Desperate Measures

Guin led the guard to the station, rather than letting the guard lead her. Aside from the fact that she knew the area better, he was making sure she didn't stray from the path. As soon as she arrived, she demanded to talk to Yellow Line, and was placed in a small room with a table, two chairs and a mirror. She waited ten minutes before he came in.

"I was expecting you to wait a little longer before coming forward," he said, sitting down across the table from her. "That you've arrived so early tells me that there's something important that you want to say."

Guin leaned forward. Her face was akin to stone. "You're in charge of making sure that this family is under proper care, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm here to stop you from destroying it. I will take the hit."

Yellow furrowed his brow. "That's not how this works. Nopony's going to hit anypony else."

"It's a figure of speech," said Guin. "A metaphor, if you will."

"Okay. I'm not sure what you mean, but please, continue."

"First and foremost, those other two kids have a dad that loves them and takes good care of them. They're properly fed and taken care of by their biological father. He's never abused them in any way."

"He was charged previously with neglect..."

"He'd just lost his wife at that time. When he recovered from that, he did everything he could to make them into the best kids they could be. Sure, he had some hiccups along the way, but he was a single parent."

Yellow line clicked his pen. "Tell me about their mother."

"She died before I was able to form memories. I only ever saw pictures."

"Their stepmother, I mean."

"That's me."

Yellow Line looked up at her through his eyebrows. "Be serious."

"I am."

"Young lady, there's no way you're married. There's a law governing age of consent in Equestria."

"Most of Equestria," corrected Guin. "Everypony knows that it's eighteen through most of Equestria, but sixteen in Las Pegasus."

"Right. And you're what, eleven?"

"Twelve. And here, there is no age of consent for marriage."

Yellow Line turned to the mirror. "Is that right?"

There was a click from the other side of the glass, then through the wall came a voice. "Yeah, he's allowed to marry her as long as he has the permission of her legal guardian."

Yellow shrugged. "Okay. So, when you said that their stepmom was home, you meant that you were home, and now your children are unsupervised because you're here."

"Kurt's fourteen. He's legally allowed to babysit."

"Fair enough..." he leaned back. "At some point, I want to discuss how it feels to have a stepson that's older than you are, but right now, I'd like to return to our topic. The kids are well cared for?"

"Yes. There was a slight dip in their care two weeks ago, but that was because of the wedding and funeral. We have since recovered, no thanks to that unicorn you sent."

"I'm sorry... Funeral?"

"My grandmother died. That's why all of this is happening to begin with."

"My condolences. I bet that made the wedding difficult. That's supposed to be a happy time in a young mare's life. Why didn't you postpone?"

"Because once my gran died, I had no legal guardian."

There was a pause, and Yellow held up a hoof while he considered what she had just said.

"Excuse me." He stood up and walked out of the room, and came back five minutes later. "The next part of this conversation does not leave this room. It's just between you and me, it cannot be used against you or your husband in a court of law; this is a candid conversation. In this moment, I'm not a welfare officer. Do you understand this?"

Guin nodded.

"I'm going to pose a scenario to you. If I'm right, just tell me."

"Okay."

Yellow tented his hooves. "Your gran never consented to your marriage. The fact that you didn't bother to separate the funeral from the wedding is proof of that. You mention that her death kicked off this whole thing. If she was your legal guardian, which my paperwork suggests, then her death would leave you at the mercy of the legal system. It is at this point that along comes Mr. Ass. Friend of the family?"

"My best friend's dad."

"Right. He decides that what's best for you is to come to his house, where you are given a place to stay. Basically, he impromptu adopts you. However, he knows that it won't be long before the state comes in to try and claim you, so he forges your gran's signature consenting to your marriage, making it legal for you to stay with him. Am I close?"

"That's right."

Yellow settled into his chair. "This can't be used in a court; I already informed you of that. But I need you to know, and say back to me, that forging your gran's signature to cheat the system was illegal. Repeat that back to me."

"By forging my gran's signature, Jack committed fraud to keep me from being chewed up by the adoption system or left to rot in an orphanage."

Yellow smirked. "Close enough. You seem to already know that what happened was wrong." He flipped up a page on his clipboard, then let it fall back. "Are you familiar with the word "sex?""

"I am."

"Have you ever performed it?"

"Yes."

"With Jack?"

"That's right."

"Did he ever force you into it?"

"No. In fact, he refused to teach me about it several times. It was Red Tape that forced me to do it."

Yellow's eyes shot open. "Guin, this is the first I'm hearing of this. This has to go on the record." He picked up his clipboard. "Tell me about that exchange."

"Red Tape came to the house and, after hearing that I had been married, rather than adopted, wanted to prove that we weren't married for real. He said we couldn't be married as long as we weren't having sex, and he was going to go grab a warrant to check for my virginity, and that if I was still a virgin when he came back, that he'd have Jack arrested, and the three of us would be forced to go into state care. I didn't have a choice; I had to do it. Jack never forced me, he was always trying to prevent it until I forced his hoof, and afterward, he was always telling me to slow down and that I wasn't ready to try the more extreme stuff yet."

Yellow sighed and lowered his head. "That doesn't need to go on the record, after all." He raised his gaze to Guin and then stood up. "I'm going to have to ask you to wait here, again."