High up in Canterlot, inside a small but dark house, a group of cloaked figures waited for the arrival of their last hooded companion.

The group consisted of eight hooded figures, three of which were clearly not equine, and what could be seen through the haze of darkness and the concealing cloaks they wore was that two of them were griffins and the other was a minotaur. They waited patiently in the dark of their little hiding spot with a perfect view of The Noble District.

As the approaching sound of somepony with heavy hooves became louder, the group quieted down and looked to the door of their apartment awaiting their missing member.

The door opened, and a bulky equine figure came in, wrapped in a dark tunic from hoof to shoulders with only the head sticking out. He was clearly the leader of the small group and had a scar right over his left eye. The horn sticking out of his head identified him as a unicorn, but his bodily muscles resembled more those of a heavy working earth pony.

His gaze drifted from one of the figures to the next, stopping at one of the griffins.

“Is everything prepared, Hunter?”

“Everything is in place, my lord. The magical enforcers work perfectly, and we have several alternatives as well, if the target proves uncooperative,” the addressed griffon answered quickly and bowed deeply.

“Very well, and I have the magical suppression rings.” He nodded, “We’ve been given everything we need to get this done, we have the tools and the opportunity that we cannot let pass us by. Nevertheless, this will be difficult, but as my father always said: the end justifies the means. We will begin at noon and we’ll have to be fast! My informants confirmed that our two targets will be at home when we strike, but still, it will not be easy, after all, we will be dealing with powerful enemies here! We don’t have the luxury of mistakes.”

And with that, he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving his companions to do their last preparations.

---

Absent-mindedly drying her hair with her magic and a fluffy towel, Twilight slowly trotted out of her bathroom after enjoying a relaxing time in her beloved hot tub. Having finally straightened out her mane, she now looked herself over in her vanity mirror, again.

Having Rarity coming over in a couple of hours, Twilight knew that if she didn't want to be murdered by her fashion-loving friend, she had to at least look presentable.

The problem was, that wasn’t a joke in of itself.

The last time Rarity saw her without an orderly mane and a clean coat, after she helped Applejack on the farm, the fashionista had personally dragged her into the nearest bathroom - coincidently her own - and scrubbed the then unhappy alicorn from head to tail.

Unwilling to relive that experience, Twilight made sure to at least be washed before facing said friend and could now tick off that point on her checklist.

Satisfied with her looks for the moment, the now clean alicorn made her way to her personal library.

The number of books the young alicorn had acquired since Tirek’s attack was astonishing, going so far that even Celestia had no idea how she managed to hoard so many of them so quickly. But Twilight wasn’t simply going for quantity. The young princess had acquired thousands of the rarest books equinely possible and shelved them all by herself, well, sometimes with the help of a certain young dragon.

After Tirek had destroyed the old town's library, and with it her beloved home, Twilight had opened her new palace gates to allow everyone to use her obscenely large halls as a library instead. Most of the time though, she was alone in her vast halls of books, for as hard as it was to accept the truth, a traditionally orientated settlement apparently had no need for such an extensive library.

Unfazed by this revelation, Twilight made it her personal hobby to have the greatest library in the world, and the partially burnt books rescued from her old library were the first of many volumes to adorn the personal collection of the self-proclaimed librarian.

Strolling through her many rows upon rows of books, Twilight wandered through her bookshelf maze absentmindedly.

Being the only one who didn’t need a plan of where to find something, Twilight looked from one section to the other in hope that one of her books would sort of jump at her to read.

Stopping in front of the romance section, she thought for a moment before shaking her head dismissively. Her recent dreams and rising desire of her secret crushes gave her all the reasons she needed to not reread one of those.

So, she made her way deeper into her library and after no more than five minutes of search found herself in front of her stories section. Smiling and without consciously thinking about it, she grabbed the book Celestia had read to her in her dreams tonight. Marveling at the beautiful cover of a young Star Swirl the Bearded for a moment, Twilight shrugged and tucked it under her wing and went to leave, greeting an unfamiliar colt, who was currently looking over an ancient cookbook, on the way out.

The fact that some ponies traveled through Equestria to peruse her library made her smile every time. She knew for a fact that no one would steal one of her books for two reasons. First and foremost, she had more binding and location spells on each of her books than Celestia had wards on her personal quarters and second, the last pony who tried to steal one of her precious books didn't even make it to the outskirts of Ponyville before a very pissed off alicorn landed in front of him.

Having to face a pissed off Twilight if someone maltreated one of her books, or tried to steal it, made even Celestia shudder. The lesson of handling books carefully in the presence of Twilight was something Celestia learned shortly after she accepted the purple bundle in her tutelage. Who knew that a small purple unicorn, not even big enough to reach to Celestia's knees at that time, could throw a goddess through the nearest wall in an attempt of rescuing the book from tea stains?

The attempt was futile, but Twilight had forced Celestia to replace that book immediately to which the monarch of the day had relented simply because she could not believe that a mere unicorn of five years had just smashed her through a 6-hoof thick wall of stone, for a book.

Some guards still claim that Twilight was burning at the very moment as they had tried, but ultimately and spectacularly failed, in subduing the one daring to attack their princess.

Reminiscing about her more carefree days, Twilight smiled fondly. Now tightening her wing around the book, Twilight happily got onto the way to her favorite reading place in the castle, a small room in which she could sit next to a fireplace and a gigantic window at the same time.

The room let it seem as if The Tree of Harmony had designed the castle with Twilight's personal preferences in mind, but how the tree had done so was beyond her. After some extended research, Twilight had stopped thinking about it some time ago.

Wandering towards her kitchens to pick up a mug of steaming hot chocolate and to collect a fluffy blanket from her bedroom, she crossed the map and throne room to walk into a seemingly unimportant corner right next to the castle's entrance.

Stepping into the small room, Twilight flicked her horn to light the fireplace. Making sure the fire would last for a couple of hours, she settled onto the window frame and threw the blanket into the air, quickly ducking under it before it came down, and let herself be blanketed by it with only her head and the book sticking out. All without spilling one drop of her cup of hot chocolate, Twilight nuzzled deeper into her blanket and looked out of the window for a moment.

She could see the Everfree Forrest in the west and Canterlot-mountain in the northeast, her beloved town of Ponyville nestled comfortably between. Twilight could nearly see across all of Ponyville from her vantage point.

She could see from Fluttershy’s cottage, Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner to Rainbow’s cloud house and even a part of Applejack's barn.

Seeing all of her friends’ houses made Twilight smile, but what she also could see were the many ponies walking around Ponyville doing their errands.

Her crazy town looked so peaceful.

Due to its distance from the Everfree Forrest, monster attacks or the like were a common threat in this area of Equestria. And when not monsters or some other world-ending threat, the Gates of Tartarus or a stampede of riled up cows disturbing the town's calm, then an overly energetic Pinkie Pie would do the job just fine.

The random songs the town sometimes performed disturbed the educated part of Twilight's brain immensely, as did Pinkie's actions, but that’s something to worry about later, she told herself.

At the thought of Pinkie, Twilight could swear she just saw a pink blur at the end of her peripheral vision.

Shaking her head and confirming that the line in front of Sugarcube Corner was still moving confirmed that Pinkie was at work this early Sunday morning and not, to her relief, running around in her room, or popping out of the next vase.

Still, she checked.

Satisfied that Pinkie would not suddenly come out of nowhere and do Pinkie stuff, Twilight looked down at the book in her hoof.

“Star Swirl the Bearded’s collection: The Arcana Principals, Volume I”

The fact that all those years ago a 5-year-old Twilight had a scientific autobiography of Star Swirl the Bearded as her favorite book could be considered questionable. But, for lack of a better term, Twilight had always been special in that regard.

Her thirst for knowledge was unrivaled and after Celestia had accepted her, the old monarch had tried to quench that thirst of hers by teaching Twilight everything she could.

And so, Twilight learned.

The young mare had absorbed knowledge like a dried-out sponge and raced through her classes at an obscenely high speed.

The only problem was, the young mare's thirst for knowledge was never satisfied, and after she had raced through her classes, she began to study at the age of 9. Twilight was the youngest graduate of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns at the age of 11 and continued her studies with Celestia as her mentor even further.

So, for everypony who knew Twilight personally, it was no surprise that the young mare would only fall asleep if somepony would read her out of one of her science books rather than a foal’s picture book.

Opening the cover, Twilight scanned the first page.

She practically knew this book by heart and so she began to skim, all the while letting her brain peacefully wander around.

After all, she wanted to relax.

Having a warm fire nearby, a cup of hot chocolate in her hooves and settling in her belly, a familiar and good book in front of her, Twilight finally started to relax after her stressful week.

And relaxing is what she did.

The young princess relaxed so much that she eventually fell asleep and began to dream.

The warmth surrounding her gave her the impression of being held by someone.

The feeling was enticing. She didn’t care who was holding her, nor did she really doubt her suspicion. Twilight just let go for the moment and reveled in her thoughts and feelings.

She was laying on top of a giant white hoof, just as she had in her youth, and looked dreamingly at the white mare whom said hoof was attached to.

Celestia looked gorgeous.

Her immaculate white coat was softer than any of the clouds she had ever laid upon and she was warm, she was so wonderfully warm. Her gentle voice trained by a millennium of politics and age sent the finest impression of vibration through her body and her mane, which was ever-flowing in an ethereal wind, tickling her where it touched her fur.

The dream was wonderful, and Twilight wished she would never have to wake up from it.

But, apparently, all good things have to come to an end, or at least she had to wake up eventually. So as Celestia tried to slip away her hoof, Twilight gripped it with all her might. She desperately tried to lay there for simply five more minutes.

Chuckling softly, Celestia softly poked Twilight on the nose. Her delicate actions made Twilight giggle and clench harder around Celestia's trapped appendage. “Twilight… come on, let go please.”

She could feel the dream crumbling around her, but Twilight desperately wanted to not have to leave her mentors embrace. Unfolding her wings, she tried to leach onto Celestia's hoof now with all her might, desperately trying to not wake up. Not yet at least.

“Twilight… please wake up.”

…

“Twilight… you… you’re hurting me… please.”

This wasn’t the sound of Celestia anymore, this sounded different.

Shocked, Twilight opened her eyes to see white fur.

“Twilight… please… let me go… ouch, ow, ow… please.” the white fur whimpered.

Blinking once, then twice, Twilights sleep drunken mind slowly kicked in and realized that she had something clenched between her forehooves. Namely… a pony.

“Ow… you are crushing me…” the pony whined.

Still unable to comprehend the situation completely, Twilight blinked once more, and then it clicked.

Forcefully pushing the white pony away, Twilight realized suddenly who she just had cuddled like a giant teddy bear. “R-R-R-Rarity!?”

Next Chapter: The Wakeup Call Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 18 Minutes