//------------------------------// // Act III, Scene 9: Empathizing With The Devil // Story: If You Give a Little Love... // by Quillamore //------------------------------// She’d barely had any contact with them in her entire life, but somehow, Coco felt like she knew when it’d be over. As she passed the Orange family members in her increasingly shrinking Manehattan streets, they would still pause, if only for a moment. Most wouldn’t even say anything around her, but she knew their types now. If somepony really wanted to take advantage of her, they wouldn’t let a few weeks of defiance get in their way. Even as the recruitment letters dried up, something in her told her it was just their way of changing tactics. They’d never made any direct moves against her other than that one time in Cameo’s store, yet her paranoia against them flared. That was, inevitably, how she knew that one of them had to be behind the false Pink Lady letters and how she knew that if she really wanted to pose as one of them for Suri’s sake, they’d let her. It almost would’ve been easier to just take that offer in the first place back then. To see what they had done to the ponies in their care, refuse their ways of life, and become so much of an enemy in their eyes that they would never speak to her again. But for now, all she had to rely on were words and warnings to fill in the gaps that she was still somehow compelled to fill in about how any family could really work that way. Because the hated, dreaded thoughts of guilt would surge through her mind again without her knowing it. They’d tell her that forgiveness came in stages, that now that she was at least trying to help Suri, she was in the midst of crossing a slippery slope. That she should cross it if she really wanted to heal herself. Finding a new enemy, to them, would mean one would have to fade away. “You’ve been wrong before,” she would think to herself almost against her will. The night before Bambi would infiltrate the meeting, the doubts would make their intentions clearer than ever. Ever since she’d considered letting Suri have another chance, they’d become more and more idealistic about everypony, which at least brought the paranoia down a little. But as Coco sprawled over the cloudy blue covers, kept awake for the first night in over a month, she wanted to grit her teeth with every uncertainty that came into her mind. Because this time, they weren’t about herself. They were about somepony else entirely. “Forgiveness is a virtue. Isn’t there somepony you’ve forgotten to forgive?” Turning in her bed with a thump, she knew exactly who that pony would be, because deep down, she’d wondered about it a bit herself. If having a good family had done Babs so well, she’d thought, and if continuing that bond would only take her down a better path, then what did that have to say about the really bad ponies out there? They didn’t all come from bad families, but those that did, if they’d just had a chance… “You were played once. You focused all your anger on Suri once, when you should’ve just resented her for what she did to you, not for what she did to you both. You held her responsible for something she didn’t even know about, while letting the real culprit slip by. You always mistook pawns for the real deal.” Because that was the real reason she feared the Oranges, and the reason she hadn’t resisted when Bambi told her not to go. If things were as bad as Bambi said they were there, she could end up going weak again and forgetting everything she’d fought for. Warping everything her friends had taught her into thinking that everypony had some alibi for being the way they were. “What if it’s just like then? If a pony is a product of their experiences, is there really a reason to hate them?” “No,” she just kept muttering to herself, trying to fight the corruption in her head as best she could. And that’s when she knew something else: Bambi could tell all along. Even in the few months she’d known her, she’d picked up on Coco’s habits, knew the traps she could fall into. More than anything within the family itself, maybe that was why Bambi couldn’t let Coco fall to them: because she knew how naïve she still was underneath everything. She let the last thought infect her mind, knowing that she’d try to fight it with everything she had. Knowing, too, that she’d heard it before deep down. “If they never existed, then would the Mosely Orange you know disappear too?” **** For once, at least this secret was easy to hide. Coco figured that as long as the dialogues stayed in her head and only in her head, she’d have at least some chance of keeping herself together. After all, it wasn’t like ponies tended to ask about strange thoughts their family members had from time to time, anyway. They’d notice her tossing and turning in bed occasionally, but Bambi and Babs had never known her as a sound sleeper to begin with. Most of all, unlike when her life had been invaded before, not much was at stake as long as she kept it to herself. Just hours before Bambi was set to go into Orange territory and find the new Pink Lady, another thought came into Coco’s mind, this time not as hostile as the ones that’d plagued her before. In the past week, she was steadily being waned off the night shift, with her former tasks being delegated to Suri and the other costume assistants. Scene and Wright had told her that the change was fairly normal for head costume designers, and she certainly appreciated the shorter hours. But strangely enough, Suri was nowhere to be found. Even though Coco had been trying to be nicer to her over the past few days, in her head, she still couldn’t help but curse the mare. She was more than aware that she’d have to take over for the assistants in these cases, but she also wasn’t quite sure whether a filly Babs’ age should be left home alone. She would’ve traded all the other nights this week to get this one off, the one she knew for sure Bambi wouldn’t be getting back until late. “Don’t stress about it so much,” Babs told her, stopping by the theatre after school as she always did. “I can handle things, ya know. Besides, Apple Bloom can stay home alone now, and she’s younger than I am.” “She also wandered into a fire swamp when nopony was looking,” Coco countered. “That sounds like something you’d pull, too.” “Come on! Manehattan doesn’t even have any of those. You’re playing with me.” Coco turned her head all across the costuming office, focusing on the posters and glossy photographs in a feeble attempt to disguise her stifled laughter. “Maybe I am,” she said in a low voice. “But I still wish I could be at home with you instead of, well, here. Working late into the night, well, it doesn’t bring up the best memories in me.” With a slight nervous smile, she added, “Plus, if I walk out the wrong door, ponies ask me so many questions. I swear, some ponies these days don’t even go to watch the plays, they just sit and wait there to see if their favorite theatre celebrity shows up.” “So you’re saying that you actually have tons of fans now?” “I guess so,” Coco replied sheepishly. “Though they’re really more interested in how I can keep up a charade so long than anything else. Once they realize I’m not some big Bridleway crime-buster, it’ll die down. I just happen to be the trend they’re into these days, I guess.” Sure enough, it’d been almost a month since the first opening night incident, and newspapers were still steadily streaming in with their interviewers and cameras. Bambi had managed to get the paper she worked on to ease up on her a bit, at least, but once that happened, she swore at least two more showed up in their place. At least now, with the scandal dying down a bit, most of the interviews were actually about her fashion work for once. But if there was one thing she knew, it was that once the trial got underway, they’d come back with questions she wouldn’t want to answer for anything. Somehow, though, after an hour of waiting, some theatre employees managed to find Suri outside a hotel, wearing probably the most garish outfit Coco had ever seen. If nopony knew any better, they would’ve mistaken her for one of the actresses on set. “I thought I’d contribute to the investigation,” Suri explained, “since it does involve me and all. It really doesn’t feel right to have Bambi do all the work.” By now, the crew was used to the Suri procedure, and Remy took Babs over to look at the hairstyling department. While Coco was at least trying to go easy on the mare, she still couldn’t blame Babs for fearing her after her experiences—and couldn’t help but still fear her a little herself. That being said, there was only so much dread she could summon as she watched the other designer strut around in an outfit that’d probably been lifted straight from the costume closet and that emitted a glow like a unicorn horn dusted with glitter. Noticing the glares and chuckles she was getting from the crew, she instantly retorted back, “This was the only thing I could find, okay? I’m not going to break the bank on mission disguises I’ll only use once. And even if I would’ve worn something fancier, my aura of grace would still be too much for those Oranges to bear.” Even amidst her bragging, though, Coco could still see a slight look of disappointment in her former boss’s eyes. For a pony who’d always aspired to become an urban gentlemare, being outright rejected at the door by the best connections she could have had couldn’t have been an easy thing to deal with. Acting in such an exaggerated way was probably the only thing she could do to cope. “I hope Bambi has some darn good luck on her side, because that place is packed tight,” Suri muttered to Coco under her breath, cutting off her act for a moment. “If I couldn’t pull off sneaking in there, there’s no way a goody two-hooves like her could.” “Thanks, I guess,” Coco responded. “But she did sneak into that art museum party that one time. I think she’s got it covered.” When Suri shot her a glare for mentioning the most humiliating night of her life, Coco could only facehoof in response. To her surprise, though, rather than yelling at her, the pink earth pony instead gave her a weary smile. “Nopony really remembers that night anymore, anyway,” Suri answered with a sigh. “Maybe it’s time I should forget about it, then.” It was probably one of the few times Coco had seen genuine sadness in her eyes, and it certainly wasn’t as dramatic as she’d always expected it would be. Just a glance at the ground, a few tiny beginnings of tears, and then the mask would already come back on. She was an expert at it by now on levels Coco could only dream of. With one last uncertain glance, Suri looked at her and said, “Cameo told me a couple nights ago she wanted to see you two tonight. Looks like you’re stealing her away from me, too.” In that moment, Coco could no longer tell if the mare was teasing or hiding from her sorrows. The façade was now complete. “I’m just gonna give you one last order,” Suri said with a confident glance. “Never join those Oranges if you want to make it out of this city alive. This wasn’t the first meeting I tried to go to, okay. Last time, I actually got in. And if you thought I was hard on ponies…” Coco already figured out the gist of what she was going to say next: “…that’s nothing compared to them.” **** “Suri had an alliance with the Oranges?” Cameo asked incredulously. “I never heard anything about that.” Coco had never exactly intended to recount the incident to her, but the other mare had taken a particular interest in the false Pink Lady case and soon sought out every tiny piece of information she could about it. Seeing as the papers didn’t even cover it and Silver Phoenix largely kept the letter incident to themselves, not wanting another outcry, Coco just so happened to be the main source of research Cameo could find. “I thought this was supposed to be bonding time,” muttered Babs. “And here my two mothers are, solving mysteries without me.” “Now, we never said you couldn’t get involved,” Coco teased, gently booping her daughter’s nose before turning to Cameo. “But still, why interrupt an evening of fun with your long-lost daughter and all for something like this? Are you concerned about somepony else taking your identity or—“ Cameo bowed her head slightly in contemplation and put a hoof to her chin, almost as if she’d considered this question for quite a while herself. “No, that’s not it,” she began. “That part of my life is over and done. However, the fact that the Oranges have been trying to threaten the theatre is distressing in several ways. Either they want to recruit you so badly that they’d make you run into their embrace like this or they really haven’t learned their lesson from before. If that last one is true, this could affect far more ponies than just yourselves.” As much as Babs tried not to meddle with the situation with Coco’s job, which didn’t really involve her to begin with, within a few minutes, she too was contemplating the situation. Though the Oranges weren’t something she particularly liked thinking about, if doing so meant freeing Coco from the pain she’d been feeling lately or helping other ponies do the same, she was up for it. “Is there any hard and fast evidence the Oranges really did do this?” Babs questioned, only now noticing the official-looking documents strewn all across Cameo’s velvet floors. “Or is Bambi just goin’ into that messed-up place for nothin’?” “I took the first letter over here for Cameo to borrow a few days ago,” Coco explained. “There’s been another one, but it was basically repeating what this one said. At first, I even thought it was from a different pony, since the stationery on this one was different. But Cameo was able to recognize both of the papers as having designs only the Orange family uses.” “I’ve watched over that whole family for a while now,” Cameo acknowledged. “I still go to some of their meetings every month or so to catch up on their affairs, just in case they are up to anything. I will admit, a lot of those were spent spying on Mosely so I could end up figuring out the best way to beat him for that whole opening night mess. But since I don’t technically go to all of them, either Suri and I were never at the same meeting or she found a way to make herself unnoticeable. By that time, I was getting to know her, so I would have at least noticed if she made herself conspicuous.” Still intrigued by the documents, Babs stared down at the floor, trying to make out all of them. The papers were filled with all sorts of convoluted recordings and edits of the Orange family tree, one that had become increasingly muddled throughout the past twenty years. “So either way, she’s been hidin’ information from everypony for who knows how long,” she muttered. “Figures she would.” “For now, she’s not the one who matters,” Cameo continued to explain. “Plus, it seems awfully strange that she would hide evidence that could determine a case that she herself is involved in. So with all that considered, as long as we find the culprit as soon as possible, she may never need to be questioned about any of this. The way I see it, we’ll only use her if we come to a standstill about who it could be. Agreed?” Both Coco and Babs raised their hooves, with Babs too intrigued by the situation to really question the measure. It was a bit above her head already, and she knew it was only going to get even more complicated from there, but she couldn’t deny that it was at least a bit cool to see her biological mother take charge of a mystery. “So how are all these papers gonna help us?” Babs asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to just trace the stationery down or somethin’?” “Unfortunately, the Oranges shift theirs quite a bit, so it can’t be traced to a particular pony. More like different versions of the same thing used for similar purposes. But these family documents should at least narrow down the suspects to a decent-sized group until we get more information from tonight’s meeting.” Most of the documents were almost decaying themselves, with one pony’s name always crossed off the sheets. However, as the records got newer and newer, not only were there more X marks across the names, but the Oranges themselves began to splinter into two different sections. The official family trees would list them all together, but most other lists set them into strictly defined groups that were constant from sheet to sheet. “These are the Orange divisions,” explained Cameo. “To understand this family, you have to realize it’s more like a business than anything else. Ponies can get fired, and depending on what job you do, you fall into a different category. Most ponies are placed in either the business category or the recruitment one, which are basically all socialites who drum up attention for the family. The businessponies tend to have more pressure on them and are more concerned about reputation, therefore—“ “It had to have been the other division who did it,” Babs finished. “It’d be too hard for the business one to cover up, otherwise.” “Plus, the recruitment division is expected to perfect their techniques even in foalhood. It wasn’t always as intense as this, but if you look at the family trees, half of the Orange line has either been expelled from the family or chose to leave willingly. This is why, more and more often, threats can seem like the only way to bring unwilling ponies over to their side.” Both of the other ponies stared at the names that had been covered with red ink, almost as if they were already lost to history itself. Some were so forgotten that even the ink itself had begun to fade away, but one still remained particularly fresh and shone in the light. They didn’t even need to read what was left of the name to tell who it was, especially when they saw Valencia’s records directly beside it. “So, if they’re running out of members to begin with,” Coco wondered, “why keep expelling ponies? If they’re so concerned about bloodlines, why haven’t they realized that the recruits will eventually outnumber them?” “They have,” Cameo replied with a quick sigh, “but even without banishing ponies, they’d still be trapped in much the same issue. The Oranges have never been able to produce as many potential heirs as the Apples have, and the stallions in particular have”—she turned to Babs and noticed the confused look in her eyes—“well, let’s just say they have smaller families. That was why they established the recruitment system in the first place—as a last resort just in case that was to occur.” “So what does all this have to do with the letters?” Babs asked. Cameo then set aside the sheet filled with businessponies and shoved the recruitment list closer to the other two. “Well, it narrows down the suspects, at least. Even within the recruitment section, different ponies still have different tactics. There are certain ones we can definitely rule out just because they wouldn’t stoop so low to begin with. Take this one, for instance.” She placed her hoof on a photograph of a yellow earth stallion with an orange mane. “Bergamot Orange, recruiter. He married into the family, and he tends to let a pony know up front what they’re getting into. Fairly nice stallion compared to the others, and definitely wouldn’t use scare tactics. Now his wife, on the other hoof—“ Her gaze turned to a mare with distinctive purple fur that Coco remembered all too well. “That’s the one who first tried to get me to join a few weeks ago,” she spoke. “Belladonna, the one from your store.” “Now, she would be the one to do something like this,” Cameo continued. “She’s fairly soft-spoken in conversation, or at least acts that way, but she wouldn’t have those sorts of problems in writing. Considering she also happens to be Mosely’s mother, and happens to have established an interest in Coco in the past, I’d say she’s our prime suspect.” Silence swept throughout the room, but not due to the revelation. Instead, all three ponies were deep in thought, trying to reconcile the facts of the case with what they remembered about the mare when they first met her. “I dunno,” Babs muttered hesitantly, “she still doesn’t seem like somepony who’d do this. She sure made herself seem different from Mosely back there, and this is the type of thing he’d do. She tried to convince us that she changed and all.” Cameo remained silent for just a bit longer, trying to reconcile her grudge for her mother-in-law with her daughter’s divided feelings. For a moment, Coco and Babs both expected her to go back into the angrier mode she developed back during opening night. Instead, however, she kept the utmost of composures. “From what little I know of both of you, I know that you’ve both gone through a lot in your lives, and both of you have felt as though you were worse ponies for it. That in and of itself might give you more of a tendency to forgive. But if there’s one thing I know about Oranges, it’s that they never change. Changing goes against their very being, in a way.” She gave a single sad sigh before saying, “The most dangerous phrase in Equestria is ‘we’ve always done it this way.’ A wise pony once said that, and unfortunately, once the Oranges faced their first disgrace hundreds of years ago, that phrase became their one refuge. They decided that if they just went about their lives as though the scandal never occurred, everypony would forget about it, and it worked. For everypony except themselves. But once they started applying that phrase to that situation, it wouldn’t be long before they stopped thinking of change altogether. A lot of the ponies weren’t even expelled from the family because they committed crimes, but because they suggested change.” “So you think that means an Orange can’t even reform themselves?” Babs questioned. “Yes, because it goes against every principle they’ve been indoctrinated to believe. But even if Belladonna seems like the prime suspect, there are other possibilities.” Throughout the night, she pointed to many ponies, going through their names and specialties so fast that Babs and Coco could barely keep up with them all. Even the current family matriarch, Midsweet Orange, was added to the suspect list, because according to Cameo, her deceptive capabilities could match even Mosely’s at times. But even then, there was one pony left out of the list that the two still thought about: Valencia Orange, the businessmare who remained fiercely loyal to the system in spite of its changes, the one who’d clung to her brother through everything. But as they went down the list, the possibility of her having done it went away more and more. She had too much at stake: a lawyer husband, a business to run, a family to manage. Even she wouldn’t take those sorts of risks to bring back a pony who in all likelihood could never be changed. So they spent another hour considering those same suspects, without a single suspicion of a more complex plan. Finally, at about eight ‘o clock, Cameo pulled out a thick book filled with coupons, turned the page, and called the two of them to hail a cab to a real night of fun. As the three arrived in front of the biggest stores any of them had ever seen, some remnants of the thoughts entered Coco’s mind. What if he was just another pawn? one last voice asked as they prepared to enter the building. For once, Coco wasn't quite sure she could answer that.