//------------------------------//
// Past and Present 
// Story: The New Tales of Trixie and Twilight 
// by Little Jackie Papercut 
//------------------------------//

	Trixie stared up at the cloud above her.

Were it not for the occasional movement, she would have thought her quarry had left, but now and then a small patch of rainbow became visible over the edge of the cloud. Trixie strained to listen, and heard snoring.

That was enough patience. Time for results. She cleared her throat to announce herself. "Rainbow Dash," she called, using her best stage voice.

The pegasus stirred at the sound of her name being spoken. Confused for a moment, she peeked over the edge of the cloud.

"Muh... huh? Trixie? What are you doing here?" asked Rainbow, raising an eyebrow.

"Watching you sleep," Trixie replied nonchalantly.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to answer, then immediately closed it again. She repeated this process a few times before giving a small shudder of distaste at the prospect, prompting a victorious smirk from Trixie.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash composed herself. "What do you want?" she asked, with a slight accusatory edge.

"To talk," the  unicorn responded simply. "Your words last time have not been forgotten. I want to prove that I mean you no harm."

"Yeah, well, tough, because I don't want to hear it." Rainbow Dash said, pointedly averting her eyes. "After everything that's happened, why would I ever listen to Two-Faced Trixie?"

"Because Trixie is here." Trixie shot her a glare. "Because Trixie doesn't need your approval, but requests it anyway. And because Trixie's estimation of you is not much better than yours of her."

Every feature of Rainbow Dash's body seemed to flare outward at that comment. "What'd you say?" she hissed, leaping from her cloud and swooping down to get right in Trixie's face.

"Trixie thanks you for illustrating," the showpony said flatly. "Doesn't this seem familiar? You, invading Trixie's personal space?"

"Personal space! I oughtta show you personal—"

"And wouldn't that be just the thing to do," Trixie continued. "Arrogant, impulsive, no regard for the well-being of others... sound like anypony you know?"

"I—but, you—what kind of—" the rainbowmane spluttered. "Don't compare me to you!"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Rainbow Dash shook her head, then made a slashing motion with a hoof. "I've heard just about enough from you. You can say nothing to make me believe there's any good in you."

Rainbow was prepared for some cutting remark, or some kind of self-justification, or anything at all from the unicorn. So when several seconds passed in silence, she flinched and drew back. "...what? No snappy comeback? You waiting for something?"

"You said if I said nothing you'd believe me," Trixie noted, before silencing herself again.

Rainbow Dash stared in disbelief. Then, clenching her teeth, she growled, "Just. Leave. Me. Alone." With that, she turned and flew away.

Trixie sighed and pulled her hat down over her eyes. This had been her practice round, and it had gone about as well as she expected. It occurred to her now, far too late, that a subtler tone might have worked much better. Perhaps, though, this particular hornet's nest was simply not a good one to poke at this time. Shaking her head, she stood and walked off toward the farm.


~#~#~#~


A large red stallion was standing in front of the farmhouse when she arrived. There was something familiar about him, but Trixie couldn't recall having ever seen a pony with a red coat before, so the only impression she had was that he was large. He idly looked her way as she approached.

"Trixie?" he guessed, raising an eyebrow. She nodded, and he held up a hoof, signaling her to wait. He turned and trotted inside.

As soon as he could no longer see her, Trixie shuddered. "What was that?" she wondered aloud. "Some kind of hired muscle? Does Applejack really distrust me that much?" She pondered that for a minute.

The creak of the screen door alerted her to the goon pony's return. She looked up, and he stood to the side, holding the door open and motioning her in. Trixie tried not to make eye contact with him as she passed, to show that she she wasn't going to be intimidated by refusing to acknowledge him at all.

Applejack was waiting in the living room, her hat pulled down over her eyes. A small filly Trixie surmised was either Applejack's sister or her daughter sat beside her. A weathered green mare sat, quietly knitting, in a rocking chair in the corner of the room. She observed Trixie with an intense look that almost made the showmare think twice about coming here. Trixie wasn't sure what to say, but she was sure that ignoring this pony would be a bad idea, so she gave a small bow, eliciting a nod from the elder mare. Nothing else was exchanged, and Trixie turned her attention to Applejack.

"Applejack, Trixie wanted to say—"

Trixie found herself cut off by a raised hoof. "Hold on, now," Applejack interjected. "Before ya say anythin', ah wanted ta tell ya that ah've been doin' some thinkin'." She stood up, pushed her hat back, and turned to look out the window. "Trixie, we hardly know each other. We met twice an' ya hurt me both times. But now yer here, standin' in front a' me, an' ah know ya came ta say yer sorry." She huffed slightly. "Ah don't know whether ya mean it. Yer a good liar, an' that's real irritatin', not bein' able ta tell when yer tellin' the truth. But... it doesn't matter."

Trixie tapped a hoof to her forehead and found it moist with nervous sweat. "It doesn't?" she asked shakily.

The farmer turned to face her now. "No. It doesn't. 'Cause the words're nice, but they don't really change anythin', do they? Regrettin' what ya did won't change that ya did it, an' sayin' yer a better pony now won't make it true. So if ya wanna apologize, then do it with yer actions. Don't ever stop tryin' ta do the right thing. An' as fer me, well." She shook her head. "Ah'm still not gonna let mah guard down. No can do. You already proved it ain't safe. But... ah never have given you a chance. An' that ain't right either. So ah'm gonna let ya do what ya need ta do."

Trixie bowed her head. "Very well," she said. "Then Trixie will do her best not to disappoint." A few moments passed in which the only sound Trixie could hear was the creaking of the rocking chair. None of the ponies in the room took their eyes off her. "So... if that was all you were going to say," she added, "was it necessary for your hired muscle to be present?

As that question sank in, all four of the others broke into laughter. "H-hired muscle?" Applejack replied between guffaws. "Ya mean Big Macintosh?"

"He's our brother!" the little filly explained, collapsing onto the floor as she used her forehooves to hold her sides.

Trixie's face slowly began to redden. "Er... my mistake," she said, backing toward the door. "Well, you seem to be busy now. Trixie should... get out of your hair."

Applejack stepped forward, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Jus'... jus' hold on a second," she said, calming down. "If you want a start on earnin' mah trust, ah think we can arrange it. Granny Smith?"

The old mare nodded. "We could use an extra hoof sortin' the apples from today's harvestin'. Cain't sell bad fruit. It's an important job."

"Whaddya say?" Applejack asked. "You up for it?"

Trixie gave it a few seconds of thought, mostly for show. She didn't really have the option of turning down an opportunity to help out, and the work didn't sound very hard. "Trixie is in. Just show Trixie where they are," she said with a smile and a nod.

The elder pony got out of her chair and started for the door. Trixie followed her. She quickly came to regret this decision, however, as the old mare moved at an agonizingly slow pace. The showmare eyed the clock as she reached the door, and could have sworn the minute hand was moving faster than Granny. Trixie discreetly used her magic to give her a little extra push, glancing nervously at the other Apples as they headed for the barn.

Granny Smith showed Trixie to a line of baskets, all full of apples. "Bad ones go over there in a pile," she said, gesturing. "Good ones go in the cart. Speakin' of, can ya bring it over here for me?"

There were a few carts set against the wall, and Trixie telekinetically pulled one over. Granny Smith nodded and pulled an apple out of a basket, checking it over. "Good," she declared, tossing it into the cart. She dug out another one. "Bad," she announced, casting it aside. "Bad. Good. Good. Good. Good. Bad." She stopped after a few more, looking straight at Trixie.

Trixie immediately remembered that she was supposed to be sorting, not watching, and took a position beside another basket. She started picking up apples, evaluating them, and tossing them to the appropriate direction.


~#~#~#~


The job dragged on, and slowly Trixie began to lose her sense of what she was doing. After about an hour, she was dangerously close to biting into the inviting red surface of an apple that was supposed to go into the cart. Shaking her head to clear it, she thought about the task for a moment. This really was an easy job. In fact, any novice unicorn could create a spell that could do half the work automatically. With a satisfied smirk, Trixie resolved to do exactly that.

She decided to use the apple in front of her as the baseline for "good", and instructed the spell to send all apples with roughly these characteristics to the cart. She fished out another, and flinched as she saw its bruised, mushy, worm-eaten surface. Definitely bad. She directed the spell to move all apples that shared these properties to the pile. A few seconds of focus, and the energies began to coalesce. She then let her new creation loose.

A whirlwind of purple energy began scooping up apple after apple, depositing them in one place or another. Granny Smith ducked as a few nearly smacked her in the head. "What in tarnation?" the old mare protested. "What do you think yer doin'?"

Trixie smiled back at her as she continued to manually sort the apples left behind by the spell. "Trixie is just making the job go faster," she said with a shrug.

"Don't you faster me!" Granny Smith snarled, shaking a hoof. "That ain't the way it's done!"

"She's right," a voice from the barn door added. Applejack stepped toward them, two cups of tea balanced on her head. "We've had help from unicorns before, but only in emergencies, an' this ain't one." She glared at Trixie as she passed Granny a cup. "So if yer gonna resort ta tricks like that, we don't need yer help."

Trixie flinched. "Trixie had no way of knowing that," she replied calmly, hiding her slight concern that she might have just ruined her only chance. "Are you really going to blame Trixie for trying to help?"

Applejack sighed, slipping the other cup off her head. "Ah'm not mad about breakin' tradition. Like you say, ah knew ya didn't know about it comin' in. Ah jus' hoped you'd manage ta buckle down an' work hard instead a' doin' it the easy way."

"A test, then," Trixie said, fighting the urge to give Applejack an accusatory look now. "Trixie understands perfectly. But you can't expect Trixie to follow rules she isn't aware of. And besides, it did get the job done, didn't it?"

The young farmer thought about that for a moment, passing the cup to Trixie. "Alright, ah guess ya got a point there. Still..."

"You're still not sure you can trust Trixie." Trixie sighed and took the tea with her magic. "Trixie had hoped... oh well."

Applejack paced restlessly, bowing her head slightly. "Ah think we're both gonna have ta try a little harder if we wanna see eye-to-eye, Trixie. But maybe we can, someday."

There was a moment of silence as Trixie considered that. She stood and adjusted her hat, throwing one more apple into the cart. "Trixie hopes so," she said, walking toward the barn door. "For now... I think I've made enough of a mess."

As Trixie stepped through the doors, Applejack raised her head and turned. "An' don't forget ta come back next week," she called. "Ah've still got work for ya."

Trixie paused and glanced back. She thought for a moment about Applejack's meaning, then slowly gave a small smile. "You've got it, boss," she replied, before starting up the orchard path again.