Block access to xmlrpc symlink file with htaccess

I have a WordPress site I am versioning with the help of symbolic links on an Apache/2.4.52 (Ubuntu) server with Nginx as a reverse proxy.

The directory structure is as follows:

example.com
  wp-admin -> symbolic to different directory
  wp-content
  wp-includes -> symbolic to different directory
  .htaccess
  wp-config.php
  ...
  wp-load.php -> symbolic to different directory
  xmlrpc.php -> symbolic to different directory
  ...
  ...

Here is the contents of my htaccess file:

# BEGIN Feed redirect
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?feed(/rss|/rss2|/atom|/rdf)?/?$ /$1 [R=301,NC,L]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?|&)feed=
RewriteRule (.*) $1/? [R=301,NC,L]
</IfModule>
# END Feed redirect


# BEGIN WordPress
# The directives (lines) between "BEGIN WordPress" and "END WordPress" are
# dynamically generated, and should only be modified via WordPress filters.
# Any changes to the directives between these markers will be overwritten.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

# BEGIN block author scans

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (author=\d+) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

# END block author scans

Right now users are able to access xmlrpc.php directly by going to www.example.com/xmlrpc.php, they are not able to do this with wp-load.php or the other symbolic links.

I would like to make it so that I can prevent users from accessing xmlrpc.php directly either by restricting read access or creating a redirect.

I have tried adding RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l within the WordPress block of the htaccess file but with no success.
I also tried adding a redirect: Redirect 301 /xmlrpc.php https//www.example.com/.
I have also tried adding the following to the htaccess file:

 # Block WordPress xmlrpc.php requests
<Files xmlrpc.php>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Files>

I have successfully created a redirect for other urls like /about/ but nothing works for xmlrpc.php

I have done research on this but none of the solutions seem to work for me, which leads me to believe it is related to being a symlink.

Here is a summary of the request:
I would like to make it so that I can prevent users from accessing xmlrpc.php
I would like to do this via htaccess if possible
I don't want to move the xmlrpc.php or change any directory structure.
I don't want to edit the contents of xmlrpc.php.
I don't want to add another htaccess file to the directory that xmlrpc.php is a child of.