“Once they realize what you’ve done by taking in that foal, they’ll come running back to me.”
There were so many other things Applejack should’ve been thinking about at that moment. The revelation about Babs’ birth father, the fact that the filly had yet another secret facet to her, the way her cousin's biggest enemy didn’t even try to hide what he’d done. None of these really struck her near as much as they should have because her mind couldn’t stop dwelling on one thing in particular, something that she likely wasn’t even meant to have heard in the first place. None of these struck her near as much as finding out Mosely’s true intentions towards the Apple family.
Things would be more convenient now, that much was for sure. When the time would come for Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh to arrive, she’d have hard and fast evidence for why Mosely should be driven out. Before, it would’ve been based solely on speculation, but now that she had a threat to the family leadership itself, the proof was all too evident that he was a danger to the Apples. That he’d never really seen them as anything besides another stepping stone to cross on his way to becoming a powerful and influential figure throughout Equestria. It wasn’t something that she was ever meant to have heard, but it would help her through regardless.
On the other hoof, it would certainly do nothing to help her heart, that same place inside of her that still wanted everything that’d occurred over the past few days to have been a mistake. Because if Mosely had really spent all these years seeing his family as only pawns in his plans, then what had Applejack ever been to him to begin with? Had he ever really wanted to change her for the better or just towards what he thought would be useful to him?
She tried her best to avert her mind away from these thoughts, to get back into the same fighting stance she usually bore when one of her kin was in danger, but somehow she couldn’t summon anything. If it’d been just out of hesitation or fear of fighting her own uncle, then she surely would’ve felt this way as soon as she walked through the hospital doors. But somehow, talking to Mosely himself made Applejack realize two facts that merely reading the letters would never have guided her towards.
Item number one: Mosely would leave just about anypony to suffer if it meant gaining more power for himself. He could never let a family grudge be confined just to those few ponies he knew. If anypony had even the slightest of roles in something that went against his narrow standards, he would hound them until the end of time. With all those factors in mind, her uncle was really no better than the ponies she’d always claimed to hate most or those she’d dedicated her life to battling.
And item number two: in spite of everything, even after he’d hurt nearly everypony else around her, there was a part of Applejack that still didn’t want to let go of him. It wasn’t strong enough to override her morals or to carry her away from her mission. It was, however, strong enough to inflict pricks of regret within her, hounding her with guilt at going against the one pony who had provided for her when nopony else had been around.
By the time she neared the hospital room, she was already considering how to hide the truth from Rarity, no matter how much she took pride in being the embodiment of honesty. Some truths, as she’d learned in trials past, were better left unvoiced, and Applejack didn’t need to say anything to envision how her friend would react. To somepony who had never known Mosely, the threat would be read with an ultimate sense of betrayal by somepony who should have never deserved her trust to begin with. It therefore would be a pain that Rarity would never fully comprehend, and one that Applejack certainly didn’t want to hear her gloating about.
After all these revelations, anypony else would condemn Mosely, but the one thing Applejack was really afraid of was what would happen if she admitted she couldn’t bring herself to completely hate the stallion. And perhaps it was this trepidation that drove her to confide in her friend in the first place.
But deep down, she had it figured out: the true trial behind this string of problems and scandals had to do with their hidden nature. Everything had started with a secret kept from everypony except the Manehattan Apples, who thought they could keep it contained until Coco was led to Mosely’s side, all too oblivious to what she was doing. Once Bambi revealed it to everypony else, it had only made Coco weaker, for she had been so nourished by her coltfriend’s lies that everything else had become clouded to her. In turn, she’d kept her darkness hidden from Rarity, only for Rarity to hide it from Applejack, and now it was her turn in the cycle.
No, she thought to herself. She would be the one to break it for good. If that meant breaking though this nightmare and exposing everypony inside to the realities beyond, then it would be worth any pain it would cause her in the end. Or at least, so she hoped.
Destiny, on the other hoof, had different plans. For with what little context Applejack had of the situation, she could already piece together what had happened within the hospital room she’d been called to. Coco clung to the bedsheets with scared intensity, surrounded by friends and family, a disproportionally large bouquet of flowers lay on the dresser, a name clearly written on the card that had been crumpled up and neglected, one that nopony wanted to see at the moment.
“Consarnit,” she muttered under her breath. “Too late.”
Too overwhelmed by panic to dwell on her conflicted feelings any longer, she rammed herself straight into the door and found herself ricocheting in the other direction. Not even slightly fazed by her fall, she got straight back up and attempted to kick it open once more to similar response.
“Will you answer the door?” she could faintly hear Rarity’s voice asking.
“We probably shouldn’t,” an unfamiliar stallion’s voice responded. “Don’t want any more undesirables getting any more ideas.”
What would’ve driven anypony else off only provoked Applejack further, especially when that particular choice word made its presence known. It might not have been Mosely saying it, but to her anxious ears, the disdain contained within ‘undesirable’ was similar enough for the voice itself to be warped into him being in there.
Uncle or not, that was something she couldn’t tolerate. Not anymore.
She would keep ramming on that door until they had no choice but to let her in. Because she could feel history repeating in that moment, and she couldn’t let him succeed again if she had anything to say about it.
“If you so much as lay another hoof on that mare in there, it’ll all be over,” she threatened from the other side. “I don’t know what you want to use her for, but I won’t have any of it. She’s got nothin’ to do with any of this!”
Finally, an unrecognizable mare opened the door to her.
“I don’t know what you have against my husband,” she answered with a sigh, “but he has a right to be in here. We’re the patient’s parents, but that still doesn’t explain who you might be.”
“Oh,” Applejack replied, rubbing her neck in embarrassment. “Your daughter Coco adopted my niece. It’s just that there’s been somepony hecklin’ the two of ‘em for a while, and I saw the note outside and thought he was there, so I panicked somethin’ fierce.”
“Scared us all half to death, too,” the stallion from before added. “Thought you intended that string of insults towards one of us. But considering you seem to be on the same side as us, you can come in. As you can probably see, we need as much help as we can get.”
“What happened in here, anyway?”
“She’s been inconsolable ever since I came over,” Rarity replied, chiming in as soon as she saw Applejack. “We had a close call a few minutes ago, and that really only made things the worse for wear. We’d been expecting you, so we kept the door open, except the pony who showed up, well…”
“What’d he do to her?”
“He saw Coco’s parents and didn’t want to look too suspicious in front of them, so he just put the bouquet there and left. None of us really wanted to look at any notes he had to give her, and we figured it’d be better if we just ignored it. She still doesn’t quite realize he’s gone, though, and she’s afraid he’ll come back.”
“I am not!” Coco answered indignantly. “I’m just…on my guard, that’s all. I—I told you I can handle all this on my own. Not that I don’t appreciate your help, but—“
The cream-colored earth pony gave a sigh of resignation at this and stared at the wall for what Rarity suspected was about the thousandth time today.
“I never challenged your authority on the matter, dear,” she replied, stroking her friend’s head in a futile attempt to calm her down. “But I do believe that was the first thing you’ve said to me all day. I’m glad you’re starting to at least acknowledge me. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Coco turned her head slightly towards her friend, only to jerk it away just as quickly. Moving it around in all directions, she found herself completely surrounded by other ponies now that Applejack had come into the room. At this realization, she buried herself inside her blanket and made tiny, but still audible, squeaks of fear.
“You heard her, right?” Applejack whispered, figuring she might as well try to comfort the new relative she’d only just started to know. “He ain’t in here anymore. I know you’re scared, but you don’t need to be. We’re here to help.”
The other mare’s face popped out of the sheets for just long enough to shake slightly before being absorbed by them once more.
“You’ve already done too much,” she admitted. “This is the second time you’ve had to come all this way to get me out of trouble. And besides…if Mosely were to find out anypony else knows—“
Her hooves pressed against the mattress even more as she said this.
“What would he do?” Rarity questioned, trying her best to keep a reasonable tone. “He hasn’t been hurting you physically in addition to all this, has he?”
“No, not yet at least. But I’m not sure how much longer either of us can take it before somepony snaps. He’s already become a lot worse after I told him I knew about the incident. There were a few times he tried to find out who told me, and I—I almost considered going along with it because I knew he’d chew me out about it if I didn’t. I couldn’t, though. I knew he’d probably end up hurting Bambi worse than me if I did, and she’s one of the few ponies I haven’t managed to completely let down lately.”
“I’m willin’ to bet he’ll probably push you even harder for it now,” Applejack responded. “After we got your letter, I went out there and told him just what I think of everythin’ he’s been doing here. Now he thinks the whole Apple family’s out to get him unless he takes control of it. So it’s not just your problem anymore.”
“Yeah, but if Bambi hadn’t got into those letters and sent them to you, you wouldn’t have needed to go against your own uncle. I can only imagine how hard that’d be on you, and I wish I could take that back. If I’d known writing them would’ve led to all of this, I never would’ve—“
Just then, Bambi approached Coco’s bed to lean in closer to her roommate.
“They needed to know, and it wasn’t your fault,” she whispered. “It may not have been what you would’ve wanted, and I’m sorry about that, but I couldn’t keep watching my father hurt you like this. When I first met you, you were hurting so much already, and when you came to live with us, you’d finally found your happiness. But when I realized being around him was making you even worse than you were back then, I couldn’t take it any longer. He’s doing the same things to you that he did to my mother, and I was never able to save her. I thought that maybe, if I let your friends know, you would turn out different.”
“I get now why you wanted to help, but here’s the thing: I’m sure your mother was a much better mare than I am. Even when she was with Mosely, I don’t think there’s any way she could’ve hurt as many ponies as I have. And so, in that regard, I suppose we’re a good match for each other after all.”
“No, please quit saying such things about yourself,” Bambi replied. “I know it might be hard to believe after all this, but you’ve helped us out plenty in ways you don’t realize.”
“But hasn’t what I’ve done over the past few weeks worked to cancel that out? As far as I’m concerned, the times I’ve managed to be anything other than a burden to you were all just flukes. And even if you say I was able to help one pony out of the biggest troubles she’d ever had, I can’t even be sure if I did that out of kindness or just to stave off the guilt inside me.”
“Are you saying you don’t love Babs, then?” Rarity asked. “Because I can’t fathom that for the life of me.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” Coco replied. “I’m just not sure I do for the generous reasons you would have approved of. I’ll never question the love I have for my daughter, but sometimes, I can’t help but wonder if I was ever really meant to be her mother.”
As she buried herself ever deeper into her bed and deeper into the sleep that would provide her the comfort she could no longer reach in waking, she uttered a single question to nopony in particular:
“If Babs’ mother is still out there, wouldn’t it just be better if she took my place?”
And, as if to further complicate the situation, she got a response from a voice she never would have expected.
“No,” it answered from behind the door. “Because there’s a reason that mare hasn’t been able to care for her, and the last thing that filly needs is to see somepony else hurt in the exact same way her mother was.”
Peering cautiously, her eyes only just brushing above the covers, she could just see a blue unicorn stallion out of her room’s window.
“That can’t possibly be who I think it is,” she muttered to herself.
“It’s about time he showed up,” Bambi spoke with a smile, not even pausing once as she opened to the door to a stallion Coco thought she’d never speak with again.
****
There were several things Scene could’ve done once that door opened. He could’ve realized just how much was on the line here and turned tail. He could’ve just galloped up to the mare he loved so much and just embraced her without warning or context. Yet somehow, what he actually did shocked most of the ponies in the room with its simplicity: he stood there, too dumbfounded to even take a step.
“I do suppose this is the right room?” he questioned, not yet seeing Coco underneath the bedsheets. “I thought I heard her a few moments ago, but nopony seems to be responding.”
“Don’t worry, it is,” answered Bambi. “Come right in. I’m sure once we get this all sorted out, she’ll be happy to see you after all this time.”
As Scene crossed into the room, quite a few skeptical glances followed, and consequentially, many of the ponies inside it were ones he didn’t recognize. Granted, he’d only been in Coco’s life for a short moment in time before being pulled away from her and she needed all the help she could get, but the sheer number of unfamiliar friends inside still floored him. When he took it all in, he couldn’t help but wonder if what he was about to do would really make a difference to a pony so inconsolable even her greatest loved ones were at a loss as to how to help her.
After about a minute of silence, an orange earth pony with a thick accent finally voiced his greatest worry about the whole situation.
“Are y’all really sure you can trust this guy?” she questioned, staring at Scene skeptically. “Just who is he, anyway?”
“I’m her director,” he responded. “We were friends too, before things got, well, complicated. There are a lot of things I need to explain.”
“Then why did you wait this long?” she asked him once more. “Wouldn’t it have saved her and everypony else a lot of trouble if you’d fessed up to begin with?”
“Yeah, it would have. And I can’t count all the times I’ve wanted to, but that wasn’t how things worked out."
He gave a final sigh of hesitation before finally admitting, "For one…Coco isn’t the only one Mosely’s threatened. Far from it.”