//------------------------------// // Act II, Scene 12: Power Play // Story: If You Give a Little Love... // by Quillamore //------------------------------// As the wheels of revelation and understanding began to turn within the hospital room, those physical ones of the train finally came to a stop. Thankfully, the station was only a few blocks away from the hospital Rarity and Applejack had been summoned to, which removed at least one of the many complications blocking their way. More importantly, however, Applejack hadn’t spoken a single word since Rarity had finally relented to giving her the letters and seemed to respond only with very angry glances to nopony in particular. If Rarity didn’t know better, she would’ve sworn her friend would’ve killed the first pony the two of them encountered. “So, how have you been doing?” Rarity finally asked in a futile attempt to break the silence. “Oh, you know, just tryin’ to remember the official process my family has for disowning a member,” muttered Applejack. “’Cause there’s somepony in this city who really needs some enlightenin’ on the matter. It sure ain’t Babs, no matter what anypony says.” “You’re honestly thinking of going that far with it? With all due respect, just a couple hours ago, you were defending Mosely with everything you had. Not to mention that if you pull anything like that too early on, there’s a high chance he could retaliate.” “Like he hasn’t already? He’s turnin’ Coco’s life into a living Tartarus already. What more could he do?” “You know just as well as I do that it wouldn’t be against Coco,” Rarity sighed. “That wouldn’t be enough for him, since she’s just a pawn in the greater schemes that ruffian has. If you provoke him too much, whatever feelings are impeding him from hurting Babs directly could end up fading away.” “I know, but I’ve still gotta do somethin’ about this,” Applejack replied. “I’m not sure if you’ve met my other cousin on Babs’ side, Bambi, but she said in the letters that she thinks Mosely’s going to try to get to the hospital around the same time we end up gettin’ there. I’m gonna try to find him and set at least part of this straight. I owe it to the both of them. I won’t do anything drastic yet other than questioning him, but there’s no way he can do the things he does and still be allowed to be an Apple. He’s gotten away with this for far too long. I figure I might as well set all this straight before he ends up ruinin’ their lives any more than he already has. Besides, you know Coco a lot better than I do, so it’d probably be better on both of us if we split the duties.” “Are you sure you’ll be all right dealing with him on your own? I mean, considering how dangerous he can be…” “Even somepony like him wouldn’t be stupid enough to do anythin’ to one of the ponies in charge of his own family. And if he is, then it’s better he does anythin’ to me than to Coco or Babs. That way, when Granny and the rest come over for the play, I’ll just have one more piece of evidence to set matters straight for ‘em.” “If you insist,” Rarity replied as she took the elevator towards Coco’s room. The further she got away from her friend, the more she caught herself stealing glances back in her direction, as if Mosely could sneak up behind them at any moment. She stood still for several moments, even when the elevator button was just a hoof’s press away, dreading the worst. Realizing that, more and more, she was going into the mode she maintained during a fight for Equestria’s safety rather than just leaving her friend to discuss matters with a member of her own family. But, then again, somehow she had never truly seen Mosely that way in the first place. There had been something unexplainable in her heart from the instant she first heard of him that there was something very off about him. Perhaps it was as simple as the mystery novels she read, or as complex as what her knowledge of high society taught her. As many ponies as there were who were like her friend Fancy Pants, who managed to balance both wealth and morals, those like them could not exist without their shadows, the ones who almost served to absorb all their worst parts into themselves. Positive and negative charges, flowing against the other in harmony. And if there was one thing Rarity knew from her multiple magical battles, it was how fragile that harmony was. Negativity could never be satisfied with absorbing itself for long; it had to absorb others to sustain itself. It was only a matter of time before somepony got shocked. **** Mosely Orange had become a persona non grata on what should’ve been his own turf, if only for a day. The turn of events baffled him more than anything else, but never to the point of impeding his greater mission. On the contrary, it was nothing more to him than a captivating mystery to thicken the plot—just who was that mare after all, and why on Equestria would she have the audacity to lead him to the wrong room? Those, of course, were questions that could certainly be saved for the moment when he ended up actually finding Coco, but ones that nevertheless piqued his interest. What could be all too easily attributed to foolishness on his part was in reality nothing more than the result of having won so many times he’d forgotten how it truly felt to fall. Of course, it wasn’t like there was anypony who could have known his true intentions. To passersby who may have been watching, Mosely took care to present himself as nothing more than an average hospital guest, gripping an intricately arranged bouquet within his jaws. The flowers that dappled it formed a rainbow in and of themselves, with some of their colors thought previously to be impossible to nature, but upon further inspection, it was clear to see that it had a certain lack even among its extravagance. The florist had been particularly puzzled to find that Mosely had specifically requested an alteration to the usual rainbow arrangement, and even more so when she had been directly ordered not to place any red flowers inside of it. For a romantic gift intended for an ailing lover, a conspicuous absence of red roses—let alone any items of that same color—could barely be read as anything other than suspicious. But, then again, that thought was just as quickly swept away when the shopkeeper considered just how often she’d received similarly absurd requests from the Manehattan elite. For ponies like Mosely, such things were all too often off-the-cuff demands done only to humor their already inflated egos. That wasn’t, however, to say that he didn’t have any feelings of love or romance towards Coco. Every once in a while, he would find himself thinking about how much she resembled his ex-wife in personality for a few seconds, only to stir himself back into the twisted world of his reality. He was certainly enjoying her presence more than Suri’s, though not quite so much out of love that other ponies would call pure. Instead, Coco to him was a work to be shaped, one that he was steadily starting to feel ownership towards, and when he gazed at her with loving eyes, it was not her present self he was projecting these feelings onto, but rather the future potential she carried. There was no use for red flowers in that future, because those had become so intertwined with her past. Just a single look at them could spur her back into that repulsively plain personality of hers that he held such disdain towards, and Mosely was already beginning to suspect that this new Coco he had created was crumbling onto herself. Even the smallest of changes to his meticulously established system could end up destroying both her remade and her former self in one fell swoop, a fragility that he’d been able to stave off for long enough to keep them both happy in the public’s eyes. But an elusive somepony had shattered that at a similarly mysterious moment, and within only a day’s time, Coco had turned from a perfectly complicit marefriend into yet another pony hounding him for the truth behind his darkest secrets. He had managed to pull himself through these past few days, the closest thing to a bungled plan he’d had in years, with little more flowing through his head than thoughts of finding whoever had planted those rumors into Coco’s head and diffusing them accordingly. Maybe after that, he could even find a way to turn it into a positive situation for the two of them, a small demonstration of how she was to trust him above anypony else. But more ominous fears clouded his mind from time to time. He had a prime suspect in mind. But every time thoughts of her came to him, he couldn’t help but push them away. Not even she would go that far. Little did he know that Coco was far from the only pony who would be ripped out of his world of illusion this week. On the contrary, he could just notice somepony else trailing him, carefully trying their best not to be noticed. Chalking it up to mere paranoia induced by the many close calls he’d had recently, he at first tried his best to play along and when the figure continued to follow him, his mind shifted focus to how he could best defend his wrongdoings in case this was yet another pony infected by the storm of rumors that had swirled around him as of late. Finally, the other figure had grown equally tired of this game of pursuit and decided to make the first strike. “Stop right there!” the yell came from behind. “We need to talk.” The voice had changed since he had last spoken to her years ago, but not enough to be unrecognizable. It had been a different time, back when Cameo had still been by his side and back when the biggest worry on his mind had been finding a decent heir. Even then, Bambi had little to no interest in taking on the more serious affairs of the family, and seeing as she dreamed of going into a profession that could be easily manipulated to increase his public standing, Mosely had humored her desires, figuring she deserved at least the smallest ounce of freedom he could summon. And so the duty of being the Orange family head would be passed onto the next young foal who would come running to them, whether begging for something more or seeking to add to an already promising legacy. The mare standing before him now had been yet another one of his failures, but one that had at least some success. With Cameo’s attempts to produce a natural heir failing and with an adventurous filly seeking to explore the family, it would’ve been only natural for Mosely to have passed on the baton to his niece Applejack. But circumstances had forced her into a position to head not the Oranges, but the Apples. At the time, with his marriage still intact, he’d thought nothing of her eventual departure, thinking that he could work with her influence on the Apple family just as easily. And yet, ironically, the closer he came to having power over them, the further he drifted away from the niece that had made all this possible. For while Applejack had remembered her month with Mosely as an enriching experience that led her to her true talents, Granny Smith had been all too suspicious of the affair, knowing from experience that he could have affected her far more, that she had gotten off lucky. How Granny had had that instinct of mistrusting Mosely, nopony ever knew, but it had been something present from the first day he’d inserted himself into her daughter Cameo’s life. So she carefully measured how much time the impressionable filly could meet up with her uncle at reunions, because family grudges died slowly. Mosely knew that more than anypony else, and no matter how much he would’ve liked to admit otherwise, he had been inciter as well as victim to them. But seeing Applejack in that moment gave him at least the slightest shred of hope; now that she was grown and at least somewhat freed from her grandmother’s influence, perhaps now was the time for the two of them to finally have a proper conversation. Some proper closure. “So, I guess it’s been a while,” Mosely began, approaching the situation as if the circumstances of the past few days had never happened. “I see you got my invitation to come here for the upcoming show. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of giving you tickets to the other ones, but that’s not important.” “You’re right,” Applejack whispered, “it’s not. And that’s not why I came here.” “Oh, well, I guess you wouldn’t have come this early just to see the play, would you? I suppose that means you were dispatched on some mission like the hero of Equestria you’re becoming. You know, all that fame you’re accumulating really does do us Apples good, so if preserving the family name means apprehending some criminal in the process, then you’re welcome to it.” “Right again, uncle. Except this time, it’s you.” “What do you mean—“ “This time, the pony I was sent to stop is you. I already know you’re gonna deny it, so let’s make it easy on the both of us. All you’ve got to do is answer my questions and you can go free. Don’t expect to just go back to your past life after this, though.” “I know what this is about,” Mosely sighed in annoyance. “Look, there have been some awful rumors flitting about Manehattan about the way I run things, and it seems they’ve even reached your side of Equestria now. I have no idea who’s been spreading these lies about me, but I’m more than willing to set matters straight so the two of us can continue our alliance.” “That’s just the thing, though. You say ‘alliance’ and not ‘family.’ As if we’re nothing more to you than a means to advance yourself. As if conversin’ with us at reunions and stuff is too low for you.” “Oh, that? That just came out wrong. I really don’t see the Apples like that at all. If I did, why on Equestria would I have chosen to head our Manehattan branch?” “True, you could’ve done that ‘cause you wanted to get to know us better, or to unite us as a family,” Applejack acknowledged. “But these letters I’ve just gotten make me suspect somethin’ else. Like you did that so you could turn everypony here against those that you think don’t fit into your mold.” “Now, I will admit there have been a few…undesirables who have tried to claim Apple family heritage. But I assure you that they were dismissed under the most ethical methods and for the most selfless of reasons. We couldn’t let just anypony in if we wanted to hold onto our reputations, now could we?” “A few undesirables or just one?” “Just one. But that was years ago, an extenuating circumstance, if you will—“ “That was a foal!” “That was my wife’s child with some common street peddler! I haven’t a clue how you could’ve known about this, but I did it for her reputation every bit as much as I did my own. Our own.” “Really? Because the letters sure made it sound like you only did it for yourself. ‘Cause Celestia forbid you actually do the right thing and let my baby cousin live with your highfalutin Oranges. Do you have any idea what you’ve ended up doin’ to her? Last time she came to Sweet Apple Acres, she was cryin’ to us about how she was a bad seed that didn’t even deserve our love. At her age, already writin’ herself off as a nuisance.” “At least she’s come to terms with her rightful place, then, because that’s all she’ll ever be.” It took everything within Applejack’s willpower not to end it then and there. She had never considered herself the type to outright kill anything more sentient than a rampaging timberwolf. But after hearing just how far the pony she’d called an uncle for so many years would go in the name of family, she couldn’t say those thoughts had never entered her mind. Not anymore. For now, however, Rarity’s warnings resonated within her head, and for all the thoughts of physical retribution swarming her thoughts, the closest she came to actually enacting them was a mere swipe of her hoof across the ground. “Even if that’s the way you see your own flesh and blood,” she muttered, “you still didn’t have to do those things to the pony who adopted her.” “Of course I did,” Mosely replied. “I rarely do anything without a purpose to it. Maybe it started off as just wanting to get rid of any chance of happiness that filly had. But somewhere along the way, I realized how useful Coco could be to me in other ways. So even after her daughter’s out of the way, I still intend to keep her along.” “You do realize that ponies are already thinkin’ you’re the reason she’s in here in the first place?” “Of course. I’ll be sure to be more careful with how I handle her next time.” “That’s assumin’ there will be a next time,” Applejack answered. “’Cause this ain’t over. And if you still think you can get me on your side after this, you can forget about it. For all you claim about Babs needin’ to know her place in society, you sure don’t know yours. If you did, then maybe you’d realize that even if your way of controllin’ ponies works on Bridleway, it sure doesn’t work on families, and it isn’t going to work on us. Not anymore.” Giving a final sigh before rejoining Rarity’s side, she muttered, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to pickin’ up the mess that you made.” As Mosely struggled to come to terms with the situation that had just unfolded before him, he came to realize that dejection at having lost another ally to the opposition was the furthest thing from his mind. What did it matter if the heads of the Apple family, both Applejack and her older counterpart, couldn’t stand him? Even without those country ponies from a faraway part of Equestria, he would always have his own branch of Apples on his side, ponies that would side with him through anything. He would always have Manehattan. “I’ll run this family better than you ever could,” he muttered through gritted teeth, not caring who listened. “Once they realize what you’ve done by taking in that foal, they’ll come running back to me.” **** At that very moment, as Applejack continued her pursuit and Rarity nervously waited for a response from Coco, another pony stood just outside the hospital, checking its address several times to ensure he had come to the right place. He placed his head to his curly blonde mane several times as he did this as if it would help him comprehend the situation any more than he had a few hours ago. As predicted, it did absolutely nothing to ease anything, not even the slight tinge of guilt he had left about leaving his post. He’d first begun to suspect something when both Mosely and Coco had failed to show up for work that day. Nopony, not even Suri, had any knowledge of why they were so conspicuously absent and only speculation was known for a fact. The closest anypony on set had come to explaining it was that the couple had opted to ditch work together so they could go on some sort of daytime date. But he knew better. He knew that there was no way in Tartarus Coco would have skipped out on her duties without a cataclysmic explanation. About an hour into his workday, he received his answer when he saw Bambi Byline slam the auditorium door right open. For the sake of those cast members not yet in the know, she attributed Coco’s condition to pressure on the job. But he knew that she had worked under far worse situations at Suri’s knockoff business. He knew that Mosely had pushed her over the edge; he’d seen her show up to work every day with a little bit less of her usual self still there. And so he ran. He had assistants to back him up just like Mosely did, and if his producer could take a day off for something he had directly caused in the first place, then so could he. Every once in a while, the rule Mosely had given him echoed in his mind, telling him to go back to what he knew. To stay inside the theatre, to hear Bambi’s pleas to get involved without listening. But then he would tell himself that he would never let himself turn into the sort of stallion who would let anypony suffer in silence, much less the mare he still hadn’t gotten over. That was Mosely’s territory, and the world already had enough ponies like him. On the other hoof, there certainly weren’t enough ponies out there like Coco. That was why, above all, he had to make sure her light didn’t go out like so many others had. That was why he had to break the spell the only way he knew: by bringing out everything he’d kept hidden for so long. Romantic feelings included. Opening the door to the hospital, he prepared himself to place everything he knew on the line and carefully inspected the items inside his saddlebag. Most of them were fairly average objects one would give to a sick friend, placed together and assembled into a makeshift care package. But there was one in particular that stood out. Looking back and forth to ensure nopony else was watching, the unicorn stallion levitated what looked to be a ukulele covered in red hearts out of his pack. Scene Stealer was officially back in the game.