"So then I conjured up a great fireball-" The blue mare boasted to nopony in particular.

"Uh huh." Twilight simply turned the page of the book she was reading, a book on alternate timelines.

"-And burnt the manticore into a crisp!" She continued her extravagant story, swinging her hoof in a punching motion.

Twilight sighed, and turned to the next page. "Yeah, got it."

"Then, on my way out of the Everfree Forest-"

Twilight sighed audibly. "Trixie, I'm trying to read. Can you please stop ranting?"

Trixie turned to face the lavender unicorn. "Trixie is not ranting," She trotted importantly up to Twilight, who was resting on her bed. "Trixie was telling the daring story of how The Great and Powerful Trixie cheated death on many occasions."

"And let me guess..." Twilight replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's all true."

"Of course!"

"Just like the Ursa."

Trixie twitched. "No, that was a false story in order to make me look better."

Twilight closed her book, and stood up. "Trixie, I know an fake tale when I hear one. And this is one."

"Well- I-" Trixie lost her argument. "It does sound at least convincing, right?"

Twilight pondered. "No. Not really."

Trixie glared at her self-proclaimed rival intensely. "And you said you would be helping Trixie!"

"No, I only said I'm letting you stay here until your new caravan is built." Twilight's flawless logic overrided any argument Trixie could come up with.

"Well, in that case, can you help me with my newest performance?" Trixie demanded, trying her best to keep her composure

The lavender mare stared at her with an utter lack of care. "You do know I don't know anything about showmareship."

Trixie scoffed. "Trixie thought someone like you would've at least read something about it."

"I'm not one for showmareship, so I have no need to read about it." Twilight snapped her book shut and put it back in the shelf. "It's that simple." She walked around the room, looking through shelves, finally pulling out another book, this time on arcane formulae. "I'm too busy with work from Celestia and pursuing greater arcane feats."

"Trixie is still the superior at magic feats than you, Sparkle." Trixie stood in a proud position, with an incredibly smug grin. "I am the greatest unicorn in all of Equestria."

Twilight sighed, somewhat amused. "Your talent is magic tricks, Trixie. You're naturally good with visually-stunning arcane practices-"

"So are you admitting that Trixie is your superior?" Trixie butted in.

"I wasn't finished." Trixie opened the book. "I'm good with magic overall. I have the ability to memorise spells even after just observing or reading about it once. We have our own talents. In many respects, we are equal."

"But... Trixie is still superior, right?" Trixie's confident demeanour had broken, struggling to keep up with her now-emerging underconfidence.

"In some areas." Twilight turned the page. "Your ability to make true friends, however, is lacklustre."

Were it not for her sheer tenacity to stop herself from showing emotion, Trixie would've probably started crying. As it was, Trixie merely stuttered. "I-I... Trixie h-has plenty of friends!" She shouted back, still keeping her emotional dam from crashing. "You're one of them!"

Twilight looked up from her book, quite startled. "We're friends?"

That's it.

Trixie turned away from the unicorn, so that the pony could only hear her voice. Immediately she broke into tears, somehow still keeping her poise. She remained as quiet as possible.

"Trixie, are you alright?" Twilight asked with genuine concern.

Trixie still kept herself silent. Twilight moved closer, and reached out with her hoof. "Trix-"

Trixie shot her hoof out, knocking Twilight's back. Trixie finally opened her eyes, glaring violently at her 'rival'. "Don't you dare try to comfort me! You said we are not friends!"

Twilight stared at Trixie for a moment, then smiled sweetly. "Trixie, I was shocked because I was surprised you actually thought of me as a friend. I thought you wouldn't want me as a friend."

Trixie stopped glaring and simply stared into her violet eyes. "Really?"

"Yes, now stop being silly. I have to study the tendency of particles to be transferred over dimensions, so I won't be free to talk to for a while." Twilight glanced at the time. "Actually, can you go and get something for dinner, please?"

Trixie looked shocked. "Me?! Go outside?! But the entire town will recognise me!"

"If you don't act like a jerk again, and take off the darn cloak, it'll be fine. Besides, I'm sure one of my friends won't mind if you need help."

Trixie reverted back to her old self again. "Hmmph. I don't need extra help. I know the town quite well, and I won't need extra hooves to help me carry things."

Twilight could only giggle at that. "I meant emotional support. But, if you say you'll be fine, go on then."

Trixie scraped her hoof on the dirt road. It had been almost an hour since she left the house on her errand. She didn't really know the town at all. To make matters worse, she frequently saw much of the town giving her odd looks, looks similar to 'what's she doing here?' and 'isn't that the loudmouth?'. Trixie felt disheartened, and started slowly walking back towards the library.

"Hi!"

Trixie screamed, then noticed the pink ball of energy bounding excitedly in front of her.

"You're new here!"

Trixie straightened herself up. "Sort of. I've been here before."

The pink pony sat on her flanks, contemplating. "I would know if you have, but I don't remember. My name's Pinkie Pie, what's yours?"

Trixie felt almost relieved about this pink fuzz and her inability to remember her. "Beatrix Lulamoon. You may know me as The Great and Powerful Trixie."

"Trixie..." Pinkie squinted at nothing in particular. "Oh yeah, now I remember! I was sick that day, and couldn't come and see you perform. How'd it go?"

The azure pony glanced back at a desert-coated pony, who was glaring at her. "It could've gone better. Actually, it went horribly. I was running a story on how The Great and Powerful Trixie had banished an Ursa Major, and two little colts brought an Ursa Minor to town so that I could see me banish it."

"I heard about the rest from Twilight. Even the bit about you admitting the truth."

Trixie blushed. "What? She- Uh-"

The pink pony giggled, wrapping a foreleg around Trixie. "Relax, I don't have anything against you. I can tell the town does, though." She released her grasp and moved back in front of her. "So, what's up?"

"I... hate to admit it, but I'm lost. I'm looking for somewhere to buy some ingredients-"

"Ooh! I know a place! Come on!"

Without warning or consent, Trixie was grabbed by the tail and pulled along and an impossible speed. When Pinkie stopped suddenly, her momentum kept her going and she hit the ground hard.

"Sugar Cube Corner!" Pinkie presented the gingerbread house-styled bakery in a dramatic way, confetti suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Trixie stood up, dusting dirt and gravel off her face. "While I appreciate the-"

"Come on! I'll show you!"

"... and then she returned to the Archives almost as soon as she left! It was so cool!"

Trixie was stunned. "Twilight knows a time-travel spell?"

Pinkie nodded furiously. "She's a genius! I'm so happy to have her as a friend!"

Trixie dropped back to her stage attitude. "She may be talented, but she does not possess the ability of The Great and Powerful Trixie."

Pinkie simply giggled again. "Nah, I think she's better than anypony when it comes to magic. It's on her butt, for Celestia's sake!" Pinkie broke into laughter at her own words.

The azure pony flicked some mane out of her eyes, grinning smugly. "Challenge accepted."

"What?"

"Trixie shall prove to you and Twilight Sparkle that she can perform feats beyond imagination."

"How?"

Trixie thought hard. "Twilight was telling me something of the tendency of particles to cross into another dimension."

The pink pony's brain strained to comprehend. "That's... the... rare event that small bits of matter move into another timeline or something?"

Trixie smiled. "Yes, it is. Or, at least, close enough to that. I was thinking... Of trying to move a full object into another dimension."

"Ooooohhh..." Pinkie leaned in, but then snapped back as something crossed her mind. "Wait, isn't that dangerous?"

"Unless it was me going through. Then I'll be able to make it back, hopefully with a souvenir."

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I tell Twilight?"

Trixie twitched. "No, I'd rather it be a surprise for her. And don't tell anyone else."

With a salute, Pinkie replied. "Okie Dokie Lokie."

Trixie sighed, and glanced at the time. "Which reminds me, I need to bring something to Twilight for dinner."

"Oops." Pinkie laughed nervously. "Sorry, I thought you were after something else."

"It happens." Trixie said. Particularly with that attitude, she added in her head. "So, Pinkie, where do I get ingredients for a quick dinner?"

"Follow me!"

"All done." Twilight snapped the book shut.

"Twilight," Spike, sitting on the stairs, said. "We have ingredients for dinner here already, why can't we just make it now?"

"Because, Spike," Twilight retorted. "I sent Trixie out to bring something, and I don't want to disappoint her by eating before she returns."

"Fine..." Spike muttered the rest to himself.

At that point, a rather unbalanced Trixie burst in. "Trixie has returned!"

"Yay!" Twilight squee'd in a surprisingly adorable way (to Trixie). "What'd you get?"

"Have a look." The azure mare levitated the bag to her friend, who looked inside. "I also met your pink friend."

"That explains the- Oooh!" Twilight nearly shoved her head in the bag. "I love these! How did you know I liked these?"

Trixie shrugged. "Pinkie suggested it, and I'm rather fond of them myself." She shook her head. "But that's not important! We need to decide who's going to cook."

"I think it'll be me or Spike. You look exhausted." she chuckled.

The purple dragon walked up. "I'll do it, Twi. You've been studying non-stop for two hours and you need some rest."

Twilight brushed her neck up against Spike as a sign of affection. "Thanks."

Trixie couldn't sleep. She couldn't even shut her eyes without having to open them. She had only one thing on her mind.

Which is why Trixie was sitting on the couch, looking over Twilight's books on alternate dimensions, runic circles and arcane formulae. She could only think of upstaging her rival-friend.

Credit where it's due, she though, while calculating the energy requirements to shift a pony-sized object across huge distances. For Sparkle to remember all this in her head is insane.

After hundreds of calculations involving the shape of the runic circle required to amplify her own power to hurl her across reality, the required materials to create the maximum output of the circle and other seemingly random equations, she finally reached a satisfying result. The circle was huge, but small enough to fit in the library, and had the closest material to crushed red diamonds soaked in dragon gall she had on hand, which was a paint specifically designed for arcane circles.

She looked at the clock, hoping it wasn't too late. It was. 10 minutes to 3 in the morning. The good news was, she felt absolutely exhausted, and managed to crawl into bed while being able to hide her calculations.

Trixie slowly arose, feeling refreshed. The time read 1.27 in the afternoon, which caused her to jump. Looking down off the upper story, she saw Twilight and her pink friend talking away. She grinned.

"This'll be great..."

The azure mare shifted the beds, and brought the paint up to her. She cast an illusion spell of the circle as a guideline, and started painting.

Almost before it was finished, Twilight walked up. "What are you doing?"

Trixie pulled the brush off the illusion, and dispelled it. "Morning, Sparkle."

"Is that my runic circle paint?"

"Yes." She replied, smugly.

"And is that a runic circle?"

"Duh."

Twilight stared at the circle. "Let's see, with a circle here and that rune there... and... also..." She recoiled as if she had just seen a dead body. "What the heck are you planning?!"

"I am going to show you just how great and powerful The Great and Powerful Trixie really is!" She laughed triumphantly.

"Do you even know what that is?!" Twilight was panicking. Perfect. "It's a teleportation circle, with elements of phasing and molecular reconstruction! And the formation of those show the required output of energy for..."

Silence.

"You're sending yourself to another dimension?!" Twilight screamed.

"I know, it's awesome!" Pinkie added, suddenly appearing next to Twilight.

"No! It's not awesome! It's downright dangerous!" She yelled at Pinkie, then turned back to Twilight. "Do you even know where you're going?!"

"I'll be fine. I'm the-"

Twilight grabbed Trixie. "What if you enter a volcano, or a world of only clouds, or even into a hostile group of other-worldly ponies! Or all three at once!" She pulled the azure mare close to her. "Are you really that stupid?!"

"I calculated it on my own. I don't think that means I'm stupid."

"But a smarter pony wouldn't even think of doing this!"

Trixie pushed Twilight away. "Get off! I'm going, whether you want me to or not!"

She planted herself in the middle of the circle, and generated magenta energy around her horn. Slowly, the circle started lighting up, energy swirling around the entire length. The ground was fire on Trixie's hooves, but she refused to budge an inch. Soon, the swirling energy became a tornado of magic, obscuring much of Trixie's vision.

The last thing she saw was Twilight running into the circle, screaming her name, before the world became a blur of white and black matter.

Author's Note

Updated in 20/03/2015.