She found the front door open. Actually, she found a burnt hole where a lock had previously been, so it was difficult to say whether the door was supposed to be locked or not. There was nopony in the reading room, that much she knew, but there was evidence of ponies having recently been there. She listened carefully for sounds of movement. Twilight and Pinkie could be sleeping, after all. Likewise they could be doing things Rarity would rather not interrupt. Silence persisted, however.

“Pinkie? Twilight? It’s Rarity, darlings. Something seems to be wrong with your lock. It’s…” Her eyes picked up a bit of metal slag gleaming on the doorstep. “It seems to have melted? Is everything all right?”

Nopony answered, lending credence to the theory of her friends still being asleep. She crept up the stairs, wanting to at least ensure that they were in fact sleeping before she left. While she couldn’t imagine much of anything or anypony that could pose a threat to Twilight or Pinkie, much less both at once, it would settle her mind and allow her to go shopping without worrying about them. She could always come back later.

Upon entering Twilight’s bedroom and reaching the top of the stairs leading to her friend’s loft, she was treated to a sight the likes of which she’d never expected: Her friends were sleeping, as she’d supposed. But they were nestled together up against the side of a much larger pony that she didn’t immediately recognize: a pony who was eyeing her curiously as she approached. The first feature that caught her eyes was the lustrous pink mane that seemed to glow like the first rays of dawn. The next was the huge white wing casually covering her friends like a blanket—

A brief flick of her eyes to the long horn confirmed what her brain had been screaming at her for the last few seconds. Emergency signals were sent to the legs and she immediately dove to the ground in deference.