Rainbow Dash
"151 Theatre Street, right?" I say to the stetson adorned Applejack, who seemed to be struggling with the Manehatten residents.

"Yep" she curtly responded, desperately trying to prevent herself from greeting people walking past her; we'd already been stopped by local police to stop harassing ponies.

I nod and we continue travelling down the street.

"Do you think she knows anything? The past two times we've met her, well, she's been full of herself and kind of… an idiot. You know, not really the sort to hang out with doctors" I say down to applejack.

"You're not wrong Dash but Twilight said it might be a good way to pick this Blue's mind, Trixie might know something about her, something revealing let's hope" Applejack responds, I notice a slight hint of disgust when she says the name.

To be honest, I've noticed she's gotten angrier after we left Ponyville. Usually we get ready for a fight and she's annoyed but this seems weirdly personal, I am entirely leaving that alone though last time I poked my nose in her business I got a punch to the nose.

We approached the apartment, and evidently Trixie did not make much money off her stage shows. This place seemed run down, and after some hesitation on both our parts we knocked on the door.

"Be down in a second!" We hear a mare's voice call out.

I give Applejack a look "are you sure that's her? That sounded too normal, where's all the great and powerful Trixie rubbish?"

Applejack seems to ponder for a moment and pulls a note out of our saddlebag "Ahm pretty sure that's her, Twilight got the address from her track records and the street what the mother said."

I give a hesitant nod and hear the sound of hooves making their way down some stairs.

"Sorry for the wait! If you can help me get the package upstairs it'd be apprecia-" we hear the voice from the other's idea of the door start to say when opening the door, only to be interrupted when faced with us.

Trixie stands there, without her hat and cape, and seems to freeze for a moment as if to try and take in the circumstances.

"Wh- I mean- Trixie asks why have you come to Trixie's humble abode. This isn't for revenge right?" Trixie seems to slip into her ponysona fairly quickly after her initial shock.

"No revenge, yet. We have questions" I return.

"Yet? Trixie already gave you the amulet before and Trixie did say where she got it, what questions would a brilliant stage mare like me answer?" Trixie answers.

Applejack at this stage seems to get impatient, and takes over the conversations "Trixie, Ahm getting tired of this. Speak normally and tell us what you know about Blue Syringe"

Trixie mouths the word blue with her mouth, seemingly not expecting the question, "Blue? Tri-" Trixie catches herself before she annoys Applejack more "I suppose you can come upstairs, I can tell you what I can remember, it's been a long time."

Trixie leads us up the stairs into her apartment and the thing that grabs my notice is the seemingly unending amount of props, makeup and costumes that seem to litter the space.

Sitting down on an armchair, Trixie motions to the couch and I take a seat, Applejack seems somewhat hostile still and continues to stand.

"You wanted to hear about Blue right? It really has been a long time since I last saw her, I was still a filly" Trixie opens with.

I give a brief glance at Applejack, we'd agreed before that I'd ask questions and she would try to feel if trixie was lying, and I ask "Yes, Twilight has asked us to" I say, quickly attempting to keep the focus on the questions itself "Where did you meet Blue Syringe?"

Trixie blinks rapidly, trying to take in the information, and responds "Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, she was in my year. She'd approached me for help."

Twilight had mentioned this was true, though I can hardly believe that the con artist had made it into the school, and I notice Applejack seems to think she's telling the truth.

"Why did she approach you?" I ask, with a truth being set we should be able to start gauging responses.

I'll be honest, I don't like doing this. Speed, fights, and adventure is what I strive for in our outings as a six but Twilight said this was important that we get this right and we were too spread thin to have anypony else doing it, so we are just going to have to deal with it for now and punch things later.

"She told me that she thought illusions might be able to help with a placebo effect, like they see themselves as being healthy so they become healthy" Trixie states, though with an obvious tinge of annoyance "why are these questions being asked? Blue was declared dead, eight years ago and Trixie has got nothing to say more on the matter"

I notice Trixie slip into the third person during the sentence but as I go to question her, I hear Applejack say

"Liar"

Both Trixie and I turn towards Applejack and Trixie stands up to defend herself "Trixie is no liar, I only knew her for a year, she left and I never talked to her again!"

Applejack straightens her stetson and I can see a seething in her eyes for a moment, it seems even trying to defend this pony is an indictment, and she says "that was the truth, y'all not spoken to her but you know something."

I watch Trixie visibly gulp under the pressure but try to cover it under a false smile " Trixie was just a small filly at the time, Trixie left the school anyway a few months afterward. Trixie really doesn't want to talk about it"

I think she switches to the third person to build confidence in her responses and even I'm noticing her trying to switch the topic to absolutely anything else.

"Trixie" i say quickly, an an attempt to stop Applejack from getting too angry "we know you know something and if you don't tell us, we can message Twilight to come and bring the guard here, I can imagine they'd be happy to hear about the alicorn amulet incident."

Trixie winces and says "okay okay, it's not much, Trixie… I received a letter the year after Blue left, there was no return address or signature, it said she missed me, that she was safe and that she'd managed to even meet a gryphon, she thought it might make for a good illusion for a show. That is seriously the last I ever talked to or heard from her."

Well it was more information than we had before and I saw her return to her resting place.

"From what we gathered you are probably the best pony to ask this, do you know where she would be if she were around?" I ask.

Trixie ponders for a moment and says "Blue wasn't great at powerful magical spells, she'd avoid living remotely to have an ease of access to food and if she is living with ponies, she'd be living in a major city."

I take a moment to think and say "wouldn't a city mean that she'd be seen more regularly?"

"Seen, but not noticed. It's a principle in illusion magic, you ask in a town of a village of they've seen a pony with characteristics; they'd point in a direction and she here is where she lived and their daily schedule, ponies in close communities have less to notice where in the city you ask the same question and you are given a list of 200 ponies that all match the characteristics. We discussed it back in the day, it means that when doing a trick you don't have to expend all your energy trying to hide something when a small burst of magic will do" Trixie informs us.

I give a glance at Applejack through the explanation and notice she's remained remarkably still through the explanation.

I can't imagine she likes the concept, in itself the foundation is based on tricks and lies and doesn't produce anything of actual importance.
Well, at the very least that's the questions we'd agreed to ask and I hope that's the last of the questions I have to ask, like ever. This whole situation is rubbing me the wrong way from the start. I can feel it to the tips of my feathers that this is going to open a jar of something that we aren't going to be able to close.

But, I've felt this about a lot of the adventures we've dived into and while I am pretty confident in my instinct, I trust Twilight and the Princesses more, they know more than I do.

"Do you think she's still okay?" I hear Trixie say while I am monologuing to myself.

"What?" I say still bring my attention back to reality.

"I'm guessing you are looking into her because you all think she's still alive, I can see no other reason you'd be looking into a very cold case. Even with my letter, the last time anyone has heard from her was nine years ago, so I was wondering if you think she's okay. Her parents would be so happy to see her again" Trixie asks, with a tone of sincerity.

Applejack interjects, seemingly with a null tone to her voice "Ahm sure she's fine, bad ponies usually seem to be before we get to them. And we don't really know what she's gonna be like after the Princess is through with her." She then makes her way out of the door, without letting Trixie have a chance to respond, and I hear her make her way downstairs.

Trixie turns to me and says "What is she on about? Is this about her brother? She was just a filly when that happened who got scared and ran away, I thought she was just going to get a stern talking to."

"We are still investigating it" I say, somewhat panicking that Applejack revealed that, and I continue "please don't think about it and thanks for the information."

I quickly attempt to leave the flat, hoping that Trixie doesn't stop me, and after getting out the front door, I spot Applejack walking down the street and catch up to her.

As I get close to and without any indication that she'd heard me, Applejack says "How that con artist isn't in a cell, she took over Ponyville for buck's sake and then tries to feign concern for a fellow villain. Ah really don't know how you could stand that Dash."

My mind races for a response to Applejack's words and I say "I think she was just wanting to know her friend was going to be okay. I would imagine I'd be worried if one have you had run away, even if you'd done something wrong"

Applejack snorts, and after a moment of silence, says "Ah refuse to believe we could even be in that scenario, even on our worst days we never did anything as vile as this. There are ponies across Equestria, desperate enough to use the services of her that now are dealing with the puppets she's leaving behind, clinging to the hope that these are still living ponies… Even the strongest might fall to the temptation, I hope that I would have had the strength after… "
I hear Applejack's voice falter but I think I know what she was going to say anyway, the strength to resist after becoming an orphan would have to be near unfaltering.
"I understand, if I remember correctly Twilight said to meet back up in Canterlot right?" I ask
Apparently Pinkie and fluttershy found out a potential link that we were going to go check out as a group.

I give a glance back to Trixie's apartment before we leave and notice the curtains close quickly.

Author's Note

I ask that people be merciful with my writing of Rainbow Dash, I seem to be awful from writing from her perspective.

We get to meet Trixie in a different light from usual, apparently holding onto a secret for nearly a decade.