Developing easier alternatives by Pan

(18/12/2017)

https://desuarchive.org/mlp/thread/31472117/#q31567046

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As Flurry Heart was growing up, Twilight took it upon herself to advance one field she previously hated: corporal punishment. She had witnessed firsthoof some devastating spanking techniques, but a lot of them were only doable by extremely skilled wizards. "Luckily" for Twilight, her parents both had this kind of natural talent, as did Princess Celestia.

The idea came to her when studying the demographics of parenthood in Equestria. It seemed that fewer unicorns were having children, and single-parent families were on the rise. A pony who spent all day sorting mail or using their horn on an assembly line could hardly be expected to use some of the complicated spells Twilight's parents used. In theory, Cadance and Shining Armor could make use of these spells for Flurry Heart, but their jobs were mentally taxing enough that Twilight wasn't sure. She did know that Flurry was often in the care of foalsitters who did not have major magical talent.

Twilight got to work developing easier alternatives. This got on Spike's nerves like nothing else, since he was always the test dummy. Twilight would hone the spells in private, then announce she was testing one whenever Spike made a mistake anyway. Being treated like a naughty foal hurt his self-esteem, but whenever he told Twilight about this, she just said "the future of Equestria depends on us!"

Twilight's first goal was a way to put a colt or filly in the corner without having to watch them, or having them disobey the punishment without their caretaker finding out. She spent a week of spare time working on a low-effort spell, only for it to go nowhere or have bad side-effects. Spike's nose was literally stuck in the corner while Twilight leafed through books, all too slowly from what Spike could hear, looking for a way to undo it. 

She settled on a slightly more complicated enchantment. After a warm-up period, a small enchanted item like a button or a wad of paper would turn blue to indicate that contact was maintained with the object it was touching it. Blue gave way to red if contact was broken.

Twilight was proud of the spell, much easier than existing work. It was easy enough that upper-level unicorns at her school or even some of the less-prestigious institutions in Equestria could enchant many corner time objects as part of shop class. Merchants could sell them. They would be a low-cost way for a parent or foalsitter to lay down the law.

Spike watched all too many corners, nose firmly holding a button in-place, in the days Twilight spent perfecting the spell.

A good first effort, but Twilight wanted spells that anypony could cast. She thought of how she could have been thwarted as filly-Twilight. She knew that Flurry Heart sometimes stayed for a few days at Twilight's castle or with Twilight's parents. If Twilight had gotten spanked when she was that age, she might have hoped that the marks would fade by the time she went back home, so her parents wouldn't reprimand her again for something she was already punished for.

Twilight began researching ways to leave behind physical evidence of a spanking. No notes required. That kind of accountability isn't always possible to get with foals. She wasn't getting anywhere until Starlight suggested she research cutie mark magic. Nopony really knew why their friends' cutie marks glowed when the map was summoning them.

Some time in the lab later, Twilight had a basic spell that would make a pony's rump glow for hours after a spanking. The caster supplied some of the energy, and additional energy came from the spanking itself. It worked even on foals without cutie marks, and it could be adjusted to last a longer period of time in exchange for a dimmer glow. Even the dim glow was clearly visible in the dark.