Lunch went by relatively peacefully, thank goodness. Spike was actually glad to have some normalcy for a change, it gave him a chance to actually ignore the fact that he’d been having really horny thoughts lately.

It had also been a good chance to sit with Rara and actually talk to her a bit. He’d expected her to be a little bit high up in the clouds with how her career was going, but she was quite down to earth. Perhaps a little bit awkward at first, but once he and the others got her talking, there was no slowing down. Plus, she had plenty of stories to tell. Her mother apparently worked as her manager too, which was one of the reasons she had been home schooled. She could recall waking up at seven in the morning, studying until after lunch, and then practicing her set lists until the evening. It sounded like quite a life to be living, and Spike was glad she was taking some time to herself and doing something a bit more normal now.

Well, as normal as a school of this size and scope could be, anyway.

The period after lunch was also designated as something a bit special for the first day as well. The entire period consisted of the students browsing the gymnasium and the outer courtyard to choose their clubs for the year. Any student could form a club, provided they could find at least four other ponies who wanted to be a part of it, and there wasn’t any limit on the amount of clubs a student could join (provided they could fit them all into their schedule of course) but they were encouraged to join at least one club and be social with their other students.

Last year, Spike had only been part of one, the fiction club with Twilight. He’d signed up again for it this year, as had Twilight of course, though it looked like the group was going to be smaller this year. He and Twilight’s names were the only ones on the roster right now. He hoped they could find a couple more ponies to join so the club wouldn’t be disbanded.

While he didn’t really intend to join anything more, he did at least want to see what else was on offer. He’d considered joining the anime club, but a quick look at the roster showed that it was a bit full, and he didn’t really know anyone there. He didn’t do so well with large crowds of strangers, so he passed on that for now. There was the creative writing club, the sewing club, the fitness club, various political activist clubs, there was even a club that worked towards legalization of medicinal herbs.

That club didn’t really do much.

A club for skiers, for skaters, for almost every kind of sport, for artists, for painters, for beaders, various sciences and subjects… it made his head spin a little trying to keep track of it all. Almost every booth had at least a few ponies crowded around it, chatting, discussing interests… even if somepony didn’t end up joining a club, there was a real good chance that they’d make a few friends doing this.

Except for…

Spike frowned as he reached the end of the gymnasium. In a very back corner was a very plain looking booth. All the other booths had custom banners, some bright colors to catch the eye, some of the larger clubs had even printed out flyers and pamphlets with information on what they were all about. This one though? There was no artistic flair, no bright colors. In fact, it looked like the booth had been thrown together at the last minute. And sitting there, alone, cut off from the rest of the clubs, was a lone pegasus mare, with a gray coat and a blond mane, which hid her downcast eyes. Her ears were lowered and her wings were drooping. The simple, hastily scrawled sign above her booth read ‘Tabletop Club’ with several misspellings crossed out, in permanent marker.

Spike felt every ounce of sympathy in his body well up and shoot towards the young lady. Her situation made him think of the one year his mother had put him in an all-dragon school. It had been absolutely miserable, and that had been at the end of Elementary. At least she wasn’t getting constantly picked on in addition to being shunned.

He sighed and smiled, slowly walking towards her. What was the harm in at least giving her someone to talk to after all? He made his way over, dodging past some very rude unicorns who cut him off as he made his way towards the rickety booth. He stopped in front of it and glanced over the contents. Haphazardly strewn over the top of the table was a selection of books that Spike recognized as rulebooks for the game Ogres and Oubliettes. He had a passing knowledge of it, having played a campaign or two back in middle school (another activity that had gotten him no small amount of teasing) and the selection here was far larger than the small amount of books he’d played with way back when. Perhaps it was for a newer addition?

Laid out next to the books was a sampling of character creation sheets and a pile of polyhedral dice, possessing sides numbering four all the way to one hundred. And finally, on the edge of the booth was a small pile of board and card games, the really complex ones that required large parties of people and multiple hours of playtime. He’d never really been big into board games, but some of the titles there did catch his eye. In particular was a strange card game bearing the name P.A.D.D.L.E. (Ponies and Dragons’ Delightfully Ludicrous Events), and a particularly massive horror board game that bore the rather odd name of Cupcakes.

The pony sitting at the booth hadn’t noticed him yet so he gently raised a hand to his mouth and gave a loud, but polite cough.

The pegasus mare, startled, whipped her head back and forth a few times, as if snapped out of a stupor, and then turned her head to face Spike, several locks of blond hair covering her eyes. “Oh! Um… h-hi!” she greeted, uncertain. “Uh… thanks for stopping by?”

“Uh, thanks,” Spike said. “So… you’re president of the um, tabletop club?”

She reached up and started to brush her hair back. “Yeah… or I’m trying to be. I’m a third year student here,” she said gently. “This is my… second time trying to get this club off the ground.

“O-oh,” Spike said uneasily. “So the club isn’t official yet?”

“No,” she said. “And it looks like it won’t be for the second year in a row.” She pulled her hair back and then finally turned her eyes up on Spike. Or rather tried to. As she opened them fully and Spike saw them for the first time, he saw that the two of them were looking off in two different directions. He blinked, his own eyes flicking between them, not really sure where to focus his gaze.

It must have been noticeable, as she sighed and leaned back. “Yeah, I know. It’s off-putting.”

“Oh, n-no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, I was just a little… you know, surprised.”

She smiled. “You don’t have to be polite. I’ve just always been like this. I have Strabismus. Poor eye muscle control. But I guess everyone usually just calls it wall eyes.” She shrugged a little bit. “But anyway, thanks for stopping by,” she said happily.

“No problem,” Spike said with a smile, looking down at the sign up sheet. Apart from Derpy, who as the prospective president had her name typed up at the top of the sheet, the only other name on it was ‘Fluttershy’ in neat, flowery handwriting. “Fluttershy?” Spike asked. “Is she new?”

“Mhm. She was here just a minute ago, but she said that crowds made her real nervous. I’m planning to meet with her after this so we can talk a bit more about the club. Or… will if it… ever…” she trailed off and gave a loud sigh, folding her arms and leaning forward on the table, once again looking quite dejected.

“So… you didn't have any luck getting this started last year?”

“Mhm,” she said. “No on ever shows any interest.”

“I didn’t even see you here the last year,” Spike said gently. “I mean… I wasn't looking hard but...”

“I didn’t even have a booth last year. I had to stand up at the edge of the courtyard and try to get people’s interest that way. I didn’t have any material to show them, I didn’t have anything prepared… ponies thought I was trying to get them to sign some sort of petition and just walked right by me.” She shook her head. “And I can’t find anyone else after school with enough interest in these games to play with me.” She was starting to droop again. “Maybe I should just find a new hobby or something, something that I can actually do on my ow… huh?” she blinked as she watched Spike bend over and quickly sign his name to the sheet. She immediately perked up a bit. “N-no, you don’t have to… I wasn’t trying to…”

“It’s okay,” he said with a smile. “I really do want to join.” He offered her a hand. “My name’s spike, by the way.”

“I’m Derpy Hooves.” She took his hand gently and shook it gratefully. “So… you really want to join? Have you played any of these before?”

“Well, not these specifically,” he said, motioning to the board games. “But I did play Ogres and Oubliettes a few years back with a couple of other ponies. I don’t think it was this edition though.” He reached for a book, and after she nodded to let him know it was okay, he picked it up and started to flip through it. “Yeah, this is sort of different. I remember I was playing a Nightwing and-”

“Oh, you played a Nightwing?” she asked. “Me too! I was so annoyed when they took them out of the new edition.”

Spike blinked, flipping to the class section of the book. “Wait, really? Aw man, why’d they do that?”

“Too easy to min-max,” the mare said with a huff. “They decided to just remove the class entirely rather than re-balance them. But the outcry was so bad, they did eventually release a supplement to put them back into the game.” She slid a few books out of the way and produced the Nightwing supplement itself.

Spike took it and quickly flipped through the small book, frowning gently. “Aww man, they don’t have access to Aether magic anymore?”

“I know!” she said, standing up, leaning forward so that she could look at the book with him. “That was what made them so versatile in the first place, they were basically wizards that could use lighter metal armor for a change! And look at this, they traded in the magic for the ability for them to start with basic alchemy and enchanting abilities, but that’s nowhere near as useful as the magic! Who’d want to make healing potions when you could be using alteration to transform your enemies into wood?!”

“I know right?! It’s so bogus!” a third voice said. Startled, Spike and Derpy yelped, jumping backwards to see a blue winged mare standing there with them. Spike blinked a bit, recognizing that rainbow mane anywhere.

“R… Rainbow Dash?” he asked, hesitantly. Rainbow Dash was one of the premiere athletes of the school, and was on almost every sports team. Save for the prestigious Wonderbolts, the school’s resident record-shattering football team. Getting onto that team required amazingly high athletic standards. Standards that even Rainbow struggled to match.

Which made it even more confusing why she’d be here.

“Hey there, Spike,” she greeted with a smirk. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Feels like forever ago when you tried out for the tennis team.

“That was at the beginning of last year,” Spike told her. “And I wasn’t even good enough to be a second-stringer. Pretty sure they said that if I tried out again this year, they might consider making me their water boy.”

“Heh, yeah, I remember.” she said with a nod. “Anyway, I came over here because I happen to see some of these.” She knocked a hand against one of the hardcover books. “You guys got room for one more?” she asked.

“You… you want to join my club?” Derpy asked, blinking a few times. “But… but you’re a jock.”

She blinked, tossing her mane to the side. “And?”

“Well, I mean, aren’t you kinda busy with all of the sports clubs and such?” Spike asked. “I mean, last year, I think you were at EVERY sporting event!”

“Yeah, and it almost tore me apart!” she said with a grunt. “The school counselor even told me to tone it down this year, and while it was tough to choose, I did cut back on the sports I’m participating in. Still gonna try out for the Wonderbolts again this year.”

“Think you’ll get in?” Spike asked.

“Heh, after all the practice I put in over the summer? Here’s hoping.” She crossed the fingers on her hand.

“Um, uh… but why my club? I mean, it’s not even a club yet. There’s only me and two others.”

“Three others,” Rainbow said, casually signing her name to the sheet. When she felt two pairs of eyes on her, she glanced up. “What?” she asked. “I’m allowed to have hobbies outside of sports, ya know. I’ve been playing this sort of stuff since I was old enough to hold dice without trying to swallow em.”

“Really?” Spike asked. “I… really wouldn’t have expected that from you.”

“Eh, not like I go around advertising it or anything. Not like I’m ashamed of it either, it’s just not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation in the locker room before a big game, you know? Like ‘Hey girls, check out my level 15 archer, I just took out a dire owlbear at last night’s sesh, and it turned out to be guarding a really important Mistletoe arrow that was said to be blessed by Artemis herself. Can’t wait to see what the DM has planned for this!’ It just doesn’t happen.”

The two of them tilted their heads as they listened to one another. Derpy smiled gently. “I’d… like to hear about that campaign sometime.”

“No problem.” she said, giving a thumbs up. “Heh, just gotta get one more pony on the roster, right?”

“Y-yes!” she smiled, fluttering her wings again. “Thank you so much!”

“Heh, don’t thank me yet. We still gotta find one more pony to join.” She tapped her chin lightly for a moment. “I’ll keep an ear out.”

“Er, me too,” Spike said with a nod. “I’ll also ask around. I’m going to make another loop around the place, see if there’s anything else I’m interested in,” he smiled. “I’m sure there’s got to be one other pony around here interested in the club, at the very least.”

Derpy smiled and stood up, happily bouncing up and down on her heels. “Thank you! Both of you!” she clasped her hands together. “Oh goodness, I don’t know how to properly show my gratitude…”

“Well, if we get this club off the ground, you can start be being a good pres,” Rainbow noted.

“Yes! O-of course!” she said happily, giggling. “Thank you both so much!”

After Spike split from the two pegasi, he circled the club fair one more time, making sure he hadn’t missed anything. While he’d been tempted by a few places, his natural shyness kept him from really throwing his lot into anything in particular. Two clubs seemed fine anyway, and he at least knew one or two of the mares in the club. He vaguely wondered how many clubs Pinkie had joined this year. Last year she’d had to be told that trying to joint twenty-one probably wasn’t that feasible. She’d been talked down to eighteen, and somehow managed to pull it off without exhausting herself.

If anything, her presence exhausted a few of the other clubs.

He decided to head back to Derpy’s booth before heading to the student lounge, to see if she’d had any luck getting another pony to join the club. The crowd was starting to thin as other students got bored or or tired and decided to head off to go and find something else to do before the last class of the day.

He wondered if that would make Derpy’s booth a little bit more noticeable.

As he approached it, he frowned a bit as he stopped in front of the empty booth. Derpy was nowhere to be seen, nor was there any sort of sign or note saying that she’d be right back. He frowned and walked over to the booth right next to hers, a club dedicated to sewing and needlework. “Excuse me?”

“Hey there,” the mare on the other side of the booth said happily. “Would you like to join the Needlework club?” she asked.

“Actually, I was just wondering if you knew where the mare who was manning that booth had gone?” Spike asked, pointing to the tabletop club’s booth.

She frowned, shrugging a bit and leaning back. “You just missed her actually. She was pulled off by a group of jockish looking pegasi. I think a few of em were Wonderbolts, actually.”

Spike frowned. “Pulled off?”

“Yeah, at least, at first. The grey pegasus looked a little bit nervous, but I was assured they were buddies. It wasn’t really any of my business and there were a bunch of ponies coming by to look at the booth, so I couldn’t really do much.”

He scowled a little bit. “That doesn’t sound good,” he muttered. “Do you know where they went?”

“I think one of em said they were gonna hang out in the hallway between buildings for a while.” She shrugged. “Probably going there for a smoke. That’s what a bunch of students do here.”

Spike nodded. “Well thanks for that,” he said, turning and walking off quickly. He had a bad feeling about this.

The school’s buildings were all connected via large, tunnel like hallways that led between each building, with the buildings holding different classrooms or facilities. It was almost like a condensed college campus all things considered, to the point where maps were handed out to students when they first started attending to make sure that they didn’t get confused or lost.

They still managed to get confused and lost at times.

Spike made his way towards the particular hallway the needlework mare had mentioned, stopping at the doorway into it and looking through the massive windows on the upper part of the doors. He frowned deeply at what he saw.

Derpy was there, back to back with a bright yellow mare with a long pink mane falling around her shoulders and back. Perhaps that was the Fluttershy mare that had signed up before? Hmmm…

The two of them were surrounded by a group of four pegasi mares, all of whom Spike recognized as members of the Wonderbolts sports team. Three of them were B-listers, mares who were called in when the A-team was starting to get tired or if one of them couldn’t make it to the game. There was Cloud Chaser, a purple mare with a striking silver and grey spiky mane, Lime Jelly, who had a neon green coat and a pinkish-purple mane that managed to make her stand out in a crowd despite her rather simple mane and fur styling, and High Winds, a bright blue mare with a dark blue, poofy, curly mane and tail that sort of reminded Spike of Pinkie’s hair style, at least a little bit.

They were all wearing gym uniforms, making him wonder if they had been practicing until recently. But the mare who seemed to be leading them was a lot more recognizable. It was Fleetfoot, who was one of the three top athletes at the school, the other two also being members of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire and Soarin. She had a rather smarmy grin on her face as she paced back and forth, walking a half circle between Fluttershy and Derpy.

Spike frowned and carefully eased the door to the hallway open, just enough to try and hear what was being said inside.

“You two got a lot of nerve, trying to court Rainbow Dash over into your weird little games.”

“Court?” Derpy asked, confused. “Sh-she just saw something she liked and signed up for it. I-I didn’t even ask her to do anything.”

Fluttershy let out a cute little whimper. “A-and I didn’t know any of this was happening, I-I just signed up because I thought it would be fun.”

“Well, here’s the thing girls,” Lime Jelly said, putting one arm around Derpy’s shoulders in what would look friendly to others, but must have felt a little uncomfortable to the grey mare, “Rainbow’s a real big hot shot when it comes to sports. She’s super athletic and impressive. A sure-in for the Wonderbolts when she tries out for them.”

“Don’t you mean ‘if’?” Fluttershy asked. She squeaked and seemed to shrink down an inch or two as four pairs of eyes fixed powerful glares on her. She quickly lost her voice after that.

Fleetfoot nodded and pat Derpy’s head like she was addressing a little child. “Yeah, so you see, she’s gonna be real busy at that point, way too busy to be hanging out with nerds that aren’t gonna be doing anything but reading off spreadsheets and talking about things that don’t exist.”

“W-we aren’t nerds!” Derpy insisted, actually stomping a hoof. “We’re just having fun playing a game. We’re no different than you guys when you’re playing hoofball.”

“No different?” Cloud Chaser growled, grabbing Derpy’s arm and spinning her around so that she was facing the angry pegasus. “There’s a huge difference. What we’re doing actually matters. We’re out there doing something physical while all you girls do is just sit around reading books, books that don’t even make you smarter, and giggle at stupid shit like… hobgoblins and stuff like that.”

Derpy and Fluttershy both giggled lightly, much to their confusion. “Hehe… hobgoblins can be pretty fun,” Fluttershy mused.

“Yeah… specially when they’re on their own…”

Fleetfoot rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. High Winds and Cloud chaser suddenly both grabbed onto Fluttershy and Derpy’s skirts and yanked them down, pantsing the two of them, making them both yelp as their uniforms pooled around their ankles. “We don’t have time for this. You two are gonna learn not to reach beyond your means. Don’t go trying to distract athletes at this school with silly stuff. When we’re done here, you’re gonna go back to the booth and erase Rainbow’s name.”

“A-and what if I don’t wanna do that?” Derpy said, trying to sound defiant, though her voice was cracking a bit as she tried to shuffle closer to Fluttershy, who was shrinking even further, her hands lowering to try and cover her front.

“Oh, by the time we’re done here, you’re gonna want to,” she said, as cloud Chaser and High Winds held the two girls still, pulling their hands up into the air while Fleetfoot and Lime Jelly started to undo their shirts. “A little walk of shame might be good for the two of you.”

Spike’s eyes widened a bit as he took this in. Those were some… pretty cute panties. And as their shirts opened, he could see that they were wearing matching bras. Derpy’s panties were a pretty pink, with a large print of a naked peach on her backside. He bit his lip as he thought of the peach that was hidden behind it.

And he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty as he had such an inappropriate thought at her embarrassing situation.

Fluttershy’s panties were just as adorable, if not more than Derpy’s. They were white cotton, which ordinarily made for some very boring panties (He’d jokingly criticized Twilight for her lack of creativity during one of their sleepovers) but Fluttershy’s were decorated with lovely pawprint patterns placed all over them. He shivered a little bit, taking a deep breath as he looked at them. Oh gods, his mind was at it again. He imagined the two of them standing side by side, hands on their heads as he slowly curled the panties down, to just below their bare bottoms and…

Wait, wait, focus Spike! He couldn’t let those two girls go through a walk of shame!

The walk of shame was a well known hazing technique that a lot of the more physical clubs (particularly the wrestling and football clubs) were very fond of using on new members. But it was also a well known bully technique where students would be forced to walk or jog or run over a stretch of land, naked, usually wearing a rather mean sign saying that this wasn’t a streak, but they were forced to do it.

Spike didn’t think either of these girls could handle something like this. Fluttershy, certainly not. She looked like she’d shatter if someone looked at her too mean. And Derpy… well, she was way too sweet of a girl to be put through something that she didn’t deserve, especially since it was meant as a threat to just get her to stop recruiting someone for her club.

He thought back to Rarity. He ignored the image in his mind of her soft, bouncy butt, and instead focused on the situation itself, how she’d been subjected to an unfair, humiliating spanking by a bully, and all he’d done had just been to stand there and watch the entire time. He hadn’t even managed to work up the courage to walk in and comfort her afterwards.

Not this time. Certainly not. He glanced back inside, seeing the pegasi bullies yanking down the two girls’ panties, leaving them totally exposed, save for the bras covering their breasts. Before those could be removed, Spike pushed open the door with a loud thump, gaining their attention quickly as he walked in. “What the heck do you think you’re doing in here?!” he said loudly, hoping he looked intimidating enough if he crossed his arms in front of him.

It didn’t seem to work as Fleetfoot snorted gently. “Oh hey, look who it is, girls.” She huffed lightly and shook her head. “The dragon without fangs.”

He blinked. “What?”

“That’s really rich, you bursting in here like you’re actually trying to do something. Everyone knows you’re one of the biggest softies at the school.”

Spike blinked a little and blushed, backing up a step. Was he really viewed that way here at the school? Well, okay, he wasn’t really a tough guy and he didn’t really feel comfortable around crowds and maybe he had a body more comparable to a flexible little sapling than a giant, rigid oak, but still, it seemed a little judgmental of everyone to just assume he was a softy. He shook his head. “Okay, look, whatever, softy or not, I’m not about to let you go and embarrass these two because you can't wrap your head around the idea that another athlete might have an interest outside of sports.” He took two steps forward to make up for the one he’d taken backwards.

The four mares looked at one another, clearly holding back snickers at his attempts to seem tough. They released Fluttershy and Derpy, or rather pushed them to the side as they all turned towards him, slowly advancing on him in a rather imposing line. He gulped as they drew closer. They were tall, lean, and muscular, like most pegasus athletes were. Their hips might have been a little wider, but they still looked like they could easily curl him into a big pretzel and toss him away. Fleetfoot walked forward and smirked. “Well, points for trying to be a big boy and defend some mares here, but really, what’d you think you were gonna do here.”

“Uh…” Spike frowned, looking past them at the two other mares, who were blushing profusely, looking down, embarrassed, their hands covering their nethers as they tried to keep their modesty and dress themselves at the same time. The sight strengthened his resolve and he glared up at Fleetfoot. “First of all, you’ve got a witness to your cruelty. I’m sure the staff here would love to hear about what you’re trying to do here.”

This time they did laugh. They laughed a hell of a lot harder than he thought was necessary. Apparently they found his attempts at shaming them quite funny. “You really think any teacher is gonna get on our case for this?” Lime Jelly asked.

Cloud Chaser shook her head. “News flash, scaly,” she teased, “We’re Wonderbolts. The most we’re gonna get for this is just a mild scolding, and that’s if anyone even believes your word over ours.”

“Being star athletes definitely has its advantages,” Lime Jelly said. “And if you try telling the team, the only one who would give us an issue would be Spitfire, and even then, she’ll probably just give us a pap on the ass and tell us not to do it again.”

Spike flushed, but glared as they continued to laugh a little bit. “Then I’ll go higher than that and tell Celestia or Luna about this.”

“Geeze, aren’t you a persistent little tattle tail,” High Winds said with a huff. “Cute, kid, real cute, but again, you don’t have any proof, and if you do try to tell anyone, we’re just gonna deny it.”

“In other words,” Fleetfoot stated, “You’re SOL… but I don’t really like your tone with us,” she stated, reaching for him.

Spike’s eyes widened a little and before he knew what was happening, he batted Fleetfoot’s arm away, grabbed her forearm and twisted it behind her back, holding it there, grabbing her shorts firmly to keep hold of her.

“OW! H-hey, what the hell are you doing?” she growled.

“Uh…” Spike blushed. “Defending myself?” he tried. He’d been taking some basic self defense classes in his spare time, mostly because he wanted to at least be prepared if the worst case scenario happened. He’d never really expected to use it, but when he’d felt threatened, it had just sort of happened. But he was too scared now to let go of her.

The other girls started to move on him, but before they could grab at him, Derpy came from behind and leaped on top of Cloud Chaser’s back, clinging to her, while Fluttershy hurried forward and gave the other two girls an ineffective push that made them stumble, but otherwise just annoyed them.

After a few chaotic seconds of shouting and growling and yelping, a booming voice grabbed all of their attention from the opposite side of the room. “And just what is going on here?!” it bellowed.

All action stopped and their eyes turned to see who had spoken. A few of the girls gasped at who was approaching. It was Princess Luna. Everyone started talking at once as the very tall alicorn started to approach them, in a lovely purple turtleneck and some tight, black stretch pants over her legs. She scowled and opened her mouth, a loud boom coming from it. “All of you will be silent at once!” she ordered. They all shut up as she pointed at Spike. “You. What is going on here. Why are there two near naked mares here? What were you all doing back here, out of the way?”

Spike took a deep breath, releasing Fleetfoot’s arm and explaining the situation as clearly as he could. When the others tried to add their two cents, Luna quickly silenced them with a firm glare in their direction and continued to listen to Spike. At the end of his explanation, she looked at the two near naked mares. “Is this true?”

They both nodded quickly, Fluttershy sniffling. Then she looked at the four Wonderbolts. “Anything to say for yourselves, girls?” she asked.

Despite her confidence only a little before, Fleetfoot looked more than a little terrified of the large woman standing before them right now. “Uh… um… they’re lying?”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “I see…” her horn glowed and the four unfortunate athletes were suddenly yanked up into the air, their arms and legs firmly pinned into place with her magic. She lined them all up next to the wall, bending them forward so that their bottoms were pushing outwards, straining against their gym uniforms. “If there is one thing I cannot stand, at all, it is bullies. And I can see that you four need to learn a good lesson about behavior at this school.” She reached out to High Winds, grabbing her shorts and yanking them down, all the way to her ankles. And then she did the same with the jock strap she was wearing, leaving her naked from the waist to ankles. Then she went to Lime jelly. Then to Cloud Chaser. And finally to Fleetfoot. She ignored all their pleas for mercy and begging to keep their modesty.

Spike flushed as he took in the large, bouncy cheeks of every bottom. All of them looked soft and jiggly despite their positions as athletes. Looks like they’d bee skipping butt day.

Luna backed away and examined each cheek. “Such poor behavior on the first day of school… I’m willing to give you some leniency.” Four spectral paddles appeared out of thin air, placing themselves against each butt. “But not much. Therefore, you shall receive a nice, long hard spanking from me… but no one else will know about this incident. Provided that you four don’t cause any more trouble. Do I make myself clear?” she asked.

“Crystal ma’am!” all four of them said in unison.

“Good, that’s what I like to hear. A healthy respect for authority is quite necessary.” She smirked and took a step back, standing next to Spike and the others, who were just getting dressed. Now she could easily see all four buttocks lined up in a row. “Now the only question is… where to begin?” she asked, and the paddles began to gently wiggle back and forth, patting each bottom just enough to get the cheeks gyrating a bit and making the girls squirm and writhe in anticipation. Their arms and legs were magically held in place, preventing them from spreading or being able to kick or flail at all.

Spike blushed and covered his nose quickly as he took in the monumental booty earthquake that was taking place in front of him. He glanced over at Derpy and Fluttershy, both of him were similarly blushing, Derpy’s eyes even managing to focus straight away as she took in the scene in front of her.

Then Luna smirked and waved a hand. It began on the right side of the line, with Fleetfoot, the paddle lifting up into the air in a wide arc and then slamming down with a satisfying crack, holding itself against her buttocks. No sooner had the impact landed than the second paddle, against Cloud Chaser’s rear, reared back in a similar fashion and then slammed down similarly, making the mare howl. And so it continued, with each paddle raising up just as the last one struck down, and once it reached the end of the line, it would immediately repeat, going back to the start.

WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

“EEP! ACK! OW!”

“OW! OWW! ISH!”

“WAAAH!”

“UWAH! OUCH! OWW!”

The girls let out a chorus of howls and whimpers and begging to be let go. Their bottom cheeks wobbled and jiggled, and the spectral paddles were quite opaque, allowing the small audience to see their butts through it, making the impacts feel even harder as they happened. The girls could only squirm a little, mostly shaking their butts.

Spike smiled slightly, leaning back a bit, letting go of his nose and just enjoying justice being served. The paddles definitely weren’t being gently, and they never faulted or slowed in their pattern. Those eight cheeks were dancing mighty hard now, and every smack was making them turn redder and redder.

“To think you would try to embarrass these two innocent students over something as petty as another student showing an interest in something outside of your purview. Tsk, I will have to spank such naughty, narrow minded thoughts out of you. And if I ever catch wind of such things happening again, not only will your spanking be far, far worse, but you girls can kiss your positions on the Wonderbolts goodbye.”

“OWW! OW! Yes ma’am!”

“EEK! AWW! Won’t ever happen again!”

“ACK! NNGH! OOH! Wh-what are we gonna do at practice tonight?!”

“WAAAH! Ms. Luna, please, we’ll be good!”

WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

“I certainly hope so,” she stated. “I do not enjoy disciplining students, but you have more than earned my ire.” She waved her hand and the paddles doubled in speed. “Now, let’s finish up this punishment with a nice, firm finisher.”

All four girls burst into tears as their bare red butts were quickly smacked to the point where some small welts began to appear under the paddles, pushing through the throbbing redness covering their entire butt. They definitely would not be sitting down comfortably for a good long while.

Luna gave their butts a few more firm smacks before making each of the paddles pop out of existence. Luna gently lowered all four girls to the ground, but kept them firmly in place, holding their wrists out of the way so that they couldn’t hide their bottoms by rubbing or turning around. “Now, you four owe some apologies to these three,” she stated.

The four sniffling mares wiggled their butts back and forth and started to offer up some more sincere apologies, glancing behind them.

Fluttershy giggled and smiled softly, nodding to them. “Apology accepted. Just please, don’t do this sort of thing again?” She clapped her hands together. “I wouldn’t want you all to get spanked again.”

“Such kindness,” Luna said with a nod. “Well, time for the last part of your punishment.” She picked up their bottoms in her magic and pulled them to her. “I will have these delivered back to the gym by the end of the day. But for now, you four are going to take your own little walk of shame back to the gym and get back into uniform.”

“What!? B-but, but…”

“Yes, you have very warm bottoms now,” Luna said with a smirk. “Go on, all four of you. Move those bottoms, the faster you get back to the gym, the sooner you can cover those sore rumps.” She smirked. “And you’d best hurry, the club fair is ending soon… the halls are going to be full before long.”

They yelped and whimpered softly, turning and dashing off quickly, one hand covering their fronts and their free hands rubbing at their very red, very bouncy bottoms. As they disappeared behind the door, Spike let out a light sigh. “Good thing you were here, Ms. Luna.”

“Merely lucky circumstance,” she said with a light smile. “As it stands though, I’m sorry that you girls had to go through that.”

“N-no, it’s fine, Ms. Luna,” Derpy said. “It isn’t like we ended up having to do it. Thanks to Spike jumping in when he did.”

Spike blushed this time. “Hah, I barely did anything, really…”

“You at least distracted them,” Fluttershy mumbled. “F-for us. For somepony that you didn’t know and one that you’d only just met…”

“Well… well what was I gonna do, just let them embarrass you for no reason.”

Derpy sighed. “I’m glad that we’re saved and all, but… well, now there’s no chance that I’ll be able to get my club going. The club fair is about to end, like Luna said, and I don’t think they allow late applications.” Her ears drooped gently. “And I was so close this year. I only needed one more pony to join.”

Luna frowned gently. “You were the… tabletop gaming club, yes?”

“Y-yes, that’s us,” Derpy said, motioning to Spike and Fluttershy.

“Hmmm… well you know, i was the one who approved your request. I really do apologize for how late it was approved, I have no idea why it didn’t reach my desk until it was almost too late.” She thought for a moment. “And as the one who approved it, I am also the representative for the club, basically the teacher sponsoring it. And you know, I have always been interested in these sorts of games… I am somewhat of a… fantasy story aficionado.”

“Eh?” Derpy asked, blinking. “But… can teachers even… join clubs?”

“I don’t recall ever seeing a rule saying that I cannot,” she said with a slight smile. “I would be… quite happy to partake in this activity. If you would have me, Ms. President?” she asked Derpy with a smile.

Derpy’s grin could have lit up Tartarus at that moment. She practically flung her arms around Luna and nodded in delight. “Yes! Of course! Thank you so much for joining the club! Oh my goodness, it really is a club now, isn’t it? We have enough members!” she gave a delighted squeal.

Luna laughed softly and pat her head, nodding. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything. You’ll have your club room number and potential meeting times by the end of the week. If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

Derpy nodded and then turned back to Spike. “And as for you…” she said, wrapping her arms around him tightly. “Thank you again for that. That was very brave of you, what you did for us.”

Spike blushed, and it only grew redder when Fluttershy, though hesitantly, added herself to the hug as well. “It was uh… n-no problem.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Fluttershy mumbled. “But um, it was still an amazing thing to do for us.”

“Haha… I guess,” Spike mumbled, still not feeling nearly like the hero they were describing him as.

Luna nodded and motioned for them to follow. “You three had best get back and get ready. Last period will be starting on time after the club fair ends.”

They nodded, with Derpy and Fluttershy following Luna out the way they had come in. Spike smiled, deciding to turn around and head around the opposite way since it was closer to his locker. However, as he turned around, he came face to face with a pretty white furred unicorn muzzle who was peeking in through the door at him, her head sticking through quite obviously. He blinked gently as she shyly stepped inside, her purple mane falling down in front of her face. They awkwardly looked at one another for a time before Spike, rubbing his arm, started up at her. “Uh… hey there,” he said. “I’m uh… Spike.”

“And I… am Rarity,” she said with a light smile. “I uh… apologize for eavesdropping… but I couldn’t help but notice your heroics…” She bit her lip gently and shuffled a few steps forward, slowly offering her hand to him. “It’s… a pleasure to meet you, Spike.”