When they entered the dining hall, both of them were shocked to find that they weren't alone in there. Another pony had taken a place at the table, and was in the process of consuming some small victuals that sat in front of her. Celestia gave a rather annoyed look at this, considering breakfast had been but a couple of hours prior, but then broke into a smile. She just couldn't stay angry at this pony. It was her sister, Princess Luna.
"What a wonderful surprise to see you awake at this hour!" She exclaimed happily as she ran up and gave her sister a hug. Luna returned it in full and smiled back, "well, seeing as I was unable to sleep, what with the guards running amok in the palace looking for somepony, I thought I would come in here and try and use my stomach to give my brain a hint, as it were."
Both of the royal sisters chuckled at this quip, but then quickly returned to seriousness. "I have some…disturbing news," Celestia said.
"Really? Whatever could it be?"
"Well, before I tell you, I need to know something about your nightly endeavors. You guard the dreams of zebras as well as ponies, right?"
Luna shook her head. "My magic only works within the dream realm of ponies. See, there are multiple dream realms that are each protected by their own special guardian. I am but one of many who have been given this magical gift. Even though zebras and ponies are closely related, their magic works on a different plane from ours. So, no, I do not guard the dreams of zebras."
"But, Princess Luna," Starlight put in, "I thought you were responsible for guarding the dreams of all creatures."
"That's what most of Equestria believes," Luna said with a sigh, "but no matter how much I try and make those books about me accurate, they still look on me as some sort-of goddess with powers to travel through the dreams of anyone."
Starlight was taken aback with just how hurt Luna looked at this prospect. She realized that the princess must have been upset at how inaccurately she was portrayed in the widespread printed word. She got up every day, knowing that those books and the image that they had helped create was what she had to live up to. She also knew that she could never live up to that image, because her magical boundaries wouldn't allow her to.
But, they had more pressing matters to attend to. So Starlight told Luna all about Zecora's dark prophecy and asked her what it could mean for Equestria. The Princess of the Night's mouth fell open at the words and she looked incredibly alarmed. Her mane even stopped flowing for a moment. She opened her wings wide, and Starlight thought she was about to fly into absolute hysterics.
Suddenly, she lifted off the ground and, with a mighty "WHOOSH," she flew out of the room. Celestia and Starlight followed in hot pursuit. Celestia unfurled her wings and flew ahead of Starlight, while the former dictator tried to keep up. They turned multiple corners, and Starlight even knocked over a suit of armor, before they reached their destination. Luna lighted back on the ground, and her sister sat beside her. Starlight came flying around the corner and skidded to a halt, panting as she did.
Luna looked back. "I'm sorry for the rush, but this is intensely important."
"No worries, Your Majesty," Starlight managed to spit out as she gasped for air. She hadn't realized just how quickly the royal sisters could fly. Then she remembered reading something about how their top speed had once been clocked at 300 miles per hour. Must be the magic inside them that helps them fly so quickly, she thought.
She didn't have time to ask about it, because Luna magically opened the double doors in front of them and they marched into the room. Starlight looked around in awe. It was a library, and there must have been thousands of books on the shelves. It was five times as big as Twilight's library back in Ponyville. Wow…and I thought Twilight loved to read, she thought as she looked around.
There were books on every subject a pony could think of. There were books on Equestrian history, books on magic and its properties, books on medicine, and even cookbooks and a guide on how to keep a castle clean. She noticed with a small smile that there was even a psychological book of advice called Sisters: A Guide to Love, Life, and Survival.
She followed the princesses as they led her through the stacks. "This is my own personal library," Luna explained, "I don't normally let anypony in here, not even Celestia." Starlight stopped short. Why on Earth wouldn't Celestia be allowed in here? "Princess Luna?" She began. Luna turned and smiled, "yes, Starlight?"
"Um…uh…never mind."
"Oh…OK," Luna said as they kept walking. Starlight thought about asking the obvious question, but decided not to. Luna must have had a perfectly good reason for not allowing even Celestia to come in to her personal library. Maybe there were some books in there about things that Luna didn't want her sister to see. Maybe Luna had a secret diary of some sort and she didn't want Celestia invading her privacy.
Starlight didn't have time to ponder this any longer for she suddenly found herself standing in front of a certain bookshelf. Luna magically pulled a book out. It was the most recent edition of Prophecies and Predictions. It had a bookmark stuck inside one of the pages and Luna flipped it open to that location. She pointed with a hoof to a picture of a small foal ushering in a regime of hatred and despair in all Equestria.
"In my opinion, this is what Zecora has been dreaming about," Luna said, "though I have not been able to see her dreams, I can paint a pretty good picture of what this all is. This prophecy was first handed down over 1,000 years ago. In fact, it was the great pony prophet Seeing Eye who first spoke of this.
I remember it quite well. My sister and I were on the verge of breaking apart. There were great lengths of time when we did not speak with each other, and it was tearing the life out of both of us. So we brought in Seeing Eye, who was not only a well-known prophetic pony, but also somepony who delighted in helping ponies mend broken friendships.
He arrived and looked at both of us. We shrank away, from him and from each other. I'll never forget the angry looks we gave." Here she stopped and looked up at her sister. Celestia blushed heavily, as did Luna, and neither one of them looked comfortable. The painful memories were almost too much to bear. But they both quickly returned to reality and Luna continued:
"Anyway, he helped us for a time and acted as our therapist. But one day, he arrived with a dark look in his eyes. He said that he had dreams about a dangerous foal who would bring death and destruction to our home. We knew that whenever he said something about the future, he was very rarely wrong, so we took it seriously. We barricaded ourselves in our castle in the Everfree Forest. We gave orders for Canterlot and the surrounding towns to be evacuated. We proclaimed that every foal born had to be looked over and checked for any signs of matching the description that Seeing Eye gave.
But no foal ever matched it and we thought that we had been alarmed over nothing. So we rescinded all our orders and life went on as usual…until today, that is." She finished and once again pointed to the picture in the book. She read from the accompanying passage:
"The sky shall become dark, flames shall rain down, and ice and water shall pour forth over all Equestria. There shall be great rumblings of the Earth, and the four volcanoes from the four corners of the land shall spew forth their magmatic innards. There shall be violence and chaos. There shall be sickness and great hordes of insects shall fly over the land. Ponies shall die, until there is nothing of Equestria left. Finally, the two royal sisters…shall be killed, and blood shall stain the hooves of the young one who hath brought this destruction upon us all. Woe to Equestria, for she hath not heeded the warning of Seeing Eye."
Luna finished as tears rolled down her face. Celestia was crying as well, and even Starlight shed a tear as she realized that the happy home she had come to love was going to be destroyed. Worst of all, there wasn't anything anypony could do about it. Midnight Sun was going to be the object of Equestria's downfall, and they were completely powerless to stop it.
