Princess Luna could not fall asleep.
Now, to you and I, that may not sound like too much of a problem. You might shrug it off and say something like, "No worries, I'll just be a little tired tomorrow," and eventually drift off some time later. However, what separates us from her - despite the obvious - is that we do not have to raise and lower the Moon itself every twelve or so hours.
Therefore, whenever Princess Luna found herself in a bind and unable to adequately rest, the situation became just a little hairy. Fortunately for her though, after a couple thousand years of dealing with rough nights such as this one, Luna had managed to find a rather simple solution.
*****
The Princess of the Night currently floated in a vast, dimly-lit chamber. All around her were hundreds of thousands of tiny screens, seemingly infinite in every direction, with each playing out hundreds of thousands of wholly unique - albeit sometimes rather similar - scenarios.
Various images and sounds assaulted her from every conceivable angle, something which most every regular pony would have no doubt found incredibly overwhelming, yet Luna somehow managed to sift through it all without ever buckling under the sheer intensity of it all.
In fact, the space was one she had seen and experienced many, many times, yet always found impossible to describe when questioned about it (by the special few that were privy to knowing that the Princess could even access such a realm, of course); more often than not, instead of actually trying, she would just smile and tilt her head slightly, replying simply enough, "You would have to see it for yourself."
And although she did not understand definitively why she had been given such a seemingly random power all those millennia ago, the young Princess had long since come to her own conclusions and was eternally grateful to be able to watch over and protect the dreams of - and, to an extent - the citizens of Equestria themselves.
The only problem with it all though was that each one bored her just as much as every other one she had ever seen.
She did not purposely try to be so judgemental or disinterested in the various dreams of her subjects, but after thousands of years of observing them, she found that few nowadays that could actually surprise her enough to generate interest. Sure, there were plenty of bizarre scenes playing out every night, but most relied on the same formula (if one could even say something like a dream adhered to such a thing). This, however, was exactly why she chose her own private domain as the perfect place to try and count sheep.
She lightly flapped her wings, guiding her nearly weightless body to the left, towards a screen displaying a quite common scenario - one in which a pony found themselves being chased. This particular scene involved a light-brown Unicorn stallion being chased by what Luna could only assume were giant spiders, though they were unlike any arachnid she had seen before, giant or not. The brief thought of encountering one of the creatures sent a shiver down her spine - it would not be the worst thing she had ever come across, not by a long shot, but it would still leave a considerable mark.
Luna glanced to the right and joined a seemingly much more pleasant dream, a type of nighttime fantasy that she commonly referred to simply enough as "wish fulfillment". The pink Pegasus mare within appeared very pleased with herself, while a tan stallion planted a single kiss on her cheek. The Princess smiled, happy for the mare for whatever she had accomplished, and could have sworn to have felt the same stallion lovingly kissing her cheek the longer she watched on.
Unfortunately though, both the moment and the feelings that came with it were fleeting, for mere seconds after finally giving the dreamer her full attention, the image very suddenly blinked out of existence, and was replaced with an empty black square.
Despite the loss, Princess Luna could not say that she was too distraught. After many years, she found herself able to assume that, especially after dreams that looked much like the one she just watched, the pony that woke up would no doubt feel a little bit happier in some regard, and that thought pleased Luna.
After lingering for a few extra seconds around the empty space left by the mare's dream, the Princess lightly flapped her wings and began drifting along in the opposite direction, desperately hoping to find something just uninteresting enough to help her finally get to sleep.
She casually glanced over the endless sea of screens, and could not help but begin once again keeping track of the usual types of dreams that made up her subject's nights - wish fulfillment, winning (presumably lost) arguments, fleeing from a beast, performing some mundane task, etcetera - along with a much rarer type of dream, particularly perverse and involving herself and a couple.
Though she would never admit it to another living soul, she very briefly tried to memorize what the two ponies looked like before embarrassment completely overtook her and forced her to look away.
Disappointed in the utter lack of any especially boring dreams, she prepared to throw in the towel, casting one last look around the entirety of her space, spinning about herself multiple times in order to take it all in.
And so it was, that with a final shrug of her shoulders, Princess Luna decided to cut her losses and just try something much more conventional, like casting a simple sleeping spell on herself. With her mind made up, she took a deep breath and began focusing all of her being on creating a portal that would lead back to her personal chambers.
But wait, what was that?
At the last second though, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it - a screen that appeared completely empty, save for a bright, shining Moon that sat in the center.
Her Moon. Nothing more, nothing less.
The portal she attempted to create fizzled back out of existence, and Luna hurriedly made her way over to the screen.
Now Luna was interested.
Author's Note
Hi everyone. Thanks for checking this out. More to come (hopefully) shortly.