“I know I’ve been a jerk before, but I really need your help.”

Coco still wasn’t the best at calling bluffs, but even she could tell that something about that statement didn’t quite seem right. Suri Polomare, practically the proudest, most belligerently confident mare in Manehattan, asking for anypony’s assistance, let alone hers? After she’d spent so many years calling her useless, becoming a star on Bridleway was enough to change all of that?

Still, as much as she hated to admit it, she was at least a little tempted to open the door. Past rivalries aside, Suri was still her assistant, and treating her like an enemy certainly wasn’t advisable. The theatre company had already gotten fragmented enough, and the last thing Coco wanted was to add more fuel to the fire. Enough drama had happened to the costume department, and to everypony else, without all this ruckus added in.

At the same time, though, she knew the way Suri could just create more and more of it. Even caving into one demand of hers would be enough for a downward spiral. If she wasn’t cut off as soon as possible, Suri could end up forgetting her place, and they’d be right back where they started again. Coco would be under somepony else’s hoof again, just when she finally felt like she was getting back in control.

Just as the manestylist was wetting Coco’s mane down for the intermission showcase, Suri started going at it again. The ex-con artist knew all too well that her former assistant would take her sweet time figuring out how to deal with her, as annoying as she found that to be. Still, it was the best shot she had at keeping the one thing she had going for her.

“I really do mean it, okay?” Suri shouted from the other side. “I talked with Scene today, and he’s really been cracking down on me! I could lose my job over this! And I really can’t afford that, and you’re all lovey-dovey with him, so I was thinking maybe you could save my flank for once and—“

Coco rushed to the door as soon as she heard just how desperate Suri’s voice sounded. She may have been a liar and a cheat, but Suri wasn’t an actress in any sense of the word. She usually just used manipulation in a pinch, for however long she could hold the act before anypony else caught on. Trick them for a few minutes, bait them into looking the wrong way, take what you need, and move on: that was the way she tended to see things. In a way, her fashion of doing things was almost better on the other pony: at least with her, you knew it wasn’t going to be drawn out. That you wouldn’t be manipulated enough to where she’d suck you dry; that she’d at least leave you with a little bit left to live on until she did it again.

So when Coco heard her choking down sobs from the other room, there were only two possibilities: that she learned more from Mosely than anypony had thought or that she was actually being at least somewhat genuine. Somehow, Coco doubted the first one was even possible, from everything she’d seen, but even that wasn’t the reason she’d let Suri in.

As much as she hated to think of it like this, the image she saw was always the same: a helpless pony, crying at their enemy’s door, begging to be let in. And if there was one thing she knew, it was how that story had ended for one filly. The stakes weren’t anywhere near as high, sure, but it was still a test. A test to see if Coco was really any different.

Looking at the moment, she still wasn’t sure if she was. But she would at least pretend to be.

“We’re not lovey-dovey,” Coco corrected, keeping a stern tone just in case. “And even if we were, things have changed here. You can’t get by with connections anymore.”

“It always has to go back to my connections, doesn’t it?” Suri replied defensively. “No matter how hard I try, you guys are always going to bring that up. How I got in and everything.”

“That wasn’t what I meant at all. I can’t convince anypony of anything anymore. None of us can. It’s all up to the director and producer now to decide what’s really right here, and they can’t let any outside noise influence that.”

For once in her life, Suri didn’t have a catty remark to that, or to anything. She just stared at the floor, defeated, ready to surrender. That much could still be an act, and Coco still wasn’t entirely convinced. Her mind went back to the ways it’d been hurt before, by Suri and by others. It replayed those scenes over and over, but nothing worked as long as her heart was in charge.

“But,” Coco continued, holding a single hoof out, “that doesn’t mean I can’t give you a shoulder to lean on.”

Looking back, that was the moment she probably should’ve known she was doomed.

“So how do you do it?” Suri asked once she’d calmed down a little bit. “How on Equestria did you end up with the two biggest ponies on set all over you?”

“That…isn’t really something I like talking about,” Coco admitted nervously. “And I thought you needed advice on keeping your job, anyway. This doesn’t really have anything to do with—“

“We can get to that later. But really, I swear I’ll be off your back with the dumb questions after this, okay? Is it the mane? Do you think my mane’s too flashy? I mean, I know it kinda is, but are stallions into that? Or do they think a short mane like yours is cuter?”

“One of the stallions was a fluke, and the other one blackmailed her,” the stylist working on Coco’s mane answered bluntly. “I do not think it has anything to do with the manecut. Though a nice shade of blue like hers would complement your coat very well. Perhaps a bit more to the bluish-white side, even.”

“Oh, you’re right!” Suri cried out. “Cameo’s hair was long and done up like mine. So if anything, Coco was the odd one out. So to impress him, I’ll need to think harder—“

The stylist’s face tilted a bit to the side and gave her an odd expression.

“Do yourself a favor, filly,” the older mare sighed. “Stop fawning over stallions behind bars. Had that problem with my first husband; don’t even ask how that went.”

Just after saying that, the hairstylist went back to braiding Coco’s hair faster than either of them had ever seen anypony else braid anything.

“Guess that means I should drop the whole subject from here,” Suri whispered. “Then again, I really don’t want to go back to making a fool out of myself like I was back there.”

Giving her enough time to cool down, in retrospect, had probably been Coco’s first mistake. Now that she was back to her flamboyantly normal self, getting information out of Suri would probably be next to impossible. And, as much as Coco hated to think about it, those facts were things she had to know going forward as her supervisor. She may not have wanted to bring whatever had panicked Suri so much back into her head, but as far as she knew, it was the only way she could count on. After all, it wasn’t like Suri to just launch into talking about her feelings.

“What was all that ruckus over there about, anyway?” Coco asked. “Don’t directors give ponies a bit more warning before kicking them out? It doesn’t seem right for them to just load all this on you right before a play.”

“Well, they do, and they did,” Suri replied bluntly. “Right about a month ago, if you want to get precise. I’d been watching for it, even before they made the official announcement, because hey, even I knew what I was there for. When there’s a new marefriend in charge, you can’t keep using ‘I was the producer’s ex’ as an excuse to make you stay, now, can you?”

Coco cringed as she heard this, almost expecting a threat to be attached, but instead, Suri’s last words seemed to be more heartbroken than jealous. Of course, Coco had been the one to inadvertently steal her best prospects out from under her. But Suri had always been the sort to claw her way back up after anything threatened to crash her carefully-maintained business.

Thinking that the sadness was over that, though, was better than the alternative: that she’d found somepony even worse than she was. And that Suri Polomare had fallen in love.

“Anyway, it seems like the tables have turned around here now,” continued Suri. “You’ve gotten back to your place as the helpless victim, and as much as I hate to say this, you actually deserve it. I’ve seen Mosely’s bad side enough to know what you’ve had to put up with, okay? But that’s the part ponies here tend to forget. That maybe…I’ve been hurt, too.”

“You never seem to show it,” spoke Coco. “You still act the same around everypony else even after the breakup. And even before then, I’ve never seen you let down your guard, not even back when I worked for you.”

The pink earth pony gave only a cynical chuckle in response.

“That’s what they all say, okay? Probably how I got messed up so much in the first place, even. But if you think I’d never let myself go, then the old me is a pony you really wouldn’t have recognized.”

Her face almost looked as if it would pass through the floor. Her fur was already starting to pale like a ghost. But somehow, this was the closest to a living being that Coco had seen Suri in a long time. Even now, it was easy to look into her past and see her old boss as a monster, somepony she could never bring herself to understand or forgive. The monster who had tortured her and her daughter for too long.

But now that Coco had seen the real one, could seeing Suri as just another pony be another step?

Take it with a grain of salt, her mind told her. She’s lied to you before, and the things Mosely did doesn’t erase what she did. The pain she caused you may have been less, but it was still there. She still made you believe there wasn’t a single soul in Manehattan out to help you. She made you feel alone, so she could have you to herself.

Ponies can change, her instincts told her. Look at where you are now. How can you let love back into your life if you don’t learn to forgive? You’ve ever only seen her bad side. Maybe she can be different. Maybe you can bring her back.

Coco didn’t say anything as Suri spoke, and anypony watching would think it was because she was listening intently. But really, it was because she felt just as lost as the other mare did, still at a loss on how to treat her.

The only thing her mind and her instincts could agree on was to listen. Either to gain information, or to find a way to help.

“It’s not just about me losing my job,” Suri started. “It’s the timing, too, okay? You see, my sister lives in a village on the other end of Equestria, and after hearing about what I’m helping with over here…she signed up to be our caterer. With her skills, there was barely any competition. But if she were to find out about me getting let go…”

“She’d blackmail you or something?” Coco asked.

“Worse. She’d pity me. She’s never quite figured it out herself, but she’s always been my family’s darling, and I was their problem child. I’ve had enough ponies say they’d wish I’d gotten the big job or whatever, and really, I just want one time to say: hey, I actually made it, okay? You had the odds stacked against me, but I made it, and now you can’t call me the hometown deadbeat anymore. I’m on Bridleway, and you’re not, so find yourself a new pony to laugh at and never talk to me again!”

Even as she yelled the last statement at the top of her lungs, her carefully kept confidence was still unraveling. Whatever energy she had left was fading quickly, and it’d been fading the moment she’d been turned down by one of the richest bachelors in Manehattan. The moment she came to the city in the first place, even.

“I’ve had enough ponies apologize for me,” she whispered as softly as she ever had. “If my sister did…I think I’d die of humiliation.”

“So how can I help?” Coco responded. “I’ve already told you I can’t convince Scene to let you stay. If they aren’t willing to let you prove yourself, then I’m afraid I can’t do anything about that.”

A sly smile crossed Suri’s face, though it wasn’t one of her usual ones. It was so small, it looked like it was only there to keep up the act. Whatever it was that made her keep hiding itself, her past or something odd in her head, it didn’t want to be removed anytime soon.

“I could make a deal with Scene if I wanted,” she muttered. “Like yours, I mean. It’d be nice to have a rich coltfriend again, and the job security would be good, at least.”

It was probably some lame, half-hearted attempt at a joke, but Coco was struck by it all the same. Only, for once, it wasn’t the usual fears that hit her.

“Scene’s nothing like Mosely!” she shouted. “He’d never blackmail anypony and you know it.”

Suri’s smile spread, nowhere near her usual levels, but still just a tiny bit closer.

“Totally forgot,” she muttered. “About you two being lovebirds and all.”

After a minute of awkward silence and audible sighs, neither pony really wanted to speak up. Any guard that might’ve been lowered was back to its usual levels, and for a moment, they almost forgot they were supposed to be helping each other.

“Anyway,” Suri finally continued, “there is another way I can stay. For me to swoop in and be the hero, even.”

Coco raised an eyebrow at the comparison, but kept listening anyway, not even noticing that another pony was watching them.

“You’ve heard about how the Pink Lady letters are coming back, okay? Well, probably not, since Scene said I was the first one he told, come to think of it. Anyway, we got one this show, and those few ponies who know about it think it’s Cameo writing them again. I’d overheard them talking about it from down the hall, and that was when I had to put my hoof down. I was all, ‘I know her, and my Cameo would never write stuff like this’ and they were all, ‘Suri, gosh darn it, why do you always have to eavesdrop on us,’ and I was all like, ‘no, I don’t,’ and…”

“So Scene thought you could help, since you know her better than he does?”

“Not just that. Wright convinced him into letting me stay if I solved this thing and found the other Pink Lady. But Scene was also afraid of how I’d treat you if we had to stay in the same company for ten more years and wanted me to start being nicer to you. So hi, how was your day?”

“What was the letter about?” Coco asked, ignoring Suri’s half-baked attempt to be a sincere friend. The pink earth pony gave the slightest of pouts, even though both knew neither of them really cared about her question.

“Literally, like, the exact opposite of everything Cameo’s been fighting for. It says the Pink Lady that showed up last time wasn’t the ‘real one,’ and that this one is. She doesn’t really seem to care about the show itself anymore, just that we got a new producer out of the blue and had to delay its showing.”

As if this case hadn’t already confused Coco enough, pouncing on Silver Phoenix Productions for making a change anypony else would’ve made in the same situation just made her head spin even more. She’d done the research, and she knew that plenty of shows had delays without any sort of protestation from the audience. What made this scenario any different?

“What else could we have done? It was our only option.”

“Not in this new Pink Lady’s eyes,” Suri continued. “She’s pretty dumb, if I do say so myself, but she at least makes her biases clear, okay? The thing that bothers her isn’t that we switched producers.”

She quickly handed over a copy of the letter that she’d made just hours before, almost as if she’d planned for this whole incident all along.

“It’s that we conned Mosely out of a job,” Coco whispered in realization after reading it. “She doesn’t even think Babs’ foalnapping really happened. That we’re just making all this up to make him look bad.”

While Suri had tried to keep an even, comfortable tone so she wouldn’t alienate her from the conversation, Coco herself had no such restraint. After finding out about the contents of the letter, the disgust in her voice was unmistakable, even as she tried to keep her composure. Even if she wouldn’t have been directly tied into the case, still, to cover up a foal’s suffering like that just so somepony could keep a job…

“Or she could just think somepony else did it,” suggested Suri. “Let’s not jump to too many conclusions here, okay?”

“I can’t believe you’re the one telling me to calm down,” Coco said with a chuckle. “I always thought it’d be the other way around.”

“Me too, but let me explain the rest of this. You see, I think I might have this narrowed down to a few particular ponies. And before you start acting surprised at me being smart enough to solve a mystery like this, let me just say that the answer is really, really obvious. With the way the city’s been avoiding him lately, who in their right mind would be stupid enough to want him back? The letter was clearly placed by—“

“The Oranges!” Coco interrupted

“—Wright, who’s secretly been working for Mosely all this time! They wanted to co-produce Manehattan’s biggest play ever, but now that one producer’s out, it’ll cost too many bits to make. And Wright’s already got a debt with a loan shark as is, and is in desperate danger of losing his fortune, so he signs on with us while secretly replacing one of our actors with a hit stallion and—“

Trailing off for a few moments, Suri muttered, “Okay, fine, your guess makes way more sense. Who would a hit stallion want to take out on our set, anyway?”

Placing a hoof to her chin, a potential plan was already starting to formulate in Coco’s mind. It wasn’t one that she particularly liked, and doing it for Suri’s sake was weird enough. But now that she knew who was behind it, it wasn’t just for her old rival’s sake anymore. It was for her own, knowing that she’d finally have at least a bit of closure, and more importantly, knowing that this could be enough to make sure Suri would never take advantage of her again.

She certainly didn’t want to be Suri’s friend, not after all the baggage she still had about her. But she knew she certainly didn’t want to be her enemy, either.

“It has to be them,” Coco continued. “I’ve met up with them at reunions and seen them around town a few times. They’ve been trying to recruit me to their side.”

“How do you recruit somepony to a family?” Suri asked, half-jokingly and half-curiously.

“I don’t know all the details, but I know they do it a lot. Cameo says that whenever one of them doesn’t meet expectations, they replace them with somepony else, and then they shun the ex-member. Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to go. But what if, when they expelled Mosely, it was all for show? They get rid of him since their reputation is at stake, but have one of them secretly sending out these letters and threats trying to disprove everything?”

After hearing this, Suri began to nod in understanding.

“I knew a lot of ponies like that, back when I first came to Manehattan,” she admitted. “Reputation is like our currency, and if you don’t have enough of it, you don’t stay around long.”

From her pained expression, it looked as though Suri was about to reveal some hidden trauma she’d faced about her first years in Manehattan, something that Coco had always wondered about herself. Something had to have happened to make her so cold and untrusting of the city itself, with the way she would close herself off, hide from others, and say it was everypony for themselves.

Instead, Suri had chosen to say nothing and went straight back into investigating, intent on clearing Cameo’s name and keeping her job.

“So how am I supposed to spy on their entourage long enough to figure out which Orange did it? It’s not like I’m on their exclusive list or whatever.”

“No,” Coco answered, “but I am. I can relay all the information to you and let you take the credit, but they’ve already been trying to recruit me. I’m sure they wouldn’t suspect a thing.”

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she finally noticed the orange mare standing just outside the room. There wasn’t supposed to be anypony backstage right now except cast, crew, and approved visitors, and most of the workers and actors were already on stage. It was at that moment that she realized the real mistake she’d made, letting Suri in and helping her keep her job.

It was ten minutes until intermission. Bambi had told her that she’d show up fifteen minutes before to talk her through her speech. And this was what she had trotted in on.

All Coco could do was slowly trot over, trying her best to explain the situation. But even through the apologies, Bambi still knew.

“Is that what all this was about?” the newsmare asked Suri. “You wanted to force her to take on all your problems? To guilt trip her into having to be the hero again?”

“No, I swear,” Suri replied, strangely polite. “I just went to her first because she knows what it’s like. For your job here to be in danger because of your past, I mean. And I thought maybe, since it worked for her, it could work for me.”

“I just wanted to make sure she never harassed me again,” Coco explained. “I figured that maybe, if Rarity and them were able to befriend their enemies and make sure they never hurt them again, then maybe I could, too—“

Even with the strictness in her voice, Coco realized, Bambi still had the sort of desperation that Suri had had earlier. Only this time, it wasn’t quite so clear why, and even when her roommate spoke up again, it was still a mystery to her.

“That’s not what I have a problem with. Heck, I don’t even care if you two end up best buddies and forget everything that happened between you. But if I’m expected to just stand by and let the Oranges corrupt one more pony I care about, then that’s where I’ll draw the line. That’s the one sacrifice I’ll never let you make for her, or for us, or for anypony.”

“How many times have you had to see this sort of thing?” Coco wondered. “You always tell me you can’t trust your own family. So how many ponies have you lost because of them?”

With a final sigh, Bambi walked her out of the room, not saying a single word as she made sure every bit of Coco’s being was ready for what would await her on the stage.

But as she trotted towards the auditorium, Bambi finally gave her response.

“Too many,” she’d said. “If you need the information that bad, I can go over and meet with them, as long as you keep resisting their call to you.

“Just remember one thing: the Oranges poison everypony. And if you’re not careful, that could be you.”