Light Pollution

by Quillamore

Sixth Night: Shining Bright Like a Diamond

From what little Diamond knew of Bridleway, it was customary to seat yourself hours before the production, especially on the most cutthroat night of all. Opening night, and by the time Filthy and his daughter made their way to their seats, half the theatre was already full. But it was the one pony who wasn’t there--Spoiled Rich herself--that changed everything. She’d been off the grid all week, and from the look of it, this would only continue.

Her husband, at least, was none too upset about this matter. The minute Filthy had heard about just what his wife had gotten into, he’d switched seats with Diamond so she wouldn’t have to face her. He was already about to do it the minute he’d heard that Diamond had been abandoned to the city, but the news that came shortly after it had shaken him even more.

It’d taken Diamond herself at least an hour to explain the entire incident, and while her father had seemed skeptical at first, his eyes were wide and terrified by the time she finished telling her story. To her surprise, he hadn’t even bothered to ask any questions, like his usual businesspony self. All he could do was nod, listen, and shudder about the alliance he’d almost made.

“The minute we get home,” he’d finally said after processing the whole thing, “I’m notifying everypony in charge of the Orange negotiations. They have to know this, and Barnyard Bargains will not complete this deal. It may be a little harder on all of us, but we cannot let our morals be compromised, and with any luck, other businesses will follow suit.”

As much as he tried to put on his best authoritative voice, the cracks were already about to show. It’d taken him everything he’d had just to enter the auditorium, figuring Coco and everypony else who’d worked on the production didn’t deserve to have a high-profile pony like him cancel out. But judging from the way his eyes moved all over the place, Diamond had a feeling that he’d been severely frazzled. He could never see anything about this theatre, and the stallion who’d sought to become his business partner, the same ever again.

For once, though, seeing her father like this was worth it. Even if she couldn’t pursue further justice, even if she had to leave the rest to Coco and her family, she could take pride in the fact that she’d done at least one small thing to disturb the Oranges at their roots. Sometimes, she thought to herself, being a rich pony definitely had its perks.

However, even after a half hour of waiting, Filthy still had yet to mention anything about her friend’s ties to the case. He’d only reacted to the parts of the Orange scenario that concerned his business, and if he was anypony else in Equestria, Diamond would have figured he just didn’t care about Babs. Yet from the way he’d talked to her earlier, plus the way he’d always seemed to treat the filly with kindness, Diamond figured that was probably what had hit him the hardest. So hard that he couldn’t even open his mouth to speak about it.

All these months since Babs had come to Ponyville, and he had never even known anything about her. Just how hurt she really was, what she’d been through, how she’d have to go back to her hometown with all that knowledge crammed into her head. How she might never, even in a hundred years, be able to forget those things.

Thinking back, Diamond had never even thought to get to know Babs, either. But now that she had, she’d do anything to make sure her friend was avenged, both for the things she and Mosely had done to her.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t had time to go back and see Babs, since Coco and everypony else were already busy preparing for the play. Diamond could only wish that this would be enough.

****

Nopony was exactly sure just when Spoiled Rich decided to show up and rain on everypony’s parades, as there were no clocks in the auditorium. And, even if there had been, nopony would have really cared. She might have been a public figure in Ponyville, but it was no secret that Filthy’s reach extended far beyond her own. Still, even as she entered the theatre, everypony knew that she had to be somepony important. Nopony else would dare show up so late before the play, and it was clear that she thought herself above such measures of punctuality.

As she trotted inside, she tried to think of this night as an escape from her failures. Granted, her attempts at making it big in Manehattan had failed, so much so that Mosely Orange himself had rejected her for a mere commoner, but she at least had this. The hottest ticket in town, and one that she absolutely knew everypony back home would drool over. She’d tell them that she’d had a passionate romance with the producer, got the tickets from him, and left the relationship to its gradual fizzling out afterwards. Ponyville did know her to be a gold digger, after all.

She just wouldn’t have to tell them about the other part, about how she’d been a lovestruck mare who’d gotten her heart broken. That simply wasn’t her character, and even if she did tell the truth, she’d get laughed out of Ponyville for saying it. For once, she was glad she’d followed Filthy’s business advice and built herself an image.

Calm and collected. That was the type of pony she was, and the type she would have to present herself as in the moment. Sure, she’d lured him away from a certain little upstart who thought she could make her way in the fashion business, somepony so low on anypony’s radar that Spoiled herself had almost forgotten her name. (Like a good rich pony, she remembered that mare’s family name--Polomare--and forgotten everything else.) Sure, she’d let him date another mare on the side who could give him leverage on his goals. She’d just never expected in a million years that it was just an excuse for him to stop seeing her, and--

By the time she saw the Apples seated on the other side of the front row from her, she was practically fuming. If it had been just Applejack, she could have understood a little--as much as she hated this fact, Applejack was an Equestrian hero. But to practically bring her whole brood along with her, she had to have some kind of connections.

Spoiled’s mask was almost coming off, but she straightened it anyway, if only so she could get rid of her daughter’s stifled chuckles. As if to add insult to injury, she had to sit away from Diamond, the daughter she’d cultivated after all these years, and next to the one pony she could not have less affection for. Even this, however, was not enough to faze her.

What Filthy Rich said next did.

“It’s a nice place here, isn’t it?” he muttered in the most passive-aggressive voice either of his family members had ever heard from him. “It really is a good thing that you dumped Diamond off here, and not at the abandoned factory district.”

It was Diamond’s turn to be speechless. First, her mother had come in out of nowhere, and next, her father unleashed an insult so multilayered that it took her a few minutes just to think about it. He’d addressed that he A) knew about the issue, B) knew about Babs’ abandonment and where it’d taken place, C) knew about Mosely, and D) knew that Spoiled and her coltfriend were similar enough to be Mirror Pool clones. If Diamond was her old self again, she would have given her father a hoofbump for placing such vitriol in so few words.

After stammering for a few seconds and nearly falling into her seat, Spoiled finally worked up the energy to counter him.

“Dear,” she began, “you do know our daughter isn’t exactly the most honest pony out there, and that she prides herself in wrapping you around her hoof. I don’t know what she’s told you, but I can tell you that it’s all--”

“When I first saw her, she was with somepony you hated and have made no secret of hating. The minute I saw that, I figured something had to have gone wrong.”

With a quick sigh, Filthy whispered, “The minute that Apple filly left Ponyville, you told Diamond you never wanted to see her again. Believing that you abandoned her to the streets of Manehattan, to put it quite simply, is easier than believing you would renege on that order.”

Even with the shocked look on Spoiled’s face, the mare still continued to argue with the clear facts. Diamond herself had started to space out, staring at the red Bridleway curtain like she could change the events that unfolded behind it. What she could tell was that her parents were arguing, and making quite the scene of it, at that. But, for all the times she’d thought her father had never stood up for her, what he was saying now more than made up for.

There was just one small detail she’d snagged on, something that she’d forced herself to hear. It was the one thing that’d tuned everything else out until the curtains drew back and the actors revealed themselves. It was the one thing that took all the feelings she’d had for her mother and intensified them by a millionfold.

“Of course I knew what Mosely did. And I’ll say this: that filly deserved everything she got.”

For the rest of the wait, and even for a little bit afterwards, Diamond would have to hold her father’s hoof down to make sure he didn’t do something he would regret. And every time denying the simple fact that, the minute her mother said it, Diamond had wanted to do the same.

****

As it turned out, Spellshock opening night tickets would become far more valuable than anypony had ever imagined. In the coming years, ponies would whisper to one another, “You were there?” “Was it as crazy as everypony made it out to be?” “Did the cops really have to break it up?” “When did you realize he did it?” It was a cultural phenomenon in all the ways nopony had expected it to be.

For Diamond, and for everypony else in that audience, it had all started at intermission. Bambi had told her the day before that Coco was about to come out to receive some award, either for being the best costume designer or the best marefriend Mosely had ever had. But something had gone wrong. Something big.

Instead of the awards showcase everypony had been expecting, a single pony took the stage. She claimed that she was Cameo Citrus, Mosely Orange’s ex-wife, and from the looks of it, Spoiled hated her from the minute she took the stage. She started off slow and simple enough, telling everypony about how bad her marriage had been, but then, just as slowly, she set off a bomb.

All the doors were locked. Nopony could enter or leave the room. And as Diamond heard her say that she was Babs’ birth mother, everything suddenly clicked. Somehow or another, this mare had crashed everything at the risk of making herself look like a madmare. Nopony knew her intentions.

But even then, it was everything Diamond had ever hoped for and more.

Nopony said a word during Cameo’s speech. It was almost an unspoken rule that Bridleway had that night. It was terrible news, and yet nopony could resist a gossip. All Diamond could hear were a few odd shouts of “show those receipts” and nothing more. One way or another, this moment would stick out for everypony more than the play itself would.

Diamond almost wished she’d thought of it herself, and from the look on Filthy’s face, it felt like he’d almost wished he had, too. It was nothing short of a pure miracle, the one thing that could change everypony’s fate. Coco wouldn’t have to quit, Bambi wouldn’t have to worry anymore, Babs wouldn’t have to--

No. No!

With more energy than she’d ever had before, Diamond whipped out of her seat to check the one thing she hoped wasn’t happening. And yet, there it was. There was no way in Equestria Babs would miss a single second of her mother’s play, even if the doors were unlocked. Even if it would be better off on her, and Diamond, and everypony else, if she’d never heard anything at all.

There was no way in Equestria that Diamond could drown Cameo out, even if she screamed. And so there was no course of action in the world that could come without Babs Seed learning everything.

Diamond could practically feel everything she’d worked for being ripped out of her. From what she’d seen, Babs was still skeptical of everything around her, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. As Diamond thought about this, she could already see Mosely taking the stage with Coco, addressing the allegations head-on. Eventually, even he would have to crack, and reverse the one good thing she’d ever done for anypony.

“She doesn’t deserve this,” she finally brought herself to whisper. With the ruckus of the crowd, she wasn’t even sure if anypony could hear her, and yet she said it anyway. “She never knew...never had to...and now…”

Everything suddenly tuned out, and Diamond didn’t notice the way her face contorted until it was far too late. Her father reached a hoof out towards her, wiped a tear out of her eye. And, as if he knew how her mother would react, he blocked her out of anypony else’s sight.

If only Babs had somepony to block her out, too.

“Her mother probably thought it was the only way,” he responded. “Parents, good ones at least, never make their children go through anything they can’t handle. And I’m sure Cameo feels the same way.”

At first, Diamond couldn’t stand the thought of Babs’ birth mother being anypony other than an enemy, but as she continued spinning her story, Cameo mentioned that she’d felt forced to give the filly up. She’d fallen in love with the wrong stallion twice: one who wouldn’t let her go, and one who’d died in her grasp. It was too much loss for any one pony to take, and so that was why she’d turned to the worst pony possible. Because, like Filthy Rich, she’d wanted to believe her ex could be better.

Even in her tears, none of these similarities were lost on Diamond. Her father had a point, one that all too likely spoke from experience. But watching everything unfold in front of her was still torture.

She didn’t even bother to look back at Babs. She already knew that the one secret she would have kept with her life was already out wreaking havoc. For all she knew, the filly she’d reconnected with would be gone by tomorrow, replaced by somepony she didn’t recognize.

And then, somehow, something inside Diamond snapped. All of a sudden, the same waves of energy that’d accompanied her when the Crusaders got their marks reemerged. She couldn’t go up on stage or go to help Babs, but there was one thing she could do.

“She never deserved any of this!” she shouted, no longer hiding her tears as she tore into her mother’s gaze. “Maybe I got out of hoof when she was in town, but that was all on me. I was the one who dragged her away from the Crusaders, anyway. She never did anything to hurt you, or anything to hurt me. So how in Tartarus could you just say that about any foal? About my friend?”

In another lifetime, Spoiled might have yelled right back. However, she’d gotten all too used to her daughter calling her out like this. At this point in the game, she wasn’t even sure throwing her back out again would do anything, and the worst thing was that she just didn’t care anymore. All she cared about was preserving her legacy, and that meant justifying the stallion she’d loved.

“It was the only way. Not that it’s something either of you would understand, but her existence would have destroyed the Oranges for good. That’s what Mosely told me, and that’s what I believe. Whether or not you like the filly in question has no bearing on the situation.”

“In case you haven’t already figured it out,” Spoiled continued in possibly the most condescending voice she could muster, “that filly shouldn’t have been born. Her mother, disgrace of a rich mare that she is, thought it’d be a good idea to get together with a Skim. From what I’ve heard, she’d always say he wasn’t a con stallion like his brothers Flim and Flam, but to Mosely and I, it never mattered. Letting her into the family would have been a slippery slope, the end of Equestrian aristocracy as we know it, and--”

Before she could say anything else, everypony’s eyes had already turned on somepony else entirely. By the time the Riches’ argument culminated, Cameo had already stopped talking. And, more importantly, Coco had started up. Standing in the spotlight, just as she was supposed to tonight, except instead of praising Mosely left and right, she finally made her voice known.

The last pieces of the puzzle were unraveling right in front of them, but for once, there was no satisfaction in anything they heard. And, before any of them knew it, it was over. The play and its spectacle had taken its place.

All Diamond could think was that if the fates had chosen a worse day for her to leave Manehattan behind, it would be tomorrow. And, for those reasons, she chose to suggest the impossible as the three left the auditorium, as Filthy looked at his ex-wife with scornful eyes.

“Dad,” Diamond finally said, “can we stay here for another day?”

She expected annoyance, or possibly indifference. But instead, all her father could do was stare into her eyes and wipe her tears yet again.

“If it’s for the reason I think it is,” he replied, “then you have no idea how proud I am of you.”

Diamond barely needed to hear anything else to know that, even in this whirlwind of tragedy, she had become a better pony. And she was never going back.

Author's Note:

For those who came into this before reading IYGALL, I sincerely hope this isn't too much of an infodump for you. If it is, my apologies.

I honestly can't believe this series is only two parts away from being done. I hope you all enjoy the rest!