Lyra felt weightless. A lot of adjectives she could use to describe the feeling floated in her mind. Strange was one of them, as was interesting, like for anything that was new to her. But mostly she found it uncomfortable, because of the feeling of vertigo that accompanied the sensation.
She tried to piece together what has happened, where she might be or how she got there. But she was drawing nothing but blanks. She did remember a feeling, though. A feeling of excitement about something…
She felt what seemed like an eternity pass as she considered the possibilities, and rejected most of them. There were a few she mentally stamped 'plausible, but somewhat off'.
I never touch alcohol, it's dangerous to cloud my own thoughts. Well, except cider season, but that stuff is delicious. But that was two months ago. I might have been drugged. Wait. No. I still think as clearly as ever. Have I been paralyzed, maybe? Uh, no, that's not it either, I can still move somehow… That could mean I wasn't ponynapped either.
She wondered more. Just where the Tartarus am I? Cloudsdale felt different… The Moon?! Her breathing intensified and her eyes shot open.
As they did, the floating feeling subsided and she once again felt solid ground below her. The sudden change made her buckle and waver for a moment. Her cheeks flushed, betraying embarrassment about the fact she didn't even think to try opening her eyes before.
Still, she immediately surveyed her surroundings. In all directions around her, the same scenery stretched out to what seemed like infinity. A dark blue-tinted nothingness, only interrupted by white, star-resembling spheres, and a strange mist-like substance. The same thing made up the 'ground' she stood on. The feeling of vertigo returned when she realized she basically standed on nothing.
Still, she let out a relaxed sigh. Not the Moon…
A voice, coming from Lyra's right side, echoed through the space. “Congratulations, my little pony.”
It was a familiar voice. Lyra's stomach tightened as she looked for the source.
One of the stars floated closer, until finally it transformed into an alabaster alicorn.
Lyra's eyes shrunk into pinpricks. “Princess… Celestia?”
“You've done a great service to all of Equestria today, Lyra Heartstrings,” princess Celestia said, while moving towards Lyra. Her eyes were closed as she continued with her speech.
“The nightmares have been trying to undermine our nation for more than a millennium, sometimes subtly, by whispering suggestions to craft dangerous situations, sometimes forcefully possessing ponies. But beings such as them are very hard to drive away. I had hoped my faithful student would help us with that, having the power she has and all the experience she gained in the past months.”
Lyra was shivering. Slowly, step by step, she tried to make more distance between herself and the alicorn, or at least, keep the distance Celestia was reducing with her relaxed steps. She then noticed movement in the corner of her eye. Focusing on it, she saw herself. Or rather, a visualization of her memory, as it might have looked like if it was a movie. Then, another appeared. And even more after that. She felt her heart beating so hard, it threatened to burst.
“However, I am always pleasantly surprised, when my subjects surpass themselves and create an unexpected, but effective solution. Your actions not only uncovered the extent of the nightmare's plan, but also managed to put them into a position where their own actions turned against them.”
Celestia then opened her eyes, smiling, to look into the eyes of the unicorn. However, she could not see her. Surprised, she turned left and right, until finally she spotted her as a green-ish speck in the distance, an echo of Lyra's screaming reaching Celestia's ears.
Dumbfounded, she didn't notice Luna's approach until the dark alicorn has spoken. “I believe that is not how you expected this meeting to go.”
“I might have underestimated her paranoia,” the sun princess turned to her sister with a sigh. “It's sad to see such affliction clouding such a brilliant mind.”
“A thin line lies between genius and madness, as a quote I have stumbled upon recently leads to believe. Not to mention it is the reason why the nightmares did not consider her a threat. However, I find it amusing that you did not notice her rather… loud disappearance.”
“Yes. I guess I really do like the sound of my own voice too much.”
The sisters have then fallen into silence, as the screaming unicorn passed them, running from a completely different direction than she disappeared to before. While doing so, she gave proof that, even in the astral plane, the Doeppler effect existed.
“Remarkable. Not once has she stopped to breathe.”
“You know you don't need to breathe here, Luna.”
“I do indeed. Yet many mortals cling to old habits.”
They both watched in silence as Lyra passed them a few more times, never from the same direction twice, her screams unchanged in volume. Both then jumped when a powerful shout seemed to come from everywhere at once: “Where's the bucking exit?!”