Lyra's World

“So it’s astral projection,” I said, flattening one ear.

“Yes,” Twilight said.

“The astral plane doesn’t exist,” I said. “It’s a metaphor for the set of things which can be imagined, but don’t even not-exist in concept space.”

“Strictly speaking, the real world doesn’t exist either,” Twilight said. “It’s just a metaphor for the thing that our senses would be sensing if they worked intuitively.”

I rolled my eyes. “You can’t travel to the astral plane,” I said. “Astral projection is just looking at the astral plane in your imagination. It’s a parlor trick.”

“Exactly!” Twilight said, with a grin. “It’s impossible to actually go there. But it contains everything that can be imagined but that doesn’t exist, so if you could imagine being there, well, poof.”

“If that was true, everyone who astrally projects would get sucked into their own imagination and cease to exist,” I said.

“A pony’s imagination is not that strong,” Zecora said. “Or perhaps they envision the journey wrong?”

“I know it sounds impossible, but the potion works,” Twilight said. “It’s surprisingly well-documented, in fact.”

“Of course it is. Ponies that get hopped up on goofballs love to write about how wonderful it is to be hopped up on goofballs. It’s one of the fundamental laws of the universe and it’s responsible for at least two major periods of musical history.”

“Goofballs?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s the technical term,” I said, blandly. “Layponies might have other names. Drug addicts have at least fifty.”

“Understand your concern, I do,” Zecora said. “But there is much magic in this brew.”

“Is this just the setup for some silly prank?” I asked, then had a thought. “Did Rainbow Dash put you up to this? I know she’s still sore about the hurricane and… the other hurricane. And all the tornadoes.”

Twilight frowned. “Lyra – taking this potion, and going on a spirit journey to the astral plane, is how zebras get their cutie marks.”

I glanced at Zecora, who just nodded. It could still have been a prank – I hadn’t done anything to verify any of the claims they were making, and if it was something really important it would have been criminal to let myself be convinced by somepony’s words, no matter how eloquent they were or how tempting the things they said. But the downside to this looked like it would just be getting pranked, and Zecora didn’t usually go in for that sort of thing. If they’d convinced her to help prank me, then I must have really deserved it.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’ll try it. What do I need to do?”