Filly Guides Badge Hunting

Tag-a-long stuck to the plan flawlessly. She continued to work at Sugarcube Corner during the day and got plowed at Sweet Apple Acres at night. As Mac continued to slowly stretch her out, they were able to get more adventurous with their positions and eventually, he was able to get her off without hurting her. It felt better than she thought it would but not good enough to continue having sex once she knew for sure she was pregnant. Just because she was about to be a single mom didn’t make her a harlot.

She decided to save her bits for the purchases she would need to take care of her foal. She refused to place the burden onto her mother and despite Big Mac’s promises, she was wary about him not marrying her or paying foal support as promised.

Mac was a good, hard working and honest stallion, but his family was ‘land-rich and ‘money-poor.’ She supposed that free apples, baked goods and cider at the monthly value of what the foal support was worth would be just as good as getting bits. Maybe better… since it would take a huge financial burden off the household without making it too easy to waste bits.

As Tag-a-Long started to show, she made a point to get cheap dresses from Rarity to hide her foal-bump, and it worked. Only Apple Bloom and Rarity seemed to know that she was pregnant, and they were keeping the secret just fine and didn’t tease her about it. She couldn’t be sure that Sweetie Belle wouldn’t hear about it eventually, given that her fashionista older sister could be bad about gossip and rumors.

In a town as small as Ponyville, nothing stayed a secret forever.

* * *

4 Months Later

4 months passed by in the blink of an eye, Tag-a-Long having returned to school and continued to work at Sugarcube Corner part-time. Buying a pregnancy test from Barnyard Bargains was hard… given that the ponies were looking at her with a sense of thinly veiled disdain.

Filty Rich stopped her at the exit to the store. “If you need anything, anything at all special ordered… I’ll get it for you at cost.”

That took her aback as she blinked at him. “That’s very kind of you, Mr. Rich. Thank you.”

He nodded at her with sympathy. “It’s not easy being a single mom at your age. Not every pony will support you on your decision but as the General Store owner I feel obligated to help you as a pillar of the community.”

Tag-a-Long stiffened. Curtly, she asked. “How many ponies know?”

He winced. “I couldn’t tell you a number. Diamond Tiara overheard Apple Bloom talking about it. I don’t believe she told anypony else, but she demanded that we help you as much as we could justify. I think she’s still trying to prove that she’s changed. Not easy to erase the image of being a bully.”

She nodded. “I appreciate your help. My mom doesn’t know yet… I’m going to tell her tonight.”

She ran home as quickly as she could while 4 months pregnant and wondered how bad this would be by the 11-month mark. Taking the pregnancy test was easy enough… just pee on the stick and wait 5 minutes for the two pink lines to appear. Easy enough to manage with having to pee every hour on the hour…

* * *

The Filly Guide meeting to show the results was going to be that night so she put on her uniform and winced at how obviously pregnant she was in the unaltered uniform.

The other scouts showed up on time and gawked at her, not bothering to hide their shock. Apple Bloom knew what to expect and was still shocked by how pregnant she looked in her uniform. Oddly enough, sitting down in the chair lessened the appearance of her foal bump, further hidden by all the note taking supplies to record the minutes of the meeting.

Guidance Counselor came out of the kitchen with snacks and called the meeting to order.

“All right, Filly Scouts. Show me the proof of successful breeding.”

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo all showed recently taken time stamped color pictures of Sweetie’s kittens, Apple Bloom’s piglets and Scootaloo’s tortoise eggs as well as a detailed log of what they did and how long they spend taking care of the pairing.

Guidance looked at her own daughter smugly. “And your proof?”

Tag-a-Long pushed away the rolling table holding the meeting notes and trotted over to her mother, holding the pregnancy test in her mouth… not that she needed it with her belly swaying back and forth like a wrecking ball about to destroy the living room.

With an equally smug grin, she replied. “Ta-Da! I bred myself.”

Guidance sputtered. “Wha… WHAT! How could you do this!”

She cringed; not sure she should be fighting with her mother in front of the other filly scouts.

“You told me that I could breed anything that I could do so safely so long as I didn’t bring a pet inside the house and that I had proof. You also told me to problem solve. What else did you expect?”

Enraged, her mother responded. “I expected you to volunteer at Fluttershy’s cabin and assist in feeding the animals… and then pick a mating pair to take care of and earn the badge while helping Fluttershy!”

The entire house went silent. Tag-a-Long whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

Embarrassed and ashamed, her mother whispered. “By the rules, I wasn’t supposed to give you ideas to make it easier because that wouldn’t have been fair to the other scouts. But come on… Fluttershy has more animals by herself than nearly the whole town combined. You couldn’t figure out that helping her was the easiest way to earn the badge?”

Tag’s ears folded back as she returned quietly to her seat to update the meeting notes. Once everything was caught up, the badges were handed out to all 4 fillies and the other 3 left very quickly afterwards. No pizza party that night…

* * *

A few hours later, Guidance was sitting in her favorite chair, drinking her favorite tea and trying to wrap her head around just how badly she had failed her daughter by failing to install uncommon wisdom and thinking outside of the box.

She heard the sounds of a fresh cup of tea being left on her chair-side table and she sighed.

“Tag-a-Long… we need to talk.”

Her daughter quietly moved to the couch and waited for her mother to start.

“I didn’t handle this very well and I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to shame you, but I also didn’t want you to repeat my mistakes.”

Tilting her head, Tag responded. “What mistakes? You’re a good mom compared to half the mares in town.”

Guidance sighed again and took a sip of tea. “How old am I, Tag?”

Tag-a-Long looked up at the ceiling… lost in thought. “About 26, I think. Why?”

Guidance nodded. “And how old are you?”

Tag’s confusion was obvious. “12… Oh… OH!!! You got pregnant when you were 13 and had me when you were 14…”

Guidance sighed. “You are the joy of my life, Taggy, but I had you way too young. I wanted to give you more than I’ve managed and now you’re following in my hoofsteps. I’m just so angry that I wasn’t more supportive and that I kept secrets far longer than I should have. I guess I thought it was obvious that I had you young, but fillies and colts don’t think about how old their parents are. Your father was a colt about my age when I got pregnant so naturally, we didn’t get married, and I never got any foal support from him. Blessed Celestia, I don’t think I ever even told him that he was the father. I should probably tell him eventually.”

Tag hopped off the couch and gave her mother a hug. “It’ll be okay… the stallion who got me pregnant promised to marry me when I turn 18 or give me foal support if he can’t marry me. Plus, I’ve been working at Sugarcube Corner all summer full-time and then part-time since school started up again. We will have everything we need for the foal. I promise that I won’t be a burden.”

Guidance smiled at her daughter. “I guess I didn’t fail you completely. Who’s the father?”

She lowered her head. “I said I’d keep it a secret. Like I said, he’s a stallion. He doesn’t want to get in trouble, and I don’t want him in trouble either. Once he marries me, it won’t matter as much… just got to wait 6 years.”

Guidance nodded. “I understand and I support it, but I do need to know who it is. Apparently, I’m too good at keeping secrets so you can trust me to keep yours.”

With a shrug, she conceded that it made sense. “The father of my foal is Big McIntosh Apple…”

Without saying a word, Guidance Counselor went pale as the blood drained from her face, and she left to go to the kitchen and returned to the living room shortly after with a bottle of hard cider. She downed the whole bottle without stopping to breathe.

Tag had never seen her mother drink like that. “Mom? Is there a problem?”

Guidance felt a single tear roll down her cheek.

“Sweetheart… Big Mac is your father.”

* * *