If You Give a Little Love...

by Quillamore

Act IV, Scene 8: Whispers of Another Time

“You know who you’re really helping, don’t you?”

Coco thought she’d driven that incessant little voice out of her head as soon as she’d started dating Scene, and it was only when she left the Orange meeting that she realized her flaw in thinking so. Circumstances, especially those concerning Babs’ foalnapping, had forced it out more than she herself had, and now that there was no immediate threat, it was back in full force.

The whispers had been the only thing keeping her from heading off in the opposite direction, abandoning her post, and confronting Belladonna as soon as she could. Even if Valencia thought her family issues were best left in the past, Coco’s heart still begged to avenge her, until the voices reminded her of just who her new friend really was. And then, they morphed into a single sound, something they had never done before. Before, her thoughts were in her own voice or a combination of several, but this new one had lodged itself into her mind like nothing else.

Just like the pony it had belonged to, for that matter.

“Not that I’m stopping you. I just want you to know that, when you’re protecting her, you know who you really want to protect. Once you realize that, you’ll be that much closer to remembering who you really love.”

Invading the victim’s brain and making them want the chains they'd struggled to escape from was something only a demon would attempt. Yet, as much as it was a figment of her imagination, Coco knew that if Mosely was really there, he would be saying the exact same things.

Helping another abandoned foal years after the fact would have to mean claiming her worst enemy deserved better than what he got, and from there, it was a slippery slope. As terrible as Midsweet had been, at least she’d kept thoughts of her fellow Orange at bay, and now that Coco had restrained him for so long, he was especially powerful.

The walk back to the theatre was an internal war far greater than any small set of inner battles, and by the time she returned to her post, she could barely sit through Scene’s briefing of what had occurred at the other meeting. Her own recounting of the events flowed from her mouth like a raging river, nothing but incoherence and panic. While Suri appeared unsurprised, Tangerine almost seemed to avoid Scene’s glance, and the aforementioned director held close to Coco, offering his support whenever possible. When Babs arrived later in the afternoon and heard the events recounted, she could only respond with a wide-open mouth, much the same as Coco had done when she’d first heard about it.

By the time all of them had decided on a plan of action, sunset had already begun to roll in, and even then, Tangerine entered the conversation as little as possible, only offering curt nods as responses.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the meeting, and I think this could be the key to changing everything,” Coco began. “Belladonna may be only one pony, but she led the Oranges before Mosely did, right? That means she might have information nopony else has, especially when it comes to the lost Orange. If we’re able to figure out what made him fall, maybe we’ll find some insight on how to solve the current problem.”

Suri stared at Coco with a disinterested, yet strangely proud glance and muttered, “Look who’s turning into a little leader.”

“I thought you said Valencia was covering that base,” Scene answered, ignoring Suri and lifting a hoof to his chin. “Should we really be overlapping on her operation when there are other pieces at play here?”

More than anything, Coco hoped her emotional response to the situation wasn’t showing. In all honesty, she’d just tried to emulate what Scene’s reaction to this sort of situation would be, and that left little room for anything except rationality. If her act was really cracking through this much, it would only be a matter of time before they knew her true intentions. Before they knew just how much Mosely still had her in his sway.

“It’s meant as a failsafe. In case she doesn’t find what she’s looking for. I came up to Bambi after the meeting, and she’s running her own investigation with Applejack now that I let her know what the Oranges are really up to. Besides, interrogating Belladonna last time brought us information we weren’t even looking for.”

As cunning as the other Oranges were, she’d never been shy about divulging facts. Hopefully, that would be enough to convince the others that—

“Shouldn’t we be dealing with him, too?” Babs asked, gesturing to Tangerine. “Who knows what agendas he could have with us? Just because he’s not an Orange doesn’t mean he couldn’t be up to something…”

“…or that he couldn’t have been colluding with Belladonna to begin with,” Scene finished. “Last time we saw her, she seemed pretty willing to get Mosely off her hooves, and while I completely agree with her on that, she could be using that abandonment to make herself look better than the rest. Having a son in charge of the Orange investigation would do just that.”

Through all the events she’d been put through, the idea of interrogating a cop had never crossed Coco’s mind. As twisted as Tangerine’s entire existence was, he hadn’t seemed to do anything Orange-like as of late, and she almost wanted to believe that his life outside Manehattan’s most shadowy family had been a normal one. And even if he was engaging in unprofessional practices, didn’t he have the right reasons in mind? Would it really matter in the grand scheme of things as long as Mosely was arrested?

Unless, of course, the tiny hint of uncertainty Coco had about him was for an entirely different reason. She willed the thoughts away as best as she could, telling herself that no part of her would possibly want to help Mosely, yet they still lingered in her brain.

“Is it a good idea to mention all this around him?” she asked, gesturing to Officer Quartz, whose head was turned towards one of the props on stage. As long as she kept engaging herself in the conversation, she would at least have an excuse to drive the whispers away. “He could be listening.”

“Oh, trust me,” Tangerine replied, speaking for perhaps the first time in hours, “I am. I don’t let anything like this past me.”

Even with all his different features, the look he gave Coco was the same deviously radiant blue glare she’d seen so many times before. Instinctually, she flinched her head away from him, only for the officer to gesture back to her.

“You have every right to think that, you know. It doesn’t offend me in the slightest, and I’d be more than willing to offer up any information I have that could convince you I’m on your side.”

Suri had gone on incessantly over the past few days about the officer’s flirtier side, the way he smoothed his voice out into an endearing drawl when flattery would prove especially useful. For somepony like Suri, the idea of a charming, and more importantly, good version of Mosely was something out of a dream, but Coco couldn’t take it. Even if he kept a respectable distance from her, every step he took set off her internal alarms even more. Somehow, even though they looked almost nothing alike, something about Tangerine set her fur on end even more than Valencia, who at least resembled her past tormentor.

But for the time being, all that mattered was that the more he talked, the more the two voices she heard converged into one. Even if the words he said were innocent enough, words could conceal just about anything in his family.

Before long, she could barely even control her body anymore, overcome by some emotion she couldn’t name.

Her legs set off in a canter before anypony could stop her. She had no clue which way she should turn, and she didn’t care. As long as she could get away from him, away from his family, away from these thoughts—

She’d only made it a couple hundred feet before she heard the words that would set her back into reality yet again.

“My mother’s usually available at this hour,” Tangerine said. His voice was still muddled, but at least it was starting to sound like his own. “If you have time before the performance, you can question both of us.”

****

Crammed in a cab with four other ponies, only two of which she knew for certain she could trust, Coco tried her best not to bring up the embarrassing incident from before, burying her head into her chest.

Tangerine was about as far away from her as he could be in a crowded taxi, though she suspected it was less because Suri had picked up on her discomfort and more because her coworker wanted to cozy up to the stallion. The two were talking just about as idly as the conversation allowed them to, trying to find at least some common interests among them.

Babs and Scene had crowded around Coco, treating her almost as if she was a filly who needed comforting. Though no words had been exchanged, they glanced at her with the warmest gazes of understanding, making her dread the moment of truth even more. As Coco stared into space, she could just barely notice Babs sticking out her tongue at Tangerine and Suri, and she allowed herself to chuckle a little at the display.

“Since when have those two been lovebirds?” the filly muttered, clearly showing her disdain for both figures.

“She always did seem like the type to sweet-talk cops,” Coco forced herself to quip. “I wouldn’t have put it past her back then.”

She just wished the cab ride would end as soon as possible, not only so she could straighten her mind towards a goal, but also so that she wouldn’t have to keep putting up with seeing Tangerine and Suri making this sort of chit-chat. Sure, it was nice seeing her assistant open up to somepony other than Mosely, but still, as far as she knew, he might as well have been the same pony to her.

“Can’t you just ditch him and let somepony else run the operation?” Babs whispered. “He clearly ain’t doin’ his job, and questioning both of them? Sounds to me like he’s bidin’ his time fishin’ for an excuse.”

For once, Coco almost admired her daughter’s distrust of anything Orange. Even now, she’d always managed to get into their schemes by trusting them at the wrong times or giving them the wrong information. Babs probably would’ve been able to get rid of the thoughts hounding Coco’s mind in half the time. Considering they still lingered on her mind, maybe the filly would have even been able to pull herself together into the next operation.

But really, deep down, it was good knowing that there was at least somepony who hated the officer for the right reasons. Maybe that meant that Coco herself wasn’t so far gone, even if she was about to confront him in the name of a pony who was her enemy not so long ago. One who resembled her real enemy all too much, and one Mosely was already using as leverage, even if he was just a figment of her imagination at this point.

“I’m afraid not, Babs,” Scene replied, addressing the filly with a surprisingly mature tone. “Between the upcoming trial and any other threats that may get into the city before then, the Manehattan police force is already booked as it is. It’d take proof that he was actually doing something wrong to get somepony else on the investigation. Which I’m more than sure he’d blurt out if we make it look like he’s off the hook while we’re questioning his mother and then confront him with it.”

She wasn’t quite sure if Babs understood the situation because of her favored detective novels or because of the situations she’d been put in over the past months, but the filly held a determined glance around Scene and continued on as if Coco wasn’t there.

“Good. Maybe I’m judgin’ him too early, but somethin’ about him just seems off. I mean, the way he’s a ‘replacement’ and everythin’? Even if he wasn’t ‘raised’ Orange, he can’t be as clueless as he puts on. Like whatever he said to Mama earlier that made her run off.”

As much as Coco wanted to keep all this inside her, she couldn’t take it much longer. The skyscrapers seemed to close in on her as they approached, like some Daring Do-style trap. Everything both inside and outside of Coco drove her to confess.

“He didn’t say anything out of the ordinary,” she finally spoke. “I just panicked, that’s all. He was so close, and he had his eyes and I’m still such a coward when it comes to him. I thought I was over all of it, but all it took was him getting close enough to me, and…”

If it was possible for a mare to explode from sheer embarrassment, Coco would already be a pile of ashes at this point. She couldn’t look out to her disorienting landscape, nor could she face the others. Eventually, she just ended up staring off into space until Scene placed a hoof on her leg.

“It’s fine. You’ve only been away from him for a couple months, as hard as that is to believe. To be fair, you’ve made a lot of progress since then, and a coward wouldn’t have been able to go up against his family like that. I don’t think you’ll ever be the scaredy pony you were when I first met you again.”

He cuffed her playfully behind the ear, and for just a moment, Coco’s troubles began to dissipate. But once she remembered where this cab was heading, doubt came back in full force.

“Do you think I’m really doing the right thing here? Getting involved in something that happened decades before we were born, and not even because of the investigation? What if I were to tell you I was doing it so Valencia could at least have some closure?”

“Even if you’d told me that in the first place, I’d have taken us here,” Scene admitted. “Maybe in your weird world of feeling down on yourself, that’s a bad thing, but to me, it’s just being a good friend. Even if that friend has directly threatened our set on more than a few cases and comes from our worst enemy’s family, not to mention the fact that she looks just like—“

“Scene!” Coco muttered, more indignant than really upset.

“Anyway, now that that’s past, we’ve got another enemy to look out for, and you wanting to help your friend could give us the information we need. I’d say that’s a win-win in anypony’s book, especially if it means spending more time with you.”

Once again, the two were completely wrapped in themselves, completely ignoring the filly in between them. However, unlike last time, Babs wasn’t about to let her presence be overlooked. She shoved herself ever closer to Coco and offered her own words of encouragement, and it was only then that Coco noticed the truly distraught look on her filly’s face.

“Have either of you ever felt tempted to replace anypony?” she asked both of them.

She’d almost been able to hide the question as a strange curiosity she’d had, but both could still pick up on the cracks hidden within her voice. The two scrambled with their answers, trying their best to let her know that such a possibility was far outside the mindset of rational ponies. But even then, she still seemed unconvinced.

“Mama told me months ago that Mosely was still in her head sometimes,” whispered Babs, struggling just to get the words out. “From the way she’s been reactin’ today, he might even be there now.”

Coco’s head automatically hung in shame at being found out, but the filly did the one thing she would least expect at a time like this. She gave her mother an encouraging pat on the leg in much the same way Scene had done only a few minutes before.

“At first, I didn’t understand, but now I do. Because Midsweet’s been in mine. Before she came around, I never would’ve thought I’d flinch when I saw the two of you together. But now part of me wonders, knowin’ why ponies get together and all. I don’t want to believe it, but then again, I didn’t want to believe it with Mosely either.”

As much as the question hurt Coco to her core, she had to tell herself that Babs wasn’t thinking rationally. Not only did she have a filly’s simplified knowledge of relationships, but she’d felt uncomfortable with the idea of abandonment ever since they’d met. Still, she had to make sure Babs’ question was completely clear to her.

“So you think that now that I’m with Scene, I’m just going to have another foal and forget about you? Is that why Valencia’s story got to you so much?”

Babs merely hung her head. Just looking at her, Coco could tell that deep down, it hadn’t been the filly herself who’d asked.

It’d been the lingering voices, yet another thing that connected them. And even if Coco didn’t quite know how to deal with them yet, she could at least help another to get through the same.

“Honestly, the entire time she was telling me about it, I was thinking the same thing,” said Coco. “What could lead a mother to abandon her foals like that? I guess that’s part of the reason I want to talk to her. Because that’s something I could never justify, even under the worst of circumstances.”

She grabbed Babs and pulled her closer to her stomach, almost as if the foal was a baby and as if she had been there from the beginning.

As soon as that thought entered Coco’s mind, she made a note to herself to visit the orphanage soon to see if they had any records of that. The idea of baby Babs, or “Babs bab” as Coco found herself mentally calling the foal, was enough to melt her heart with a single thought.

“You’ll never have to go through any of that again. Not all couples end up having a foal—“

“—and we’re not even that far in the relationship, anyway,” Scene interrupted.

“—and even if we do, you’re still my filly. Nothing’s gonna change, and even if you go off the path a little, I’ll always be here for you. You may be an Orange, but I’m going to make sure you turn out different, and I’m going to lure the voices away.”

With those words of acceptance, Babs finally seemed to understand. The first few times the voices had sneaked up on her, Coco had thought their ideas were her own. But that, along with the way both Mosely and Babs had been abandoned, was a cycle she was going to break.

Even, she realized when she reached Belladonna’s residence, if it meant she couldn’t drive her own demons away.

Author's Note:

Hey, "Babs bab" has been in my head for months now. I had to use it sooner or later, right?

Originally, this was going to be the interrogation chapter, but as soon as I realized the similarities between Babs and Mosely's backstories, I had to make it a breather episode about how the characters haven't gotten past their insecurities. I hope this doesn't undo too much development they've had.

If anything, this twist just makes Mosely even more of an idiot for doing to another filly what happened to himself...

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

"We are one and the same, you take all of the pain away, away, away!"

[JMP]

I don't think this undos their development at all. You've done a good job of showing Coco struggling to deal with Mosley remaining in her mind.

[Quillamore]

8300867

I'm glad you think that. I was afraid that I'd already covered that arc enough, and that I'd covered Babs' abandonment complex a lot. But, in real life, I figured that wouldn't resolve itself that easily.

It's good to hear that I've been telling her story well in this regard.

[JMP]

8300874
I do like the element of realism you've put in there. I do really like this story and think it well deserves its spot in my favorites.

[Quillamore]

8300877

You have no idea how happy you saying that makes me. I strive for this sort of psychological realism.

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

“—and even if we do, you’re still my filly. Nothing’s gonna change, and even if you go off the path a little, I’ll always be here for you. You may be an Orange, but I’m going to make sure you turn out different, and I’m going to lure the voices away.”

Yay!

[Snowdrifter]

By the time all of them had decided on a plan of action, sunset had already begun to roll in, and even then, Tangerine entered the conversation as little as possible, only offering curt nods as responses.

Yeah, let's sic Sunset Shimmer on the Oranges too. I would love to see if Orange trees are flammable.

[Midknight Defender]

8846186

It's been suggested to me that orange peels are very flammable, though I've not researched or tested it firsthand.