Twilight walked out of the doors of the large, imposing school building. The heavy, wooden doors which towered above many adults closed together with an imposing thud. Her mother was trotting beside her. Twilight slowed, trailing slightly behind her. The warm, springtime sun shone on the stone steps of the school. Carefully, and more slowly than warranted, Twilight jumped from step to step. Her hooves scratched against the roughness of the rough marble. She paused and scratched her hoof a few times.
The sensation of the marble rubbed against her hooves, the cool stone surprising and contrasting with the warm sun resting its rays upon her back. She reached out and touched the twisted metal of the black railing. Her mother had paused at the end of the three steps and was waiting for her daughter to hurry up. Twilight lifted her hoof above the step, holding the appendage over open air before setting it down on the second step.
Her school satchel bumped against her flank as she set her second hoof upon the second step. Her backhooves remained on the first step. She moved her third hoof so that it joined its fellows. Moving her fourth hoof she finally had all four legs on the second step. Velvet gave her an unamused glance.
Twilight drug her hooves across the vast second step, acting is if what was beneath her hooves was the Caribou Desert and any misstep would result in her falling down a sinkhole. She yelped as a blue aura wrapped around her and lifted her into the air, depositing her atop her mother's back. Velvet took an even trot as they moved through the city. High, alabaster towers rose up all around them as Velvet's hooves clip-clopped on the uneven cobblestone. In the shadow of the towers were the more humble cottages. They were not the simple thatched-roof cottages of Ponyville, but they were not the opulence of the palaces and manors in the center of the city.
Velvet passed a street full of red-brick homes. Perfectly manicured, verdantly green lawns spread out. Happy flowers in bright shades of purples, reds, oranges and yellows carpeted the lawns. Velvet didn't stop to admire the gardens though she waved to some of her neighbors. As they moved through the neighborhood, the satchel wrapped around Twilight bounced against her side. It opened and the test paper nearly flew out. Twilight caught it in her magic, though she didn't know why.
Contemplating on the matter, she decided it was because she didn't want anypony to see the grade that burned in red like shame. The big, round zero placed right across from her name. Twilight rested her head in her mother's mane, taking comfort in the feel of it even in this situation.
Despite the zero, each question was answered and Twilight had no doubt that most of the answers she'd put down were correct. Velvet turned a corner. These houses were bigger though they were still made of russet-colored brick. Most were two or three stories. Butterflies gently floated in the breeze around hanging baskets where orange portulaca drifted downward. A line of elm trees, their soft bark thick and knotted with age, sprouted up on both sides of the street.
They were coming closer to home. White blossoms burst on the elm trees. When the warm wind blew, it shook the blossoms and they floated like snow. Several fillies and colts played in the yards. Some had taken their games into the street. Velvet sidestepped a few fillies laughing and hopping around a group of orange squares that had been drawn in chalk on the street.
On an ordinary day, Velvet would have taken her off her back and encouraged her to go play with the other fillies. A little blue filly hopped into the last square. The filly looked up at Twilight and gave her a look of pity. Twilight buried her blushing face back into her mother's soft, warm mane.
They passed the children playing in the street. From the open doors of Joe's Donuts the sweet, rich scent of chocolate and creme came. Twilight and her mother sometimes went there for donuts when Twilight had had a hard day. This counted as a hard day, right? Maybe they could go get a doughnut.
For some reason, Twilight couldn't bring herself to ask and soon they'd passed Joe's doughnuts altogether and the moment was lost. Velvet took a few more turns down another neighborhood. They were only a few houses away from home. Velvet's gait slowed. It had been slow the entire time they'd been walking. Rather than take the straight road, Velvet had taken several meandering paths rather than the road that would lead them straight home.
Now it slowed almost to a crawl. She then stopped altogether, in the middle of the sidewalk. The yellow heads of dandelions popped up from their long green stems. After a few moments of staring at dandelions, Velvet continued walking. "Twilight, do you know the difference between a friend and an enemy?"
Twilight perked up. "Um...a friend is someone you like. An enemy is someone you don't like."
Velvet considered this answer. "You're almost right. Can you think of why you would like a friend and not like an enemy?"
This took considerably more thought for the young unicorn. "A friend is nice to you. An enemy isn't."
"Better. Moon Dancer is your friend, right?"
Twilight shrugged. "I guess."
"What about Jade? Is she your friend?"
Twilight took on an expression of deep thought. "No."
"Jade's made fun of you since you started second grade, hasn't she? Hasn't she tripped you in the halls and called you names?"
"Yeah."
"Is that what a friend does?"
"No."
She lapsed off into silence. Two gnarled oak trees rose up at the entrance to their house, their branches intertwining. Grey moss trailed down the heavy branches. "So, Jade is definitely not your friend. We're clear on that?"
Twilight pouted. "Yes. And I promise to not listen to her anymore!"
"You shouldn't have been listening to her from the start!"
Twilight's ears folded back at the tone of her mother's voice. "I'm sorry, Mommy."
Velvet lit up her horn and the door opened to her magic. Shining Armor was still in school. She hadn't had to go pick him up early. She picked her miscreant daughter up in her aura and laid her down on the blue rug. "Twilight...oh, Twilight." She rested her hooves on Twilight's shoulders. "Why, Sweetie? Why would you help Jade cheat? Didn't I raise you to be honest?"
Twilight looked down to the floor. Her eyes filled with tears that she forced herself not to shed. Velvet lifted up her chin, forcing her to look into her eyes. "You know it's wrong to cheat. You know it's wrong to help others cheat."
Twilight gulped. "I do, Mommy."
She distinctly disliked the direction this conversation was taking, especially when Velvet pulled her by the ear with her magic. The tug was uncomfortable, but painless. They walked into the kitchen. Velvet got a chair and sat it in the center of the tile. Then she walked over to the windows and closed the blinds, pulling the blue and white curtains closed.
Twilight gulped again. There was only one reason she'd close the blinds on such a pretty day. To spare Twilight the humiliation of others seeing her getting her bottom smacked. Velvet sat down on the chair and drew Twilight over with her magic. Twilight squirmed. To Twilight's surprise she found herself seated in her mother's lap rather than across her knee.
"Twilight, when the teacher told me my first thought was that Jade had bullied you into it."
Twilight glanced into her mother's eyes and knew Velvet was giving her a way out. "No, she didn't."
"Then what happened? Why did you help her?"
"I don't know."
There was a reason, a deeply embarrassing one. Twilight looked away from her mom's gaze. "I'm sorry. Mommy, do you still love me?"
Velvet nuzzled her in response. Twilight pressed her cheek against hers. "Of course I love you, Sweetie."
Twilight leaned into her. "Please don't spank me. I don't wanna spanking, spankings hurt."
"They're supposed to, Sweetie. And I don't want to spank you anymore than you want to be spanked. But I have to. It's to keep you from doing things like this. Naughty things that will hurt you in the end. I know you don't understand yet, but you will someday. Just like getting a shot at the doctor. It hurts, but it's for your own good."
Twilight whined. "I know."
"Y'know, Jade's getting a spanking from her mom."
"How do you know that?"
"I know Jade's mom and she said next time she did something like this, she was going to take a hairbrush to her behind."
Twilight winced at the thought of the hairbrush, but somehow a vindictive part of her felt good about the fact Jade's bottom would be getting a dose of justice.
Velvet took Twilight up in her magic once again. "Enough stalling."
Twilight didn't resist as her mom bent her across her lap and wrapped a hoof around her. Her rump angled out. Twilight closed her eyes and waited for the first swat. Velvet lifted her hoof into the air and brought a stinging smack across Twilight's behind. Just as quickly she landed a second smack in the same place. A third and fourth smack landed on the other side of Twilight's rump. Twilight jumped as the fifth smack landed just below where the first spanks had, the tender part of her lower backside.
Velvet peppered Twilight's bottom with spanks, focusing the swats on the right side of Twilight's increasingly reddening rear. Twilight began to kick and squirm. Velvet only tightened her grip and landed three more firm smacks across her behind. The blows from her mother's hoof left a pink mark wherever they landed, which Velvet hoped would be a firm reminder for Twilight to behave herself. Twilight yelped and cried out as her mother's hoof relentlessly fell upon her rear.
Velvet calmly continued the spanking even if her daughter's cries rent at her own heart. Moving on from the right side of Twilight's rump, she landed blows on the left side. Twilight jumped as the blows cracked against her rump. Velvet moved her hoof from side to side, spacing out the spanks to give her daughter time to breathe. There was a rhythm to the swats falling onto her daughter's butt. She doled out each spank with equal force, hard enough to pinken the skin beneath the fur, but never hard enough to leave a bruise or cause any serious injury.
At long last, Twilight fell still, completely giving into the spanks doled out onto her derriere. Velvet landed her hoof right across Twilight's sit spot, making the filly squeal. Velvet landed about ten more spanks and brought the tushy tanning to an end. Twilight unabashedly cried. Velvet picked her up in her forelegs and tightly squeezed her. Twilight buried her face into Velvet's chest. Velvet tightened the embrace, stroking her back and mane.
"I'm sorry, Mommy!"
Velvet caressed her back, soothing away the pain of the spanking. "It's alright. It's alright now. I forgive you."
Twilight wrapped her hooves around her mom's barrel. "J-Jade called me a mommy's filly. That I was a goody-four horseshoes and she said it like it was a bad thing. L-like I wouldn't be c-cool enough to cheat."
Velvet patted her daughter's back and ran a hoof through her mane. "You said she hadn't bullied you. I'd have only taken away your library card if you'd told me."
Twilight rested her face on Velvet's shoulder as Velvet continued to softly rub her shoulders. "I didn't want to tell you cause she was right. I'm a mommy's filly and a good-four horse shoes. I-I felt so guilty when I did it, but I did it anyway."
Velvet wiped away her daughter's remaining tears. "What's so bad about being a goody four-horse shoes? At least being good doesn't get you punished and it doesn't make you feel guilty. It's a lot less trouble if you ask me."
Twilight said nothing, choosing to simply rest in her favorite place-her mother's forelegs.
"Honey, sometimes Ponies say things because they want us to do something. Things that go against what we know is right. What we do to those Ponies is ignore them. You have to follow what you know is right. Sometimes it'll be hard, but it's so very worth it."
"I will next time. I promise."
Velvet nuzzled Twilight's mane. "I know you will."
...
Twilight blinked. "You have to follow what is right." She echoed her mother's words. "Sometimes it'll be hard, but it's so very worth it."
Shining shot her a wry grin. "She gave you that lecture to?"
Twilight sank into the cushion she'd moved to as she told the story. "I took those words to heart. When I had a premonition that Equestria was in danger I knew I couldn't ignore it. I spent months studying prophecies. It was hard and took me away from important research, but I couldn't ignore it. It was the right thing to do. Then I found out about Nightmare Moon...got sent to Ponyville...met you girls...wow."
"Life's like that, Twily. Everything just sort of connects. Choices we make, people we meet."
Dash yawned. "Heh. You weren't too bad as a filly, Twi. Let me tell you about the time..."