Late into the night and early into the morning, Coco felt as though she was trapped in a single spot, unable to make any movement even as her hooves hit the ground. The walk home was a blur, and so was just about everything Belladonna had said before the fateful words hit her mind. She could barely croak out an explanation when Bambi wondered what had made her this way again.
Up until now, she’d had everything planned. Staged, almost, with the way she and Cameo would go through with how to proceed with the next step of the plan. Coco had thought she could at least predict the Oranges this way, even if she would never come to understand them. But, in an attempt to console herself, she figured that this was the sort of thing no mother could prepare for.
And even as the others tried to pick up her slack, to plan as she once did, a single question remained on her mind: what did they even want with Babs? Would that ever be something she would understand, or was it just another strange part of an increasingly mysterious family?
As much as Coco would’ve wanted to go straight into Orange territory and ask these questions, she found herself having to walk through even the simplest of steps. When the morning began, she wasn’t even sure if she would be allowed off work to look for her, so that meant an hour spent at the theatre, arranging things in the best way she could make sense of them. Scene, as usual, had been understanding, and Rarity offered to take over her shift for the day. Meanwhile, everypony on set was on their highest guard; with one Orange threatening the play as Pink Lady and another foalnapping somepony within the play’s inner circle, it shouldn’t have surprised her at all.
Deep down, Coco wished she could have told them that no danger would come to them, now that the Oranges had all they wanted now that they’d split up the family. But even further down, that wasn’t something she wanted to admit to anypony.
The only real agreement so far had been that the play would go on even in spite of these threats, and that should any of the Oranges attempt to strike again, the cast would face it together.
“We’re used to their sabotage by now,” Scene had said. “I doubt they have anything new to throw us off with at this point.”
And with that, any hopes that Scene might be able to accompany her on her mission were dashed. Coco should have known from the minute she’d asked him that he couldn’t always be there to help her by his very nature as a director, but something about the whole situation made it feel just like before.
He wasn’t there, and neither was Bambi. They were left to hold up their respective forts in their respective workplaces and pretend that nothing had happened. With Babs out of the picture on top of that, Coco found herself going back into that same lonely state that’d haunted her only a few months before, helpless to face her issues on her own.
But even then, with the team down to three, she still at least had something that wasn’t there before. The next task took them to Cameo’s shop, and the clock ticked even further as they briefed her on everything that had happened. With the shop closed and everything seemingly in place, it should have stopped there. The three of them should have already been well on their way to the Orange residence, at least.
Instead, they found themselves at the same Duck ‘n Donuts where Coco had waited for Scene to help her move in. While she and Applejack understood Cameo’s reason for stopping there at first—she likely needed some potent beverage to help her make sense of her daughter being foalnapped for the second time in her life—the jeweler was taking her sweet time at the shop, sipping her coffee as slowly as she could and seeming completely unfazed by the situation.
“Ain't you even worried about any of this?” Applejack shouted, finally confronting her. “I thought you were supposed to be her ma, and this is how you treat everythin’?”
Coco lifted her hoof and was almost ready to raise her voice back towards the other mare to defend Cameo, but realized that this sort of fighting was the last thing they needed.
“When you’ve dealt with this for as long as I have,” Cameo began, “you find it easier to block out your emotions until they really count. While I care about Babs as much as you two do, there’s no denying that we have to have some plan of action, which is why I wanted us to stop here. We can’t just barge straight into a prominent Manehattan residence and accuse an Orange family matriarch of foalnapping.”
“Why the hay can’t we?” Applejack asked, her hostility dropping slightly, but not by much. “The way I see it, the sooner we get in and get out, the less Babs has to go through all that messed up Orange brainwashin’.”
“And also the more likely the chances that Midsweet will take this to court," countered Cameo. “One of the finest lawyers in Manehattan also happens to be an Orange through marriage. If we rely too much on intimidation tactics here, that could be one way she could destroy us. Or, considering that both of you are either Orange business allies or potential Oranges yourselves, she could cut off your ties to an important source of your income. Or, since her family is part owner of your theatre, she could use this threat as an opportunity to oust you from your job, Coco. With the bitterness she likely has over having her own family’s reputation tarnished, she’s likely looking for excuses to do the same to others. The courts would almost be a more merciful route in that case.”
She took a single long sip of her coffee as Applejack and Coco both stared at her in bemusement. While Coco had gotten some idea of the power Midsweet held from Belladonna’s interrogation, she had no clue that the older mare could cook up so many potential consequences to their plans.
“So this Midsweet,” Coco whispered, finally gaining the courage to speak. “You know a lot about her, then?”
“Unfortunately,” Cameo responded. “If I had to guess, she’s probably a lot of the reason the Oranges are the way they are. She’s also a source of a lot of their mystery, too. While I’ve done my fair lot of research on the family when I was Pink Lady, much of the information I’ve received about her has either led to dead ends or came from unreliable sources.”
Though Coco still barely knew the older mare, she could already tell two things from the groan Cameo had made at those last few words: that she’d hated every second of the interrogation and that she hated the stallion she’d done it to even more.
“What all these things basically tell us is that we’ll have to approach her differently than anypony either of you two might have faced before. She might not seem like much in her old age, but she’s been controlling the Oranges from behind all this time. If we get to her, we might have a chance of getting to the rest of them. But she’s also very good at using ponies’ attacks to her advantage. If I had to rank the two of them, I’d have to say that, for all these reasons, Midsweet might even be tougher to beat than Mosely was.”
That, more than anything, was the response Coco had been dreading. The more this conversation went on, the more she wondered if they could really break Babs out in just a day, or if it would turn into another years-long battle like Cameo had to face with her ex-husband. Coco’s chin drooped straight onto the glass table, and her ears flopped on either side of her mane, looking almost as if she would fall asleep at any moment.
“That isn’t to say it’s impossible to beat her,” replied Cameo as she attempted to pick Coco’s face up off the table. “It’ll just take an ace in the hoof, that’s all.”
“It’s definitely not going to be me,” Coco admitted. “I’m not exactly as good with these kinds of plans as you are. Or the whole ‘bottling up emotions’ thing, either.”
She gave a quick sigh against the table, fogging it up with her breath. As much as she still hated to rely on other ponies for her problems, this time she at least had to admit that Applejack and Cameo had more experience with this sort of thing.
“Not to say that I don’t want to help, but after everything I’ve done for her, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this time. How am I supposed to do anything if I don’t even know what they want with her to begin with?”
She lifted her head up from the table, only to bow it towards the ground.
“If she’ll even still be there by the time we rescue her.”
This time, Applejack was the one to try to comfort Coco, patting her on the shoulder to get her attention.
“That Belladonna mare, didn’t she say her daughter was like Babs?” Applejack asked. “Couldn’t that be a hint that those there Oranges want to keep her?”
“Perhaps so,” Cameo replied. “That, or she’s trying to lure Coco in for another purpose. Either way, even though I don’t particularly trust Belladonna, I wouldn’t put either of those things past—“
Everything else she was about to say was drowned out by a distant screaming that quickly increased in volume. While Cameo was still speaking and Coco was as confused by the situation as anything else, Applejack instinctually sprang out of her chair and searched for the source of the sound.
The screaming mare, a pony whose name escaped her at the moment, was trotting towards the doughnut shop as fast as any pegasus she’d seen. Seeing Applejack’s eyes lock onto her, the mare swerved closer to the restaurant patio, almost hitting the table.
Now that the others could see her better, the first thing many of them noticed was that she’d kept her tail not just on top of her flank, but almost to where it covered up her rear leg. Even as she stopped to pant for breath, a single glance in that direction made her even more defensive, grasping at it ever tighter almost as if she was hiding something important.
Even if Coco had never met her, the way Belladonna’s story had resonated with her would have helped her to recognize the other mare in a heartbeat. That, and the almost terrifying resemblance to a pony she’d rather not recall.
“Valencia?” Coco asked, watching as the mare’s chest rose and fell at a quickening pace. Whatever she had come this way for, it must have been a decent ways away, judging by the utter exertion in Valencia’s eyes.
“Your daughter…is in a hotel…ten blocks away from here,” Valencia panted, barely getting the words out and even slurring them a little. “Told me…she was foalnapped…went to Torte’s office…towards Bridleway…not an Orange…”
The fatigue in the mare’s eyes had turned into full-blown terror at this point, almost as if she’d seen a monster destroy her house with a single blow.
“You can’t let her stay there!” Valencia yelled, her voice now clear from pauses. “If you do, she’ll—“
Realizing that the newcomer was practically hanging from the edge of the table, Applejack shoved her barely-touched coffee towards the mare and pulled a chair her way.
“You think we can trust her?” questioned Applejack, staring at Valencia as the mare forced herself to drink.
“You don’t have to,” Valencia replied just before Cameo could open her mouth. “Judging from Midsweet’s response, you probably already know everything. But what’s important right now is that we need to get that foal out of there before anything else happens. If we don’t make it in time, there will be no going back. She’s going to be turned into one of them!”
Glancing at the other mares and assessing the situation, Applejack turned back to her distant relative and gave her an approving nod.
“You seem like you’ve seen a lot,” Coco piped in, trying not to let the impact of the Pink Lady case impact the way she treated the mare. “Trust me, we’ve all been looking for her too, and we really need the information. So if you could just calm down and tell us in detail—“
“How could you possibly tell me that?” Valencia shouted, almost loud enough for the other diners to hear. “Your daughter’s been foalnapped, and you’re the one telling me to calm down?”
“That wasn’t what she meant at all,” Cameo replied. “Just that you should do so until all the facts of the case are presented, so we can go in there with some knowledge of the issue.”
Valencia sighed in annoyance at her mistake, barely stopping herself from dropping her head in between her hooves. Just then, in a single motion, she lifted herself off the chair and started heading away from the patio.
“I’ve known you long enough to know that your usual plans aren’t going to work here, Cameo,” she muttered. “We can brief on the way, but whatever the case, the moment isn’t going to be right. Because it’s already too late.”
The other mares stared at her in concern, already expecting the worst. What they got, however, was something not even they could have foreseen.
“Midsweet saw Babs tell me something at the meeting. She doesn’t know what it is, but she expects the worst, and as long as that’s the case, she’ll always be expecting you.”
Valencia’s expression, as it had been throughout, was grave, but a sudden gleam finally shone through it as if she actually saw hope in this statement.
“That means you have to come in there with the one thing she’ll never expect.”
****
I forgive you.
With all the panic invading Coco’s mind and body, that was the last thing she wanted to say. But then again, there was a part of her that never wanted to enter the house where so many horrible things had happened. Where Valencia had been formed of everything she was and swept to the side, and where she still suspected Mosely might have lost everything that made him a decent pony to begin with. The place that Bambi had told her tainted everypony it touched.
The place that could just as easily taint Babs.
There were still so many things she wasn’t sure of. Why Midsweet even wanted Babs to be an Orange, for one, or what gave Babs the courage to fight against it. For that matter, why Valencia had chosen to confide in her even though they stood for the exact opposite cause. She wasn’t even sure if she could summon her strong and brave side for this little distraction that would come while Applejack and Cameo found another way in.
But when she went inside the Orange residence and saw the mysteriously glowing room, she knew one thing for sure. Valencia had told her that the place had unicorn guards like a castle, ones that could confine ponies at a moment’s notice. The confinement spell began the first time a foal lashed out against the Oranges, but would quickly become a way to keep them out of other ponies’ affairs to begin with. The entire place almost had an invisible spell on it to keep out other influences of love and change.
For her daughter, she would break through it. Even if it meant going back into her game of pretending the ponies who’d hurt her the most had never lifted a hoof against her.
It didn’t take long for her to find Midsweet, but then again, she’d expected that for a while. The Oranges, after all, always seemed to find their way back to Coco somehow.
“I’d like to be an Orange,” she said to the other mare. “I forgive you.”
It was all an act. She’d never mean it. Looking at her, she knew that Midsweet was everything she was fighting against all along.
But deep down, she knew the Oranges had to appreciate flattery. A pony admitting they were wrong, offering an easier path than continuing evil. Who could refuse that?
Of course I forgive you, Coco could just envision her saying. The Oranges always deserve new members. With the way we’ve been pursuing you, do you really think we’d ever let you go that easily?
“Was that what you told Miss Polomare as well?” said Midsweet.
Yet another plan unraveled, but new ones could be made. She’d never expected this to be easy in any sense of the word. She’d push through with everything she had.
“I did what I had to do,” Coco replied. “I may not agree with what Suri did, but I know that I can’t let that trickle into my work. I still haven’t forgiven her entirely, but what’s important is that I can for you.”
“Who says I’m willing to forgive?” Midsweet questioned.
“It’d be easier this way! If we set aside our differences and work things out as Oranges, you won’t have to do any of this. I won’t even report this foalnapping as an issue. You can have both of us, you can do whatever you want to us.”
A grin suddenly fell onto the other mare’s face, one that she knew would be used against her. But not all ponies were willing to accept forgiveness in the beginning, and she just needed to hold her off for just a bit longer. Just long enough for everything with the Oranges to finally end.
“You did say ‘anything,’ didn’t you? If so, I’d be willing to make the deal so long as I get my part in it before you do anything else.”
Midsweet gave a single gesture, and the aura around the nearby room dimmed slightly. If Coco would have known the other mare’s plan, she would have figured out that, while Babs still could not escape, she could now hear everything that was going on in the hallway.
“All I’m going to do is ask you a few questions,” Midsweet began with an almost deceptively soft voice. “Then you can decide if we have a deal.”
Coco gulped, willing herself to bear whatever her combatant had to say, hoping the others hadn’t taken the long way through the house.
“Would you consider me a bad mother, and yourself a good one?”
The younger mare knew the trick behind the sentence just about as soon as it was mentioned, and fought back with everything she had.
“I wouldn’t say I agree with either of those,” she replied. “I’ve had my faults as a mother, and so have you. This shouldn’t be a competition either way.”
“You’re right, it shouldn’t be one. So tell me, when you chose to aid Miss Polomare, did you ever think of your daughter’s opinions on the matter? Even though you know she ran away from home once she found out Miss Polomare was hired?”
Coco had had every mind to expect that Midsweet would back off after she'd said she wasn’t an enemy, but for once, the question at hoof gave her pause. Had she thought about Babs when she started going after Pink Lady? She couldn’t recall, but she knew one thing she could remember.
“I would have, if I wasn’t so focused on getting you Oranges away from—“
She cursed herself just about as soon as she’d said it. That wasn’t a statement a pony desiring a truce would make. If Midsweet didn’t see her true agenda now, nopony else in Equestria would.
“I’ll mark that as a no. Next question.”
Without warning, the mare suddenly disappeared, only for Coco to feel something pulling at her mane. When Midsweet showed up again, she held the red flower Coco had started wearing again.
“I notice this isn’t the one my grandson gave you,” she observed. “And that, when my fellow Oranges started to recruit you, you had already gone back to wearing this one.”
“Your point?” Coco muttered, trying to hide her impatience at the show this mare was putting on.
“You clearly feel that you’ve changed from when you were dating him. You would say that you’ve gone back to your former self, am I correct?”
This was one question, at least, that Coco knew she could answer. But before she could, Midsweet began to speak again.
“But what I have here is something for you to consider. A real way to go back to that old self, so to speak. I know he left quite the impression on you, and I’d like to give you a chance to heal. Despite what other ponies might say, I’m not a complete monster.”
This was met only with a stare of hesitation, knowing that there had to be something hidden behind this offer. Coco couldn’t let herself fall for it, but she had to let it run its course somehow.
“I’ll lay off the personal questions from now on, for that very reason. Instead, I’d like for my last one to be a bit more of a logic puzzle. In order for me to consider you as an Orange and more importantly, in order to receive my advice on your personal matters, you have to figure out what links these events together.”
As weird as all this seemed, Coco had to remind herself, console herself that maybe this was just something rich ponies did like sphinx’s riddles. All this could just as easily be one of the Oranges’ weird traditions. And so she would push through.
“A mare finds a filly in a factory. The same mare is conned into a relationship. The mare and filly drift apart. And finally, the mare stays with the con stallion at a reunion, allowing the filly to almost be killed as a result. What would you say connects these events?”
Coco’s mouth began to open, but it caught in place. It stayed wide, knowing what the answer was and never wanting to tell.
“If you still don’t know, it means that there is one pony who has shaped you more than all else,” Midsweet spoke. “It isn’t your parents, or your daughter, or the mare who helped you get a job. It was somepony entirely different who brought you into the life you’re living now. Somepony I’ve dedicated my life to opposing. And if you say that you deserve the filly you keep as a daughter, you’re saying yourself that you will never change. That you will never come to recognize that she was never rightfully yours.”
With those sentences, every bit of Coco’s determination was drained. Even though Midsweet skipped around it, she knew what the mare was getting at. It was something she’d considered ever since she’d found out about the incident, and never stopped thinking about since.
She barely even noticed when Midsweet’s hoof went down onto the flower, breaking the metal end and trampling everything else. Coco was too wrapped up in the very thing she knew she had never expected. Too scared and despairing to even wonder where the others were, or how they were doing.
“Face it,” Midsweet finally whispered. “Mosely made you who you are.”