//------------------------------// // Act IV, Scene 4: Pulled Back In // Story: If You Give a Little Love... // by Quillamore //------------------------------// To Cameo’s credit, the scheme she’d devised with Mosely’s letter took at least two days to unravel. What little contact she’d had with Coco during that time consisted of simple briefing, letting the younger mare in on the situation at the latest Orange meeting. While the costume designer seemed to care a great deal about the reforms, she appeared to be too distracted by her blissful peace to act even if the Oranges had wanted her there. Which, in Cameo’s eyes, was just fine. If the Oranges had decided not to interfere in Coco’s life anymore, she saw no reason to stifle the other mare’s happiness. Still, the jeweler found herself sneaking into Coco’s office one day just before working hours with a brochure and a blank piece of parchment in hoof. It wouldn’t hurt to warn her at least, just in case Mosely did happen to attempt contact later. Or, for that matter, in case Bambi decided to break the vow they’d made to never let Coco in on the plans happening underneath her hooves. The way she could blend into the background, something she’d cultivated as Pink Lady, was quickly catching up with her again, and she’d been able to consult her daughter about the issue just before Coco, Babs, and Scene turned up at the condo. A nervous sigh coursed through her mouth as she tiptoed into the theatre, something she’d done millions of times before. But, she reminded herself, the stakes were so much higher now. Unlike last time, she’d have to keep everything as vague as possible if she wanted to keep the cast from panicking. Cameo picked up the brightly-colored booklet, something she’d picked up at a travel agency a block away from her shop, and placed it hesitantly on her friend’s desk. Just seeing the name of the town—Trottingham—was enough to send her into panic. Even by train, it took at least ten hours to get there from Manehattan, and it was barely inside Equestria itself. If she didn’t get this exactly right, she reminded herself for the thirtieth time, she’d end up losing two of the most important ponies in her life for good. She opened the pamphlet to a particular page, which highlighted Trottingham’s growing theatre district, the only place that had a chance of rivaling Bridleway. Someplace that, if Mosely’s public relations scheme really did work, could very well make good on that reputation. The clock in the center of the room lilted with antique bells, making her realize that the taxi had taken far longer than she could’ve realized. As much as she would’ve liked to give an in-depth message that provided at least some context, she was left to desperate measures. She picked up the nearest quill, which shone with glittery pink ink, and wrote with abandon. If you get any job offers from here, don’t take them. All my clients in the theatre industry say it’s a scam to get Bridleway ponies away from what they do best. Lots of ponies of your stature are starting to receive them, so you can’t be too careful. Be sure to tell other ponies about this issue, and be sure to keep the Spellshock cast together as best you can. I really do believe in you. --Cameo Citrus Now if only she could believe in Suri that easily. She’d made all these movements in a matter of minutes, pausing only at her signature. Even though she’d gone by that pseudonym for years, her recent participation in the Orange meeting clouded her mind about it for the first time in a while. It was with this uncertainty about her identity, and about everything she had fought for, that she realized somepony else was at the door. Looking straight at her as she rummaged through Coco’s desk. “Cameo?” Coco asked concernedly. “What are you doing—“ “Bambi told me you’d forgotten something at home, and since I’m right in between the theatre and your place, I figured I’d do you a favor. I really would love to stay and chat.” Coco gave her an odd expression, but otherwise went about her business as the mare began to make her way towards the exit. Just as the older mare turned the corner, she paused to make sure everything was in place for her job. Perfectly coiffed mane, not a hair out of place. Nothing had fallen out of her overflowing saddlebag as she’d rummaged for a sheet of paper, not even the expensive watch she’d taken home for repairs. There was even an extra blank parchment. A brief sigh of relief. Nopony would ever have to know. Cameo was about to get back on her hooves and trot towards her store as fast as she could when she heard the tiniest fluttering of pages against a desk. It could have come from anywhere, but somehow, her ears were particularly tuned towards the costume department. It could just as easily have been paperwork, but nopony was working that early. Just when she thought she was worrying far too much, just when she was about to head out the door, she heard a familiar voice speaking familiar words. Words that, as it turns out, would have made a mare with lesser poise scream curses in the streets. Words that made her want to stay more than anything else. On the other side of Cameo’s paper, her opposite made his intentions clear. “Dearest Suri Polomare,” Coco read aloud, almost in disbelief, “I understand that we did not end on the best note, but this appears to be the time for recruiting unlikely allies…” **** She’d spent so long fearing what he could do to everypony else that she’d forgotten what it was like to fear him for herself. Thoughts of retribution had always entered Coco’s mind, but she’d always been able to defuse them with a single thought. We’re not under an agreement anymore. He doesn’t control me. That was the way she’d always been, before the letter. But, just as letters had a way of doing, she suddenly found herself struggling to keep it together. “This isn’t going to pan out,” Coco told herself, making sure nopony else had shown up for work yet. “Mosely’s approval rating is low, and we have evidence on our side. He’s lost every other battle we’ve put against him. But if you let this get in your way, you’re enabling his behavior, and you’re letting him win.” This had hardly been the first time Coco had felt herself being manipulated by a more powerful party; even when the mare was still in school, other ponies seemed to take advantage of her. She could remember her mother sending her to therapists and assertiveness trainers, and even lecturing her a bit herself on not letting ponies control her. They all seemed to parrot the same message, something that had seemed easy enough at first, but one that Coco had always stumbled over nonetheless. She willed herself with practically everything she had to make things different this time and stopped trotting in place. Tiptoeing towards her desk, she figured that maybe working on repairs before anypony else got there could at least take her mind off of things. Just as she had picked up the sewing needle, a realization came to her as the small object dropped. “But what about the last time he lost?” Sure, she could hardly blame herself for cycling back to that incident, considering how much she’d had to explain it over the past few days. With the way he’d even brought it up in the letter, thinking about it was basically unavoidable. A mare of lesser experience would have even thought he’d regretted his actions that day, and maybe a few months before, she would’ve fallen for it, too. But, looking to the scar on her flank, Coco had a feeling that not cooperating with him this time would have consequences greater than anything she’d ever seen. Surely he wouldn’t just be satisfied with carting her off to Trottingham and pretending nothing had happened, because it wouldn’t take long for her to let it slip. That she had changed, and she wasn’t about to fake it anymore. That if he honestly thought she’d been conned into making the sacrifice she made, he was dead wrong. As she paced around the room in fuller force than before, that fact was probably what hit her the most. The way he seemed to know so much about the ways some ponies were manipulating her, and yet so little. Babs really was right, she thought to herself even as she flooded her mind with stock affirmations she’d heard a million times before. This really isn’t going to end, is it? Even if I confront Suri about it, he’ll just come up with something else. Suddenly, she found an unexpected smirk crossing her face, one that reminded her of the times she’d tried to beat Mosely by copying his tactics. She hated how she barely had to force herself into playing along this time, the ways the plans seemed to form in her head on their own accord. Somehow, though, when she really thought about what was at stake—or what could have been at stake for several months—her hooves stopped moving so nervously. Even if I confront Suri about it, he’ll just come up with something else. Which means I have nothing to lose by doing it, really. The door cracked open and a familiar scent flooded the room, one that Coco had feared only a year before. In her eyes, Suri was the only pony in all of Equestria who wore that sort of garish perfume, but for once, smelling it from a distance actually gave her enough time to come up with some semblance of a plan. Confrontational could do the trick, Coco figured to herself, but not malicious. For all she knew, there was a perfectly good explanation for why Suri had gotten that letter. Perhaps it was even just another one of Mosely’s tricks, and he wanted them to be at each other’s throats for some reason. And even if she didn’t give Suri that benefit of the doubt, Coco realized as she acted as natural as she could before the other mare arrived, the last thing she wanted was to put somepony else in the situation she’d been in a week ago. Trapped in the Oranges’ game, with a mare who knew exactly which buttons to push to tear her up inside. But sure enough, the minute she thought about Midsweet, she could feel one of those buttons, still lodged inside her, go off again. Incidentally, Suri had just so happened to be one of the things Babs’ foalnapper had questioned her about. It all unraveled in her mind from there. The Oranges knew she was trying to make amends with Suri. She’d always figured it was because they’d kept such a close eye on her, but that could have just as easily been explained if the letter Mosely wrote Suri hadn’t been his first. Even if that wasn’t the case, just getting entrenched with the Oranges could be chalked up to her co-designer, the one who’d so begged her to take on the case and save her job. The intermittent bout of courage Coco always seemed to get was back, with a brutal edge hiding underneath. All it took was a single thought to get her out of her calm planning phase and onto something darker, something that used everything she’d built up over the years. Every little piece of bitterness she’d held against Suri, ones that even Coco thought had disappeared. If it wasn’t for her, it told her, if we’d never tried to cover for her, Babs wouldn’t have been foalnapped. Just like last time. Even with this thought, the room was strangely silent when Suri entered. Coco had already gone back to mending her piece of fabric, working through the tears in it as if nothing was really wrong, all the while turning her gaze ever closer to the other mare. “Hey,” Suri muttered unceremoniously. “Equus to Coco? I heard you muttering to yourself earlier, so you can’t be too busy to order me around, ‘kay?” Getting used to being her former employer’s boss was something that had admittedly taken Coco some getting used to, and scenes like this were more normal than they should have been. Sometimes, she’d space out just like this and forget she was even supposed to tell Suri about the tasks of the day. She figured she’d bask in this just a little further, just long enough for Suri to feel that it was normal. That she wouldn’t be confronted, and would just go about her daily business. Almost, Coco thought to herself, like the way Scene was probably feeling when Mosely called on him one day, and everything they knew fell to Tartarus. “Tell me,” she finally whispered in her most quiet, civil voice, “do you remember anything I said before you came?” It was a simple enough question, but one that was prefaced by an intense glare that not even Suri could ignore. The pink earth mare stared at her coworker in confusion for a while before breaking eye contact. “Of course not,” Suri scoffed as she did so. “Why would I even want to listen in on anything you say? Your life’s so full of drama right now that the last thing I’d want is to get involved. It was probably just about some other ponies following you around.” She certainly seemed more abrasive than when she’d practically begged for Coco’s assistance, and her old attitude was back in full swing. Any other time, the other pony would’ve been almost insulted by the implication of being a pawn, but she’d been one for so long that just being offended wasn’t enough anymore. On the contrary, it just gave her more fuel for her to leave her usual self behind and make Suri realize just how much trouble she was about to bring. “That’s too bad,” Coco replied, the tone in her voice growing ever sharper. “The one time you decide you’re too good to eavesdrop, and it’s actually about something that matters to you.” Just before Suri had a chance to respond, she dropped the incriminating evidence right in front of her eyes. Admittedly, it took Suri longer than it should have to recognize the document, but once she did, everything about her powerful façade shattered. At that moment, she was little more than a mare whose every feature ballooned with horror. “So tell me, Suri, how do you plan on complicating things for Spellshock this time?” “You really are turning into your coltfriend,” Suri snickered, already struggling to put the mask back on. “If Scene would’ve seen that letter, he would’ve asked the exact same thing. It’s almost hilarious.” Turning other ponies’ attention away from the real issue for just long enough. Looking back on it, Coco supposed Suri had always had a way with that, but she wasn’t the same as the weak-willed ponies she’d manipulated. She’d already managed to find a way through those techniques, so maybe there was at least some hope she could get past Mosely. That, above all, gave her the power she needed to break through this stupid routine and cut right through the surface. Even when Suri brought up the one thing that would usually bring her down. “And the whole incriminating letter thing? I know what that leads to, okay? You’re going to get your perfect little revenge on me and turn me in when I’m not at your beck and call. Trust me, I know. If you pick up one thing from one coltfriend, then who knows where that leads to? All this time, you really wanted to be better than him, and yet here you are—“ “Then what does that mean for you?” Coco interrupted. “You, the one who’s actually been talking to him all this time? Knowing what he’s done to you, and me, and this play, and basically just about everypony he’s come into contact with? What in Equestria makes it worth your while to defend somepony who’s come close to ruining everypony’s lives, all while we’re scrambling on our hooves and knees just to help you keep your job because we were actually coming close to maybe trusting you?” Realizing that this tactic wasn’t working, Suri’s face went back to the same panic as before, running through strategies as fast as she could. If she would’ve been accused of doing literally anything else, she could have weaseled out of it, taken a page from the sorts of ponies she’d always seemed to attract. But seeing something hidden behind Coco’s anger that she couldn’t place only seconds before, she decided to stop acting. Suri stared at the ground and went unresponsive, and unlike the way Coco had done it before, she didn’t break contact with it even for a second. To anypony else, it would’ve seemed like an easy way out of it, and in a way, it almost was. “Do you ever think about anything other than getting ahead?” Coco continued, even as Suri bowed her head in a defeat that was all too likely fake. “Then let me show you. If you would have thought about something other than getting ahead, you would’ve found Babs before I did and fired the ponies making your products for you. You would’ve accepted responsibility for it right afterwards, instead of blaming a stallion you willingly consorted with. You certainly wouldn’t have made your employees’ lives a living Tartarus, only to get mad at them for wanting to leave you. And, of course, let’s not forget: you wouldn’t have made a deal that probably would have resulted in a filly getting tossed out on the streets just so you could finally be the top Spellshock costume designer. Just so you could finally beat me at something, anything. Top billing, your name in lights, any stallion or mare you could possibly want. But let me ask you one thing: do you honestly think it’ll be worth it?” Waves of adrenaline were practically coursing through Coco’s veins as her anger fueled her more than she could possibly imagine. In those moments, her mind walked her through a variety of possible reactions, all of the different futile ways Suri could try to turn it back on her. But instead, when she looked at the other mare, all she could see was her melting face. Every last piece of mascara and cover-up was losing hold on her, and the tears only further amplified this effect. For a minute, Coco entertained the possibility that it was just another round of fake crying, only for Suri’s gaze to finally lock into hers. To tell her it was real. “It’s not,” Suri finally answered. “That’s why I came here today. I’m going to pack up my things and quit.” She turned to Coco’s confused face and smiled, just the tiniest trace of the pony she usually was. Any time she could throw ponies off, she savored, no matter how sad the events behind it made her. “I’m not as much of an idiot as ponies think I am, okay?” she continued. “I knew I’d lost the letter, and I knew who took it. I also knew that however much Cam would try to talk me through it, this would still be the only way. I’m just lucky I got to do it before Scene found out.” It’d taken a minute for Coco to cool down, so she was still racking her head around how any of this fit together. One minute, Suri looked like she was actually about to go along with everything, and the next, she was giving up on everything. “This isn’t going to change anything, you know,” Coco finally said. “If you quit, Mosely will still be able to find you. It still won’t change the fact that you two have been talking all this time. You’re only doing this because you were caught!” “But it will,” replied Suri. “And if you’re going to remind me that your daughter got foalnapped because of what I made you all do, don’t. Even for a pony like me…when you hurt somepony just to keep your own job, it’s not something you tend to forget. Besides…it’s not like I was ever qualified for this job in the first place.” Even though everything about Suri seemed to be crumbling around her, she still maintained an ounce of confidence, something Coco never would’ve been able to do. And yet here she was, allowing Coco to aim her arrows straight towards her without a single rebuttal, almost as if she’d actually changed. Almost as if there really was a different pony underneath all those uncaring acts. “I’ve done what I can here,” Suri continued. “Honestly, I didn’t even expect things to get this far after what happened with Mosely. But when I got that letter, I knew one thing: if somepony wouldn’t have taken it away from me…I probably would’ve accepted.” “Because you wanted to beat me that much?” Coco asked, still skeptical. “No. Because it would’ve brought Mosely back.” Everything about Suri, from her body language to the look on her face, lacked malice for once. There was no veiled threat or insult behind her words, but rather resignation about something that couldn’t be placed. “I still love the stallion who came up to me that day and saw something more than everypony else did. Even more than beating you, I cared about being that mare he saw then. Even when everypony warned me not to, something in me still wanted to go to the ends of Equestria for him. And doing what he said, one last time…I figured it’d change both of us into the way things were before.” With one last mournful glance, she whispered, “But then, I finally made myself figure it out. The stallion who wrote this letter isn’t the one I fell in love with. I don’t know where that one is. Maybe he doesn’t even exist. But getting back to him was enough to make me want to betray the ponies who’d given me a chance after he left me behind.” In one final moment, she shook off her weakened glance and gave Coco a knowing smile. “I’ve got everything under control, okay? It started when he gave me a job as his marefriend, and it’ll end with me dismantling everything. I’ve got my experience here, and now other theatre companies won’t be able to resist me. I still may not like you, but stayin’ here isn’t worth seeing you go through Tartarus again.” In Coco’s mixed-up mind, she wasn’t sure whether to rejoice or run after the mare who’d caused her so much pain. She was already running through her options in her mind, trying to make sense of everything that’d been said, when Suri threw her one last surprise. “I hate to admit it, but I think you really were right about something. I’d always heard when I was younger that these cities value corruption. Opals, diamonds, pearls, jewels are always more valuable when they’re blackened. That was how I allowed things to get this far. And somehow ponies still manage to like you more than me.” Any other time, Coco would have expected an insult at the end, and yet the other mare was already almost gone. For once, Coco had no idea where Suri would be, or if the city would hide her from her view for the rest of her life. And for once, the prospect of yet another plan being foiled, of yet another toxic pony falling out of her life, was far from a victorious one. “Ciao, little pearl,” Suri called as she stepped out the door. “Hope you’ll miss me as much as I missed you after you quit.”