Mocha hummed as she sat behind her wonderful little table, a clipboard held in her magic. Blu was sitting besides her, nibbling on some of the cookies one of the hopeful actors had brought them. She took one and gently nibbled it. “Well, a few of these ponies were pretty good.”
“Mmm hmmm,” Blu mumbled, his mouth filled with cookies.
She turned and glared. “Hey, less of the enjoying the perks, more of the work.”
“Sorry,” he smiled sheepishly. “That one mare, uhhhh... Diamond... Coat? She seemed nice.”
“I didn't like her,” Mocha said quickly, glaring at him. She saw the way that, that hussy had eyed her stallion. Blu was hers. He wasn't much, but she'd be bucked if she was going to let some Applewood hussy take him from her. She was the only Applewood hussy for him. And she wasn't a hussy. “How about... Prim Flower? He seemed great.”
“Yeah, but he was kinda... you know. This was a pretty big rehearsal and he freaked out pretty bad when the lights were on him because of a little sweat. I think we'll need more experienced ponies.”
She nodded. “Probably. Still, we should have enough after this to do it.”
Blu got up and headed for the door. “Good, let's go get some drinks and take a— eep!” His tail was grabbed and he was pulled back down.
“We're on a limited schedule. No drinks, eating or anything of that sort until after we get our extras selected. Understand?”
He groaned, but gave a small nod. “Fine,” he gave her a pouty look. She rolled her eyes.
“Fine, we can order take-out at least.”
“Yes!” He ran out, grabbing a small blue box and returning quickly. When you worked in Applewood as long as they had, you acquired more than a few take-out menus. Before long they had small containers of noodles and broccoli surrounding them as they went through the names.
“I don't think we'll be able to make this work,” Mocha finally said, sadly.
“I'm sure we can find a way.”
“We just need too many. The budget is too small. It'll take, at bare minimum if we were perfect, at least two months. More likely six, or even a year. We can't even afford to hire as many as we'd need for even two months.” She sighed again. “Maybe at minimum wage? But we need more money.”
“Well, you were telling me about investors, weren't you?”
She nodded. “Mmmm hmmm.”
“Well, maybe they got them. Call them, see if you can get more money. I mean, if the money doesn't go towards the film, where else would it go?”
She blinked and nodded. “Right!” She grabbed the phone and dialed the number quickly, humming to herself happily.
After a few moments there was an answer on the phone. “Hello? Who is this?” Flam's voice asked, sounding suspicious.
“Flam? What happened to your secretary?”
“Who?” There was some hushed talking in the background for a few moments before he came back. “Oh! She's on break.”
“On break? Now?” She glanced at the clock, it wasn't that late in the afternoon. How often did she take breaks? “Oh, well, I need to talk with you.”
“I assumed as such,” he said with a light chuckle. “What can I do for you, our marvelous little director?”
“It's about our budget. You were talking to an investor the other day, right? How did it go?”
“Err, hold on one second. Flim needs me.” There was hushed talking on the other end, before silence. Then he answered again. “Sorry, what was that?”
“Well, we've been going over our extras. Unfortunately, the budget just isn't enough. We need more of them if we're going to have enough. I wanted to know how the talk with the investors went? Will we be getting extra funds?”
There was a sad sigh from the other end of the line. “I'm afraid not. We tried everything we could, alas, he just asked for too much to invest.”
“What? What was he asking?”
“He wanted to bring in his own director, said he didn't trust you. We tried to sway him, told him how amazing you were. But he wouldn't hear of it. Sadly, in the end we had no choice but to let him and his considerable funds go.”
Mocha stopped for a second, staring across the room. They did that... for her? They gave up money, funds, even a chance at a more experienced director, just to keep her? “I... I don't know what to say.”
“I know, I know. But we have just too much faith in you, Miss Mocha. Besides, we stick by our own. We have no intention of letting you go for any sum of money.”
She gulped. “W-wow. That's... really touching.”
“Now, about these extras. We'll see what we can do, but there just isn't much money for the budget. Maybe if we--”
“N-no, don't worry about it,” she managed to barely choke out. “It's... it's fine. Really. I-I'll find a way to make it work.”
“Are you sure?”
“O-of course. Thank you. Sorry, to uhhh, bother you.” She hung the phone up and stared at Blu. “The investors wanted to replace me.”
“What?” the stallion asked, standing up. “They aren't--”
“Flim and Flam turned them down. Said without me, they won't do the movie.” She took a deep breath. “They... they are the two most loyal ponies... I just...”
He nodded and smiled. He looked back down over the scripts. “We'll make due then, without the money. You're the best director in town. If we work hard, it'll be great. Besides, I'm sure a lot of the other actors will love being in a small crew. More exposure.”
She nodded. “R-right. Good exposure. A few well developed characters over a whole crew. Yes. This can, this will work.” She looked down at the resumes, then perked up. “Yes, this CAN work. We're already a low budget movie. A small cast is just perfect. Nothing will get lost in the humdrum. I bet even with the low pay, most of them will be happy having all that exposure.”
Blu nodded as he flicked through them. “Of course. But first, we need to find who we can. It's almost time to begin production.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. Everything was going to work out. Besides, she had Blu and Serena with her. Those two could carry the movie, if need be. She'd make them if she had to.
------
The next few days passed in a blur. Almost every day she swore Flim and Flam were talking to some new investor or other. But nothing seemed to be coming of it. They all wanted to replace her, for some reason. Or the entire crew. She couldn't help but feel offended. This movie was becoming hers, pure and simple, and they wanted to gut it. She'd be bucked if she'd let them do that.
Though, that would have to wait. The first day of shooting was finally upon her. They'd barely been able to scrape up enough actors. The pay wasn't good, but the promise of only a few faces in the crowd was more than enough to sway them. However, she soon came to yet another problem in development.
“What do you mean there's no make-up artist?” Mocha asked, a low twitch in her eye. “You said you had everything under control!” she yelled at the twins.
“Errr, we didn't think it was important. T-things like that are expensive, they--”
“Of course they're expensive! They're important! Without make-up, well, look!” She gestured towards Blu. “Look, he's our main lead! Who's going to want to watch a movie where the lead looks like that?”
“Hey!”
“Sorry hon, but it's true. The blemishes, the messed up fur, all that--”
“Can't you do it?” Flim asked as the twins took a few steps back from her.
There was a twitch and she stared. “No. I cannot. I know a little about make-up, but not enough to do a movie.” She looked around the warehouse. It was a mess. Everything was just a mess. There were plenty of props, but they were all so... random. Just bits and pieces. They'd have to do almost everything themselves.
There was a low cough and one of the actors stepped forward. “Ummm... miss... Mocha?” he said, looked nervously downwards. “I ummm, I-I could do it. I... errr, at my old job I, err, I worked as assistant to our make-up artist. I-I'm not the best, but--”
“See? Right there, that's the kind of can-do attitude that we've come to expect from such great go getters,” Flim said quickly. His brother gave a quick nod.
“Perfect, looks like everything is settled,” Flam said quickly. “Now go, do your directing thing. We'll be trying to smooze another investor. We really think we've got them, this time.”
“What? Oh no you don't,” she said, turning back on them. “We've still got to talk about these sets. Most of them, well, they're so, they won't...” She tried thinking, then nodded. “They look more like they belong in a photo shop. We'll need new ones. Custom ones.”
The brothers blanched. “Err, well, w-we can see what we can do. For now, can't you just do it all in front of, err... a green screen? Add it all in later?”
She stared at them for a few more moments. She barely, just barely manage to avoid screaming. Barely. “We can do... some of the scenes. Some. Not all. We need set designers. Custom props. We need pretty much everything.”
The brothers shared a look, before grinning. “Of course. We'll get you everything you need. We'll have it all ready by next week, you have our word.”
“A proper set designer?” she asked.
“The best,” Flim said with a flourish.
“Props?”
“Whatever you need,” Flam said with a bow.
“We'll need somepony to add the effects for the green screen.”
“We'll find the best in all Applewood. Once we get a few investors lined up, well... there'll be no problem. You have our words,” Flim said with a nod of his head.
She took a deep breath. “Well, in that case it's all good.” She watched them leave, scowling.
Blu leaned up against Serena. “Do... you get a bad feeling from those two?”
“Huh? No, why? They seem fine to me.”
The stallion sighed. “I... guess. But... I mean, don't you think it's a bit odd?” he asked as Mocha started talking to the crew, getting them ready. “It feels like they aren't even really... caring about this production. All they seem to be doing is dumping everything off on Mocha and trying to get investors money.”
“I think they're just incompetent,” Serena said with a shrug. “Trust me, I've dealt with quite a few. They just don't understand what actually goes into making a movie. It's a good thing they have Mocha doing all the work, or this entire thing would collapse around them.”
“Yeah, but Mocha is doing all the work,” he muttered. “The script isn't even fully ready yet, but we're running into production. The time tables on this are just... ridiculous.”
Serena shrugged. “I've seen the script so far. I think she's doing a great job on it.”
“She is, but there's just too much...” Blue sighed. “She's being pushed too hard. It's not fair for her to have to--”
“Relax,” Serena said with a smile. “It'll be fine. She's just excited to be working on a film that's all hers. Let her have her moment, okay?” A wicked grin flashed on her lips. “Or are you afraid she's going to be swung off her hooves by those brothers?”
He hmphed and shook his head. “Of course not. I'm secret agent, Blueberry. I could get all the mares if I wanted.”
She snorted. “Can't believe she's calling you Blueberry.”
“Bite me, Mistress Venom.”
“I think I do in the second act.”
------
Mocha groaned as she collapsed on her bed, damp from her shower. She'd barely had the energy to take it and pat herself dry after. The first day of production had been brutal. They'd been able to use some of the sets, but most were useless. A few of the props too, but they needed so much more. They'd barely be able to do half the scenes with what they had. But they'd have new stuff in a week, proper things. That's all she had had to wait for. Besides, a week was almost no time in business like this.
She slowly crawled higher into her bed and wrapped her blankets around herself like a cocoon. There was just soooo much work to do. So many preparations to get done.
Worst of all, she was beginning to suspect this movie was going to be horrible. Completely and utterly. The dialogue was fine, the action was fine, everything was just 'fine'. But that was the problem. Viewers didn't want to see 'fine'. They expected perfection. Every line to be spoken correctly, every movement to flow naturally. Everything to be right. She had to let some scenes go by that, if they weren't so strapped, she'd never have let slid by. But, who knew? Maybe they'd get enough money to redo them.
It helped that most of the crew was at least experienced, even if they weren't famous yet. Most were just happy to have the exposure, without being lost in the crowd. She was just sorry that most of them would find their breakthrough role being in a sub par movie.
She glanced to the script and groaned, grumbling again. She had most of the... big stuff, figured out. It was all the connecting things she was having problems with. She had to make them exciting. But so far the dialogue was a bit jarring and rushed. It felt like it was just forced from one scene to the next. How she wished there was more time. She grumbled softly and closed her eyes.
She could worry about it later, that was future Mocha's problem. All she had to do was make it through the week. That was it. One week.
------
Mocha received a double helping of dread when she arrived at the warehouse a few days later. Namely because the police were stationed outside the building and it was sectioned off with yellow warning tape. She was the first one there, none of the rest of her crew had arrived yet. She stepped forward.
“What's going on? Are Flim and Flam alright? Did somepony break into the warehouse?” she asked the first officer she saw.
The pony glanced to her. “This is a crime scene. Who are you?”
“I'm Vanilla Mocha, the director,” she said proudly, before looking back to the warehouse. She gasped. “Wait, is the film okay? Oh no, oh no. Did someone steal it?” She tried to avoid hyperventilating. It wasn't much, but they'd worked so hard. Some of those scenes were brilliantly done, even if a lot of them were still pretty lack luster.
The officer stared for a few moments. “Wait, you've been using this warehouse?”
She nodded. “Yes, of course. We've been filming for the last week.”
“We're going to need you to come down with us,” she said as she stepped forward.
“W-what? Why? What's wrong?” The officer was looking at her in a way that made her uncomfortable and almost turn to flee. Alas, she'd already given her name.
“We'd like to ask you a few questions. Are you aware of who this warehouse belongs to?”
“Yes, F&F productions. They're the ones who hired me. They... what?”
The mare sighed. “I'm sorry to tell you, miss. But there is no F&F productions. This was all a scam. That warehouse was broken into and been used illegally for the last week. Who knows how much damage was done. We've already contacted the owner and they'll be back within a few hours to assess the damage.”
Mocha stared at the building for a few moments. “But... what? They... the contracts and... everything... what?”
“You'll need to come with us. There's a lot of investors who are going to want to talk with you about where their money went.”
The unicorn just stared at the warehouse, her mind struggling to make sense of everything that happened. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible. But the police certainly seemed real. She was led to a police carriage and set inside, the numbness spreading over her.
Her movie. Her beautiful, if rough, movie. Was it all for naught?