The Guilty Party

Saturday morning was a lazy time in the home of Cookie Crumbles and Hondo Flanks. Cookie sat at the dining room table enjoying her newspaper. She looked out into the living room where Sweetie Belle was watching the Saturday morning cartoons, still in her pajamas (blue ones with a black & white panda bear print) and socks with the grippy rubberized soles. Rarity was fully dressed (as always) and sat in the armchair next to her younger sister, holding a fashion magazine in an attempt to keep up her appearance of teenage maturity. Cookie observed that her older daughter had not turned a page in over 20 minutes...she was in fact looking over the top of it and watching cartoons as well.

Hondo was outside busying himself with various household chores. Cookie wished he would relax on his days off but these tasks made him happy so she did not badger him.
Unexpectedly, Hondo came in the front door with a concerned look on his face.
>"Honey, did you use my car this week?"
Both of them had their own cars, but Hondo barely ever used his, he usually drove his work truck. Most of the week his car sat in the driveway.
>"No, of course not, dear."
>"Well it's got a huge scratch on the right side...straight through the paint and into the metal."
Cookie put down her newspaper.
>"Do you think somebody hit it? Maybe the paperboy scratched it with his bicycle."
Hondo shook his head.
>"No. Somebody drove it.
>"I always park it a few feet back from the garage, so I can open the hood and check the oil...but now it's pulled right up to the garage door."

Cookie turned to her daughters, who were listening intently.
>"Girls, do you know anything about this?"
Both of them shook their heads.
>"No, Mom."
>"Certainly not."
She wasn't convinced.
>"Are you sure, girls? We just want the truth."
But both denied knowing anything.
Everyone went out to the driveway to see the damage for themselves. Just as Dad had described there was a significant scratch in the right-rear quarter panel, straight down to the metal.
>"I just washed it last week and it wasn't there then."
Nobody had an explanation. Hondo was obviously annoyed but he made no accusations. He just kept walking around the car, looking for any unlikely clues.

Cookie, however, had a suspect in mind. She pulled Rarity aside and asked in a serious tone;
>"Are you sure you don't know anything about this?"
Rarity had to know she was the prime suspect. Though she was not yet old enough to have her drivers license she was the only one aside from Mom & Dad tall enough to reach the pedals.
>"I don't know a thing, Mother, honestly!"
Cookie did not entirely believe her.
>"Rarity, I'm serious. Things will go a lot better if you're honest now.
>"You're absolutely SURE you don't know how this happened?"
Rarity was flustered by the accusation.
>"Mom, I swear, I don't! That's the truth!"
With the threat of being in serious trouble Rarity had dropped the pretentious 'Mother' in favor of less formality.
>"I hope not, young lady, because if I find out later that you've been lying I'm going to take out my paddle and spank your bare naked bottom absolutely raw."
Rarity gasped and blushed at the threat. Luckily her mother hadn't spoken loud enough to broadcast it to the whole neighborhood but it was still embarrassing to hear those words spoken out in the driveway. Sweetie Belle heard the threat too, and though she was too young (and short) to be a suspect she made a hasty retreat back into the house.

Cookie said nothing else and followed Sweetie inside with one last accusing glare at her eldest.
Genuinely worried by the peril she was in Rarity pulled out her mobile phone and put out a text message 'Friendship Emergency' to her friends. She needed help.
In minutes Rarity had her replies. She hadn't expected everyone to come running...weekends were busy times.
Rainbow Dash was out of town at some sweaty sports game.
Applejack was busy on her family's farm...she could come but not until the afternoon.
Fluttershy was at an animal rights protest...she could come if she could get a ride.
Twilight was in the city, her parents had brought her to a museum and they'd brought Sunset Shimmer along as well.
Only Pinkie Pie could come immediately...she was already on her way.

Pinkie arrived 10 minutes later, wearing a deerstalker hat and carrying a briefcase covered in sparkly stickers.
>"Have no fear, Rarity! Detective Pinkie Pie is here to solve the mystery!"
Rarity gave her friend a strange look, but was glad Pinkie was here.
>"Well I don't need a detective as much as I need an alibi.
>"Will you tell my mother I was busy after school almost every day this week?"
Pinkie thought about it for a moment, but replied;
>"Well, you usually are, but not with me...so I can't really give you an abalone."
Rarity groaned.
>"Some help you are."
But Pinkie Pie cheerfully threw her arm around Rarity and promised;
>"Aww, don't worry! I'm here to find the real culprit and everything is going to be okay!"

Cookie Crumbles spoke up;
>"Ahem, Pinkie, what makes you think you can discover who did this?
>"Rarity's father has been in the driveway all morning and hasn't found any clues."
Confidently, Pinkie declared;
>"But HE doesn't have this magnifying glass...and a Junior Detective kit!"
Rarity & Cookie both rolled their eyes.
>"Well, it couldn't hurt to let her try."

Hondo Flanks eyed his daughter's weird friend with suspicion, but stepped back and let her investigate. She opened the driver door and after looking around began sprinkling the whole interior with white dust.
>"Pinkie, what are you doing to my car?"
>"Checking for fingerprints!"
>"Where did you get fingerprint dust?"
>"Oh, this is powdered sugar!"
Facepalm.
Inside, Cookie watched from the window. She was 99% convinced that Rarity was responsible for the damage to her father's car, but she could not convict without positive evidence. Hopefully the teenager could be convinced to confess on her own.

>"M-Mommy?"
It was Sweetie Belle. She looked worried.
>"Sweetie, dear, what's wrong?
>"You don't need to be upset, this doesn't concern you."
The younger girl in pajamas did not look her mother in the eyes.
>"Umm...maybe it sorta does."
Cookie looked at her seriously and asked;
>"Sweetie, do you know something?"

Outside, Pinkie was busy with her investigation. She had covered the interior of Hondo's car with powdered sugar...he had no idea how he was going to get that sticky mess cleaned out.
>"I believe I have discovered the guilty culprit!"
Hondo & Rarity both looked at each other with surprise. Neither of them had taken Pinkie's detective work seriously.
>"There are fingerprints on the steering wheel."
>"Yes Pinkie...they're probably mine."
But the girl shook her head.
>"No, Mister Rarity's Dad, these hands were much smaller than yours..."
He cast an angry glance at Rarity. This seemed to be damning evidence against her.
>"...smaller than Rarity's too."
>"Huh?"
>"Yep! Whoever was driving your car had REALLY small hands.
>"It was probably the same person who needed these wooden blocks to reach the pedals."
Hondo looked into the car for the first time.
>"Wait...wooden blocks?"
>"Yeah, silly...didn't you look down here at the GO and STOP pedals? There's two big blocks of wood."

Everything seemed obvious now...Hondo understood what had really happened.
Pinkie made her formal accusation;
>"It's obvious. It was LAWN GNOMES!"
>"Wait, Pinkie...what?"
>"All the lawn gnomes in town came to life and they've been joyriding in your car!"
Before Pinkie Pie could get sillier, Cookie came outside, holding Sweetie Belle by the arm of her pajamas.
>"Sweetie, tell your father what you just told me."
Sweetie didn't want to, but a sharp look from her mother got her talking.
>"Umm...Daddy, it was me and my friends who scratched your car.
>"We were playing Truth-or-Dare after school and Scootaloo dared me to drive around the block.
>"So I sorta took the spare key...we all got in and I carefully backed out of the driveway.
>"I was REALLY careful, but when I backed up I scraped the mailbox.
>"We got scared and put the car right back. We never even went out on the road!
>"I'm really, really, REALLY sorry!"

Everyone was silent for a moment until Pinkie said;
>"Wait...so lawn gnomes weren't involved at all?"
Rarity gave her sister an angry look, stamped her boot and stomped away angrily, slamming the front door behind her.

Cookie turned to Sweetie and scolded;
>"You are in VERY deep trouble young lady!
>"Not only did you do something you knew was wrong, you lied and told us you didn't know anything about it."
>"But I'm really, really sorry!"
Cookie was in no mood for that.
>"And you're going to be a lot sorrier!
>"Now go to your room. I will discuss this with your Father and then I will be up to give you your spanking."
Sweetie Belle gasped at the sound of her least favorite word in the whole world, but hurried away when her mother snapped;
>"Now!"

She was still angry, but Cookie calmed herself and spoke politely to Pinkie.
>"Thank you so much for your help, Pinkie Pie. Will you stay for lunch?"
The pink girl packed up her detective kit and replied;
>"No thank you, ma'am. I'm not even really supposed to be here now. I'm actually supposed to be grounded for doing something bad with a pineapple and the ceiling fan."
>"Oh, I see. Well, you better go on home now."
>"Okie-Dokie, have a nice day, Mrs. Rarity's Mom, Mr. Rarity's Dad."

As she skipped away, humming nonsensically, Hondo muttered;
>"How do her parents survive her?"
Cookie shook her head and added;
>"They've got 4 of them, you know. Each one stranger than the next."
Sweetie Belle sat on her bed, jumpy at every sound in the house. Mom had already declared her fate...she knew she was going to get spanked and very soon. Frantically she rehearsed what she'd say when Mom came through the door...hoping desperately there was something she could say that would get her out of trouble, or at least lessen the trouble she was in.

She heard footsteps in the hallway and held her breath. But it was not Mom...it was just Rarity, angrily stomping by.
>"Rarity!"
Her older sister stopped in front of the door, but did not look inside.
>"What do you want?"
>"Can I talk to you?"
The teenager snapped at her little sister angrily;
>"What do you expect me to say?
>"That was a really rotten, awful thing to do!
>"Letting Mother & Father think I'd damaged the car when you KNEW the truth!"
Sweetie was already crying, but having her sister mad at her made it worse.
>"I'm SORRY! I just got so scared! I didn't know what to do!"

Rarity walked into the room and replied;
>"Well how do you think I felt?
>"I almost got punished for something I didn't do!
>"Don't you think I was scared as well?"
Sweetie Belle felt awful. There was nothing she could do to make things better.
>"I'm so sorry...I just d-didn't know what to do."

Softening a little, Rarity sat down next to her weeping sister.
>"You should have told the truth.
>"Not just for my sake...you made things worse for yourself by lying."
Sweetie Belle sniffled and admitted;
>"I just got too scared to do anything."
>"You hoped somebody else would get blamed...like the paperboy, or me."
>"No! Not you! I felt awful when Mom said she was gonna paddle you...but I didn't know what to do."
Both girls were silent. Rarity knew how sorry, and scared Sweetie must feel so she set her anger aside and put an arm around her sister.
>"Now I'm gonna get a spanking.
>"Do you think it's gonna be bad?"
Rarity wanted to calm her frightened little sister, but there was no doubt it was going to be bad. Mom had threatened 'I'm going to take out my paddle and spank your bare naked bottom absolutely raw' and now that terrible sentence hung over Sweetie Belle's head like a guillotine blade.
>"Mother & Father both love us.
>"It will be bad, it will hurt terribly but you'll be okay.
>"For my part, I'm still angry. Letting me take the blame was an awful thing to do...but I can forgive you."
Sweetie Belle sniffled;
>"Thank you Rarity. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

The tender scene was broken up by the arrival of their mother, and just as Sweetie Belle had feared she was holding the paddle.
Rarity hopped to her feet and gave what little help she could.
>"Oh, Mother, I know what Sweetie did was wrong, but do you have to use that?"
Cookie heard Rarity out but reminded her;
>"Your sister was ready to let you take the blame for something she did. Have you considered that?"
>"Yes...yes I have, and she's apologized. We'll work that out as sisters.
>"So please, for what it's worth don't go hard on her on my account."
Cookie was impressed. She'd expected Rarity to be more spiteful about this.
>"Well, that's very mature of you...I will take your feelings into consideration.
>"And I'm sorry I assumed you were guilty. In the future I need to trust you more and assume you're telling me the truth.
>"But now I have to deal with your sister as I see fit, so please give us some privacy."

Rarity gave Sweetie a hug and whispered;
>"Good luck"
There was nothing more she could do. As Mother had commanded, she left.
Now it was just Mom & Sweetie.
And the paddle.
Sweetie had spent her time alone carefully preparing a defense strategy, but now that her doom was upon her no words came out of her mouth.
Mom spoke instead;
>"Sweetie Belle what you did was beyond belief...
>"You STOLE the spare key from your father's desk,
>"You did something DANGEROUS and ILLEGAL,
>"You DAMAGED something that was NOT YOURS,
>"You LIED when we asked you about it,
>"and you sat there silently and let us accuse your sister of what YOU did.
>"You're very lucky Rarity has been forgiving about this but you are still in big trouble."
Even as her mother scolded her, Sweetie's eyes were drawn to the terrible paddle.
>"Sweetie, look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Sweetie Belle had only felt that paddle once before...at the beginning of summer when Mom had first bought it from the Barbados lady who sold wooden stuff outside the grocery store. Both she and Rarity had gotten it that day, Rarity much worse than her, and since then they'd each gotten a few spankings but nothing to merit a terrible blistering with that wooden demon of pain.
>"M-Mommy, I'm sorry! It was just a h-hu-hu-harmless dare, we didn't mean to scratch the car!
>"I promise I'll p-pay for it!"
Cookie sighed;
>"Sweetie, you absolutely will pay for that damage, you're going to be doing extra chores for months to pay it off. That's going to cost hundreds of dollars to fix.
>"But what I'm more concerned about was how dangerous that was!
>"You are not old enough to drive a car and you do NOT know what you're doing!
>"What if you got in an accident? What if you, or your friends were hurt...or killed?
>"What if you hurt...or killed someone else?"
She took a deep breath and added;
>"Then lying about it when we asked you made it worse.
>"You and Rarity both know that lying alone is bad enough to earn you a sore fanny, but for all of this together...missy you are getting the tanning of your life!"
Cookie pulled her sobbing daughter to her feet and took Sweetie's spot on the bed. She took hold of the elastic of her pajama bottoms and pulled them down to her socks in one decisive motion.
>"We will talk more about this with your father, but right now it's time for your paddling."
Sweetie panicked, and pleaded for the life of her bottom.
>"Mommy, please, no! Don't use the p-p-paddle! I'm SORRY! I'll never do it again!"
Cookie scoffed at her youngest daughter's promise.
>"Oh, you bet you won't .
>"You aren't gonna be able to sit down until you're old enough to drive!"

Desperate, Sweetie strained to reach her dresser and snatched her hairbrush up. She offered it to Mom as an alternative.
>"Please, please just use this! It'll hurt enough, I swear!"
It was a futile effort. Sweetie's little plastic brush was half the size of Mom's wooden one...and even that would have been rejected. Today was a paddle day. Cookie took it from Sweetie Belle and set it down on the bed.
>"Stop trying to stall.
>"You've earned this so just behave yourself and we can get it over with."
Mom grasped the elastic of her simple pink panties with both hands and began to pull them down, but Sweetie frantically grabbed them, trying to hold them up.
>"Mommmmmaaaa, PLEEEAASEEEEE, not b-bare!"

Cookie was in no mood for this nonsense. She let go, grabbed Sweetie's plastic hairbrush and gave her a quick stinger on the chubby back of her bare thigh.
>"OWW!"
>"You better let go of those this instant or I will turn this brush over and use the bristle side!"
Hands trembling, eyes pouring out tears, Sweetie Belle obeyed, releasing her grip on that last little, thin layer of defense. Without another word Mom slid them down her legs to join her pajama pants, tangled around the girl's ankles. Sweetie was growing, but she felt tiny as she was pulled over Mom's lap, her naked bottom sitting up high and vulnerable.
Mom reached across Sweetie Belle's back and took a firm hold of her right arm, then crossed her own right leg over Sweetie's, locking the squirming girl down, unable to move. It terrified Sweetie...Mom only did this when it was going to be an especially bad spanking.

The last thing Sweetie saw through tear clouded eyes was her mother picking up the terrible paddle. No more waiting...no more stalling...any second now...
*WHACK*
>"WHHAAAHHH!"
Sweetie Belle howled as if she'd already been getting spanked for a half-hour. It was a release...she'd been terrified by the inevitability of this for so long that all the worry and fear just exploded out of her when the paddle struck her little naked rear. In truth, this had been building up since she, Apple Bloom & Scootaloo had taken the keys 4 days ago and put that awful scratch in Daddy's car. Sweetie had hoped and wished to avoid it but all that time she'd known this spanking was coming.

Also; it really, REALLY hurt.

Cookie Crumbles hadn't been exaggerating when she told Sweetie this would be the tanning of her life, but she knew that to give a long spanking she had to ease into it. Start too fast and a girl's tender bottom will bruise. Like an oven it needed to be warmed up slowly.
So Cookie worked methodically and mercifully, covering Sweetie's rear end with firm but careful smacks, laying on an even coat of pink before the real work could begin.

Poor Sweetie Belle did not appreciate the subtlety of her mother's work. Her bottom was already stinging like she'd sat down upon a hornet's nest...but unlike that hornet's nest she couldn't jump off. The stings just kept coming, one after another, building up an awful pain that had the little girl bawling her eyes out with no care for whether the neighbors or the whole town could hear.

With the prep work done Cookie Crumbles began the real task. Sweetie Belle had crossed multiple lines this day and wasn't going be allowed up until she had a genuine, bona-fide red bottom.
>"WwwwhhhHHHHAAAAaaaaaAAHH! MOOOOMMMAAAA! Please, PLEASE STOP!"
Not a chance, little girl.
Cookie brought the paddle down faster and harder, each spank filling the house with a loud, echoing crack. The only thing louder was her daughter's wailing. This was going to be a spanking Sweetie Belle remembered for a very long time.
>"No more! NO MORE! BWWHHhaaaahhhHHAAA! Please!"

The paddle was perfectly designed for this job. Light and stiff, it cracked the surface and left fiery pain wherever it struck, but was not heavy enough to bruise Sweetie's skinny bottom. She had not begun to mature and fill out yet, so there was not much meat on Sweetie Belle's backside, but every bit of it was screaming out in pain right now, and she wasn't even close to being done.

Cookie was glad she'd taken the effort to lock Sweetie Belle down so tightly. The girl squirmed and tried to escape with every muscle in her little body. She did not hold it against her daughter...poor Sweetie was in agony...she had no control. Cookie even pitied her, she knew this experience was mind-bendingly awful. But rather that sapping her resolve it steeled Cookie to make sure this terrible lesson would never have to be repeated. As much as it hurt to punish her baby with this terrible paddle it was insignificant compared to the pain of losing her to a traffic accident over a stupid game of Truth-or-Dare. Cookie was making sure Sweetie Belle would choose 'Truth' next time...in more ways than one.
Sweetie Belle was by now beyond begging. She could only babble and scream...the horrible pain was more than her rear end could contain, she felt it all over her body and it only got worse with every spank.
Somewhere in a part of her brain that remained conscious and not dominated by agony she made herself promises;
>I'm never gonna take something that isn't mine again!
>I'm never gonna let my friends dare me into something stupid!
>I'm never gonna drive a car underage!
>I'm never gonna lie to Mom & Dad again!
She wished she could go back in time and live by these promises 4 days ago, but it was impossible. This terrible spanking was like a mountain she had to cross but in her position, face down with eyes full of stinging tears, she couldn't even see the top.

With Sweetie's bottom a serious shade of hot pink Cookie knew it was time for a Grand Finale. She'd been working hard, smacking away at her daughter's little rear end but she'd saved some strength to make a final impression.

She paused.
Sweetie seemed to sense her true doom was at hand. This wasn't over...it was about to get worse.
Cookie Crumbles laid into Sweetie, spanking her hard and fast, more than once every second. She concentrated on the lower parts of Sweetie's cheeks, where it hurt the most. The girl twisted and tried to buck herself off mother's lap but she was held too firmly. All she could do was scream as fast as she could get air into her little lungs.

Sweetie Belle had no idea how long this final blast of punishment lasted; to her in felt like an eternity. To the Minnie Mouse clock on the wall it was less than 45 seconds...and then Cookie stopped. She released her grip on her daughter and rubbed her shoulders.
>"Alright, we're done now, baby."

Sapped of her strength, Sweetie Belle lay draped over her mother's lap and sobbed. Now that the terrible paddle had done its work there seemed no safer or more comfortable place in the world. All Sweetie wanted to do was stay there on Momma's lap and cry.
Cookie let her do it, and even when Sweetie had the strength to pull herself upright and curl up under her mother's chin she let her do it as long as she wished.

It was hours before Sweetie Belle wanted to come out of her room. She'd inspected her poor, tortured rump in the mirror and found it as red as one of the fruits on Apple Bloom's trees. She'd thought that was just a figure of speech...a heinie couldn't possibly get bright red, could it? But she'd learned today that it could and Sweetie had to admit she deserved it. She changed into her favorite loose yellow skirt, and a pair of panties she'd 'borrowed' from Rarity because they were looser and didn't chafe so much on her sore bottom.

When she finally did come out of her room the first person she sought out was her father. It was his car she had taken, and damaged, and she wanted to apologize and begin setting things right. She found him in the driveway.
>"D-Daddy...I'm really sorry."
Her father asked calmly, without pity or anger in his voice;
>"Sorry for what you did, or sorry Mom gave you a spanking?"
She answered quickly;
>"I'm sorry I took your key. I'm sorry I scratched your car and then lied about it. I'm sorry I almost let Rarity take the blame."
He accepted her honest apology, and pulled her to his side for a hug.
>"And I promise I'll pay you back for the repairs."
>"Oh, you most certainly will, little lady."
>"Is there anything I can do right now?"
Hondo thought about it for a moment and answered;
>"Actually there is.
He handed her a bucket and a damp rag.
>"You can clean up all the powdered sugar Pinkie Pie dusted in there."

END