something like the caribou happened again, Trixie believed that she would never recover and would rather be dead. Many a mare would have had a similar stance, and would rather Equestria be burned to the ground by dragons, down to the last city, home, and pony, than ever be lorded over again by such oppressors. Thus, the blue unicorn gave a nod in agreement.

“Then now is the time to make sure nothing like that can ever happen again.” said Sunset, “Of course, these programs are going to be voluntary. No one has to be part of them if they don’t want to be, but I do believe it would be in everypony’s best interest if they did. So what do you two say?”

A little over a week later, both Trixie and Star Bright found themselves in the club’s meeting room, along with all the other ponies that usually attended. However, this time, they were not seated in a circle of chairs set up in the center. No, that position was taken up by a large, padded mat. Instead, they were all seated along the walls of the room, males on one side of the room, as mares sat on the other side of the room, outnumbering them by another half. Each of them waited patiently, each already aware of what was going on, having been informed in a prior meeting what the point of this gathering was. So when Sunset Shimmer closed the door, making her way to the middle of the room, everypony was a little on edge.

“Welcome, each of you, to our first venture into Mare Self Defense.” Sunset said, happily announcing the activity the group would focus on that day, “And I thank you all for coming.”

Self defense, the ability to be able to fend off attackers should somepony ever tried to harm you. Sunset had explained when proposing the course to the members of the support group that in the wake of the caribou’s invasion, it had become evident that Equestria’s both woefully unprotected and dismally unprepared.

“This is a step forward towards self-reliance,” Sunset went on to say, “...where we will no longer rely solely on the protection of the Royal Guard or hope to be saved by ‘heroes’ when disaster strikes, nor will we be helpless when they are defeated or turned against us.”

“So, wait,” Lyra spoke up, wanting clarification, “This is combat training for mares only?”

“That’s right,” Sunset Shimmer replied, “While the boys here will be assisting up in the course, they will only be acting as examples of what we need to defend against.”

“But… Why?” Lyra continued, “Aren’t they in just as much danger as us?”

“Not quite,” Starlight said, looking at a clipboard she had in her hands, “Starlight expected this question to come up and put together some information stating why it’s important this is a mares only class. Besides the obvious reasons of the stallions having been turned against us, there are several factors that contribute to this. For starters, your average male pony is more physically powerful than a female. If you take a stallion who has never trained physically and put them next to a mare under the same conditions, the stallion will always come out on top in terms of strength. This applies to any ponies who have an equal amount of physical training, and one has to look no further than our two saviors, Applejack and Big Mac, to see that.”

Picturing the two ponies, who had now become national icons after what they did to free Equestria from the caribou, everypony present would have to agree. While Applejack was a powerful mare, capable of toppling trees with her hooves alone if she wanted, Big Mac’s own strength was monstrous, and that came only from them both working on a farm day in and day out.

“This is not to imply that mares are inferior though,” Starlight went on to say, “Since we excel in more academic fields. It’s part of the reason technical advances nearly came to a halt during the year under caribou rule. Statistically, it is ten times as likely for a male unicorn inducted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to drop out than it is for a mare to do so. You stated that you went to it in the past, and you managed to graduate, right?”

Lyra blushed a little, and shyly averted her gaze, “I graduated from grade school and had some education in magical studies, but it’s not like I’m an archwizard.”

“You don’t have to be in order to be smart and successful,” Starlight said, “And it shows how you and other mares are more thinkers than muscle. Also, population census’ show us that mares actually outnumber stallions by a large margin. This is why a lot of mares were turned into public slaves, or that stallions could take two or more into a single household. Yet despite mares being the majority, a small group of caribou using magic to turn our males against us was able to overcome the entire population with pure, male brute strength and our inability to combat this due to a reliance on the royal guards dealing with the things that threaten Equestria. The caribou did exactly what they needed to in order to remove any protection we mares needed, starting with converting our males, then moving to disable the few other defenses we had faith in, the princesses. Most mares can hardly deal with a stampede of rabbits, let alone a hoard of sex-crazed stallions.”

“And why does that exclude us from being taught how to defend ourselves?” asked a disgruntled-sounding earth stallion, recognized by Trixie to be one who often brought up questions that conflicted with the mission statement of the group, “Just cause we need it less, doesn’t mean we don’t need it.”

Sunset sighed, but then started to explain her reasoning. “While stallions might not have been in control of their actions under the influence of the Crystal Heart, they still acted off the knowledge they would normally have. Guards were still guards, singers still singers, and so on. If we were to teach males how to fight on the same level as a mare, and the caribou returned and somehow turned you all against us again, then it would be no different than right now. Even untrained, you could probably overpower any mare in this room, save for me and Starlight, who had to train ourselves in how to take down a male to prevent ourselves from being enslaved during the Fall.”

Many of the stallions were convinced by this point, seeing no difference between an untrained mare fighting an untrained stallion, and the two both being skilled in combat. It simply defeated the purpose of preparing a mare for a fight if the potential threat was equally prepared and physically more powerful. No one vocalized a disagreement with this argument, but the stallion that questioned the notion to begin with gave a small “tsk” of detest.

“So with that all explained,” Sunset said turning back to the mare’s side of the room, “Who wants to go first?”

The mares weren’t even given time to be hesitant before one of their ranks popped up from their seat. “I’ll go first,” said Carrot Top, surprising no pony that she would be all in for learning how to fend off an attacker.

“Good, then you’re going to need this,” Sunset said, reaching into the pocket of her leather jacket, pulling from it a small item that looked like a plastic stick. No one could tell what it was, until she pressed a button on the device that caused a small, slender blade to pop out from it, identifying the object to everypony in the room to be a switch blade.

The room reacted in shock, save for Starlight, who didn’t seem phased by the blade at all, probably knowing that it was coming. “Are you crazy?!” yelled the stallion who rose objections before. For once, everypony could agree, because Sunset was holding a dangerous, lethal weapon, and was assumedly intending for a mare to use it against one of the stallions.

Sunset just smiled, taking the small bladed weapon, and pressing it into the palm of her hand. Many flinched at this, but those who watched noticed that the blade, which was fairly long, had been pressed in to the hilt, yet did not poke through to the other side of the unicorn’s hand.

“It’s not real,” Sunset explained, “It’s just a play knife to get mares used to using a real one, which will be handed out after I feel you’re ready for it.”

“You thing we need knives?” Lyra asked, a little worried about having to hold a dangerous weapon.

“It’s just a little measure for evening the odds,” Sunset answered, “A stallion who is trying to capture you isn’t going to fight fair. The caribou themselves had anti-magic armor that made most spells designed for direct combat useless, and carried rods that would disable most ponies with a single touch. If these are the tactics they are using, then we need to be able to do something in the face of it.”

“Are you suggesting that we need to learn how to kill creatures?” asked Trixie.

“If need be, yes.” Sunset replied, “After all, the fall only came to an end when Big Macintosh killed Dainn. At this point, I’m sure that no one condemns him for his actions, and if that is how ponies think, then we likewise must be willing to go to those lengths to protect our freedom, and we need to stop assuming that somepony else is going to come in and save the day.”

Though many of the ponies in the room wanted to denounce this extreme, violent stance on protecting themselves, Sunset’s argument was fairly strong. The caribou were only removed from power through an act that ended the life of another creature, and the caribou, no, every creature who had tried to disrupt Equestria’s way of life did so with underhanded tactics. From Changelings, to Caribou, they all made their attempt at conquering the kingdom through sinister methods that left ponies defenseless, only stopped when somepony did something that caught the tyrants off guard.

“It’s not like I’m asking anypony here to go out on the streets with the intent to kill,” Sunset said in order to make her stance clear, “Only that all of you should be ready to do so if the need arises, because if you insist on being pacifists, then you have no one to blame when an enemy comes at you full force knowing that your too weak willed to do anything worse than knock them out.”

Carrot Top growled, and then stepped up to Sunset, “Give me that,” the earth mare said, swiping the fake blade from the unicorn, “I’m not going to let any creature make me into a victim ever again.”

“That’s the spirit,” Sunset said, “And how about you stallions? Who wants to be Carrot Top’s practice dummy?”

“I’ll do it,” said Star Bright, walking himself to the center of the mat, placing himself a mere foot from Carrot Top.

“Ok, we have our first pair.” Sunset said, backing away, “I’ll let you two have at it.”

“Have at it?” Star Bright said with concern, “What am I supposed to do?”

“Just… do whatever comes to mind. Be threatening, try to go at her, and then Carrot can do what she feels she needs to in order to stop you. Part of this training is to get over the thought that attacking somepony is somehow inherently bad, which in the case of an attack it’s clearly not.”

Star Bright followed Sunset’s instructions, and did his best to look intimidating. He gave a forced scowl to the orange haired mare holding the fake switchblade, lifting his arms up to look threatening. Really, this just made the stallion look silly, as it was obvious that his heart wasn’t into the act, which was all too apparent to even Star Bright as he felt a slight blush formed on his face.

“Ok, now Carrot Top,” said Sunset Shimmer, “You have a stallion coming at you with the intent to hurt you. What do you do?”

Carrot Top looked at the unicorn stallion in front of her, and recognized very quickly that the threat he posed was minimum, not simply because of his poor performance, but because he was a unicorn trying to threaten an earth pony physically. Even with the assumption that males were often more physically powerful than their female counterparts, a unicorn out muscling an earth pony was usually a rare event. Thus, without even implementing the fake knife, Carrot Top simply rushed the unicorn stallion.

Seeing the earth mare charge him, Star Bright flinched, closing his eyes while using his arms to shield himself. It was such a weak display, that Carrot Top stopped just before laying her hands on him.

“This isn’t going to work,” Carrot Top declared, “Even he knows I’d pummel him if I had to.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Sunset said, “If anything, this only reinforces a bad reaction, because if Star Bright had been a stallion on the caribou’s side, he would have easily taken advantage of your hesitation. We’re going to need an earth pony for this.” Sunset looked to the other stallions in the room, then laid eyes the one who had complained before, “How about you. You look big and strong enough to pose a threat.”

The stallion gave a half roll of his eyes, disinterested in being a part of the mare only training, “I really don’t want to.”

“Well, no pony is going to force you,” Sunset said, “But it does make me wonder why you’re here if you’re not going to participate.”

“Fine,” the stallion said, getting out of his seat, “I’m out of here. Somepony tell me when the next, real meeting is.” With that, the stallion walked out, leaving behind a bunch of staring gazes.

“Oh dear,” Sunset said, “Looks like I’ve upset him. Starlight, could you please take over the class? I’m going to see if I can get him to come back.”

Sunset went after the stallion, prompting Starlight to take her place as coordinator of the event. “Ok, could we please have an earth pony stallion volunteer. I’m not going to force anypony, but a volunteer would be appreciated.”

After the display the previous stallion made, it wasn’t long before another stallion stepped up to the task. He went before Carrot Top, standing roughly in the same spot Star Bright was. “So you just want me to approach her, and let her defend herself?”

“It would help if you tried to add a bit of realism to it. It’s not like a real attacker would go easy on a mare.” said Starlight.

Understanding what she expected of him, the stallion took a moment to get into character, and then puffed himself up to look as big as he could, and then attacked. Unlike with Star Bright, it was Carrot Top who was put on the defensive this time, stepping back to avoid the pony rushing her. It was so easy when she was the aggressor, but now that somepony was coming at her, a quick flash of when she was first captured and raped came to the forefront of her mind, and she faltered. In the end, despite her brave front and knowing this was all practice, she found herself dropping the switchblade, then curling down into a ball and covering her head in attempt to shield herself from the attack.

“Ok, break!” Starlight said, coming over to the two earth ponies, “Carrot Top, it’s ok. We stopped.”

Carrot Top moved her arms, and looked up at the two ponies standing over her, the stallion expressing true concern over the mare he had frightened. Embarrassed at herself, Carrot Top slowly got back to her hooves.

“Sorry,” she said, “I didn’t expect him to come at me so suddenly.”

“That’s ok,” Starlight replied, picking up the fake knife off the floor with her horn, “That’s all part of the training. We expect some, if not all, of you to have some reaction to a male coming at you, and getting over that is part of what we are trying to learn here. Now why don’t we try again.” Placing the knife back into Carrot’s hand, Starlight re-positioned the two ponies, then stepped back to give them space. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The stallion waited for Carrot Top to take a few deep, calming breaths, and then took one of his own to indicate that he was about to attack again. Just like before, he charged forward, and similarly Carrot found herself flinching at his approach, but this time reacted towards the male pony, instead of away. The earth mare picked up her arms instinctively, trying to defend her body with one while swinging with the other, knife holding hand. She wasn’t really aiming anywhere, just attempting to jam it into any part of the body she could connect with. The other ponies along the wall watched as Carrot top got grabbed by her defending arm, but ‘inserted’ the blade of the knife into the stallions upper bicep.

“Freeze!” Starlight said, hoping the two would listen. Not being prompted ahead of time, it took a moment for the two earth ponies to stop moving, but they managed to stay roughly where the unicorn wanted them to stop. “Now lets see here.” she said, coming over to the two.

Her attention was placed squarely on the knife, and where it had landed, and Starlight looked a little please when she saw where Carrot had hit.

“So Carrot Top, were you aiming for this spot?” Starlight asked.

“Not particularly,” Carrot replied honestly, “I was just trying to hit something, and it just happened to land there. Really, I wasn’t too sure where to strike.”

“If anypony is wondering where to strike,” Starlight announced to all the mares present, “Then really you should be going for spots that will disable or eliminate your attacker as quickly as possible.”

“Eliminate?” asked the stallion still holding Carrot by the wrist.

“Kill,” Starlight said plainly, “As said before, caribou has no qualms stripping a mare of everything worth living for, so they in turn should have no issue returning the favor. Now back to Carrot’s knife strike. While unintentional, this would have sent your blade into a fairly important piece of muscle. The pain alone would cause most to recoil, and a little force could cause even greater damage as you retrieved the weapon. You could even use their moment of retreat as an opportunity to land some more strikes, unless you feel it’s better to run.”

“Excuse me,” Lyra said, wondering about something with all this talk of violence, “Not to interrupt, but I would like to know something. I get that we might have to defend ourselves, but with you and Sunset talking about killing so much, have either of you had to do it?”

“I… Don’t believe so.” Starlight replied, “But we had a bit of an advantage that let us get away with only injuring those who came after us.”

Starlight made her horn glow, and wrapped a magical aura around the fake knife, taking it away from Carrot, and moving it throughout the air effortlessly.

“Utilizing our magic, we made sure to always fight our attackers from a distance.” Starlight explained, “Though don’t assume that is an easy task. Caribou and other unicorns can use their magic to try and overpower your own, but that’s why you need to be more clever with your tactics.” Using her levitation, Starlight positioned the knife behind the earth stallion, “Use the element of surprise, attack from the flank, where they will be unable to notice, and remember that no matter how much anti-magic armor a caribou is wearing, it won’t stop you from shoving a blade into their exposed parts.”

Starlight sent three quick stabs into the stallions back to show the room of ponies how easily one could attack with levitation, then sent the knife across the room to one of the unicorn stallions.

“And remember, if you are up against a unicorn, the easiest way to disable their own magic is to give their horn a firm strike.”

Starlight sent a gentle tap across the male pony’s horn, slapping the flat end of the blade cross the thickest part of the appendage, before bringing the knife back to her.

“Of course, this only applies to unicorns who have good control over their levitation magic. Everypony else needs to practice wielding a knife physically.”

Trixie sighed, knowing that included her, as she still didn’t have the expert control over her levitation magic that she once held. If she was going to defend herself at all, she was going to have to use her hands.

“Ok, now that we have an idea what we will be doing here, I’d like everypony to pair up and have the mares try defending themselves.” As Starlight said this, she used her horn to grab a box that was sitting by the entrance door, opening it as she brought it to her to reveal more trick switchblades inside. “When Sunset gets back, we’ll begin some real training, but until then independent practice will be a good warm up”

For the next few minutes, every mare member of the support group engaged in displaying their ability to defend themselves, while the males did their best to act like attackers, despite how uncomfortable that made them. The only issue was that there were more mares than males, so some had to share a stallion, but over all there was little complication. Some of the unicorns were even able to practice using their horns to wield their weapons, attempting the tricks Starlight showed to them before, while Starlight went around to give small bits of advice as it was needed.

Trixie, who ended up being paired with a pegasus, was having a little trouble. He had an advantage of wings, and Starlight had informed all sides to do whatever was in their power to overcome their opponent, so the pegasus took to flying about out of Trixie’s reach. It would have been hard enough for her to land a hit normally, but the pegasus’ elevation had her making weak attempts to jump up and slash him with her fake blade, with the pegasus able to swoop in and grab her at his leisure. Each time she failed though, Starlight was there to coax her into trying again. This continued until the doors opened, sounding Sunset’s returned, which caused everypony to stop, believing she would be taking over the class from this point on, as Starlight had said.

“Did things go well?” Starlight asked, noticing a distinct lack of the stallion Sunset went after, as well as a disheartened look on the yellow unicorn’s face.

“I’m afraid not,” Sunset replied, “I think I might have made things worse. They told me they didn’t want to be a part of the meetings anymore and stormed off.”

“Well that’s too bad,” said Starlight, “But in better news, everypony has been doing their best in their warm ups. Though, we’ve been having some problems when it comes to defense against pegasi, at least when it comes to those who can’t fly or use magic.”

“Really?” Sunset replied, “I would have thought that would be simple. Ok, then I’ll show you all how to deal with flyers non-magically. Could somepony volunteer to spar with me?”

“I’ll do it,” said the pegasus who was paired with Trixie, flying over to Sunset, wanting to see first hand how a grounded pony could deal with somepony with the advantage of flight.

“Ok, sure,” Sunset said, taking one of the fake knives from one of the mares with her horn, “Could everypony give us some space? I don’t want to end up hurting somepony.”

Every other pony in the room backed away from the two, leaving the room’s center void, save for Sunset and the pegasus.

“Whenever you’re ready, try to capture me like a brainwashed stallion would. Don’t hold back.” Sunset said, placing her weapon in the pocket of her leather jacket.

The pegasus looked confused, wondering how Sunset was supposed to stop him with her only means of defense stowed away. Regardless, he took flight, and prepared himself for what the unicorn was going to do. As he waited though, she just stood there, not making a move, but keeping her eyes locked on to her opponent.

“What’s the matter?” she said after a few seconds passed, “I told you to start whenever you're ready.”

The pegasus saw that it was up to him to make the first move, and so he did. He flew forward, expecting some sort of counter attack, and stopped the moment Sunset made any movement. The unicorn mare lifted an arm up in defense, but made no aggressive actions towards him. Again, the pegasus approached, circling around, but Sunset kept her front aimed at him at all times, continuing to shield her body with her arm.

After a few more false dives, the pegasus finally decided it was time to strike. Assuming that Sunset was planning to do something with the arm she kept raising in defense, the pegasus knew that he would have to disable it if he was going to fulfill his role as the attacker. So swooping in, he grabbed the mare by the wrist, firmly taking hold. The moment he did though, everything turned on him.

With the stallion still in mid dive, and latched to her arm, Sunset quickly used her other arm the grab him back. Gripping his lower arm, she pushed down and twisted her stance slightly, putting the weight of her upper body into her action. The pegasus reactively tried to flap his wings to move backwards, but he was already too deep into Sunset’s own motions, unable to stop himself as he was tossed near effortlessly into the mat covered floor. While cushioned, the impact was still harsh, stunning the pegasus more than long enough for Sunset to place a knee in between his wings.

“The trick to dealing with a pegasus is not to go after them, but to let them come to you,” Sunset said, taking her knife out from her pocket, “Flight is all about momentum, and if you throw off that momentum, then you can easily take all control from them.” With little pause, Sunset took her fake blade, and thrust it into the back of the stallions neck, confirming his defeat to the crowd. “Of course, while figuring that out is simple, executing it takes practice, and it won’t work on an attacker who has weapons, like a stun baton or a net.”

The members of the support group gave a small clap as Sunset got off the pegasus, all impressed at the way she managed to ground the winged pony. Even the defeated pegasus found himself giving a small bit of applause while picking himself up off the floor.

“Settle down, everypony.” Sunset said, “What I did isn’t that special, and any mare can do it if they practice enough. Of course, if you happen to have other ways to deal with an attacker, such as your own wings or magic, then use every advantage you have. When it comes down to it, it is you or them, and you is not an acceptable outcome.”

“That said,” Starlight said, stepping behind Sunset, “It looks like Sunset took more time getting back than I had assumed, and we are out of time."

"We're done already?" Carrot Top said aloud, having really gotten into the course, and wanting to practice some more protecting herself.

"We don’t want to push you all too hard for our first self defense class," Starlight answered, "So we’re gonna wrap this up for the time being, but don't you worry. For anypony interested in learning more about self defense, we will be holding these courses weekly, just like our normal meetings, and we hope that our stallions continue to show us mares their support by volunteering their assistance. Until then, enjoy your walk home, and stay safe.”

With that, everypony left for the day, save for the few who were staying at the facility. Trixie and Star Bright both returned to their rooms, with Trixie not entirely sure she learned anything from having a pegasus dodge around her for the better part of an hour. Somehow though, she didn’t feel all that frustrated about her pitiful display. Perhaps it was that she got to see the pegasus get shown who was boss by Sunset, or maybe it was that even though she couldn’t land a single hit, all the physical exertion relieved some of the tension she had been building up inside for some time. Whatever the reason, she felt a little… good, which was strange to the long time downtrodden mare.

A bit tired, Trixie laid in her bed, debating with herself if continuing the defense classes was for her, deciding that there was no reason not to at least give it another try. Closing her eyes, she drifted off to sleep, her last conscious thought being how next time she would do better, not knowing that this was the beginning of the end of her peaceful life in the support club.