If You Give a Little Love...

by Quillamore

Act IV: On the Wings of Love--Scene 1: First Time in Forever

SPELLSHOCK FOALNAPPING VICTIM: “SHE WANTED TO TURN ME INTO AN ORANGE”

• Latest in a string of controversies surrounding the famed family

• False cutie mark scandals have provoked police investigation

The newspaper had been placed right on Coco’s bedside, forcing her to process the situation just as she woke up. It was a wonder it hadn’t fallen off with all the tosses and turns of the night, almost as if it was perfectly designed to stand straight in her face as she arose that morning. Between that glaring headline and the way the sunlight stroke her face through the blinds, she couldn’t have gone back to bed if she’d wanted to.

She’d slept past her usual time, and yet nothing seemed different when she looked out the window. Today was meant to be a festival day—one where cities would display all their finest gardens and where a few lucky towns could watch the blossoms fall from their cherry trees. But in an urban metropolis like Manehattan, the best anypony could do was set up a few carnival rides, cancel work for the day, and call it close. Even the things that had room to bloom among the hustle and bustle hadn’t sprouted yet, and the blossoming trees were scrawny at best.

Still, a break was a break, and turning her head away from the window, Coco was now facing the other side of the bed. Seeing the sleeping filly there beside her was still somewhat of a shock, something to remind her that at least one thing in her life was going right. It’d only been a full day since she’d managed to save Babs, but the time without her seemed to stretch on as far as the sky itself.

Coco gently nudged her daughter, only for the filly to tighten at the touch. She’d taken care not to do it on the flank, like always, but realized that Babs was still out of sorts a bit.

“It’s me,” the older pony answered. “Coco. Midsweet’s not here. You’re home. You’re going to be okay.”

As Babs began to stir, Coco’s attention moved towards the filly’s flank again. She wasn’t sure why the orange marking there wouldn’t disappear, since she knew Valencia’s did in water, but even then, she could still just barely see it. Red splotches covered up most of the cutie mark, and in tiny areas, the fur had been completely removed.

“Did they do that to you?” she finally asked, later realizing that probably wasn’t the best way to start the conversation.

Babs, now fully awake, looked straight to her flank and moved her legs in another direction so the mark no longer faced her mother.

“It was hard enough hidin’ it at school yesterday,” she muttered. “I never thought I’d be sayin’ this about a cutie mark, but I just want it gone. So I thought maybe I could speed things up a bit.”

For once, even her tail wasn’t big enough to cover up the mark—something that, considering the way she’d stalked the family long enough, Midsweet likely planned. No matter how she placed it, the orange would always stay at least halfway visible—a stark reminder of what many ponies thought she was.

Just as Coco was about to respond, though, Babs’ eyes went straight towards the folded sheets of paper by the bedside. Her mother readied herself to pounce on it, clutching it tight enough for the words to be utterly indecipherable.

“We should probably get going,” Coco finally said, trying to get the filly’s mind off the grave situation. “Scene wanted to meet the two of us at the diner, remember? And, if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see one of the ribbon poles along the way.”

Last year, before she even had an adoptive family, Babs remembered seeing the fillies who threaded huge pieces of fabric across an even larger pole. Watching them from outside the orphanage, she could only imagine what sorts of lives they lead behind their carefree smiles. The realization that she’d reached that sort of existence was enough to clear her mind for a minute before she considered something else.

It was also the sort of life Midsweet would have never wanted her to lead.

As little as Coco knew about the attack or why it had occurred, that was the one thing she was absolutely positive of. And therefore, she owed it to her daughter to show her that life as much as possible, to prove Midsweet wrong. Even if a barely detectable distance seemed to be forming between the two of them.

While Babs had grown used to bathing herself, Coco still watched as the foal went through her daily routine, partly out of disbelief and partly out of worry. Judging from the soreness of her skin, she’d likely scrubbed her flank far too roughly the day before, hoping the colored paint could mix into the water and wash away.

Coco had kept the cloth safely out of reach, knowing that this was just about all she could do at this point. Maybe, in another time, Babs would be ready to tell her full story to somepony other than the interviewers. For now, Coco gently wiped the towel over her warm brown fur, just like she had the first day the foal had met Scene. With any luck, maybe things could return to the way they were then.

The washcloth remained pure white, and the flank it touched a pure orange. The ghosts of the foalnapping were still there. But this time, at least, they seemed to have faded away into memory.

****

Both of them had agreed after the foalnapping to live their lives as normally as possible in order to avoid the same sort of catastrophe that happened after Mosely was arrested, but little quirks reminded Coco above all that such events could not be swept away. Even on her way to work yesterday, she could hear the whispers in the crowded streets as the Oranges invaded everypony’s minds, and while the theatre ponies were merciful enough, she was still interrogated by passersby.

Even that, it seemed, was nothing compared to the attention they gave Babs as the two headed on their way to the diner. Sure, she only showed up as a blur of brown and red inside a notoriously fast Manehattan cab, but even that wasn’t enough to stop speculation.

“It almost feels like they’re still around,” Babs muttered, breaking a silence that had lasted the entire morning.

“Tell me about it,” replied Coco. “Though if I would’ve known taking you out would’ve reminded you of everything—“

“It’s fine, okay? I know what I’m in for. I’m gonna get interrogated by Scene, just like I was with the papers yesterday. Nopony really expects any privacy after bein’ foalnapped, but at least it’s better than bein’ with her.”

And with that, she already seemed to have wired her brain towards the new norm, just like she’d done with Mosely before. Yet both times, she seemed to push other ponies away in the process, and sure enough, her head had already turned in the opposite direction. A distraction, Coco knew, to keep her from seeing the cloudiness in her daughter’s eyes.

“But hey, you know a thing or two about being famous, right?” Babs asked after a minute of silence. “At least you can help me keep my cool for all the awkward interviews and everything.”

She wobbled in place and blew her bangs out of her eyes, letting out a slight nervous chuckle for good measure. Coco, for once, gave her a smile right back.

“I can try, certainly. But are you sure you’re okay with what’s about to go on in there?”

Her expression had already darkened as she pointed to the diner, only a few stores away from where they already were.

“I’ve had to explain worse. ‘Sides, if I wouldn’t have wanted to come, I would’ve said so.”

Just as the two had exited the cab, Coco could feel somepony playfully jabbing one of her back legs. Just seeing who it was, looking her straight in the eyes and knowing that she was really there beside her, filled the fashion designer with a surge of relief.

“Quit worryin’ so much about me,” Babs spoke. “I’ve gotten used to handlin’ my problems since then, and I sure as hay know runnin’ away’s the last thing I want to do right now.”

That moment brought with it the second mare who’d hugged the filly in the last two days, and yet this time, none of the fear she’d had before came with it. Even if it was just outside the streets, in a much odder place than the Orange residence had been, she still let the other mare hold her by her side.

Midsweet may have had more time for her, and certainly, the life she brought would be far more glamorous. She was even the sort of biological family Babs had once searched for before she was adopted. But this was one thing she could never do

Midsweet could never be her mama, her Coco.

****

In retrospect, both ponies should have seen how pointless the meeting was going to be. Now that Scene knew all the basic details—both from what Coco had told him at work yesterday and from the papers themselves—it seemed like there was barely anything to check up on in the first place.

A few moments after discussing the now-obvious facts of the case, the entire table had been silenced, almost as if some sort of bomb had rampaged throughout the area. Waitresses came and went, and everypony’s order had already been taken. Coco in particular stared at the checkered tiles below her, shifting them in her mind so that each would be in an even spot. Likewise, nopony else made any sort of eye contact.

“So you’ve made the front page twice in a row, then?”

Scene nodded towards the newspaper on their table with an indecipherable expression, and when he shoved it towards Coco, she violently covered it up. In such a quiet café, the sheer sound of her hooves hitting the surface turned heads.

“That’s not important,” she muttered, sliding the newspaper straight under the table. At this point, she could care less if anypony stepped on it; at least that’d blot out the event as if it’d never happened. With a quick sigh, she willed herself into some semblance of calmness as soon as she saw the other two ponies giving her odd stares.

“I mean, I’d honestly rather not think about it too much. It’s just kinda overwhelming to see so many ponies badger me about something that’s already past, much less something that didn’t really happen to me.”

Coco took a sip from her cup of coffee after saying this, only now really realizing that it was there. Even though the meeting was just between her daughter and her coworker, everything about it felt like the worst kinds of interviews she’d had to endure. That wasn’t even counting the whole mix-up about what in Equestria Scene was to her now—boss, colleague, friend, coltfriend? Even if her past relationship had bordered on blackmail, at least it was straightforward with the terminology.

Then again, the sheer fact that she’d managed to come up with an advantage to being with Mosely over Scene was enough to make her want to drown herself in coffee. By the time the mug finally dropped back onto the table, her chin fur was already drenched in the stuff.

“I didn’t know it was possible to down a whole cup in under a minute,” Scene remarked. “Is there even a contest for that kind of thing?”

Babs and Coco both gave him blank looks and a few raised eyebrows. A clock ticked in the distance, and even the inevitable Manehattan eavesdroppers refused to respond to his joke.

“Anyway,” he said, “about before—I really do understand. First off, I want you to know that I didn’t call you here because I want to intrude like those ponies reading about you two. Truth is, I could barely focus that day you left, I was so worried about the both of you. It’s just that you’ve had to go through so much already, and the more I know about what happened, the more I can make up for not being able to help you then.”

“It’s fine, really,” answered Coco. “You’ve done more for me than I could have hoped. But about the case itself—“

Her eyes were fixed straight on her hooves before finally turning their attention back to Babs’ flank. The red splotches didn’t cover the mark up as much now, but both were still there. Not even a trace of the scissors she knew and had been so proud to see remained.

“—there’s a lot I still don’t know. What could possess a mare to abandon everypony who cares about her, just so she can make a filly do the same? When she said she understood so much about where Babs came from, why did she get so mad when she realized Babs didn’t want to live her life?”

Coco found herself glancing out the window, almost as if she was waiting for something. She could imagine herself seeing as far as the Orange residence and remembering everything that came with it.

“Why did it take us so long to catch on to her?”

“Because that was what she wanted,” Scene replied. “None of the things she did added up by any regular logic. Sending somepony to recruit you at Cameo’s store, expelling Mosely, terrorizing the Spellshock set through Pink Lady. By the time she sent your family after all these leads, nopony could possibly envision her real plan. I’d say she deceived all of us, too.”

Before, Scene had only been associated with the case by virtue of his ties to Coco. However, that last sentence was enough even to cast doubt on that. As much as Coco had always figured the Pink Lady threats were directly tied to her as the pony who’d expelled Mosely in the first place, she couldn’t help but be reminded that there could just as easily have been letters sent to Scene as well.

“Actually, I figured she was after the theatre. After your whole scandal, that was one of the only Orange properties left that wasn’t directly tied to their work, so I prepped the crew to fight for it. Pink Lady would threaten us enough times, we’d get tired of it, and we’d give her a full stake in the property. Everything seemed to point to that.”

Just then, as the two older ponies discussed the details behind the Oranges’ latest plot, a look of hesitation began to cloud Babs’ eyes. Every hair on her body seemed to quiver slightly, and the first few times she opened her mouth, nothing came out.

“I wanted to end it,” she finally whispered. “T--That’s why I went to the Orange house that day.”

With her eyes turned towards nothing in particular, and away from the other two, she’d never seemed shyer than she did in that moment.

“You tried to go there?” Coco asked. “They didn’t just come up out of nowhere and take you away?”

“Well, yeah, they did. But when Bambi’s Pink Lady stakeout didn’t do anything, I decided I didn’t want to keep watching all of this. I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about what they could keep doin’ to us. I began thinkin’ that if I didn’t step in that very moment…”

Tiny tears, almost invisible, clotted around the filly’s eyes. Even after everything that’d transpired over the past few days, Coco realized, Babs hadn’t been anywhere near this level in a while.

“…I’d lose you again.”

For once, Babs was looking straight at Coco’s flank, paying particular attention to how the newly-formed scar curved around her cutie mark. Her voice was so weak and broken then that it was barely even a whisper, and it was almost a miracle that both ponies could hear it.

“’Lose you again?’” Scene wondered. “When exactly did that happen?

Before Coco could curse herself for not having told him before, she found herself recounting the showdown at the Apple family reunion. Unfortunately, Scene had chosen that particular moment to take a sip of his tea, and by the time the story was over, most of it ended up in a random pony’s mane.

“He…did…what?”

Scene was now standing on his back hooves, and his front ones had rammed against the table. His mouth was open as wide as it could go, and there was a general mix of anger and utter confusion on his face.

“I thought nothing about that stallion could shock me anymore, but dear Celestia! What the hay hasn’t Mosely tried?! Please tell me they’re adding ‘attempted murder’ to his charges.”

“They are,” Coco answered. “But more importantly…”

She pointed her hoof back towards her filly, who still seemed inconsolable about the incident.

“I knew they’d do somethin’ worse to you,” Babs continued, “and that they didn’t seem to care about me. So I figured out Midsweet lived by the school, and I thought I’d spy on them. Maybe even get them to stay away from you for good, if they saw me.”

With a slight pause of hesitation, she added, “But all I really did was get myself foalnapped again, huh? That’s about as far from savin’ anypony as you can get.”

While it took Scene and Coco both a few moments to take everything in, what Babs had left unsaid had seemed to say it all. That much, at least, was a start in the right direction, and another step away from the Oranges.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Coco said, hugging her daughter against her stomach. “And you’ve saved me more times than you know.”

Babs blinked a few times in utter disbelief, staring straight at her mother as if that in and of itself would give her an answer.

“Getting rid of them is going to be a tough fight, even now. We don’t know how they’re going to reorganize, or if they’re going to. But there’s one thing you have to remember, even when they’re around.”

She embraced her filly even more as she said this, convincing herself of it every bit as much as she was trying to convince Babs.

“I’ll never let them hurt you. And you’ll never have to see anypony hurt me like that again, either.”

Author's Note:

I hate that this fic now has three Frozen references in the titles. I was going to name this part something else, but I watched the Tangled TV movie and I was otherwise in a Disney mood when I wrote it so...

Comments

[Bast]

I just binge read the entire thing xD

[Quillamore]

8027755

You're actually the third person to do so.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Hmph....

I'm just glad Midsweet is behind bars... at least now, Babs and Coco can have a normal life, even if the ghosts of the past may haunt them...

[Quillamore]

8027844

Yeah, most of the things that will happen in this arc are more bonding for the both of them and romance for Coco, and the drama will probably be kept to stuff like Suri's sister coming over as caterer or Babs meeting Flim and Flam.

I have wanted to write the "traveling quirky con men uncles" part since Act III, but didn't have time.

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

Midsweet could never be her mama, her Coco .

No she won’t.

“I’ll never let them hurt you. And you’ll never have to see anypony hurt me like that again, either.”

I know you won’t Coco.

[Midknight Defender]

Unfortunately, Scene had chosen that particular moment to take a sip of his tea, and by the time the story was over, most of it ended up in a random pony’s mane.

Good Scene, and good scene!

Please tell me they’re adding ‘attempted murder’ to his charges.

That for Babs. There also oughtta be an aggravated assault charge at the very least, too, for actually hurting Coco!