Some hearts, they just have it so easy!

The short answer? Until a few days ago she didn't WANT to.

Now for the longer version: Miss Cheerilee is the product of a Canterlot High education, among the best in the world, which tries to teach their students the razor edge of development in every field the student is remotely interested in, and a few core subjects that some of them are NOT interested in: including 'sex ed'. From this Miss Cheerilee learned that you can only actually get inseminated for pregnancy for about 1-3 days at the peek of your estrus cycle, which just happened to be the days of the month you naturally would be most horny, but if you were absolutely ruthless about controlling when you have sex with your partner you can keep from getting knocked up without using protection and this she has done.

Then, as she was closing up the school for spring break, which just happens to coincide with the first and most intense two weeks of 'the breeding season' in Ponyville, granny smith came in and snarled "Sit Down!" in a tone of voice that brooked no argument.

"How long have you been screwing around with Big Macintosh young lady?" Granny Smith demanded as soon as Miss Cheerilee was seated.

Miss Cheerilee was about to retort that it was none of Granny Smith's damn business how long or who for that matter Big Mac had sexual relations with when she suddenly was struck by a revelation, it WAS and IS Granny Smith's Business. Big Mac's parents died when he was only 13, his mother, Granny Smith's eldest daughter, from complications of the birth of his 'baby' sister Applebloom and his father a week later in a suicide: and from that day to this Granny Smith was his only parental figure. Moreover Granny Smith was the matriarch of the Ponyville branch of the Apple Clan a position of intense power, respect, and responsibility in 'Traditional' Earth Pony culture: and you didn't get much more 'traditional' than the Apples.

"A few months." Miss Cheerilee hedged knowing about the 'Year of Proving' and that they were already well past it.

"Don't you lie to ME little Miss Canterlot Schoolmarm! Try that again and gods help me I will tan your hide!" the elderly but deceptively athletic mare snarled.

Miss Cheerilee looked at the calendar on the wall and did some quick mental math. "A year, five months, and 17 days." She replied with total honesty.

"I'm goin' to pretend I didn't hear that 'a year' part, and if anyone ever asks so are you. You have 13 days and six months for my grandson to get you with child, if it hasn't happened by then I will tell him he has to call it off with you, and if I find out you have kept seeing each other after that by the powers I will have BOTH your guts for garters!" The fiery old woman declared, looking Miss Cheerilee hard in the eyes.

Cheerilee was about to snap back that if that was the way his family felt about it and he went along with it she didn't want him ANYWAY, but again, she paused. Big Macintosh was the most stable and lasting relationship she had had in 9 years, and the only one where she really felt safe around the stallion she had chosen. Sure, he was perhaps less adventurous in bed than she was, sure, getting him to TALK was like pulling teeth, and yes, his grandmother had just threatened to beat her for lying and kill her if she kept seeing her grandson after the prescribed time limit for a pregnancy, but this was Ponyville, and she had chosen this as her place of residence and work specifically because it was a 'traditional' town, and while what she had been interested in was the attitude that what consenting, usually married, adults did behind closed doors was no pony's business but the couple themselves, there was the flip side to that: that making sure couples were compatible before they made things 'permanent' with a wedding was EVERYPONY'S business.

"Okay." Miss Cheerilee said softly into the waiting silence.

"Eh? Speak up for your self girl!" Granny Smith queried.

"I SAID 'OKAY'!" Miss Cheerilee had hollered back, then continued in a more normal tone. "I will respect your family's traditions and be glad of the extra time you have given me, doing everything in my power to beat the deadline you have set and if I fail ceasing to see Big Macintosh." She stated firmly, resolving to win Big Mac's hoof in marriage at any cost.

"Remember, I didn't give you a seconds worth of 'extra time' you two were just courting and didn't actually have sex with each other until Hearts and Hooves day of last year, not a moment before, and no one is ever to hear different from either of you as long as you live." Granny Smith reminded her heading for the exit.

Hoof on the door she gave Miss Cheerilee one final nugget of information to chew on. "My grandson has had a hard life, he could use some true happiness, and I hope that you are the mare to give it to him. It's high time he settled down and he could do a lot worse than you Miss Cheerilee." Then with surprising swiftness for a woman of her age and supposed infirmity she was gone.

That was three days ago, and tonight, the first that the 'Winds of Love' had blown out of the Everfree, Miss Cheerilee had come and lain with her lover, but this was different, because tonight, for the first time of her and Big Macintosh's relationship: she had done so at the very peak of her estrus cycle, and though she could only hope and pray right now, not know for sure for some weeks yet, the CUP of jizz he had splattered her insides with provided enough sperm that a lucky 59 Gametes, out of the millions that left his testicles, made it to the holding area in her Fallopian Tube where they would wait to make a run at her egg when it came that way in a few days time, and one very special and fantastically lucky member of those 59 survivors would go through Capacitation at just the right time to connect, and swim JUST fast enough to beat out the other 9 which sensed the same magic moment, which would, 11 months to the day after this blissful night, result in a beautiful baby pony. A lot would happen in that time, Big Mac would formally propose, get into a knockdown drag out fight with his sister, be shot with a crossbow and falsely accused of **** on the strength of some circumstantial evidence and bad police work, but it has often and truly been said that the course of true love never did run smooth, and as she lies here concentrating on keeping her genitals manifested to give more time for Big Mac's sperm to get where they need to be, Miss Cheerilee is praying hard to every god and goddess in the Equestrian Pantheon that she will be a nursing mother in a years time and be married to the stallion now lying beside her and nuzzling her neck, at least one of which will be granted her.