Firelight trailed along the dirt road between the rows of simple, brightly colored cottages. A small dark pink filly, her pink and aquamirine striped mane wrapped in pigtails, moped atop his back. Spending five whole minutes in the corner could do that to a filly. He sighed, trotted closer to his own cottage, the clop of his hoof on the ground a harsh beat on the dirt.
"Daddy?" The voice was small, but audible.
Firelight stopped, paused at the door to his house. An ancient sycamore tree towered above the simple, yellow house with its gabled roof coming up to a point. The sycamore's branches endlessly intertwined, its verdant leaves dancing in the wind.
"D-Daddy?"
The voice was more insistent. Firelight noted the tree was dying, rotting away. The next season, the next winter probably, would kill it.
The little filly was sniffling. Firelight winced. "Yes, Starlight?" Starlight. Not Pumpky-wumpky, the nickname she loved.
"Am I going to be allowed back to kindergarten?" Her hooves gripped his neck.
Firelight bit back a chuckle. She always thought things were far worse than they actually were. Just like her...he bit his lip so hard he was afraid it'd start to bleed. "Of course, Starlight. They don't kick you out just for misbehaving."
A note of panic entered her voice. "They KICK you out?"
He shook his head. "It's just an expression, Pumpky-wumpky."
She was atop his back so he couldn't see her broad grin at the name. But he knew it was there. He stepped up to the door, pushed it open and stepped into his sparsely decorated living room. Starlight made no move to clamber off his back. In fact, she nestled into his mane as if she wanted to take a nap up there like she so often did.
He lifted her off his back with a flicker of his magic, wincing when she lightly whined from being taken from her favored nap spot and placed on the brown carpet. A white couch took up much of the small space and a brown, glass coffee table was across from it, magazines from the historical society and a parenting guide which he cast a venomous glare at. Stupid article about following through. Did he really have to...? But she'd been sent to the corner and privileges had been taken away and he'd tried simply explaining why it was wrong and nothing helped! He released a long, heavy sigh. He hadn't meant it, not really.
His glare turned towards Starlight who had popped her tail in her mouth and was gazing up at him, shying away from his expression as she stepped closer to her pile of toys in the corner. He closed his eyes. Sucking her tail was what she did when she was nervous and she had reason to be nervous. Laying down on the ground, he sat across from his daughter. She laid down, tail still firmly in her mouth and looked down at the floor. Firelight reached out a hoof, lifted her chin. "Starlight, get your tail out of your mouth."
She continued to suckle for a few moments before releasing it. "Are you mad at me Daddy?"
He sighed again, looking down at the floor himself. "Yes, Starlight. I am."
She pouted. "Do you still love me?"
He ran a hoof through her mane, affection which she leaned into. "Of course I do. This has nothing to do with that. I want you to tell me what happened at Magic Kindergarten today."
She huffed. "It was all stupid Ice Wind's fault."
He lifted her chin. "No. None of that. I want you to tell me what you did. It was nopony else's fault."
Starlight jutted her lip out. "Ice Wind was hogging the toy."
Firelight raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I see. Was your name on it, Pumpky-wumpky?" He booped her muzzle, unable to resist the cute face she made when he did it. The pout became more pronounced.
"He wouldn't let anyone else play with it." Her tail lashed the air. "So I had to do it, Daddy."
He nodded. "Tell me what you think you had to do."
She pawed at the ground, her ears splayed back. Maybe if she said it out loud, she'd hear it. "I, um, I had to shoot him with a laser."
He rubbed his temples. "You had to shoot him with a laser. Do you think maybe there could have been other things you could have done? Like tell a teacher? Ask him for the toy?"
The pawing she was doing at the carpet picked up speed as she tried to hold on to the moral high ground. "I asked him and he wouldn't give it to me."
"So you shot him with a laser? You know what that's called?" Assault and armed robbery.
She sniffled and popped her tail right back into her mouth. He moved it away with his magic. "What's it called Sweetie?"
"St-stealing."
"That's right. When you take things from others without their permission it's called stealing. Now, you're very lucky because I asked the teachers to not paddle you. I didn't think my little pumpky-wumpky would ever need that sort of punishment."
She stopped pawing at the ground, her hold on the moral high ground having vanished completely. "Are you going to..." She trailed off.
He bit onto his lip until this time he did taste blood. The thought seized him that he should just let her off. Maybe just make her turn around and give a quick smack to her bottom like she used to when she was still around and Starlight wasn't yet out of pull-ups. Starlight had seemed to respond positively to that and she'd always held her close after. Hadn't Starlight always been careful to listen after those quick spanks?
Was it necessary to give her a real spanking?
"Starlight, this isn't the first time is it?" He rested a hoof on her shoulder and she suddenly found something very interesting on the floor to look at.
"N-no, Daddy."
"The first time was when you shot a laser at a classmate for cutting in front of you in line. Then again, when you decided you wanted a doll another little filly had. Now again. I'm not going to have you turn into a bully." He tried to make his voice sound as forceful as he could. It still trembled.
"I'm not a bully!" She looked up.
He looked into her tear-filled eyes, briefly hated himself. "I'm afraid you're becoming one."
She shook her head, her pigtails whipping her face. "I'm not!"
He wiped her mane from her eyes. "A bully takes things from others. Did you take that toy from Ice Wind?"
She bit her lip. "He wouldn't share."
"That's not what I'm asking. Did you take that toy from Ice Wind? Yes or no."
Her lip trembled. "Yes."
"Would you like it if that happened to you? If Ice Wind had taken a toy you were playing with?"
She chewed on her lip. "No."
"You'd probably want him to be punished, wouldn't you? So he wouldn't do it again?"
She gulped. "Y-yes, Daddy."
"Can you think of a reason for me not to..." He stumbled over the word. "Not to punish you?"
She inched away. "You mean a spanking."
He heaved a heavy breath. "Yes, Starlight. I mean a spanking. I told you that's what would happen if you got in trouble in kindergarten again. I told you I'd give you a spanking and now I have to. Can you think of a reason for me not to?" He really wanted her to give him one. While he waited for an answer, he pressed his hoof to his cheek. It was wet.
Starlight gasped. "D-Daddy...I made you cry?"
He stroked her mane. "I don't like having to punish you. It makes me sad."
Daddies weren't supposed to spank their fillies, that was a job that belonged to mommies, but Mommy wasn't around. He closed his eyes, held back the tears, knowing if he released them he'd never stop. Starlight's mommy would never be around again, not to spank her nor to hug her nor read her stories nor play with her. That was all his job now.
He wasn't sure he had the strength. Moonlight Gleam if you're hearing me...give me strength. I know I'm not supposed to...she's a filly, not a colt...but what choice do I have? I can't allow her to do these things. There has to be something big enough to keep her from this. I love her so much, I can't...let her go down this path. His chest heaved and he knew he was losing control, he was breaking down in front of a five year old who probably felt terrible about herself right now. It was just too much to put on her, she'd done wrong, she was going to be punished-she was going to be spanked-but that's not why he was crying and he wasn't going to let her think she'd made her daddy cry.
"I'm not crying because of you, Starlight." He breathed, calmed himself. "I just miss your mommy."
She wrapped her hooves around him. "I miss her too." Her voice was little more than a whisper. He hugged her. After a while, she gulped. "I'm ready for my spanking."
He pulled away from her. "Alright then. Tell me why you're being punished."
"Cause I took something from someone without dere permission."
"That's right. Across my knee." He knelt, bending on one of his back legs. Obediently, she bent over the proffered leg, her rump stuck out. She was so little she fit across just one of his knees. He lifted his foreleg, still trembling, fighting against over three decades of cultural conditioning. His hoof shook as he positioned over her exposed, pink bottom. Then, he lifted her tail out of the way. "Alright. I'm going to spank you. Are you ready?"
"Um, no?"
He mentally added three more swats for that bit of cheek, then removed it because what child was ready for that? "Now?"
She squirmed. "Y-Yeah. J-just get it over with!"
If you insist, Chipmunk Cheeks. He raised his hoof again and smacked her bottom, the smack ringing out with a firm clap, leaving a red mark on her rump. She squealed and he hesitated. Before he could lose his nerve, he landed two more firm smacks. She kicked her legs and cried out, but he kept up the pace, popping her fanny, each pop leaving a stinging heat, making her squirm and kick her legs. He laid a hoof on her back to keep her in place, bringing down the sharp slaps to her backside.
She continued to wiggle across his lap, not trying to get away, but the fire building in her rump forced her to squirm, each spank kindling a heat that soon spread to every part of her rump. The pops to her behind fell in a steady pattern, her daddy's hoof raining down swats at steady intervals. She cried and kicked her legs as her daddy's hoof painted her already pink bottom pinker.
Firelight squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back tears he couldn't allow to fall, laying claps on the filly's behind, first one side and the other. He alternated in a steady pattern of spanks, light at first but he started to increase the tempo. This was a lesson he wanted Starlight to remember. "You do not take from other Ponies!" With each word, he clapped her upturned derriere. The soft, round fillyish curves of her backside was now roasting beneath the spanks. "That is naughty and unacceptable!"
The first few teardrops dripped down his muzzle even as she also began to wail from her burning backside. He lightened the force behind the smacks, bringing a clap down to her sit spot, making her squeal. "You do not use your magic to hurt others unless its in defense of yourself or another!" More firm spanks-he wasn't sure how much force he was putting into them-landed down onto her crimson backside. He let her have a breath. "L-last five. Starlight, only five to go."
She whimpered. "No more."
"I'm sorry." Five firm claps fell onto her sit spot and she sobbed. "I'm so sorry." Tears spilled down his face. Her butt was deep red, probably looking worse than it was, but it'd fade by the end of the day. He'd left no bruises. His hoof fell once more onto her bottom, this time in a soothing caress, rubbing gentle circles into her punished flesh.
She lept onto him so firmly she knocked him down. As he scrambled to get up, he took her in his magic which made her instantly relax, hanging limply in the comfortable, safe aura. She sniffled, still whimpering, but tears were falling down his own face. Laying on the couch, he brought the miserable child to himself, wrapping her up in his forelegs, holding her as close as he could.
She nuzzled into his chest, wrapping her little forelegs around his much wider barrel. He lit his horn, rubbing cooling magic on her burning tushy. She sighed in contentment and nestled closer to him.
I went too far, that was too many spanks, she's going to be traumatized, I'm a horrible father... The recriminations battered his mind, but he silenced them, only cradling his daughter close to him. A smile spread over her face as he wiped away her tears before returning to just holding her. "Are you going to be good for Daddy now? Daddy won't have to do that again?"
She nodded against his fur while he ran a hoof through her mane, rubbed her lower back right above her still a little sore bummy. His magic had done its work, but her bottom was still a darker shade of pink than usual and sitting down at the dinner table would be uncomfortable-it had to be, this was not a lesson she should forget, but that didn't make him hate himself any less. He draped her security blanket over her-he'd make her some cocoa later. She was asleep now in his firm embrace, still clinging to him. "...Love you, Daddy."
That took his breath away. He laid his chin on her head in a brief nuzzle. "Daddy loves you to." Soon, they both fell asleep, she safe in her daddy's embrace.
Author's Note
Raising Your Little Marexist for Dummies.
