After a bout of magic practice, Twilight is busy modestly shrugging off praise from Spike, who is impressed by the variety of magical spells she can accomplish. Suddenly, they learn from two excitable boy unicorns, Snips and Snails, that "The Great and Powerful" Trixie is in Ponyville to perform her magic show. Twilight and her friends go see the show, but some of the others quickly grow tired of Trixie's boasting that she's the greatest magician in all Equestria and her tall tales about her defeat of a bear-like monster called the Ursa Major, and Rainbow Dash starts heckling her.