Love Thyself (Cinderblox)

Luna had seen many things in her time. More than any other pony, more than most creatures save perhaps Discord. Dreams, while often not as fantastical and unusual as most ponies would consider them, were still home to quite the selection of odd, bizarre, unnatural, and impossible things, and Luna had lived so long and seen so many she knew well the extremes they could reach. She knew the peaks and the lows the mind could conjure unimpeded by physical reality. She had seen terrible things, and she had seen beautiful things.

She'd never seen anything as beautiful as that. It looked like a diamond glimmering in the light, perhaps, but that failed to do it any justice. She did not know what it was, but she was mesmerised by it, enraptured at the sight. She'd been navigating the dreams, looking over her subjects, and suddenly it was there, not belonging to any of them but rather an apparent feature of the dreaming itself. She was scared to approach it lest her mere vicinity upset its seemingly delicate existence.

It was a sphere, a perfect drop of what seemed to be water at a glance, not that such things had much concrete meaning in dreams. In it shone a firmament of stars brighter than any Equestria had ever found its skies graced by, all arranged like the pieces of a single art piece of unimaginably complexity. From every corner she looked at it, Luna found new lights, new patterns, new swathes of the cosmos contained within it. It was like someone had travelled to the middle of the sea at night, smoothed out all the waves, and then pulled up its edges and engulfed the starry sky within it. It was a marble only one capable of shaping the universe might play with. Luna loved it from the first moment, and more so with every moment after it.

Her approach was slow and methodical. Time was not a concern, as it never was in dreams under her command. Part of her unhurriedness was a worry that a step too far, or one taken too quickly, would ripple out and shatter the miracle, shred its delicate glassy surface and spill its contents onto the dreaming like raining stardust. Part of it was a desire to admire the spectacle for as long as possible. It was rare for her to find something truly worth her appreciation, and she liked to savour those moments. She was, after all, entirely in control of how long it would take her.

But the drop of cosmic water did not rupture. The bubble did not pop. Soon, or much later, depending on where one chose to measure the meaningless time it took her, Luna found herself just beneath it, peering into its surface and past it at the burning stars floating within it. Where had it come from? The dreaming itself, if she had to guess. It sometimes presented her with oddities like it. Was there anything more to it than looking beautiful, though?

Luna hesitated. She did not wish to disturb it, to break it. But she was curious, as ponies are, even the really old ones like her. She suspected, if she let it be, it would just eventually disappear as it had come to be, fading and morphing into something unrecognisable. Such was the nature of dreams and all things born of them. So, if there was perhaps some risk in looking more into it, it was unlikely there would be any harm more than what time would do itself. And she was curious.

She reached out with a wing first, then stopped halfway there, thinking better of it. Instead she folded it back at her side, and lit her horn. Very gently, with all the minute grace of a control over magic so fine only someone as experienced as her could exercise it, she stretched out her telekinesis and felt the surface of the sphere. It did not break, thankfully, nor react in any meaningful way. A bit more pressure, no more than resting her aura on it, just so she could properly feel it underneath her ethereal touch.

It felt wet. Cold. Somewhere between glass and water, and unlike both. It felt solid, but strangely soft. Not quite smooth, but the texture wasn't rough, or jagged, or particularly noticeable. It was almost like skin. It didn't feel tense, despite looking like a bubble. It smelled of ozone and seawater. Taking hold of one side, Luna tried to nudge it one way. It moved easily, not too heavy in her grasp, and the stars within it shifted to yet a hundred more arrangements and colours. It was like a kaleidoscope window into infinite alien skies.

She moved it back and forth a few more times, confident she wouldn't damage it, gleefully staring at the spectacle inside. Until, suddenly, after a slightly more forceful push, she felt something different. At first she feared she'd gone and broken it. Then she had a proper look. It was still all there, perfectly intact. She felt her magic better. It was like it had sunken into the sphere, moved past the surface. It was like something was pulling it in.

Blinking, she let go of it and stepped closer. She placed a hoof on its surface. Then she pushed. The sphere did not move. Her foreleg entered it. Luna had a moment to contemplate that. Then, something tugged hard at her leg, and she fell forward into the sphere.

She fell, through stars and emptiness and light, the icy cosmos rushing by around her and through her until suddenly everything was dark. She held her breath, feeling the pressure of deep water around her. She saw the Moon above and swam towards it, and dragged herself onto the shore. A few more steps, and she dried herself with her magic. Nothing but sand in front of her, water behind her, and empty skies above. Then she turned.