Love Thyself (Cinderblox)

By day, the castle was a welcoming place for all those who entered it. The tall glass windows flooded the halls with light and the colours of the drapes and flowers and carpets and stained glass rivalled those of the gardens outside. It was like a piece of the world beyond the walls, a continuity between the city and the palace meant to put the citizens at ease, to highlight how the seat of power was not so different from the land over which it ruled, and yet the sturdy marble and iron gates provided an extra stability, a layer of protection without oppression. During the day, the castle felt like a home should.

At night, things were different. Luna could not fault her sister for it, not when she'd ruled alone for a thousand years, and she'd done her best to address the matter. It wasn't too bad when one shone a light. The tapestries and painted walls still looked bright as the guards patrolled the corridors, and the statues did not seem sinister in the glow of their horns, their shadows soft and their expressions gentle. Even under moonlight, the corridors looked pleasant, their hues inviting and their corners safe.

But there was no Moon that night, and the stained glass of the windows let barely any starlight through. In the darkness, the tall walls of the throne room were imposing, foreboding, cold and solemn. The ceiling was a pool of shadows and all the space that would have made ponies feel welcome in the daytime was just emptiness, like the room was the hollowed chest of a dragon, the stone walls its ribs and the coloured windows its scales between them. Luna's steps on the marble filled the night air without coming back, like the darkness was swallowing them up.

Ponies feared the darkness. They always had, and they always would. And they were right to do so.

Luna's hooves carried her all the way to the foot of the steps leading up to the throne, and there she laid herself. The guards would not find her. She knew their routes and routines better than they themselves did, and she would not be there long enough for anyone to ever notice she had. She looked up, up towards the throne and further up, up towards the shadows and the ceiling and further up, beyond the rafters and beyond the roof tiles and past the layers and layers of atmosphere she'd once pierced through with her wings, towards the stars and towards the Moon, unseen yet still there.

She lit her horn, and stretched her magic through untold miles, far out to where no mortal wing could sustain flight and no creature could draw breath. She found her Moon there, where it had always been since the night she'd made it hers, and she held it. She did not pull it, or tug it, or impede it in any way. She merely touched it. Felt it in her grip. The way one feels a tree in their garden, or a pillar in a temple. The way a foal holds their mother's hoof. She held her Moon and held onto it, searching for stability until the world stopped spinning around her. She did not rise yet. She breathed deep, and long, and slowly. Little by little, the marble beneath her felt a little less cold.

She lay there. Contemplating, losing herself in her memories and thoughts. She'd lived longer than all but a few other creatures in the world, and her divinity meant she recalled most of her days better than any mortal would. So it always took her a while to go through it all. Ponies sometimes mistook it for indecision, or even laziness, back in the early days of Equestria. With time and experience, Luna and her sister had learned to act quickly when the situation called for it, often without making the wrong choice. But for this one, Luna needed time, and patience. She'd fallen victim to carelessness one too many times.

Eventually, as she walked through the hallways of her memory in her mind, her nervousness melted away. It was nice to reminisce, for a while. About the good times she'd had, about the bad times she'd surpassed. There was confidence and reassurance to be found in dreams, just as there was worry about the future. They were a place to understand both. A place of meaningless time, to come to terms with the past and with what was to come. She'd known that, once, she'd arrived at the same conclusion before, and on some level she'd always acted according to it. But it was good to rediscover it, and remember what her place was.

Luna opened her eyes, and looked at the throne. Her horn shone, and she held onto her Moon in the sky. Then, slowly, she pulled onto that connection. The Moon did not move any closer to Equestria, but little by little Luna rose. To her knees, then to her hooves, standing tall in the middle of the room. Her eyes shone like twin forest lakes lit by a full moon, and a calm, collected smile sat on her lips. She knew it wouldn't last. She knew dreams are always meant to fade, their memories waning with time, their certainty thinning out like mist in the sunlight. But that was no matter.

Dreams were meant to inspire. To show ponies what could be, and what they could do. There would have been no point to them if they lingered on in perpetuity. Worse, they may make ponies wish to retreat to them, and shun the real world for one where success comes easy and all is always well. That would be no good for anyone.

Luna let go of her Moon, and turned away from the throne. She knew what awaited her next. She knew she could do it. She knew it would not be easy, but it would be done.