"Sleep Troubles"

In Celestia's throne room in Canterlot castle, a fierce discussion was ongoing. Celestia sat in her throne, trying to make sense of the situation, and Luna was pacing the red carpet portion of the floor in front of the throne, talking all the while.

“Luna, dreams are your specialty,” Celestia reminds her sister, “If even you are having trouble with your dreams, then I think we have a serious problem on our hooves.”

“Nevermind my dreams,” Luna dismissively states, as if to wave off the notion of an issue in her own dreaming patterns, “What about Equestria's, and beyond for that matter?

Dreams of a republic long gone and visions of an empire's rise to power are unsettling to just about anyone who has not picked up a history book in a decade or so. This is our current problem.”

“Well, the history books do fail to mention that there were many more alicorns until the fall of the Republic of Poni,” Celestia points out, “The question of where do alicorns come from would appear much more often in newspaper articles.”

“It is a fair question though,” Luna muttered, her pacing actually creating a slight groove in the floor, “But every time I try to banish those dreams of conflict and horror, I keep getting confronted by Nightmare Moon.”

“And you seem to be having trouble defeating her for some reason,” Celestia filled in with a concerned look, “Every time you try to banish or destroy her, she just keeps coming back.”

“Worse!” Luna cried out in frustration, “Every time I try, I keep thinking of our refugee time in the Crystal Empire. It is near driving me mad!”

Celestia blinked, as if a breakthrough had arrived. “Well now we're getting somewhere,” Celestia announced as she rose from her throne, “This is not about the Republic or the Empire at all, it's all about that time is it not?”

“Maybe,” Luna confessed, stopping her pacing to face her sister, “Sombra's nightmare might be the problem.”

“Well then, if that is what this is about, then I have a proposal,” Celestia offered with a friendly smile, “Twilight and Cadence will be here any minute to learn more about some of our history; since they are alicorns, it would make sense to catch them up on some of these things, especially Cadence.”

“That would probably bore them,” Luna pointed out, “Twilight Sparkle especially has already read more history books in her lifetime than most ponies do in a generation, I doubt much of this will be new to her.”

“Well, most of the modern history books are written from my perspective,” Celestia pointed out, “Not to mention the fact that many of them are censored."

“But a lecture on our history is supposed to help?” Luna pressed, still skeptical of the effectiveness of this plan, “All they would have to do is go to sleep for that.”

“Luna, we just need to explore this history in the dreamscape,” Celestia finally explained with a hint of impatience, “While you were gone I sometimes had some unsolved things to deal with in the past.

The best way to get through them is to tread through it. Twilight, even with her knowledge of history, is still going to need a level of premise before jumping to the crux of the problem.”

“And Cadence?” Luna asked, “What will she be doing during all of this?”

“I and Cadence will explore some of my history,” Celestia continued, “I do not need to go as far though. Since the Crystal Empire seems to hold some part of the problem, then I will personally head over there and investigate the matter in the morning.”

“But what if something happens while you are gone?” Luna asked with a worried expression, “Not to mention how much easier it would have been to keep Cadence in the Empire and have her investigate it with Shining Armor.”

“Well, Cadence and Twilight, as I said are on their way here,” Celestia pointed out while looking towards the large double doors briefly, “I was going to lecture them, but then you came in and I realized that I would need to shift the schedule a little bit.”

Stepping down the steps leading up to the throne room, Celestia stooped just slightly to nuzzle Luna as she made her way towards the door, “And do not worry about anything going wrong, I am sure you can handle it while I am gone. If not, then just call Discord.”

Luna appeared aghast by the suggestion, and as she trotted behind her sister, she had intended on making it known when the door swung open. As if on cue, Twilight and Cadence walked through, the guards promptly closing the door shut behind them.

“Hey Aunt Celestia!” Cadence greeted first, “If I didn't know any better, I would say you heard us coming.”

“Good thing you don't know any better,” Celestia jested with a smile, “Now then, how was the train ride over here?”

“I got sized up by some griffins, but other than that, it was fine,” Cadence answered.

“Why did you two even go by train?” Luna inquired, deciding to let her Discord related question go to rest for now.

“Old habits die hard Princess,” Twilight admitted sheepishly, “And besides, we had a lot of catching up to do. A chariot ride would have been too quick.”

“Right,” Luna replied half-heartedly, perhaps as a self-acknowledgement that she had yet to be personally greeted by either of the two, “And I suppose asking the guards to slow down would have been too much?”

“Luna, if they wanted to take the train, then it is fine with me,” Celestia cut in, not liking where the conversation was headed, “Sometimes it is good to travel among the patrons.”

Luna suppressed sneering as she revealed, “Yes, but I hear you only rode the train once after its invention. I wonder why.” A brief glance at Celestia's horn seemed to answer the question, though Celestia waved it off with a few flaps of her wings.

“Yes well, we all have our preferences. Come, we have much to discuss!” Celestia invited as she turned back towards the thrones on the far end, “After all, this is not much of a casual visit than a business trip.”

“Of course!” Twilight happily complied while running through an imaginary checklist, “First we go over the mythical founding of the Republic, then its shift to an Empire, its fall and then the founding of Equestria, then Discord...”

“Easy now, we are going to do some slight deviating from that,” Luna interrupted as she lead the other two alicorns down the impressive hallway, “I doubt that we will get to the time of Discord, much less the founding of Equestria.”

“A focus on pre-classic history then?” Cadence filled, “It should be nice getting a fresh perspective.”

The stain glass windows practically spoke for themselves as a historical record, as they depicted many of the achievements that Equestria had gone through since its founding; a plethora of recent ones balanced out the previously archaic depictions. The moon just hardly shone through them onto the group, casting an almost eerie light upon them as they walked.

“We shall be taking a trip through the dreamscape,” Celestia announced, wings outstretched, “We will split off into pairs; I with Cadence, and Luna with Twilight.”

“Seems like an odd way to divide us up, but I am sure you have your reasons,” Cadence voiced with just a hint of concern, “I thought the dreamscape was Luna's specialty though?”

“It is,” Luna answered as she began flapping her wings to get airborne, “I will put us to all to sleep. Celestia and Cadence should wake up shortly before the time for sunrise.”

As Luna flew above them, she seemed to sprinkle sparkling powder down upon the three below. Cadence sneezed, Twilight blinked rapidly, and Celestia stifled a laugh at her student's reaction to the sleeping powder.

Twilight and Cadence hit the floor with a thud, which Celestia frowned at as she yawned. “I don't think they realized how potent this stuff is,” Celestia said with a long yawn, herself beginning to lay down, “In hindsight, I might should have brought some cushions for the occasion.”

Soon her eyes fluttered before she too fell asleep, and Luna finally landed in an unclaimed spot, thinking for a moment. She would then shrug off the thought before herself heading off to sleep, ready to begin treading through history.