If You Give a Little Love...

by Quillamore

Act II, Scene 16: Madmare in the Attic (Verse One)

By far the first thing Coco noticed when she opened her office door was that, contrary to her fears, it wasn’t Mosely. Instead, Bambi waited by the door, gesturing towards some other ponies just behind her.

“Don’t mind them,” Bambi said with a chuckle. “The fillies are just taking everything in here. Good to see Babs doesn’t seem to be afraid of the place anymore, though.”

“You’re here awful early,” Coco remarked. “Thought you’d show up in the audience with everypony else.”

“We figured you’d want some company before you go on. Well, not literally, considering you’re not acting in it, but you probably get my point.”

Seeing that Bambi was wearing an amber-colored gown, likely one of the few remnants of the Orange life she still had in her, Coco whispered, “You remembered not to get Babs one, right?”

Her roommate simply nodded in response.

“She was a bit confused when I didn’t take her to any stores, but I think she’s figured it out. She doesn’t normally like dressing up, and yet she’s been excited about it for days. It’s got to be because she gets to wear a Coco-Mama exclusive.”

Coco hesitated at this, knowing that there was at least one part of the promise that she couldn't follow back on. After Mosely discovered her first design for Babs' dress, she couldn't bear to think about what would happen if she kept working on it. Sure, she'd have one anyway, but still...

“Well, not quite exclusive. But next play—“

“I know. You had to make do with what you could without being noticed by the wrong ponies. She’ll still love it anyway.”

Turning her head towards the backstage entrance, Bambi then shouted, “Hurry it up over there! Do you want Coco’s hayburger to get cold?!”

“Now she’s afraid one of the sandbags is gonna hit her,” Coco could hear one of Babs’ friends groaning in the distance.

“It’s fine, Sweetie Belle,” sighed Bambi. “You aren’t even close to the stage.”

“Wait, so the sandbags aren’t everywhere?!”

“That’d just be a waste of sand,” Babs observed. “But we should probably head over.”

“Sounds like a heated discussion over there,” said Coco. “But I definitely hadn’t expected you guys to pick anything up for me.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, to be honest,” Bambi answered. “A lot of stage families would do that back when I was on stage with, well…you know. Him. I guess they just figure a lot of the actors would just end up going to bed without eating or something weird like that.”

“I appreciate it anyway, though.”

“And trust me, that isn’t even the best thing we have ready for you. I managed to pull a few strings—well, it was Rarity’s idea, really—and I figured that, since your parents are busy with the shop tonight, catching up with an old friend of yours would be almost as good. But I’m not telling you who it is until everypony else comes over here.”

“Stop it!” Coco answered, trying not to laugh. “Now you’re making me even more curious!”

Silence suddenly filled the room, and she couldn’t help but feel that she’d made a mistake without even knowing it. Just then, however, seeing Bambi’s face break out into a slight smile was enough to quell her worries.

“Actually, that was the reason I didn’t tell you who it was right away. You’ve barely laughed since we started living together. And, well, I was kind of hoping that if I had a chance to talk to you before the show, well, maybe you would. Nopony deserves to look this sad on their opening night.”

“I’m not sad. It’s just…I realized how huge this is for me, and honestly, I’m kind of afraid of how ponies will see me leaving and everything.”

As she was confessing this, Bambi took the hayburger bag from one of the filly’s mouths and gestured for them to wait outside.

“Shouldn’t I talk to them before the show?” Coco asked in confusion.

“Definitely. But I feel like we should discuss this together before you go catch up with everypony.”

“Discuss what?”

“Quitting Stealer-Orange. Look, if the plan’s going to go through the way we organized it, then a costume designer leaving is going to be the last thing on the public’s minds. Sure, a lot of ponies stay with the same crew for a while, but for a first-timer like you, it’s almost expected that you’ll end up changing. Not a lot of ponies take to their first theatre company. Reluctant producer’s daughter’s word.”

Coco reluctantly took a few bites of her hayburger, still not quite sure how to take the kind offer.

“But I heard they’re going to specifically highlight me in intermission,” she countered. “It’s some special honor or something. Thing is, it doesn’t look like I’m just going to be some regular old costume designer anymore. Do you really think they’re going to let go of me that easily?”

“Well, it is pretty uncommon to get the dedication on your first gig, but as much as I want to be proud of you for it, it seems a bit fishy to me.”

“So I’m not the only one who jumped to that conclusion?”

“You’re catching on quickly. It’s hard to believe you were the same mare I practically had to brainwash just to believe me about him. It’s definitely bittersweet seeing you like this, but at least it’s better than being in the dark about everything.”

“Yeah, but after all that fanfare, am I really going to be able to quit? Because the more I think about it, the more I think Mosely knows about me leaving somehow. That this is his way of making sure I stay.”

“I’d say it is,” Bambi agreed, “or at least, it would be if he hadn’t forgotten about a certain something. See, he may know that you’re quitting, and so let’s just assume for a moment that he does. He puts all his effort into making the public love you so much they’re practically begging you to stay. In the process, he assumes that you’re the most important pony who’s going to jump ship, when in reality, the collab is called Stealer-Orange for a reason. With half of the team out and just ‘Orange’ limping around, it isn’t going to be long before ponies suspect things. After all, it’s not like a director to just abandon his play after opening night.”

“So nothing will change either way?”

“Nope, this plan’s ironclad. Scene and I made sure to Mosely-proof everything. All you have to do is give the stallion a piece of your mind now.”

“Well, at least I can still look forward to tonight, then,” Coco replied with a sigh of relief.

“And you should. With everything you’ve been put through over these past few months, you deserve it.”

Bambi then opened the door to reveal the other guests. All three of Babs’ Cutie Mark Crusader friends from Ponyville had shown up, and though she barely knew them, Coco couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pride when she noticed their newly marked flanks. Alongside them were Rarity, Applejack, and a few of the other Apples she recognized from her last visit to the farm. Probably there for the Mosely problem, not necessarily to see the show, but seeing them was still a pleasant surprise.

That, however, paled in comparison to the achingly familiar yellow earth pony behind all of them. Standing right next to Granny Smith, she certainly looked younger than the Apple matriarch, but only by a few years. Coco could only look at the bespectacled mare for a few seconds before quickly being scooped up into a warm embrace.

Tears flowed from her face like they had all too often these past few weeks. But for once, they weren’t brought on by any sort of convoluted schemes. Instead, it was the happiness of being caught in a moment she had never thought would come to pass.

Charity Kindheart, the one who had encouraged her to be a designer in the first place, who had taken her under her care whenever her parents’ work tolls got too high, was right in front of her again. At her first Bridleway show, much less. She’d thought for sure that, in the stream of fillies and colts Charity had guided over the decades, she’d be forgotten for sure. Even if she wasn’t, that Charity wouldn’t travel all the way to Manehattan just to see her old protégée.

“It’s been so long,” Charity whispered. “I almost thought this was the wrong room; I barely recognized you. I always make a point of seeing my students’ shows when they make it big, and when I heard you’d finally gotten your break, I had to see it for myself.”

“T—thank you,” Coco whispered in between tears. “With the way I ended up on the wrong side of the fashion business, I thought you would’ve given up on me.”

“I never did, dear. I make a point of not giving up on anypony. I wish I could stay backstage longer and talk to you, but I feel like you have other ponies here with you who mean more to you than I ever could. So, I’m glad you finally found a place where you feel truly loved. Before I go, though, there’s something else I’d like to say to you.”

“Yes?”

“I’m so glad you decided to bring back the Midsummer Theatre Revival. I talked with everypony from the old neighborhood a month or so afterwards, and I wanted to tell you how thankful I was, but they said you’d already moved away.”

“It’s a long story. Same for why I’m not wearing your flower, if you noticed, but it doesn’t mean I’ve turned my back on you. I’ll stay with my family and come back to the old neighborhood to put on another Revival next year. I just did what I had to do for this job.”

“And we can talk about all that later, after the show,” Charity answered. “Your family decided that, as much as they’d like to see you after the play, they feel like we should have some time to catch up as well. I’m staying in a residence for theatre ponies not too far away from here, and you can stay the night there with me.”

“Is that really okay with you two?”

“Of course it is,” Babs replied. “I mean, your job has been keepin’ you from being with us a lot, but we figured you’d need somethin’ to take your mind off all this drama. Besides, it did Bambi some good to see your old teacher, too.”

“You know her?” Coco asked Bambi.

“She was an acquaintance of my mother’s. But that was a long time ago.”

If Coco could, she would have spent the rest of her life in this moment, finally being reunited with some of her most beloved friends and family. But the show must go on as always, even in the midst of such happy events.

It was thirty minutes until showtime.

****

Everypony was gathered in stick-straight lines, lying in wait for their turn on stage. Propelled back to her duties, Coco was carefully examining each costume for any rips or tears that might have occurred during dress rehearsal. She’d only had to stitch one cape so far, thankfully. At least one thing had fallen into place.

Just a few more to go, and she would finally be free of this place.

Suri, strangely enough, was nowhere to be found. Normally, Coco would’ve noticed her coworker’s absence, but she was too absorbed in preparations to note it. And so she remained oblivious to where her assistant really was, tucked within the most shadowy corner of the waiting area alongside an indiscernible mare.

If she could’ve heard Suri’s whisperings, though, they would’ve been the least likely words to ever come out of her mouth:

“Doing this isn’t going to bring him back, you know.”

“I know that,” the other mare responded, “but it might end up having that effect on her.”

Just when she might have finally found Suri, however, another distraction, and another voice, manifested itself.

“I heard about what’s supposed to happen at intermission.”

Coco whipped around the first chance she could without messing up the stitch and found Scene behind her, his face smiling in spite of his words.

“So has everypony else, I guess. But aren’t you breaking the rule right now?”

“It’s not like I’m staying put here much longer. I think I can afford to bend them a little.”

“It feels weird being able to talk to you again like this. On stage, you know?”

“Tell me about it,” Scene answered with a chuckle. “And hopefully, we’ll be able to do it a lot more after tonight. I’m really proud of you, by the way.”

“I don’t actually deserve the dedication, though,” Coco admitted. “You do know that, right?”

“Don’t worry, you do. Mosely might’ve rigged the system in your favor, but that shouldn’t take away from the work you’ve done here. Besides, when I said I was proud of you, I don’t just mean about that award.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean that it’s almost over for both of us, and we both made it through. I know I don’t have much time before the show, but there’s something I want you to remember when you go out there and take that honor.”

“What’s that?”

“If you give a little love—“

“You can feed a dozen changelings?” Coco finished.

“Actually, the saying is 'it will all come back to you,' but that works too. Still gets the point across. In any respect, if you go out there just like you are now, it’ll come back to you sooner than you think.”

The actors steadily began to take their places as Scene left the stage. The first act began, Coco laughed a little at the jokes she’d heard rehearsed a million times, Babs sneaked admiring glances at her new dress in between scenes. The audience was enthralled, the reviewers were taking good notes, the musicians paced through their performances, Mosely lay in wait for what really mattered.

Everything had fallen into place.

And then, during intermission, it would all fall apart.

****

One minute into the break, the theatre had fallen into a huge mass of hushed discussion. Another success for Stealer-Orange, that was the general consensus. Maybe it wasn’t quite their best work ever, but they certainly hadn’t fallen on a slump either. A few ponies, knowing from experience that this sort of discussion would be the only truly important thing to occur during intermission, left for the bathrooms. By the time they got there, the lines were sufficiently short, and they left knowing that they had pulled off a miracle not usually experienced in the theatrical profession.

They returned to the auditorium to find the doors locked tight, almost as if somepony had wanted a captive audience.

Mere seconds after those first ponies to leave had departed the area, a mare dressed in pink and black trotted onto the stage. Like many of the others in the play, a small witch’s hat was pinned to her head, but no unicorn horn accompanied it. To the spectators, she was more likely than not a new character who would appear in the second act, for she bore no resemblance to any of the other actresses.

As a result, few ponies paid her any response until she took a single microphone and dropped it. The resulting feedback, she figured, was as much as she could do to attract their attention.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” she announced in a clear voice. “The event planned for this intermission has been canceled indefinitely. Due to a lack of interest, you might ask? Certainly not. I am well aware that there are plenty of ponies on this set that deserve to be honored, and so this session is no longer necessary. There is, however, one pony that I would still like to dedicate, if I can even use that word in reference to him.”

Murmurs of confusion lined the aisles just before the mysterious mare started speaking once more.

“But first, I suppose all of you are wondering who I am. Those who’ve spent some time around this theatre in the past few months know me as Pink Lady, the head of the protest movement originally surrounding this play. While I did not agree wholeheartedly with the ponies who worked alongside me, I found that we sought similar goals. But while their issue was with the subject matter itself, mine goes far deeper than that, which is why I chose to fight alone when the movement dissolved. Rest assured that the last intention in my mind, or in any of the protestors’ minds, was to harm you. I merely wish to inform you and to clear up some injustices that have occurred here as of late. No, I stand corrected: they have been occurring for far longer than that.”

By this point, many of the other ponies were beginning to grow bored with this shadowy figure out of nowhere and tried to turn tail, only to be met with the same fate as those outside. There would be no avoiding this confrontation.

“You think you know the ponies behind this play,” she continued. “You’ve peered through their lives for many years now. But there is much those behind this production have kept hidden, and there is one pony in particular who should not be here right now. He ought to have been jailed for his crimes years before, but tonight will be the night of justice if it’s the last thing I do.

“You might recognize me from other places, and because of this, you might think I’m doing this for my own personal gain. And yes, as Mosely Orange’s ex-wife, there is a grain of revenge hidden in this plan of mine. But more importantly, it has come to my attention that somepony who was harmed by him in the past has come back right here, into his territory. She knows nothing of what he has done, no different from the rest of you, but I will make her know. Everything I’ve done over these past few months has been for my daughter, Babs Seed.”

At this, everypony around Babs turned towards her in determination, ready to protect her in any way they could. Except for Bambi, who could only look at the stage with terrified awe.

Mosely, realizing what was about to unfold before him, bolted straight onto the stage in an attempt to catch her off guard. Even then, he knew he was too late.

“Before I tell you my story, I’d like you to know that there are many things I am not. I am not a liar, and I am certainly not a madmare. I was an Apple long ago, but not anymore. I was an Orange later, but not anymore. But most of all, Mosely, I am not the mare you used to know, not anymore. I am not your Cameo.”

****

There is a story of a mare who loved a noble stallion

She was prone to madness, he fell out of love

But he was too afraid to leave her.

So he locked her in an attic to rot away, year after year

Only revealing her once to the mare who would become his second wife.

She plunged into war against both of them,

But what shall come to pass in this mysterious play

When it is the stallion who is corrupt

When the other mare does not truly love him

When only the so-called madmare can put everything together again?

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Well that's a twist...

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

“You might recognize me from other places, and because of this, you might think I’m doing this for my own personal gain. And yes, as Mosely Orange’s ex-wife, there is a grain of revenge hidden in this plan of mine. But more importantly, it has come to my attention that somepony who was harmed by him in the past has come back right here, into his territory. She knows nothing of what he has done, no different from the rest of you, but I will make her know. Everything I’ve done over these past few months has been for my daughter, Babs Seed.”

Go Coco!