//------------------------------// // Act IV, Scene 6: Bridge Over Troubled Waters // Story: If You Give a Little Love... // by Quillamore //------------------------------//   By the end of the week, just about everypony knew at least some bits and pieces about Suri’s current scenario.  While many had barely even noticed her absence days ago, rumors about it still spread across the theatre, and Coco still listened in on them all.  Perhaps such a thing was against her better judgement, but there was still one thing she had to know, and only a day into listening, she had what she needed.   As it turned out, everypony seemed to know the steps that came after Suri’s quitting, but nopony seemed to know her motives.  Although there were a few conspiratorial whispers of it being linked to Mosely, over the past few months, he’d just become a way of explaining strange occurrences within Silver Phoenix.  A piece of equipment fell off the stage during practice?  He must’ve escaped and screwed it loose.  Something strange showed up on the accountant’s books that nopony on the crew had ordered?  He’d gotten into their banking system somehow, and so on and so forth.  Give it a couple of years, Coco figured, and that’s all he’ll end up being to any of them.  Every production needs its bogeymare, and ours has one now. Business slid by as usual after Suri came back, with the two costume designers barely exchanging any words about the incident except for the tiniest of updates.  No, he hasn’t sent me anything else.  Yes, Scene’s keeping tabs on me to make sure I don’t do anything stupid.  Even a few words about being glad to be back, but nothing more. Coco took her break at about four ‘o clock, something that she’d gotten in the habit of doing just a couple of days before the Suri scare, and left the building.  The sun, hot against her eyes, beamed with a light brighter than anything the stage had, but she regardless moved forward.  After all, the school was six blocks away, just far enough for her to squeeze a little exercise into her schedule. Instead of walking home from school, Babs now had special permission to stay on the set every night so long as she didn’t cause any trouble.  Mostly, she just stayed as far away from Suri as possible and drew or worked on homework, but Coco felt a little bit safer just seeing her there.  Before Midsweet came into her life, she never realized just how dangerous even sending Babs home by herself could be. At this point, doing everything she possibly could to help everypony she cared about wasn’t enough anymore.  She’d been on high alert ever since Midsweet, ever since Suri, and even more now that she’d come back with Babs to an unexpected guard outside the theatre. “Is that…a cop?” Babs asked, even though the stallion’s apparel made the answer all too obvious.  “Is there somethin’ I’m not in on here?” Coco could only shrug at this statement as she stared at the strange official.  Nopony had mentioned anything like this in the briefings the Silver Phoenix crew seemed to get almost every day.  All anypony seemed to talk about that day was about how some actor needed exactly twenty-three more bits added to their salary for some inexplicable reason. Meanwhile, as ponies on break reentered the theatre, they barely gave the officer any second glances, as if he’d been there for ages.  “That does it,” Coco muttered to herself, almost too low to be heard.  “I’ve had about enough of this.” Even if nopony would’ve noticed her words, the strange way her fur seemed to gather on end would’ve alerted just about anypony.  Her mind had gotten good at making connections when it came to these sorts of strange events, but if anything, in that moment she wished it wasn’t quite that effective at finding the culprit. Over the past few days, she’d certainly had her suspicions, especially considering the last thing Scene had said to her before retreating into Suri’s case.  But somehow, nothing seemed to connect until now, when new progress had been cleared into an issue she had all too much stake in. “Enough of what?” Babs wondered.  As she fidgeted around, Coco could just barely see her cutie mark, now just barely covered with paint.  The filly placed one of her tiny hooves to her chin as her tail moved in thought, somehow managing to look both serious and playful. “Have they been hecklin’ you all this time?” she said with a grin, pointing to the officer stationed outside the door.  Her expression suddenly darkened as she added, “The trial’s in a couple months, right?” “A month and a half,” Coco replied.  That was about all she knew about it, for that matter.  As promised, nopony had consulted her about it, and even the interviewers seemed to have let her off about it.  It was almost like she’d been erased from the case entirely. A month ago, she would’ve gladly welcomed the break, but now it was just another suspicious string that led to somepony she never would’ve suspected.  Somepony she wanted, more than anything, not to be involved in such a matter. “I don’t think this is about that,” she confessed without thinking, facehoofing as soon as she said it.  “Well, it is, I guess.  It makes sense they’d want to gather information about us and all.  But something else has to be up.” The officer was already out of sight, but far from out of Coco’s mind.  Everything else was slowly starting to blur, and she dabbed at her eyes as every sight in the theatre seemed to blend into itself.  Even as her surroundings were almost invisible beams of light to her, her legs reflexively took her away from her office and towards the place she’d been thinking of more than anything over those past few days. The directors’ box, and Scene. Babs had already asked her where she was going at least a hundred times now.  And every time she did, Coco already knew her answer. “Don’t you think it’s weird,” she said, “that now that we’re not going to witness, we’re out of the loop about everything?  And that being out of the loop about everything…means losing him?” For all she knew, the cop stationed outside might not have been Scene’s doing, but for all she knew, it might’ve been.  She could already see Babs trying to protest, trying to offer some adorably innocent love advice she would’ve listened to any other time.  But for now, as she rushed towards Scene, her mind was already set. Both on the issue, and on him. ****   By the time Coco ran to his side, Scene had already finished most of his duties for the day, and the play was set to open in a matter of hours.  Only a few months running it, and he’d already lost count of how many times the actors had congregated on stage to put on Spellshock.  Not quite to one hundred performances yet, but a bit past fifty.  That was how many times, plus those of all the other plays, he’d seen this same scene unfold. On the other hoof, he’d never seen any of them interrupted by a frantic mare that wasn’t Cameo.  Yet, while the look on Coco’s face wasn’t the anger he knew from his previous saboteur, he could already sense the fire coming from her eyes, and from the first word on her lips, he already knew just how delicate the situation would be. “We need to talk,” she muttered as she stepped down the flight of stairs and arrived ever closer to the stage. Even in her strictness, her voice was barely louder than what he often heard on the stage, and even after she made her intentions clear, she suddenly went silent for a few moments.  The costume designer’s gaze shifted from the ground and back to him, staring at her daughter on the opposite side of the auditorium a few times before finally focusing her attention back on Scene.  When he looked back at her and almost cracked a smile, she puffed her cheeks out suddenly and turned away. “About what?” Scene finally asked, spooking the mare only slightly.  With a smile, he added, “You know, it’s not exactly helpful to say that without giving me context.” “About everything,” Coco replied.  “In the last week or so, I mean.  Everything just seems to be moving at a breakneck pace all of a sudden, and I just can’t keep up.” Her voice rose only slightly, and yet it was enough to cut through Scene entirely.  Coco was a mare of intricacies and subtleties, and while some might say it was due to the fears lurking in her heart, Scene knew it was just another weapon she’d acquired over the years.  When ponies like Suri kept her from asserting herself, Coco had just had to learn other ways of fighting back.  Simple, quiet, innocently deceiving ones. She took just another hoofstep closer, and the tiny flame in her eyes more than made up for the lowness of her tone.  Just one glance of that, and Scene already knew it wasn’t just overwork that was plaguing her. “Lately, I feel like I’m the last pony to know anything,” she continued.  “I don’t know what’s gotten into the two of us, if you think I’m not capable of handling this after what happened with Midsweet or what.  But as Suri’s supervisor, I have a right to know what brought her back without having to fish through rumors or lies.” Checking behind him, Scene could see that nopony except Babs was watching what was unfolding.  Strangely enough, the two managed to find themselves alone yet again in a crowded theatre.  Even Officer Quartz seemed to have moved on to a different area. “Nothing happened,” Scene finally sighed.  “I met with her, late at night, and recapped everything we know now.  Nothing changed; Wright and I just promised to keep an eye on her from now on.” “Then how do you explain the cop outside the door, and why somehow I’m the only pony who cares that he’s there?  Or is he just common knowledge around here, too?” Everything around the two of them seemed to hint at the situation erupting even more, enough to alert everypony, both desirable and undesirable alike.  Coco moved ever closer to the director, her chest fur nearly touching his own, and he hadn’t noticed such intensity from her since the night she last took the stage.  However, even when he dwelled on it for the tiniest of moments, it was already gone, replaced by some other unreadable thing in her mind. And just like that, she’d already moved away, refusing to meet his glance just like before.  At the hospital.  When everything between the two of them had started back up despite all odds.  And just like that, something in her had already melted. “I’m sorry for prying,” she whispered, “but I’m just tired of this.  You may not like it when I take on everypony’s suffering, but…I can’t watch you do it, either.  Not without me.” “Really, it wasn’t that big of a deal.  We ended up helping Suri, and the other guy’s just here to investigate the Oranges.” Perhaps against his better judgement, he brushed his hoof against Coco’s chin, yet she did nothing to stop it.  As he did it, he could feel her entire face relaxing, if only just a little. “I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you.  I just want you to know, more than anything, that I’d never do that to you.  If you wanted to go along with the investigation, you would’ve had to become an Orange yourself, and isn’t that what we’ve been fighting against all this time?” “Yeah, but I would’ve done it if it was between that…and losing what I’d been fighting for.” Scene half-expected her to go straight towards Babs, just like always.  And, in a way, that wouldn’t have bothered him; that was part of the deal with her.  Yet, somehow, even as her gaze flitted towards her daughter, it still focused on him. “Are you seriously implying you would’ve become an Orange for me?” Scene questioned with a scoff.  At this point, he already knew that most of the danger laced within the conversation had already left, and yet somehow everything seemed to make even less sense. “Well, I would’ve on two conditions, at least,” Coco clarified.  “As long as I’d be able to help you…and as long as two particular ponies stay out of the family for the rest of their natural lives.” The director’s face distorted into an exaggeratedly shocked glance, complete with both front hooves rapidly clapping onto his cheeks. “Okay, okay, so you, Coco Pommel, the hardest pony to tick off in all of Equestria, actually admit to hating somepony other than Mosely Orange, who’s technically an outlier that just about everypony hates?” “Foalnapping somepony’s daughter tends to make just about anypony mad.  And hey, give me another couple months with my luck, and I might even manage to hate three Oranges.” She placed a hoof to her mouth, finally letting out the tiniest of chuckles, before looking to him again and narrowing her eyes. “But that’s not important,” she continued, “because I’ve had my time to sort everything out this week, too.  I know that you want the best for me, but the way you were with Suri just brings up bad memories for me.  Back when you had to avoid me just to keep everything together.” Coco barely had to say anything else before Scene facehooved.  Here he was, going about business as usual and barely even noticing the pains he took to avoid the mare, and all that went through her mind was one of the worst memories of her life.  Even with the way he’d promised to stay with her through all of this, all that could possibly play in her head was the way he’d failed her before. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t think about that, did I?” he finally whispered. “That’s not exactly your fault, though,” she replied.  “After all, it’s not like I ever told you how much I missed you back then.  I thought I would’ve felt that way if any of my friends would’ve left my side, but sooner or later, I began to realize that something was different.  I just never knew what it was.” The sound of hooves began to pierce the intimate moment, and even as they moved away from the auditorium, the noise served as a warning of just how fragile it really was, and how little chance the two could have of another. “Until these last few weeks, at least.  Up until then, I’d been lying to myself all this time when I thought the feeling I had about you writing the letter back then was just relief.  But when I said ‘the two of us’ that time, at the festival…now I think I finally know that I really did mean it.  You really do mean more to me than just a replacement for Mosely, and I just couldn’t lose you again.” Just like before, Coco almost seemed to be on the verge of tears, and just like before, Scene took her in his embrace.  In that moment, it almost felt as though past and present were one single entity, a stream of peace that had never changed. “You won’t,” Scene whispered.  “The officer and I are going to start the Orange investigation tomorrow.  It’s not too late to play your part, if you’re really sure about this.” “I know you wanted to protect me,” answered Coco, “and I appreciate that.  But I still have a lot I need to fight for, and I won’t be able to prove myself to the ones I love unless I go through with this.  I won’t let myself be a bystander anymore like I was back then, or let you take everything for me.  From now on…Babs isn’t the only pony I’d like to protect.” Even as the tears stopped, the closeness continued, even as the two huddled ever closer to each other.  This was far from Coco’s first kiss, but somehow, every other time she’d done it with the other stallion seemed to melt away with Scene’s touch.  Their tails steadily wrapped around each other, intertwining tightly even as other ponies began to approach. “We’ll fight for each other from now on,” Scene finally spoke after minutes of silence.  “And it’ll start at the Orange residence, if you’re willing.” Coco gave a quick nod and moved away, suddenly realizing just how quickly her break seemed to pass by.  Even in her reverie from the kiss, she still managed to rush herself straight out of the auditorium and back into her office, where she felt that something new was just about to begin. In the meantime, in another pony’s mind, another memory came forward.  A love scene, similar to this one, one that the filly didn’t even think she remembered.  But she sure could recall the consequences—the way things had never returned to normal after the two ponies from the past collided. Blood might not have meant a lot to Coco, but Babs knew all too well what it brought.  There was only a certain amount of closeness unrelated ponies could have, and relationships could be the most powerful ways of ending it.  She’d cheered them on from the sidelines, only now considering what it would bring for her. The images swirled through Babs’ mind as Coco left the room.  The way Mosely had left her due to her heritage.  The way Coco could, all too easily, swerve across the same path, into love and into another foal.  One that was rightfully hers. Another face entered Babs’ mind, causing her to dismiss the invasive thoughts as soon as they’d appeared.  She knew just what—or who—was causing her to think this way, and she wasn’t about to give into her again. This is what Midsweet would want me to think, she told herself.  This time will be different.  Coco will be different.  The more she seemed to will the mare to disappear, though, the more the thoughts began to come in, draining just about everything out of her.  Still, she walked behind her mother, dreading the worst even as she fought to believe in her. I can only hope.