FLASH!
There was a moment of silence.
BANG!
"Urgh!" Came the dissatisfied, frustrated groan, "No, no, no!" Trixie was standing in the den of Twilight's library. Six times now, she had attempted to manipulate the fire in the fireplace, and six times now it had created a small explosion dangerously close to her mane. She wiped the sweat from her brow. She had begun to sweat profusely by that time, partly due to the heat of the explosions, and partly because she had been exerting quite a bit of energy on this spell. "I need this!" She thought, determinedly, "If I intend to present myself properly in my new show, I need this spell!" It was a fairly simple spell for a unicorn of her caliber, especially for one with a special talent in illusion magic such as herself. It was only a spell to make the fire rise into the air, take the shape of a dragon, and shoot a stray flame from it's fiery mouth. Why then, could she not perform it? "Ugh! Why is this so difficult!?" She asked aloud.
She was not expecting an answer, but she got one regardless. Spike couldn't ever resist the urge to point out the obvious. "You can't focus," He retorted, not even glancing from his book. The purple-scaled dragon sat lazily on the couch, close enough to watch everything Trixie had done in the past hour.
Trixie scoffed at her dragon friend, "Why would the Great and Powerful Trixie have any problem focusing?" She slipped into her stage presence, feigning pride, "She is the most magnificent magical mare in all of Equestria!"
That made Spike roll his eyes. He closed his book and looked up to the powder-blue mare with a snarky expression, "Because, Twilight went out to the park with Rainbow Dash to read, and you're jealous," His smug smile only got wider as he finished the statement.
Trixie gave a theatrical gasp and stammered, trying to come up with a proper comeback, "H-h-how could you even consider that? Trixie is never jealous, especially over Twilight Sparkle!"
Spike read her like an open book. He was enjoying making her fluster. He got up and began walking into the kitchen. "Uh-huh," He called from the other room, "So I suppose you wouldn't be interested in what Rainbow told me before they took off!" Hook.
"Told you?" Line. "Told you what?"
"Oh nothing, really," Spike stifled a giggle, "Just that she's going to ask Twilight out on a date today!"
"WHAT!" Trixie shrieked. Sinker. Trixie ran into the kitchen, fear spread across her face. She was hyperventilating and looked to be in dire need of Rarity's fainting chair.
Spike busted up laughing, falling on his back onto the floor. With on claw covering his gut, he pointed a finger at Trixie, "Gotcha!"
Trixie huffed, "Alright fine!" She caved. "I may have a tiny crush on her, but that was certainly not very nice!"
"Tiny!?" Spike asked, incredulously, "You kissed her and fell to sleep in her arms just two weeks ago!"
"I-I-I- That was- I was drunk!" She finally got out, "That d-doesn't count!" She turned her head in an attempt to hide her all-too-obvious blush when they heard the door slam.
"I'm home!" Twilight called cheerfully, but as she glanced toward the fireplace her eyes widened, pupils the size of pin pricks, "Holy Celestia! There are scorch marks and soot everywhere! Trixie!" Trixie cringed. She had not yet had a chance to clean up. She looked to the book still floating at her side for answers only to see she had burnt the corner of it off! She quickly hid the book and walked slowly into the den.
With a sheepish grin, she apologized, "I'm sorry Twilight. I got carried away with my practice. You know how that is. I'll clean it up as soon as I can find the spell to get rid of the scorch marks," She hoped that was enough.
Twilight was fuming, but she made a soothing gesture with her hoof and sighed. All at once, she seemed more level-headed than ever. "Alright, Trixie," She accepted the apology. Trixie mentally bro-hoofed herself. "Just please, please, please try not to burn the house down." Trixie nodded and began to search the shelves for a book on restoration spells. Spike silently began cooking dinner, and Twilight sat down to scribble a couple notes on her day with Rainbow Dash in the journal they all shared. Trixie made a mental note to read that entry while Twilight wasn't looking.
The rest of the night would no doubt go by in an awkward silence, like many of their nights had in the past couple weeks. Dinner was the most awkward part of all. Twilight and Trixie sat opposite of each other, trying not to make eye contact. Spike sat between them, and groaned several times at the situation he was in. Every night it was the same. Twilight and Trixie would take turns looking up from their food to take furtive glances at each other. Occasionally, they would take a glance at each other, locking eyes for just a moment before both turning away and blushing, trying to pretend they hadn't seen the other. It was usually at those moments that Spike would groan or smack his face with his palm.
Feeling unnaturally courageous that evening, Trixie actually spoke up, "S-s-so, Twilight?"
"Y-yeah?" Twilight responded nervously, refusing to look up from her food.
"H-how's Rainbow Dash? I-I heard she qualified to go to the Equestria games?"
"Yes, that's right." Twilight felt a bit disappointed that they were talking about Rainbow Dash.
"Well, she certainly must be excited." That killed the conversation for at least a minute before Trixie asked the question that had been begging her to ask it, "H-h-how was your day with...her? Anything special happen?"
That got Twilight's attention. Was Trixie jealous of her time spent with Rainbow? Spike bit back a light giggle and excused himself from the table. "N-no. Nothing important. We just read part of the newest Daring Do book, and Rainbow did a couple tricks in the air. Same old, same old."
"Oh," Trixie responded. Barely audible, she added, "Good." Twilight heard the addition and blushed. She was briefly reminded of the taste of Trixie's lips the night they kissed. She longed for that taste again, but she knew she could never be that forward. She let out a sad sigh, unrelated to the conversation she had been having, and the action brought more questions to Trixie's mind, but she remained silent for the rest of the meal.