The glow of Twilight's horn shone bright purple as the young unicorn levitated another book into her enormous bookshelf. Looking around herself at the massive Ponyville Library, with its shelves of books stretching all the way to the ceiling, she wondered to herself how anypony other than a unicorn could have managed it. Every day, there were dozens of books that need shelving, sorting, archiving, refurbishing, and that was hard enough with magic, let alone without!
She nodded with satisfaction as the last book floated up into place. Just as the glow of her horn dimmed and went out, there came the sound of a door closing, and that familiar voice:
"… Thanks, Ditzy… Twilight! Mail's here!"
Spike, her ever-loyal dragon assistant entered the main room of the library, carrying a small stack of letters and parcels in one hand, and a small muffin in the other.
"Thanks Spike, just leave them on the desk. I'll get to them in a moment… Where'd you get the muffin from?"
"Ditzy Doo gave it to me." Spike said, half-muffled through his snack "Looks like she brought breakfast with her again, and she must've been in a really good mood today, 'cos she just gave me one of her muffins."
Twilight smiled "Well, that's nice of her." Good old Ditzy, she thought. One of the friendliest ponies she had ever met in Ponyville, though her googly-eyed expression could be distracting at times.
She headed over to the desk to check out today's mail. Levitating the stack of envelopes and parcels in front of her, she flipped through them one by one:
"Bills…junk…junk…ah, that new copy of 'A brief History of Equestria' I ordered, excellent...hmm, junk… Ooh!"
She stopped and singled out a small package that, unlike most of today's mail, was addressed directly to her, not to the library.
"These must be the photos Rarity was talking about!" Twilight muttered to herself, eagerly ripping the top from the envelope.
One by one, she levitated the individual photographs inside, and placed them each on the floor of the library. Spike wandered over to have a look for himself.
"Take a look, Spike. It's the pictures from Rarity's fashion-shoot last Monday. I helped her out a bit my modelling some of her outfits, so she agreed to send me a copy of the photos."
"Nice." Spike said, glancing at each photo in turn. "You look great in these ones!" He pointed to a series of photos with Twilight modelling a blue, wispy dress, with a turquoise trim.
Twilight grinned modestly "Heh, thanks Spike. It is kinda pretty, huh?"
Together, she and Spike went through each photograph, critiquing the look and the style of the dress.
"Ooh, here's a good one of Fluttershy. Green really suits her…"
"Oh wow, I think I like these ones best."
"Any other reason, other than Rarity being the model?"
Spike blushed "Ahh, cut it out!"
Twilight frowned slightly at one photo "Hmm, look at that pony over in the background… there, y'see? Way back there. You'd think rarity would have spotted that…"
The critique went on for a good while before Twilight's stomach rumbled unexpectedly. "Oh, heh… Lost track of time there. How about some lunch Spike?"
The minute dragon nodded "Great idea! Want me to cook somethin' up here, or shall we go out?"
"Let's go out. I'm in the mood for a daisy and dandelion salad myself." Twilight replied, as she gathered up the photos once again to put back in the envelope. But as she opened the envelope again, she noticed that something else was in there.
"Hmm? Oh, there's another one in here…" She said to herself as she quickly levitated it out. As it floated in the air before her, she paused as she looked the photo over. Even at a glance, she could tell something wasn't quite right about this photo.
"Hey Twi! You comin' or not?" Came Spike's voice from the porch.
The young unicorn shrugged and slipped the curious photo back into the stack of other photos. "Coming, Spike!"
After a hearty lunch of a heaped plate of hay-fries, complimented by a daisy and dandelion salad, Twilight returned to the library, as Spike hurried off to do some shopping for supper tonight. As she closed the door, her mind wandered once again to that curious photo she found in Rarity's photoshoot. She hadn't had a proper look at it, but something about it just seemed…off.
She quickly retrieved it from the stack and set it down on the table. Looking closely at it, she realised instantly what seemed to of about it.
It appeared to be a hastily taken photo of a pony, in the park just outside Ponyville, where Rarity's photoshoot had taken place. It was slightly blurry and out of focus, and clearly zoomed in from a distance. But what unnerved Twilight about it was that the subject of the photo was her!
Was this some sort of joke, she thought to herself. What was the meaning of this photo? And furthermore, who took it? She could see just to the side of the photo, Rarity and the other ponies, standing oblivious of their covert photographer.
A sudden gust of wind from an open window blew the strange photo from her telekinetic grasp, sending it swirling through the air and face-down on the floor.
As Twilight stooped to pick it up again, her eyes grew wide as she saw another image on the other side of the photo. Picking it up, she saw that on the back, somepony had scrawled in black pen, a strange set of images. First, a circle, with an X scrawled through it. Beneath it, a crude drawing of an eye, with a strange word written beneath that, in a language Twilight did not recognise.
"…'V-vigilemus'? What in Equestria is that supposed to mean?" she wondered aloud.
As she raised her head, she saw a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye. Squeaking in surprise, she looked to the window. Was it just her imagination, or did somepony just hastily move out of sight?
Peeking her head out the window, she looked around. Nopony.
"Weird… I could've sworn I saw something…. Ehh, you're working too hard, Twilight." She reassured herself.
With a day of work to do, Twilight put the whole matter out of her head. For the rest of the afternoon, she dedicated her mind and attention to her studies and her library work.
But that strange word kept floating up from the depths of her mind. Vigilemus. What did it mean? Why was it written on the back of that photo? What did that strange symbol mean? And for that matter, who took it?
These questions plagued her mind long into the evening, but she did her best not to let it intrude on her day to day life.
But that night, she knew that today was anything but "Day to day".
She stirred in her sleep, opening her eyes slightly. Was it just a dream, or did she just hear something downstairs? It sounded like somepony was moving about down there, walking around in the library.
She rolled over in her sleep. Probably Spike getting a midnight snack. She gazed out her window, up at the gentle glow of the moonlight. Clearly, Luna was doing her job well. She had graced the land with a beautiful full-moon tonight.
Twilight then froze as a shadow crossed her window. Just for the briefest of moments, but definitely something. Something passed by her window, blocking out the light of the moon for a brief moment. From the shape of the silhouette, it appeared to be the head of a pony passing by.
She lay still, petrified with shock for a moment, before relaxing. It was probably just somepony out for a moonlit stroll, who just passed her window. Shrugging, she rolled over again, closing her eyes again.
Her eyes snapped open, however, as realisation flooded over her like a bucket of icy water. Her bedroom was in the top of the tree, about 10 metres above the ground.
A very groggy Twilight lumbered down the stairs to the kitchen the next morning. After the incident with that strange shadow, she had lay awake from fear all night.
The sight that greeted her arrival downstairs did little to raise her spirits.
Books lay stacked all over the library floor, whole shelves emptied onto the floor. chairs were toppled, inkpots were spilled, once-neatly stacked scrolls lay scattered everywhere.
No question about it. Somepony had been in here last night.