Twilight Sparkle cowered under the harsh gaze of her mentor and matriarch, Princess Celestia. The alicorn's lips curled into a cruel sneer, and her eyes portrayed absolute disgust and resentment.
"Please, Princess Celestia! Give me another chance," Twilight begged. Her voice sounded to her ears as feeble as she felt.
"No, Twilight Sparkle," Princess Celestia boomed. "You failed this test so utterly, so wholly, that you don't deserve to get another chance." The princess's size increased substantially so that she towered over Twilight. She bent her head down to scrutinize her with an eye as big as the lavender pony herself. "I cannot stand to look at you anymore. You disgust me!" The massive princess reared her head back and she turned her nose up. "Guards! Take her away!"
Just then, two pairs of hooves roughly took her by her elbows. She looked to those apprehending her to see that they were actually her brother, Shining Armor, and her sister-in-law, Princess Cadance.
"I can't believe I wasted my years foalsitting a complete failure," Princess Cadance remarked, resentment in her voice.
"I have no sister," Shining Armor growled darkly.
"No! Please, no! I'm sorry," Twilight cried out in anguish as she was dragged away. She tried to break free, but the more she struggled, the more her captors warped into grotesque figures. She felt her chest constrict in fear as the horrifying shapes turned their mangled heads to look at her with sickly-yellow eyes. Their mouths parted, and they snarled at her. The sound coming from the mutated Shining Armor was at first muffled by a bubble of decay and bile. The bubble popped, splattering a burning ooze across her cheek, while at the same time allowing his feral snarl to be heard more clearly. They turned their melting bodies to fully face her, and their maws, lined with thousands of needle-like teeth, filled her vision.
"Twilight Sparkle, wake up," called a faintly familiar voice. Despite her tormentors' close proximity to her, there was a sliver of space between them through which Twilight could see a familiar alicorn galloping towards the scene. Wicked-looking, black stalagmites shot out from the marble flooring, nearly impaling the would-be savior as they trapped her in a crude, teepee-shaped cage. Seemingly unperturbed, she never broke eye contact with the unicorn. "You have to wake up," Princess Luna insisted.
Everything warped and distorted around her, and then all went black.
Twilight Sparkle shot upright in her bed with a piercing scream. She looked around herself frantically. Despite being in the library where she lived, she couldn't recognize her surroundings. It was still night, and moonlight was casting sinister and looming shadows across her walls and floor. That, combined with the roaring of her blood in her ears, and the sheer panic caused by her nightmare, made her feel as though more of the monsters like the ones from her dream were converging upon her.
Despite her age, Twilight Sparkle wanted to throw her covers over her head and hide from the shadows like she did when she was naught but a young filly. Her fear gripped her heart in a cold vice, however, and left her paralyzed. A movement amongst the creatures in the shadows drew her attention, and her fear gripped her chest further, constricting her breathing. The smaller monster made its way onto the foot of her bed, its low barks barely audible through the roaring of her blood, and quickly approached her. It lifted its claws, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her.
Twilight blinked, jarred from the sudden movement. Just like that, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Spike was staring at her in place of the shadowy monster, worry clear on his features. The shadows lifted, showing them for what they actually were. She took a deep breath, gulping in desperately needed oxygen, her body trying to make up for the moments where she stopped breathing.
"Twilight," Spike shouted, and the lavender pony realized he must have been calling her name for a while now. Without warning, she threw her hooves around the baby dragon and pulled him into a hug. She nuzzled into his neck and immediately broke down into tears. He returned the hug, stroking her mane comfortingly.
"They keep getting worse," Twilight Sparkle managed between sobs.
Spike was heartbroken. Twilight Sparkle had been suffering from chronic nightmares for the past week. Every night, the pony who had raised him since the day she helped him hatch relived her worst fear of disappointing Princess Celestia and ultimately falling out of her favor. Not only were the nightmares becoming increasingly traumatizing for her, she was also losing a lot of sleep. It was affecting her performance during the day. She couldn't focus, and often found herself in alarming situations that her friends, acquaintances, or even complete strangers had to help her out of!
Spike wanted so much to help the pony sobbing into his scaly shoulder. He wanted to make everything okay. He wished he knew what was wrong, so he could tell her a solution and make all of the nightmares stop. The truth of the matter, however, is that he doesn't know what's wrong, and he simply didn't know what to do! He expressed his frustrating situation to Twilight Sparkle, and bemoaned his failure.
"No, Spike," she said in response to his self-deprecation. "It's not your fault. It seems nopony in Ponyville knows what to do..." At that moment, an idea struck her. If nopony in Ponyville knew, then what about somepony outside of Ponyville?!
"Spike, I got an idea," she said excitedly, holding him at leg's length and looked at him excitedly, if a bit deranged. To be fair, who wouldn't look deranged at this point? The lavender pony scrambled out of bed and headed straight for the stairs, nearly falling when her hoof snagged on her blanket.
"W-Wait! Should I come with you," Spike called after her.
Twilight stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "You can go back to sleep," she called back to him, resuming her trot towards the door. She opened it, called out to him, "I'll be fine," and left.
Despite her words, Spike had his doubts. After all, Twilight Sparkle is meticulous, and she didn't even think to make her bed up.
"I don't think she's fine," he sighed dejectedly.
Twilight Sparkle was not fine. She was the complete opposite of fine. She had no idea how, even in her sleep-deprived mind, she thought going to the Everfree Forest in the middle of the night was a good idea! About halfway to her destination, she heard howling in the distance. As she galloped, she thought about how reminiscent the howling was to a pack of timber wolves. Then her body nearly seized and her legs buckled when she realized how absolutely stupid she was being! She entertained the thought of going back, but by this point she was over halfway there, and she figured she might as well soldier on. Crawling. On her belly. Like a frightened... well, anything, really.
She heard a twig snap nearby, and she froze. Her eyes turned to the direction the sound came from, and her breathing hitched in her throat at the sight of a silhouette just beyond some nearby bushes. The soft sound caught the mysterious being's attention, and Twilight Sparkle lost control of her bladder, urine forming a puddle on the ground between her back hooves.
The shadow lifted its nose, and she could hear the distinctive sound of sniffing. She cursed her luck. The smell of urine was strong, of course it would catch the predator's attention! Who said you couldn't die from humiliation...?
The shadowy form stepped out of the bushes and into the moonlight. Twilight Sparkle was almost overcome with relief when she saw it was only Zacora.
"Twilight Sparkle, why have you come here in the middle of the night? Even during the day, the forest is a fright."
"I've been having nightmares over the past week, Zacora" Twilight croaked, still prone on the ground. "I was desperate for a remedy."
"Now that you mention it, anybody could tell. You simply do not look well," the zebra observed, concern evident on her features. She approached the lavender unicorn, and Twilight Sparkle hid her face with her front hooves to hide her embarrassment when the zebra had a strange look flash across her face.
"You scared me. I thought you were a predator," she explained, her croaky voice muffled by her hooves.
Zacora rested her hoof in the middle of the unicorn's back and stroked along her spine reassuringly. "No need to treat this act embarrassedly. Things like that happen to the best of us. Trust me."
"Thank you, Zacora."
The tribal-esque zebra turned towards the direction of where she lived. "If you will follow me, I'll guide you to my hut. I believe I may have a remedy." She looked back at Twilight Sparkle, and saw the hopeless skepticism on her features. "I can feel it in my gut," she finished, slightly amused.
The zebra moved forward. Twilight watched after her for a few heartbeats before straightening her legs and following her, speeding up to catch up to her.
"Do you really have a remedy," Twilight asked, reserved hope apparent in her voice.
The zebra sighed. "Indeed, I do, but it'll only help for one night. After, you'll need to seek a more permanent solution in the sun's light."
Twilight's ears drooped miserably. That wasn't something she wanted to hear. Still...
"At least I'll get one good night's sleep," she murmured, though she wasn't particularly excited.
Zacora looked at her over her shoulder. "You may sleep in my hut for as long as you need." She returned to watching the trail before her. "Letting you wander the forest at night would be an unforgivable deed."
Despite herself, Twilight smiled warmly at the eccentric zebra. "Thank you, Zacora," she genuinely said. "You're a true friend."
True to Zacora's intricately rhymed word, the potion given to Twilight allowed her to sleep a dreamless sleep, unplagued by nightmares. Finally, for the first time in a week, she was well-rested. This provided little comfort to her, however, since according to Zacora, it was temporary, and she needed to find a more permanent solution herself. Therein lies the problem, though: while she had a clear head to search for other venues, there simply weren't any!
Twilight emerged from the treeline of the Everfree Forest onto Fluttershy's property, her head bowed and her tail dragging in the dust behind her, clearly depressed. There, Applejack was animatedly and irritably speaking to the shy yellow pegasus, who looked slightly miffed, in her own little way. As the unicorn approached, she could begin to hear their conversation.
"-- li'l rodents floodin' 'em! This is twahs now they done it, and Ah'm gettin' right sick of it!"
"Well, like I told you last time, you can't threaten them. If you treat the beavers--" Fluttershy cut herself off when she noticed Twilight passing by them.
"Howdy, Twi'," Applejack called to the purple unicorn. "Thar ya are! Why were ya in the Everfree Forest?"
Twilight turned her head towards her two friends, though she didn't lift it to look at them. "Hey Applejack, hey Fluttershy," she monotoned miserably. "I went to Zacora hoping for a nightmare remedy."
"Oh, I'm so sorry that's still bothering you, Twilight," Fluttershy lamented in her usual quiet demeanor. "She didn't have anything?"
"No, she did," she said sadly. "But it was only temporary. I gotta look for a more permanent solution before tonight, but there's just nothing else I can do!"
"Oh, I know," Pinkie Pie shouted, suddenly and excitedly popping halfway out of Fluttershy's mailbox, startling her three friends. "Here's your mail, Fluttershy," she added, hoofing her shy friend her letters.
Twilight groaned. "I already asked you, Pinkie."
The pink Earth Pony pulled the lower half of her body out of the mailbox and landed in a scorpion position on the ground. She hopped up onto her hooves and began hopping around her distraught friend in a Pepé Le Pew-like manner. "Yeah, but you didn't ask me later. So much can change in a week!"
Twilight, who was somewhat watching her friend's manic and hyperactive movements, cocked her head to the side and rolled her eyes. "Okay, Pinkie," she begrudgingly relented. "What's changed?"
Pinkie Pie stopped in front of her friend and showed her lack of regard for anypony's personal space by pressing her face close to her's. "A sleep expert moved to town!"
"What," all three of the pink pony's friends exclaimed.
"I SAID, "A SLEEP EXPERT MOVED TO TOWN!"," she shouted, making her friends wince.
"Why didn't you tell me this sooner, Pinkie Pie," Twilight Sparkle asked irritably.
"Well, you never brought it up to me since you asked, so I figured you had it under control," she replied, lifting her front hooves in a shrugging motion. She began bouncing around her sleep-troubled friend again. "Her name's Slumber, and she's a unicorn, like you and Rarity, and she's really special because she has two cutie marks, and when she first moved to town, I wanted to throw her one of my famous Pinkie Pie Parties, and while she was really polite and appreciated my gesture, it became apparent that she'd rather have a Slumber Party, but she still had a really fun time, and she told me it was the most fun she ever had outside of her job, and--"
Twilight Sparkle cut Pinkie Pie off from her long-winded tirade by demonstrating an equal lack of concern for personal space as Pinkie Pie by getting in her face. "Where is she," she demanded desperately.
"She's at the Slumber Lab!"
Twilight reared her head back, a look of confusion on her face. "That sounds like a name for a mattress store."
"That's what everypony says, but she actually does studies on dreams and sleeping, she told me it's all theoretical, but she must know--"
Twilight Sparkle didn't stick around to listen to Pinkie, as she had galloped off towards town to find this Slumber Lab.
Twilight finally found the Slumber Lab. It didn't take a lot of asking around, as it was a fairly new building, which was something that usually didn't go unnoticed in a relatively small town like Ponyville. The building itself wasn't very impressive, just a blue so light it bordered on being white, with the words "Slumber Lab" displayed in a stylishly crooked manner.
As Twilight made her way to the building, the glass doors slid open to allow a couple through. The stallion had a troubled look upon his face, while the mare had a carefully neutral look upon her's.
"Honey, I didn't--" the stallion began.
"Babe, I don't wanna talk about this here," she said, nodding her head at Twilight pointedly. The lavender unicorn regarded them curiously.
He bowed his head, still looking troubled. "Right. Later. In the privacy of our own home," he agreed, and they went on their way.
The scene gave Twilight pause. The couple must have learned something troubling, given their actions. Twilight was hesitant to go in and ask for Slumber's help if it meant receiving troubling answers...
Then again...
Her chest filled with excitement. They received answers! Which means she could receive answers! Her brief trepidation gone, she galloped into the building, her hooves at first scrambling in awkward directions in her haste.
The inside of the building was certainly more... interesting than the outside. Each level area that could be considered a floor was, strangely enough, padded. This was overlooked, however, as from the middle of the building back were rows and rows of tall bookshelves lined with enough books to rival the Library, wheeled ladders on tracks set up at each bookcase.
Her excitement only growing, Twilight Sparkle was tempted to take some books off of one of the shelves and begin reading them all at the same time. Before she could get carried away, however, she spotted two open books next to each other on a nearby table, dark crimson ribbons marking the places where they were opened to. She went over to the table and skimmed over the book on the left:
-- subject seems to exhibit infatuation with this "dream mare", she expressed trepidation her dreams suggested a theoretical anxiety of her loved ones over the possibility of her loved ones not exe accepting her homosexuality.
Twilight Sparkle looked to the book on the right, and saw it was a cleaner, unbound rewrite of the one on the left. In fact, looking around the table, she saw there were quills and inkwells lined up in an almost obsessive compulsive manner(or in an "organized" manner, as Twilight Sparkle herself would observe), a pile of blank sheets, and a bin full of crumpled up papers was on the floor to the right of the table.
Before she could make any further observations, she heard a fumpf! sound on the opposite side of the bookcase closest to her position. Curious, she cautiously rounded the bookshelf. There, she found somepony curled up on her left side on the cushioned floor, her back to Twilight.
"Um, are you okay," Twilight asked.
The pony shot upright with a sharp inhale through her nose. She held herself up with her left hoof, her left flank planted on the floor. She rubbed her eyes with her right hoof. She pushed herself onto her hooves, turning to face Twilight in the process, and began to stretch, first by extending her front hooves out in front of her, her rump in the air, then lowering her rump, stretching her back hooves, yawning all the while.
During this cat-like process of stretching, Twilight took the time to take in this pony's features. Her coat was an almost-white blue, like the building walls outside, and her mane and tail were platinum with light teal tips. Her mane was short, in a somehow neat mess, like Rainbow Dash's but without the back, and her tail was extraordinarily long, a bit longer than the length of Fluttershy's tail. Upon her flanks her cutie mark depicted three stylized Z's in descending size arranged in a lazy horizontal line. Beneath that, however, was a second cutie mark depicting a cloudy dream bubble, illustrating a book being written in by a quill.
Two cutie marks...
"Um, are you Slumber," Twilight asked hesitantly.
The mare regarded her with half-lidded, cloudy grey eyes and smiled.
"Indeed I am. Welcome to the Slumber Lab," she greeted, sounding welcoming yet lethargic at the same time. "I offer various services that do not include selling mattresses. For a small fee, I can determine the theoretical meaning of your dreams, offer theoretical insight to your thoughts based on your dreams, and various other dream-or-sleep-related services. If you are looking for a quick bit, however, I am afraid I am already full up on subjects wishing to assist me in my sleep project. May I inquire as to what your name is?"
Twilight bit her lower lip. "Twilight. And no, that's alright. I'm actually here because, well..." She bowed her head. "I've been having recurring nightmares every night for the past week. They keep getting worse, and I've tried everything to make them stop with no success."
Slumber hummed a thoughtful tune. "You haven't tried me, yet," she droned as she made her way around the bookshelf between where Twilight found Slumber and the work desk.
Twilight made her way to the work desk and looked at the two books. "By the way, who is the subject described in your notes?"
A silvery cloud of magic surrounded both of the books and slammed them both shut simultaneously, the sound loud enough to startle the lavender unicorn. "That's confidential," Slumber droned. "My clients' identities are to remain secret. Now," she continued, turning to the bookshelf and hanging onto the ladder with her front hooves. "Recurring nightmares, you said? Describe to me," she paused to stifle a yawn, "the gist of your nightmares, and I will give you a theoretical input."
"You keep saying "theoretical"," Twilight observed. "Why is that?"
"Because nothing is certain when it comes to dreams," Slumber said. "However, dreams show significant patterns, and I am able to provide accurate insight eighty-five percent of the time."
"Wait, but... What if I'm the remaining fifteen percent?"
"We won't know unless we try. Now, describe your nightmares."
"Well," Twilight began, "I dream where I've failed a test so badly, my mentor shows disgust in me and no longer wants to have anything to do with me..."
Slumber pushed the ladder along its track. Once it was moved, she began ascending it, only to drop off halfway up onto the floor, curl up, and fall asleep. Mere seconds later, she jerked awake, muttered a groggy apology, got back to her hooves, and ascended to the top of the ladder again.
Well, that explains the padding...
"A common dream to have. I'm going to assume this isn't a real-life fear," she said as she ran her hooves along the spines of each book, using her magic to take one out of its spot and opening it. The pages flipped frantically, and Slumber ran her hoof along the page she stopped on, likely skimming the words.
"Actually, it's my biggest fear," Twilight croaked, bowing her head.
The book slammed shut in Slumber's magical grasp. Like the two books on the table, it made a loud sound and startled Twilight.
"Hmm, interesting. This isn't the right book, then," she said, replacing the book. She kicked her right hoof off the shelf, pushing the ladder she was on to the left along its track. "Describe to me your nightly routine," she said, running her hoof along the spines of the books now set before her.
"Well..." Twilight closed her eyes. "After finishing my checklist for the day, I sit at my desk and read a book while I eat chocolate truffles. When I get tired, I brush my teeth, say goodnight to my assistant, Spike, blow out the candles, and go to bed," the lavender unicorn recited as the scenes played out through her head.
As Twilight spoke, the light blue unicorn took a book off its shelf. After flipping through its pages, she re-shelved it and took out the one to its right. She opened it to the middle, turned a couple of pages, and traced her hoof along the lines of words.
"Um-hum," she said after Twilight finished. "I see your problem. I'm afraid you're going to have to change your pre-sleep routine," she informed her, closing her book.
"You don't mean," Twilight began, dread in her voice.
"That's right. You're going to have to lay off the chocolate," Slumber said, magically waving her closed book in Twilight's direction.
"B-But, I don't know what I can do without read-- Wait, chocolate?"
Slumber hummed in the affirmative, replacing her book on the shelf. "Although I don't know why, I have observed ingesting chocolate, whether in the form of food or drink, before you sleep often results in nightmares," she said as she climbed down the ladder. "If you need something to nosh on while you read, I suggest cheese."
"Cheese?!"
Again, another hum in the affirmative was heard from Slumber. "Contrary to ingesting chocolate, ingesting cheese before going to sleep often results in good dreams."
"Are you sure this'll help," Twilight asked doubtfully.
"My services come to a total of five bits per session," Slumber recited. She magically retrieved a book, a quill, and an inkwell. Dipping the quill into the ink, she began writing in her book. "If, when relevant, after attempting to change your routine or lifestyle according to theoretical suggestions, you are not satisfied, you may return for a twenty percent refund and, if desired, receive a second session. All subsequent sessions after the third are free of charge, granted they are relevant to your prior sessions."
Twilight frowned. However, she procured the necessary funds and paid the light blue unicorn, who dismissed her materials and accepted the bits.
"Thank you. Remember us for all of your," she paused to yawn, "dream-related needs," she said.
Twilight left the building. She passed by a cloaked pony who was entering the building as the lavender pony left. She watched the strange pony, halting only briefly, before facing forward, only to be greeted with an eye-full of Pinkie Pie.
"What'd she tell you," the pink pony shouted excitedly.
"Wah!" Twilight reared back and fell, rolling over onto her side.
""Wah!"? That's a weird thing to tell you!"
"Pinkie, why-- Ugh, no. She told me not to eat chocolate before I go to bed," Twilight amended, getting up and shaking herself off.
"Well, DUH! I could've told you that," Pinkie said, and started to bounce around her friend. "Every time I had chocolate, I would have nightmares, but at first--"
"Wait a minute..."
"--I didn't know what it was, and every time I had nightmares, I would eat more chocolate to make myself feel better,--"
"Wait a minute!"
"--and I would have more chocolate, then one night I had vanilla instead of chocolate, and I didn't have nightmares, but I still didn't make the connection, so I went back to eating--"
"WAIT A MINUTE," Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. Pinkie stopped her tirade. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!"
"I didn't know you were eating chocolate before bed."
Ugh... Right...
As Twilight read her book, she idly picked up the last square of cheese she prepared and popped it into her mouth. She nearly nodded off as she chewed the morsel, and so she pushed away from her reading desk, making her way to the bathroom. After swallowing the cheese, she took out her toothbrush and toothpaste, and brushed her teeth.
Once her teeth were thoroughly brushed, she made her way over to Spike as he slept in his bed. She kissed his temple, wished him goodnight, and went around blowing out the candles.
She curled up in bed, blew out the last candle on her nightstand, and went to sleep.
Twilight Sparkle diligently read the book set out before her. A brief shift to her left drew her attention, and she smiled. She looked up at her mentor, who warmly returned the smile.
"My faithful student," Princess Celestia cooed, before lowering her head and nuzzling Twilight affectionately.
Twilight pressed closer to the goddess's flank, and she protectively wrapped her wing around her.
"I see you finally found a solution," came a familiar voice. Twilight looked to see Princess Luna approaching her and her dream-sister. "If you don't mind me asking, what solution did you come up with?"
Twilight Sparkle smirked. "Less chocolate, more cheese."
Princess Luna's serene gaze turned to one of confusion and amusement. "Are you serious?"
"Yep. Sometimes the most influential and devastating problems can have the simplest solutions."
The dark blue alicorn smiled. "Indeed, they can."
Author's Note
Can you believe this entire thing was written just so I could introduce my OC? (Slumber.)
This is my very first FiMFiction. Despite this, I would much appreciate constructive criticism and any errors and mistakes pointed out to me. Thank you. 
