A Hug Too Far

Moon Dancer put down the large tome she’d been poring over with a sigh and looked out the large window of the Tower Study to stretch her eyes.

“How are you getting on?” asked Twilight nearby, doing the same thing. The two of them had spent all day working on Moon Dancer’s current field of study, Teleportation. Advanced sorcery that was only usable by unicorns with an innate talent for magic. The objective was to see if there was a simpler method, something that any unicorn could master with practice, which itself might lead to many applications from a faster mail delivery network to rapid emergency medical response.

“Well, Haycart did put a lot of time into altering molecular structure for transfiguration,” she replied, watching ponies walking around on the streets below in their hive-like movement. “But he ultimately dismissed the idea as it wouldn’t go nearly far enough for the Word-Walker method and resorted to energy magic, which leads us back to the original problem.”

“Maybe that’s enough for us though?” proposed Twilight, “We don’t need to actually change shape since we want to arrive in the same state as we left. I’ve got a textbook on phase-states here, and I’m thinking if we could change our phase to much higher state that’s easier to move, the magical energy required to cover distance would be significantly reduced.”

“That’s assuming that altering a pony’s phase is any easier than changing to magical energy in the first place,” countered Moon Dancer.

The day had been long, but she had to admit that studying with a friend whom she could bounce ideas off of - especially one like Twilight Sparkle who could keep up with her - had been a pleasant change. Seeing another pony just as passionate about solving an intellectual problem as she was made her feel more confident about herself. She’d even found herself stealing little glances at Twilight, noting the slight furrow over her eyes as she read and contemplated the information from the book in front of her, occasionally pausing to scratch notes or references on her notes.

“Well let’s start with that shall we?” suggested Twilight, pushing the books in front of her away and turning to a fresh page on her notebook. “I’ll make this book gaseous, and then try to teleport it. We’ll see if it’s easier to move as a gas than a solid.”

“Well there’s no harm in that I suppose, although this is a very unfinished idea. I don’t think we’re anywhere near practical experiments yet,” said Moon Dancer, but all the same she walked back to the table and picked up a resonance meter so she could record the magic levels being used and compare them with their previously recorded baselines. Theoretically, any experiment they did that needed even slightly less magical strength than a normal teleport was progress.

“Phase Shift Teleportation experiment number one,” announced Twilight, her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth in concentration, “Begin!”

Her horn glowed with a swirl of her pink magical aura, which then appeared around a common textbook in front of her. There was a muffled pop and the book suddenly began to ripple like water.

“It’s going to blow away!” observed Moon Dancer, holding her breath while periodically glancing at the resonance meter.

Twilight quickly conjured a bubble around the experiment, which protected it from the eddy currents in the room. This was going to be additional magic, but proof of concept was more important at this point. Next, she cast her usual teleportation spell, concentrating her mind on the ghostly book’s current position and visualizing the destination, willing that vision into reality.

A tingling snap of magic echoed in the room, and the book moved to the table ten feet across the room, changing back to solid form in the process and landing with a thud. The two ponies both released their breath simultaneously.

“Well it looks like it worked,” remarked Moon Dancer, “You still used a lot of magic for that, well over the kind of target we need to achieve, however it was less than a direct teleport would’ve been…”

“It felt easier… I had to act quickly to stop the gas blowing away, but it felt as light as a feather when I actually teleported it. I think we’re onto something!” agreed Twilight excitedly.

The two of them caught eyes, sharing the excitement of discovery, and then Moon Dancer self-consciously looked away, clearing her throat. “Well, that’s just the start, a book is a far cry from a pony, but yes, we definitely have a theory to work on now instead of a bunch of vague ideas.”

“Honestly, I’m more than happy to try it on myself,” said Twilight, walking over to the table and inspecting the book. It was slightly soft, as if it had gotten wet and was still drying out, but other than that it was fully intact and still functioned as a book should. “I can ordinarily teleport myself from here to Ponyville at a push, I’m sure I can manage this method!”

“I don’t know Twilight,” said Moon Dancer, raising one eyebrow, “Surely if it was this easy Haycart would’ve finished his own work on this method?”

“You said it yourself, he abandoned phase magic because it wasn’t suited for Word Walker - that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.”

Moon Dancer pursed her lips. Twilight was pushing forward much quicker than she would have preferred. Previously she’d spent weeks just writing essays on unfinished theories, but Twilight was moving to testing on the first day. It was exciting to work at such a pace, yet it also felt like she was missing a lot. Or could be missing a lot.

“Don’t worry, if this works we’ll slow down to analyse the results. We still need to figure out how to reduce the net magical cost anyway, but proving that phase-shifting before teleporting can save on the required magical power would be an amazing day-one discovery!”

“H’mm. Well, if you’re sure, Twilight. Ready when you are…”

“Okay, if you could transcribe for me - Phase Shift Teleportation experiment number two! I will create a bubble around myself right away to protect myself from convection currents in the room, then phase-shift to a gaseous form before teleporting across the room to the fiction bookshelf, approximately fifteen feet from here.”

Twilight assumed a stable stance that made spell-casting easier and performed the simple bubble spell again. So far so good. Next, she surrounded herself with her magical aura and channelled her magical energy to alter her physical state. A sense of weightlessness overtook her senses as her body began to break apart. She fully retained her sense of self, and with a soft pop, the feeling of her body vanished entirely.

It was unnerving, although exactly as she had planned. She tugged harder on the mental cords of her magical reserves to initiate the teleport, and with a flash and clap of magic appeared on the other side of the room in the blink of an eye.

But unlike a normal teleport, where she would be instantaneously able to move and sense again, she still felt far away. This would only last for a split second, but the change in sensation caught her off-guard. It was with a shock of surprise that she felt herself being compressed at great speed, as if a bucket of water had been thrown into the air and the water had reached its arc and was now crashing back down. The molecules of her body squashed back together with what felt like enormous weight - and bounced.

The was a strange, liquid sounding bloop, and then everything fell still. Twilight blinked, feeling like she had water in her eyes.

The sound of Moon Dancer gasping on shock made her turn around, and she saw the unicorn, books splayed around her, with both hooves covering her mouth, her eyes wide with shock and fear.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked Twilight. Her voice felt... wet. Like she had just downed a glass of water and still had liquid lining the top of her throat. She took a step forward and nearly fell over - her centre of gravity was different, and her weight seemed to wobble with a new inertia that felt completely alien.

She quickly sat down and raised one forehoof, and then understood Moon Dancer’s reaction. Her foreleg was translucent and wavy, almost like jelly, but somehow seemed to hold its shape.

“Wooah,” she exclaimed, raising her other hoof and inspecting herself. She appeared to be made of some kind of goop, closer to liquid than solid, and could now bend and flex in ways previously restricted by bones and joints.