Way up above the dreams and reveries of the most avid dreamers – above the thin layers that split apart the world of the sleeping and the awoken, stood Luna.
Gazing deeply into the purplish shades of the night, and the howling wind that blew the clouds aside, and as so blew the strands of her mane.
From the tallest tower in the shadow-bathed castle she stared at the horizon, and wondered what wonders awaited beyond the lines that ponies have traced on maps to delineate what was their world, and what was the unknown void in the space between the land, the moon, and the stars.
But for Luna it was that ‘space between’ that fascinated her the most. It was the forbidden heights where clouds dissipate into an icy stream of air, the limits of the blue sky and whatever lay behind the seams of their comfortable reality.
‘Because surely there must be...’ she thought ‘Other nights and days beyond ours’.
‘Untouched suns, that are nothing but tiny dots of light for us all.’
Oh, it set fire to her imagination only to consider these possibilities. Because above all else, she was the keeper of the non-existent realities that suddenly blossomed into her plane of existence as soon as a creature of any kind fell asleep.
How could it be, that something as casual as an afternoon nap, could bring to life such formidable scenes?
It was one of the many things she could experience, but never explain.
As after all, more mysteries lingered into the inner universe of each mind, than in the outside vastness of the cosmos.
But at least for Luna, one world always led to the other, not mattering which path she followed, or which door she opened.
Her limitation, however, was in terms of depth. Not the literal depth one dives in a pool, but the depth of one’s imagination. She could go far into the dream world, but once the connections between parallel dreams ended, so did her abilities to travel.
Once, she remembered, dragons gathered in the dead lands down in the south, away from the borders of their kingdom. That night, she caught a glimpse of their minds, and through that very same glimpse, Luna was able to see what no pony ever saw – the door to the lands beyond the dragon lands, and the creatures who lived there.
Sometimes, the windows between reveries combine, in a very special way that opens a rabbit hole into the closest dream. Those rabbit holes can go as far as there are connections between the minds responsible for them.
And just like that, the princess of the night explored the unknown. Until… The void of the space between cut any and all connections. It was the bottom of the rabbit hole, and as far as she knew – there was no way to dig any further.
Or so she thought.
That night, there was something else in the empty space.
When Luna closed her eyes to the world, and opened her mind to the dreams of Equestria, a very strange connection was formed. It had a vibration of its own – far from harmonic – but not outright evil. Just different.
‘This can’t be a dragon’s dream.’ Luna thought to herself. ‘Dragons don’t dream that big.’
Whatever it was, was very far away. Its dreams were vague and tainted by the fluid static of millions of ponies.
It was a chance in a million. She had to see at least a fraction of that window before it faded into the vastness between the stars.
Spreading her wings, Luna took off and flew into the night, feeling like an owl who just spotted the perfect prey. But to catch that prey, she had to fly high.
High above the puffy clouds that covered the valleys, high above the atmosphere of pastel-colored dreams that hovered over Equestria.
Cold wind streamed through her feathers as she crossed the high altitude air currents, those invisible rivers of gelid oxygen that flowed above their heads.
The frosty droplets of water sparkled under the moonlight, and rested on her fur like a layer of crystal. With each flap of her wings, Luna left behind a tiny comet tail that would shortly disappear in the emptiness of the sky.
Miles above the mountains, silence made its kingdom.
It was an unique stillness that numbed the senses; there was no more noise, no more wind, no more thoughts.
Leaving her wings as spread as possible, Luna closed her eyes and let her body hover over the face of the clouds. There, the anomalous connection flashed into her mind.
In their sealed capsules, they dreamed. In the depths of space, those creatures awaited in perpetual sleep. There, but somewhere else.
She counted seven.
Seven dreams of places she had never seen or even imagined before. But Luna had only enough time for one.
And through the rabbit hole she went.
“Are you sure about this?” A feminine voice asked.
“Never been so sure in my life, dear.”
Waves caressed the white sand of that beach; they pushed and pulled tiny seashells and pebbles, the white foam reflecting a pinkish sunset sky above. There was no other sound in the air; only the rhythmic pulse of the sea.
“You know there’s no way back.” She said. Her eyes were like amber stones seen through a lamp.
“Whether we go or not, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a way back to the human race, Kate.” He paused, sinking his fingers into the cold sand, watching as the wind carried it all away. “At least, no way back to this place.”
“Doesn’t it scare you at all?”
He seemed to ponder for a moment.
“Sometimes it does.” He admitted. “Not the travel… That doesn’t scare me at all.”
“Then what does?” She made something with her hands – she interlocked her fingers with his, and leaned against his shoulder. It was something so alien, but so familiar.
“Knowing that by the time I wake up, you’ll be gone. That our house will be no longer, that whatever we’ve ever done will leave no trace behind. For me, it will be like yesterday, but for you, it will be a lifetime. That scares me.”
A deep silence followed his words. But a smile slowly formed on her face.
“Remember what you said when we were kids? About dreams.”
His expression changed as he tried to recall. It was distant, covered in years of dusty memories.
“Nothing and no one ceases to exist…” He muttered.
“As long as someone dreams about it.” She added, touching his chin and turning his face towards hers.
“Dream about me.”
As if a fog emerged from the ground, the dream started to fade. The beach, the sea and the sky merged into a single blur.
But those words echoed, echoed in Luna’s mind.
The static of the world engulfed the last remnants of that distant connection, and in the depths of night it was lost.
Luna awoke under a thick layer of rain clouds, and made her descend towards the royal city. Looking at the sky full of stars above, and remembering those two beings.
It was hard to explain, but for one second, Luna had a feeling.
A feeling that they would live forever.