Cake was staring at the wall, waiting for any sounds that might set her off as she leaned back in her chair, front legs behind her head and back legs propped up against the desk. It took all of the charisma and guilt tripping she could muster to convince her wife to spare the little filly from a life sentence in Tartarus, but now she was beginning to regret it. Suddenly a loud thud was heard from the adjacent room. Cake sighed and picked herself up to go investigate. As she was walking to the other room she was thinking of something new she could try on the “lost cause” as Celestia had put it. Cake had tried stern talking, heart to heart, even… good behavior rewards, a tactic Twilight had used for Spike when he was younger. The door opened and inside was the filly, laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling until she raised her head up and grinned at Cake, showing off her somehow spotless pearly white teeth.

“Is something wrong, Miss Cake? You look upset…” she teased

Cake did look upset, sleepless nights and days filled with stress trying to get the filly to at least not try to escape the castle had taken a toll on her already meager appearance. Her mane, which was usually haphazardly thrown to the side, now looked like a spider's nest. Her eyes which once had pride and bravado burning in them were now sunken back and dead, her gaze on the little filly was no longer one filled with forgiveness or love, but with hate.

Cake looked around the room for the source of the noise. On the floor lay a small wooden chair, identical to the one in the other room, and on the far wall was a large dent on the crystal. Not enough to warp it or leave cracks in it but enough to see that someone had struck it. Cake picked up the chair with her magic and put it on its legs before pushing it back under the table. Today it was time for a new strategy, one she had been dreading to use. Until now.

Cake marched over to the filly’s bed and looked down at her. Pushing any last thoughts of mercy aside. “WHY. CAN'T. YOU. JUST. BEHAVE?” she yelled.

“Golly, Resource Officer Cake, what do you mean? I've been sitting here in this room doing just that all morning,” replied the filly

“Cozy Glow, I don't think you understand. This is your second chance. You only get one. If you won’t listen to me then I will have to MAKE you listen to me…”

The filly rolled her eyes at that, she even let out a sigh of disappointment when Cake sat down on the bed, back turned to her, until she felt something pull her tail. Cake lifted Cozy into her lap and began to stroke her back as the filly lay there, confused.

“Well I could get used to this!” she said out loud as she relaxed in Cake’s arms.

Cake stopped as soon as she saw the filly’s body release tension, and slapped her hard on the flank. Before Cozy could open her mouth to yelp in pain, she pulled back and hit her again. This wasn't a spanking, it was a beatdown disguised as one. Cake didn't know her own strength when doing this, as far as she had known her mother was using all the power in her to give them out. Blows powerful enough to tear through skin came down on the filly like hail, hitting her so hard she had fallen off Cake’s lap and onto the bed, screaming into a mouthful of sheets. Just as quickly as it had started it had ended, Cake had hit her five times under her tail. The skin underneath began to glow red under Cozy’s pink fur. Then a darker shade of crimson from being bruised.

Cozy’s cries were muffled from the bed sheets but her sobs could still be heard by Cake as she stood up to leave. She thought about giving her a threat that she would do this again if she didn't learn, but Cake knew Cozy was smart enough to know that. She left the room and headed out into the hallway and into the kitchen. Twilight was behind the counter, making pancakes in a cute apron as Spike ran under her, grabbing the fresh pancakes onto a plate as Twilight flipped them up over her shoulder.

“Breakfast is ready! Go ahead and take a seat!” said Spike, cheerfully.

Cake calmed down at the sight, or at least she thought it was the sight that had calmed her down, when it was really the light exercise she had gotten. She took a seat at one of the barstools as Spike set down her plate, then another plate beside it.

“Oh, go ahead and take that one, Spike. I don't think Cozy will be too hungry this morning. We can just eat without her…”

Spike nodded knowingly, threw the pancake onto his own dish and stacked the plates as he sat beside Cake.

“I heard some noises coming from in there, was she hitting her desk again?” asked the concerned alicorn as she threw a few chocolate chips into the frying pan.

“No. I spanked her,” replied Cake in a moody tone.

Twilight's eyes went wide as she let go of the pan in her magic and turned around. “Cake you can't do that! Studies show it's terrible for kids! You know my parents never spanked me!”

Cake glared as her temper flared again. “My mother spanked me good every time I was a little shit. And it made me who I am today!”

Twilight bit her tongue. She had a lot of ammo she could have used right there. Like the fact Cake had left home at the ripe age of twelve to become a guard and only went back for Hearth’s Warming. Or the fact Cake scored the lowest on anger management in her class. Or simply that she screamed when Twilight had touched her flank on their honeymoon. But instead she bit her tongue and remembered that Cake had been trying everything she could prior to this.

“Please Cake, don't take out your frustrations on her. Like I almost did.”

The reminder served as a curved blade, making Cake remember what her intentions were and how she could end up making a similar mistake. She nodded and returned to her food as she thought about just what kind of pony she had become. One that was now defending hitting fillies. She decided that it could be effective to solve her problem for now, but in the long run not so much… as she finished her meal and returned to the bedroom to wait for Cozy to do something again she realized there was an easy alternative. Words may not hurt adults but they sure do hurt kids!

The day was silent for the first time that week, Cake could hear the occasional small sob through the wall after breakfast but by lunch that was over. The filly even came out of her room to find something to eat without “accidentally” dropping a box of cereal or spilling a glass of soda. The white unicorn took pride in that as she remembered what a pain in the ass it was to clean up after her every time prior. The worst was when she had flattened out an entire loaf of bread and laid it outside Cake’s door, making the mare slip and fall face first onto the floor and get a nice bloody nose for the morning.

After Cozy returned to her room with a daisy sandwich Cake decided she would make sure the pegasus was alright and check in on her. She walked into the room and saw her sitting at her desk, eating her sandwich with dried tears on her check and a pillow to both support her small frame and not make sitting down so painful.

“You want to go for a walk later? We could both use some time out of the castle, maybe go see your old crusader friends and try to-”

“No!” Cozy said, cutting her off. “I don't want to go anywhere with you!”

“Why not?” Cake said, using a trick from the pink devil’s textbook.

“I hate you! Just leave me alone!” Cozy sniffled.

“I didn't hate you, ya know, I thought you were another good little filly to come out of Twilight's Friendship School. Then you decided power was more important than your friends. I could have let you rot in the pits of Tartarus…”

Cozy did not respond as she tried to eat her food quietly.

“I could have told them to never let you out, and to keep trained guards by your cage at all times. To only feed you potatoes and protein supplements until you got sick and died. Alone. With no pony to care for you, no pony to remember you, not even making a footnote in your own classmates’ history books… and I still can. Once they hear it from me, the only pony putting her neck out for you, it's over. So you better put on a smile at dinner time and thank Spike for making it for you. Understood?”

Tears began to fall again as the filly nodded in understanding. But Cake wasn't done yet.

“I was a fool to even let you in this castle, to let you sleep inches away from the Princess… What sane pony lets a fiend like you sleep in their house? For all I know you’d probably try to kill her again in a heartbeat. The same mare who brought you out of that little foster home in Manehattan, the one with the bed bug mattresses outside on the curb and that fat, lazy bitch behind the counter reading her magazines? Yeah, that's the one…” Cake said as she saw more tears begin to drip down the filly’s face.

“Now get a cloth and wipe those crocodile tears off your fucking face. I don't want to see them when you crawl out of your filth to come eat with us in a few hours.”

Cake finished her speech and left the room, more sobbing echoed out of it than last time as she walked back into the living room where it could no longer be heard. Twilight was waiting for her by the door with a saddlebag filled with snacks and a couple water bottles.

“Come on Cake, the girls are waiting for us! Spike can watch Cozy while we're out,” said the glowing alicorn as she began to trot outside, Cake following behind her as she caught a glimpse of Spike sleeping on one of the couches. She knew Cozy wouldn't dare try anything now. Hopefully never again.

Author's Note

I will write more if there is a interest for it