Star Swirl rolled around in his bed unable to fall asleep easily enough that night, and when he later woke up in a very cold sweat he knew why.
“Oh hell no,” he said, “This can’t be happening, I know that it shouldn’t be, but it is, this is not good, this is so not good, this is very bad indeed.”
And with that said he put on his cloak and went over to Twilight’s castle and knocked very loudly on the door, “PRINCESS, WAKE UP, PLEASE!”
“What is it Star Swirl?” Twilight asked with a yawn as she opened the door quite some time later, “And what time is it anyways exactly?”
“Nighttime or very early morning, but it doesn’t matter, something very bad is going to happen very soon and I have a very bad feeling about it.
I sense it in the air, I feel it in the dirt, I taste it in the water.”
“Is that some kind of famous quote?” she said yawning some more.
“Yes, sorry, wrong movie references, but anyhow this still doesn’t change the fact that something very bad will happen very soon, and I only know that because I can tell and predict the future, and I have never been wrong once ever before, and I won’t this time either sadly enough. So you and your friends must prepare for war, for the first battle and fight will come very soon to us.
So prepare yourselves, for Winter is coming to us very soon.”
“What do you mean by that?” Twilight said.
“Whatever will happen, the bad thing, it starts and begins tonight, but it will end in three weeks on the Eve of the Winter Solstice.”
“Well I don’t see anything bad happening out there,” she said looking outside, “So maybe perhaps you’re a bit off on your timing instead?”
“Maybe, but I’m not ever wrong, in fact it should happen in three, two, one…”
And with that said suddenly a black beam of light stretched up into the sky and even from this distance they both knew it must have been very large and wide for them to see since it was emanating from the Crystal Empire.
“Where is that coming from?” Twilight said.
“The Crystal Empire, it has finally been taken over by Nightmare Shadow,” he said, “And that must have been his plan all along, take over the Empire and spread fear and darkness and shadow and hate over the whole entire land, I just wish that I could have seen this sooner, but he hid his thoughts very well from me,
I just hope that I can make up for the lost time now.”
And with that said they both stared at the sky beam in silence.
“You better go wake up your friends so I can explain to them the serious nature of this situation,” he said, “And so that they may be ready for what will come.”
“Why can’t we wait until morning?” she said with a yawn.
“I suppose so, but we’ll only be wasting more precious time then,” he said.
“Well I want to know what’s going on here exactly,” she said.
“And I don’t want to repeat myself so I just guess that we’ll have to wait until morning so that we can gather every pony around now, won’t we?”
“I suppose that we will,” she said, and with that they separated apart and away from each other with silence as Star Swirl went to write a letter to the princesses to try to explain to them what was happening exactly.
Morning came very soon and soon enough all of Ponyville saw the black sky beam and looked at it with some slight fear and confusion.
“What is that exactly?” they all said as they gazed upwards at it.
“Oh, that’s just our doom,” Star Swirl would say if he met them.
“It’s really nothing,” Twilight would lie to them.
“Oh it’s really something,” he would say.
“Stop scaring them,” she would say then.
“They need to be scared, they need to be ready and afraid, it just might save them from their own doom, danger, and peril,” he would say.
“You don’t have to be so blunt, cold, or cruel about it,” she said.
“Forgive me if my manners seem that way, but they need to hear the truth even if it hurts them a lot,” he said, “Pain of the truth is only temporary after all.”
And with that said they continued onwards to the town square where they could talk to all the ponies and citizens at one time.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” the mayor said, “I’m having a very hard time trying to answer their questions and control their action too.”
“Don’t worry mayor, everything is fine,” Twilight said.
“Actually everything is not fine despite what you may think or have heard,” Star Swirl said to both her and the whole entire crowd using a spell to amplify his voice, “That sky beam out there shows the sign of our certain doom, but don’t worry, Twilight Sparkle and her friends and me are on it to stop it.”
“What’s going to happen so us?” some pony asked.
“Nothing if we can stop it, your life will continue on just like normal and whatever regular things and stuff that you do, but if we fail to stop it however,” he said with a slight pause after the last word, “Then all your worst nightmares and dreams will come true and be a living real reality, and darkness and shadow and hatred and cruelty and pain and despair and woe and pain will spread across the whole entire land, and all
will not be good or well.”
And with that said the ponies started to panic and shout very loudly.
“Don’t panic or worry every pony,” both Twilight and Star Swirl said together, “Everything will be just fine and well, we will be able to fix this.”
The crowd stopped running around and shouting and then took a very deep heavy sigh, “But we will need to talk in private,” Star Swirl said to Twilight and her friends but directed his response at them and the
crowd too.
And with that said Star Swirl gestured for them all to go the castle.
“Oh, I think he’s trying to tell us something through a game!” Pinkie Pie said, “I love games, let me try, he’s saying to go to the castle so we can talk.”
He blinked in some surprise and shock, “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, how ever did you guess that?” he said.
“It’s just a hunch,” she said bouncing off to the castle.
And with that said they went off to the castle to talk.
“So what is it that you want to tell us exactly?” Twilight said.
“Wait,” he said, “One guest or visitor has not yet arrived still.”
“And who would that be?” Twilight said.
“Well Celestia of course,” he said, “But I have no idea what is taking her so long, she should be here by now unless I am wrong or she is delayed perhaps instead, but I think that we should be hearing a knock right about… now.”
And with that said a knock came at the door and they opened it to see that Princess Celestia was standing there, “Sorry that I am late Star Swirl,” she said entering the room, “But I was delayed in getting here, so please excuse me.”
“You are forgiven princess,” Star Swirl said, “But now that we all are here and gathered together I can finally tell you what is going on exactly.”
“Yes, please do tell us what is up with that dreadful beam of black in the sky, it’s really making the mood and theme and atmosphere go down over here,” Rarity said trying to find a good way and position that she could faint.