A light beam illuminated the dark room. It pierced the shadows like a sword, revealing long, empty space. Light mist covered the cold stone floor. The tall metal door opened with a cracking sound. In front of the entrance, silently stood two big ponies, one was colored in dark blue, the other was sparkly white. Both of them had long wings and horns, thus earning the species name alicorns, one of the most powerful ponies to walk on Equestria. The older one wore a golden crown with a purple gem in the center and the other had a black crown, which perfectly matched her fur color. Both looked magnificent and mighty as they should be cause the fate of the pony kingdom was in their hooves.

The white alicorn first entered in the big room, followed by the blue one. It was quite cold and humid in there, not an ideal place to have a good time.

"What is this place, dear sister?" the younger one asked with her traditional royal voice. She carefully looked inside, trying to make up the shadowed images on the walls.

"This is the Hall of Prophecies. We are deep underground, below the castle." the older alicorn determinedly walked forward. Her view was aimed somewhere in the center of the right wall. Her horn lighted the path in front of them like a beacon in a storm.

"Hall of Prophecies? So those pictures on the walls are..."

"Events, that might happen. The images, you see now, may change the next day depending on the variations in our timeline." the white unicorn stopped and slowly turned to her sister. Her extremely long, rainbow colored mane covered half of her face. She looked very serious and her pink eye stared deeply into her sister's. "Luna, what you are about to see or hear must never leave this place. You'll have to promise me!"  

"Of course, sis. What is this all about?" Luna asked with a bit frighten voice.

"This image here shows a possible future, which is very near our present day. A future, where Equestria is no more and noting but ashes remain from our kingdom. I'll need you to look at it and tell me what you see."

"Is this somehow related to Twilight Sparkle?" Luna looked at Celestia with worried eyes.

"No, but her destiny is tied with this possible future. Please look at the vision."

Luna turned her view to the blurry black image and gazed for a few a minutes. She couldn't understand what she was suppose to see by the mess in front of her, which didn't resemble anything at all. Somehow the picture turned into a colorful mash, which made it even more confusing to look at.

Celestia grew a little impatient.

"Well? Do you see anything familiar?" her eye, which was not covered by her long colorful mane, looked seriously at Luna.

"Sis, I do not understand what I'm seeing. This is just a messy paint with a lot of different colors. Am I the one at fault here?" the blue alicorn excused with perplexed voice.

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed.

"Luna, you need to get rid of any emotions and clear your mind to see through the barrier. Please, try again!" her voice sounded more persistent but still holding a note of kindness.

The smaller pony gazed at it again, but this time she tried to be as much emotionless as possible. Her entire being aimed at one goal: to pass through the block and discover what actually was lying on the other side. Her eyes concentrated on one point in the colorful little havoc, that was the image on the dark wall.

Suddenly the image flashed in purple light, which absorbed the entire world around her. Celestia and the shadowy room disappeared in an instant. Electric arrows moved with lightning speeds around her. Then, out of the sudden, the purple was replaced by the full color spectrum, in which pink and cyan were dominant. The bright light in front of Luna grew bigger and bigger but she kept staring with the eyes of an eagle. The princess could feel that she was close to break through and Luna gave everything from herself.

The super light vanished and on its place now stood the big messy image. The strange picture acquired clearer lines. The colors magically arranged, creating a very detailed picture of the future, which came like a thunder from a clear sky in the hearth of the princess of the night. Luna felt deep sorrow, which led to the closing of the vision. In a sudden, everything turned to normal and she again was in the gloomy hall.

Luna barely could held herself not to cry out of grief, which took her entire body. Celestia expected such a reaction from her younger sister. The white princess almost cried too, when she saw the horrifying images of the grim future. Celestia walked closer to the blue alicorn, who immediately laid her head on her bigger sister's shoulder. Luna was breathing uncontrollably.

Celestia could feel her pain as if it was her own and tried to calm her:

"My little sister, I'm sorry..." she said honestly.

"I saw only death. I and You, no... our bodies were hanging on the wall like wild animals. Motionless, we were like everypony else in the vision. As if we were all frozen in time, lifeless and there were bodies, which were burning in dark flames. All of Equestia burned with black flames and nothing remained." Luna sounded scared to her horn. No longer could she hold her tears, which started falling from her cheeks.

"I know, I've seen it too. Don't cry little sis! We will make sure this future never happens." Celestia's calm voice helped Luna regain little of her inner strength. The dark blue alicorn looked up to her sister. Their eyes met on same plane. Celestia's were confident and warming, which made Luna feel bit better.

She blinked a few times to wash the tears from her cyan eyes and asked:

"How are we going to stop this?"        

Celestia smiled.

"I know it will sound ridiculous but we will not interfere in any way." she said calmly.

Luna couldn't believe what she heard.

"What are you saying, dear sister?"

"There's a prophecy, in which a pegasus will prevent the rise of chaos but for a great prize. However, we must not take part in fending this future or he may fail in fulfilling his destiny."

"Do you know, who it is? Is the pony born yet?". Luna backed away a little bit, as if she was preparing to fly.

Celestia blinked and looked away but then again turned her sight to Luna.

"Yes, I know, who it is. His name is Lucky Eight and he just began his journey. Luna, I've heard that you've started visiting ponies' dreams again. I must ask you not to enter the pegasus's nightmares or dreams. He must be left alone and deal with his problems by himself. You may not understand it at the moment but it is how the prophecy said it needed to be."

Luna was unsure in what she was asked not to do. Helping ponies with their real life problems in their dreams, was something she did with joy. However, Celestia sounded pretty serious, so the night princess nodded positively, saying that she understood.

"And one more thing before we go: did you felt something familiar, when you looked at the vision?" Celestia asked.

"Nay. Why are you asking?" Luna looked curiously at her bigger sister.

"I thought... Never mind. Let us go to the Castle now or will be late for our statement about the recent events." Celestia said and then started walking to the room's exit. Luna obediently followed her, though she was not looking happy at all. Her thoughts were consumed by the horrifying images of the future.

"Smile. Our subjects must get the impression that everything is alright." Celestia said, while the two were leaving the Hall of Prophecies.

"How can I smile, when our hereafter is not certain? After what I've seen..."

"Don't worry, my little sis. Equestria will prevail anything that threats to destroy our beloved world." Celestia sounded calm, though Luna didn't believe in her confidence and rightfully so, cause even Celestia had her small doubts and fears of what was going to happen. It was beyond their control and that was a thing, which scared her the most. However, she masked it carefully, so that she could appear strong and ready for everything.  

Celestia used her horn's magic and slowly closed the big door, sealing this magical place, so that no pony could enter. After that their steps sounded in the stone stairway, which led to the Castle's basement. Soon the place was again empty of life and only the shadows reign supreme in the internal darkness.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Crossed Blades Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 48 Minutes