No chance for any rest or relaxation this morning, such was the life of a ruler.

Her and her sister had set off immediately towards Ponyville leaving the letter discarded in the throne room. Thankfully Celestia had not asked her exactly why she knew what the young filly looked like...though she knew that would only last until until they had a firm grasp of the situation.

Her elder sister was not one to leave something like that waiting by the wayside.

Silently they alighted on the smooth dirt road of the town. Everything seemed so very silent...most of the ponies were still probably relaxing between the soft covers of their beds, an embrace that only the most determined could pull away from.

Still...even with that she felt as if they were being watched, but that was hardly a surprise. The arrival of two of the princesses from Canterlot was always seen as a momentous occasion by their subjects.

However, nopony stepped out from their homes to try and get a better look at them, to get a chance to talk with them...a chance to be recognized.

She found herself wondering if this was to be expected or if it was because...she was there.

Ever since her rather...mixed initial reception at Nightmare Night her standing among the citizens had grown dramatically, but a part of her had always suspected there would be a few ponies that couldn't help seeing the past when they looked at her.

Couldn't help seeing the monster she had been.

She knew to make everypony accept her, to overrule all their memories of of the long night, of the childhood story of 'The Mare In The Moon,' would take time...

But after a thousand years on the moon she was rather tired of waiting.

At least that terrible monster was gone know. Forever banished to oblivion thanks to the power of the elements. Maybe someday that creature would be forgotten by everypony.

Now that was something she looked forward to.

Finally she tore herself away from her thoughts to look up at their destination, the Ponyville hospital.

"After you Luna," Celestia said, nodding her head forward. Wasting no time, she pushed her way inside, shocking the tired receptionist at the front desk.

"P-Princess Luna!" she said, quickly trying to bring her workplace into a semblance of order, her panicked hooves only making things worse.

"Good morning," she said, keeping her tone low in an attempt to calm the mare. "Where you you put the filly that was checked in earlier today?"

"Filly? Oh, right!" the receptionist quickly grabbed a small slip paper from the pile in front of her and scanned it with her eyes. "Room 204, I think the parents are still with her along with your sister's student Twilight Sparkle."

"I see, thank you for your help," as she turned to head towards the rooms her sister stepped into the hospital, once more shocking the receptionist.

"This way Celestia," she said to her sister before making her way to the stairs, not looking forward to what they may find.

In the orderly hospital the correct door was easy enough to find, but she found herself pausing before it. Her hoof reached for the doorknob but time seemed to slow down, the air pushing down on here like a massive weight.

She was partly responsible for whatever waited within, no matter how much she wanted to say otherwise.

The door swung open noiselessly, showing her a single hospital bed, the curtain pushed aside so nothing was hidden. A tiny filly lay under the covers, several monitoring devices attached to her happily making steady beeping noises. You would almost think she was in a calm sleep, if not for the distraught parents worriedly watching over her.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight walked over from the side of the room, startling her. She must have been waiting, keeping a watchful over the patient, for her and her sister to arrive. "And Princess Celestia! I'm so glad you both were able to make it here so quickly. I wouldn't have called you here but I um...I really don't know what else to do. All of the doctors tried their medical spells and I tried everything I could but we-"

"Calm down Twilight," Celestia said, moving over to her student. Luna found herself envying her sister's ability to sound so calm in almost any situation. "Just tell us what you have managed to find and my sister and I will do all we can to fix this." Twilight nodded slowly, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself.

"Well...first the doctors and I talked to the parents to see if they knew anything that might help..." she started to say. Celestia nodded and walked over to the parents, leaving Luna behind.

"I know this is difficult for you," she said to the couple, even standing several feet away Luna could see how the mother's eyes were red from crying. "And I cannot even imagine the pain you must be going through, but please, if you could tell us what happened before your daughter was brought here it may prove vital to helping her."

Luna ignored them as the parents began to speak, her sister only asked so that they could feel like they were doing something to help their daughter.

It was a noble gesture, but she turned her attention towards more important things. Specifically, the current state of their child.

Silently she stepped over to the side of the hospital bed, looking down at the girl. She was just as Luna remembered from the dream. Her gray coat with a long blue mane, coiled back into at stylish ponytail. Her mother must have done that while waiting, a routine to make things seem more normal.

At least her face no longer carried that terrified expression, in fact, one could almost say she looked...happy. It was hard to see, but if you looked closely you could see the edges of her mouth turned up into a calm smile...

Strange, but it was probably nothing.

However she was not here to gauge her emotions, she was here to check something far more important.

This filly was sleeping, so Luna should be able too...

She closed her eyes, shutting out the world around her, sending everything to black.

Connecting with others during the day, without her moon in the sky, was always...different. It was difficult, like trying to push your way through wet sand.

But she was the Princess of The Night, such a small magic would be trivial to her. However, as she probed closer to filly's mind she met a barrier. Like a stone wall it stood, resolute against her attempts to break through.

This didn't make any sense, while every pony had some ability to shield there mind from a spell like this, even the most talented magicians would not have been able to build something like this unless they specifically knew her unique magical signature...

The only thing that could create such a barrier, at a moments notice, would have to be...

No, that was an impossibility. Whatever the reason, this mystery would have to be solved later, right now she would need to find a way to slip through this resistance.

After all, there was no spell, of any power, that was without a weakness. She pulled her magic back, silently probing the surface of this filly's mind.

The wall of magic seemed so strong, ready for any assault, but there, one corner of it was flawed. So small, but to a Princess, it was enough.

Like a mouse scurrying though a hole she slid through the barrier and connected with the filly.

She readied herself to face a crushing darkness, a terrible nightmare trapping the filly in this enchanted coma. She waited for the response, her defenses ready...and waited...and waited.

There was nothing there.

No nightmare...no dream...no anything.

Just an echo of a child's imagination. It felt lonely...it felt...wrong.

"Princess Luna?" a small voice at her side, breaking her out of her concentration and away from the magic. Twilight stood beside her, a worried expression on her face. "What are you doing?"

"I am just...checking something. Trying to find some answers," she replied, trying to give a reassuring smile to the apprentice.

"Well...did you find any?" Twilight allowed a bit of hope to shine on her face.

"Perhaps, mostly I have found more questions. Questions that can only be answered back in Canterlot." She looked over to her sister who was already staring back, knowing what they needed to asked the parents. She nodded.

"If you would allow it, my sister and I would have your daughter moved to the infirmary of our Castle. She would be under the utmost care and it will hopefully lend to a more speedy recovery," the parents paused, looking to each other for a few moments before turning back to Celestia.

"If you really it will help our little girl...do you know if this condition is serious?" the father said, gently holding onto his wife.

"The condition itself should not prove hazardous," Luna moved up next to her sister. "It is the cause that I am worried about. With you daughter in Canterlot we may not only help her, but prevent something like this from happening again."

"Then...yes. Please, take her to Canterlot, and please help." the mother asked of them, desperation in her eyes.

"You have our solemn word on that. We will send a carriage for her in just a short while. Twilight, if you could stay until it arrives I would be most grateful," Luna could tell twilight almost wanted to salute Celestia, so ready to make her teacher proud.

"You can count on me," she proclaimed.

"Very good," with one last look at the filly and her parents, Celestia stepped back out into hall, Luna following closely behind.

Her elder sister did not ask her what spell she had cast on the filly...at least, not until they had returned to the castle.

"So...you saw this filly while dream walking, and something attacked her in a nightmare, something that drove you away with its strength," Celestia had given her the disapproving glare the entire flight back to the castle and once they had landed it had only taken a simple phrase for her to say the whole story.

"Explain..."

"I was not driven away by it. I did not even have a chance to understand what was happening to me before I was thrust back into the waking world," she said with a sigh. How could her sister sit there and look so disappointed? Celestia did not, could not, understand the sort of things she faced every night.

"And when you were examining the filly at the hospital, what did you find?" Luna told her, but she could see this information didn't make her sister any happier.

"Then...what are we going to do now?" with those words the disappointed expression fell from Celestia's face and for a moment, just a moment, Luna was able to spy something else.

A face full of worries and sorrow, weathered down by so many years of rule. So completely unsure of what to do when faced by this new threat to her people.

Her sister truly did care for her subjects above all else.

Then the expression was gone, replaced by a face of calm tranquility. The face of the Princess of The Sun.

"When night falls I will step once more into the dream realm, find the cause, and bring her back. Simple really," she tried to reassure her sister.

"Simple for you perhaps..." a pause. "But I trust you Luna. I know you will do everything you can to end this threat."

"Of course Celestia, now I believe you have your royal duties to attend to, I shall prepare for tonight," she gave here elder sister a final nod before walking out of the throne room to her private quarters.

Waiting for sunset had proven quite boring indeed, so she had tried to pass the time poring through the vast collection of books she had hoarded in her room.

Many of them dealt with dream magic, or things related to it, and she hoped there might be something hidden within the pages related to his mission.

She even tried leafing through old books describing the numerous fantastic creatures that could be found in Equestria, perhaps there was one that could travel through dreams as she did. She had never heard of, or encountered one, over her many years but you could never be too careful.

Still...there was nothing for her to find. Bored, she found her mind wandering through her memories, back and back and back over the years. She finally stopped on one of her very old memories.

A memory she had not thought of in a long time.

Training with her mother, to rule, and to see the dreams of her subjects.

It would always start out in the courtyard near the castle. Funny how everything seemed so much bigger back then.

"So are you ready for your lesson today Luna?" her mother was quite the imposing figure. She wasn't very tall but here mere presence made it feel like she was towering over you at any position.

"Of course!" she'd always been so eager to learn.

"Very good, but first I think we need to talk a little something," she'd known immediately what her mother was talking about, but she tried to put on a face of innocence. "A little something concerning the senior magicians?"

"Are they planning something for our magic lessons? I'm afraid I haven't seen them at all today." She wasn't going to budge...

That is until her mother put on that expression. In fact...it was the same look that Celestia had used on her earlier today.

So that was where she learned it...

Her younger self was just as powerless.

"It was just a little fun mom..." the elder mare held up a hoof, not even wanting to hear her excuses.

"You dyed all of their robes bright pink and replaced their hats with rainbow wigs," her mother shook her head. "Their leader talked my ears off about how I'm raising a 'demon child with absolutely no grasp of any of the social graces.'" Luna could not help but smile a little at that, her mother noticed.

"What's that there? Please don't tell me that they're right about you," and there was the tone that always managed to make her feel ashamed of herself.

"I'm sorry mom..."

"Don't apologize to me, you're going to apologize to the magicians later..." her mother sighed. "What you need to apologize to me for...is lying. For trying to hide from what you'd done."

"But...it wasn't that big of a lie..." she tried to defend herself.

"Trying to to hide from our own mistakes, especially when we know we've been caught, won't do any good for anypony. Lies can be more dangerous than you know Luna. Do you understand?" a stern glare.

"I...think so?" her mother sighed again.

"Perhaps one day you will, but until then how about we begin our lesson..."

The lesson itself had been a normal one, to be expected. Her mother went over the basics of traveling in the dream realm, explaining how it was her duty to recognize which dreams were to be entered and which were to be left alone.

But at the end, the expression on her mother's face had turned serious.

"Now, what would you to do rid somepony of their nightmare?" she'd asked.

"I would find a way to break it's control or turn it against itself," Luna had answered quickly, easily remembering.

"And what happens if that isn't enough, what happens if you find yourself being drawn in to the nightmare's grasp?" her mother had never brought up such a possibility before, she had been forced into silence, unable to answer.

"Sometimes all our power is not enough to break a nightmare free, sometimes we may begin to believe that we are truly trapped within that darkness," her gaze hardened as it seemed to bore into Luna. "In such a situation there is one thing you must remember to do."

Luna didn't reply.

"You must run! You cannot take any chances, you have put so much of yourself into another living beings mind that to become lost in it would very dangerous, for the both of you. That is your only defense against something like that, do you understand?"

"Yes mom, I do!" she said as quickly as possible.

"Good...very good."

Shaking her head slightly the memory faded and Luna found herself back in the present. Surprisingly, it seemed her sister had allowed to sun to begin to set. She must have nodded off while reminiscing...odd.

But at least it meant she no longer had to wait. Pulling herself up from the floor Luna did a quick stretch and headed to the top of her personal tower, to her private room where she could ensure she could travel among the dreams of her and her sister's subjects without interruption.

Her eyes found the only window and silently watched as the sun fell lower and lower behind the horizon. As the last shred of light began to vanish over the edge she closed her eyes...

And dreamed.

It was always so relaxing for her, to step into the world of dreams. It was the one place where it felt like she always belonged. It welcomed her with no judgmental stares, no incessant murmurings, just quiet calm acceptance.

Long ago she had wished with everything she had that she could stay here...

But those wishes were long gone, best forgotten, and ignored. Forget the past and focus on the present, focus on what she had to do.

Her essence floated through the dreamscape searching for the dark nightmare that had attacked last night...

She did not find it, in fact, there seemed to be nothing amiss in this world of dreams. No tormented dreams shouted out for her, everything was at peace.

Yet Luna was still worried.

Unconsciously she found herself drawn to a specific dream. Newly birthed and struggling to maintain itself it gave off a calm yellow glow as she approached. It was almost beautiful, the troubles of her mind almost seemed to melt away in its presence.

Don't worry, it's okay...

With a shudder, the light accepted her, and she found herself someplace...different...

An old empty room greeted her, filled with dust covered furniture with sad flickering lights set into the walls. There were no windows giving her no chance to find her bearings.

There was only one doorway leading to a vast darkness from which she could hear...a song.

It was too indistinct to make out the exact words, but the tune was soothing. She moved forward, stepping in to the black, only to find she wasn't alone.

A young colt walked alongside her, his eyes glazed over as he moved towards the singing voice.

"Little one," she tried to grab his attention, hopefully to understand this place more. "Where are we? What is happening?" The colt shuddered at the question, blinking his eyes a few times.

"Mom and dad are...gone. Left me here, but I don't have to be..." he trailed off and the singing seemed to intensify. Luna could now make out the words...

The colt increased his pace, heading further into the darkness.

"Little one wait! It does not look...safe..." as the word left her lips they sounded...wrong to her. Why should she be so worried? This place could not mean any harm, it seemed too...familiar...

"This place is a lie!"

Her own voice echoed out in her own head, her inner self rebelling against these illusions.

This dream was dangerous...she needed to save the colt, needed to pull him away from here...

She tried to spread her magic thorough the dream, tried to shift it, even slightly, to try and change it. Nothing worked, the darkness and music only seemed to grow stronger from her efforts.

The colt had pulled away from her and the shadows seemed to be slowly enveloping him. She needed to help him!

"You must run!

Her mother's words repeated themselves...and she had to be right. There was nothing she could do here, nothing she could do to save this child...

"I'm sorry..." she whispered.

She ran...

"Another one?" her sister was waiting right outside of her tower, to be honest she had been afraid to step outside.

"Not one..." Celestia's gaze was dark. "Three..."

Author's Notes:

The last part was really annoying to write up. Really did not like this chapter as a whole, though am very excited for what happens later.

Beginnings and endings are always easy for me, it's the middle parts that tend to trip me up.