I finally managed to escape the chores Angel wanted to fob off onto me and make my way to my meeting with Spike. I decided to skirt the edge of town to avoid the worst of the psychic ripples. I was still buffeted by more than I was comfortable with, however. I really need to start walking with someone else. I mentally groused.
"Why's that?"
I can use the other person to focus past this crap. My whiskers twitched with my annoyance. I turned to face the town proper and yelled. "Daisy! That goat is passing through, you moron!"
"And down she goes..."
Ugh. I continued with a roll of my eyes. How can she be so skittish while still living here?!
"Well... Every town's got one or three, right?"
Every town on Equis? Not likely. The lake finally came into view, as did Spike where we agreed to meet. I ran the rest of the way to his side. "Yo, sorry I'm late. Angel kept me busy with stuff."
"No worries!" Spike reached out and scratched behind my ears. "It gave me some time to think on this. You said you want to learn how to teleport, but not like Abes, right? Well, what's wrong with Abes' teleport?"
"Because he isn't." I leaned into the young drake's claws. "The Teleport we can do is different to the teleport you and Twilight can do. It's closer to Eros', in all honesty."
"Really?" Spike glanced over at me. "Chalk one more point up to being naturalized summons."
I did a very good job of suppressing my wince. "And Abes' version isn't Teleport either. He calls it Shadowport."
"What's the difference?"
"Wrong typing. I know it sounds confusing, Spike, so let me explain." I lay down to get comfortable for my explanation. "So, each of us have evolved into different elemental typings. Not all of us evolved forms can learn Teleport, while others find it easier to do so. This ease of learning is, I assume, tied to one's type. However, I imagine that the others can learn it, with enough persistence. Any questions so far?"
"Is Abes' shadowporting a different elemental type as well, then?" Spike scratched his chin. "Would the type difference prevent you from learning to shadowport?"
I smiled. "Got it in one. He's got the type advantage against me, so-"
"How do types have advantage?"
"Well, some are more difficult to explain than others, but it all boils down to how the elemants interact with each other. For the most base example, Zann is a Fire Type, and would burn Villhiem, a Grass type, to ash. Villhiem absorbs Lulu, a Water Type, who in turn douses Zann. Make sense?"
"So far." Spike nodded. "But how does that give Abes the advantage over you?"
I sighed, and shivered as I remembered my interaction with the Umbreon that morning. "So, Abes is a Dark Type. To be a Dark Type, you have to be... mentally unstable. Some Dark types are down right mental monsters. I'm a Psychic Type, meaning that I can read minds and emotions and psychic imprints far better than I can the real world. Imagine that every time you look at Angel, you see a demonic chimera instead." Spike nodded along to my words, giving them the thought they deserved. "Abes is a good friend, hell, he's practically my brother at this point. But every time I look at him, or my mind brushes up against his, I get dizzy and nauseous. His mind is just so wrong. And I'd have to twist my thinking to reflect that antithetical mind set to be able to Shadowport. Why torture myself with that when I could just use the Psychic typed Teleport instead?"
Spike nodded, humming in thought. I respectably stayed out of them, instead letting his claw smooth down my hackles. "Is it possible," he finally mused, "for each of the types to learn their own form of teleport?"
"I would assume so, although I haven't seen any evidence to support the theory. Well, before Abes started dissolving into smokey mists, that is." I stood and shook out my fur. "But, now for the matter we're here for."
"Right!" Spike stood up as well. "So, wait hold on..." He gave me a quizzical look. "If your teleporting isn't the same as our teleporting, why do you need my help, and not Conner's in case you tele-frag?"
I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my snout with my tail tips. "Because, near as we can figure, your magic seems to follow the similar rules as Psychic types. If they were the same, Twilight wouldn't be able to levitate Abes at all. Vis a vis, the same tips and tricks you've helped Twilight learn with her teletporting can help me with mine."
"Okay..." Spike drew the word out. "So, we're not actually going to be teleporting today?"
"Nope."
"Then, why are we out here?"
"So that I can focus properly."
"Wouldn't the library have been quiet enough?"
I stared at Spike for a little bit before deciding to try something. "Spike, let me try and show you something. I'm going to need to access your mind to do so, though. Do you consent?"
"S-sure?"
"Then open your mind..." I sent a mental pulse towards the now armored drake, wrapping my psychic power around his mind. I closed our eyes to better focus my energy to go where I wanted it to go.
Before I fully dove into Spike's mindscape, I felt my own become a little lighter. With clarity of thought, I wound my way through bookshelves of memories before alighting myself beside Spike's mental self. He was staring blankly at an open book, the writing showing what he was seeing.
"This is the hard part." I murmured to him. With the greatest of care, I slowly slid my consciousness into Spike's. His claws became mine, his voice mine, his thoughts mine. And mine became his.
"What part?" I/Spike/We answered back.
"You will now see what I see. If only the briefest of tastes." I kept our eyes closed for the now, focusing on the blank page in front of me. "When you look at me, what do you see?"
"I see a large, lime green, cat-ish dog. Your tail splits near the end, and you have large tufts of fur below each ear."
"Good, good. Now, you will see what I truly look like." And I opened our eyes.
We saw a human male sitting cross legged on the grass in front of us. His feline mask matched the lavender cat sleeping on his lap, partially covered by the white kimono he wore. A blood red eye was painted on the mask's forehead with a single red tear drop falling between his glowing purple eyes. A full tarot deck floated in a circle behind his back, centered at his head.
I swept our gaze out over the pond to see the impressions it had, as well as the ones we could see in town. What I knew to be Twilight's castle was impossibly held within Golden Oak's branches, but that was overshadowed by the veritable circus the town had become. I forced our view to see the normal world before closing our eyes.
"This is what I must deal with, every day, Spike. You can see why I'd want to do this outside of town now, yes?"
"Yup."
"Good." I slowly separated myself from him. Once I stood beside him again, I looked about his mindscape. "While I'm in here, is it okay if I look through your memories of Twilight learning to teleport?"
"Sure." Spike nodded, pointing towards a row of shelves whose books started to glow. "It'll give me time to process... That."
"What part of it?"
“Just… That."
I snorted and began my mental snooping. In short order, I finished up, and prepped myself to jump back to my own body. The jump was smooth, and I opened my eyes as I pulled my power from Spike's mind. "Fair warning: that was the first time I tried to do anything like that, so there might be some side effects. I apologize in advance."
"Duly noted." He opened his eyes and looked around the clearing. "I'll let you know if I see anything weird. So! Did you learn anything while you were in there?" He asked while tapping his head.
I let my mind flow to a point on Spike's far side and willed my body to catch up to it. A crack of displaced air heralded my body slamming into my mind, knocking me onto my ass. "Yes" I groaned out. "Although, there is still a learning curve to this. But, I can officially state that I can now Teleport."
"Yay you." Spike snarked with a smile. "You want to stay for a bit and practice on landing paw first?"
I nodded, and focused on another nearby spot. I spent the next few hours teleporting around the pond. I even tried pulling Spike along with me. He landed much easier than I did, citing his familiarity to Twilight's teleports. Eventually, we had to call it.
I had tried a teleport, but instead of my body catching up to my mind, my mind rebounded back to my body. The force of which rocked me over onto my back. I was staring dizzily up at the sky when Spike's armored form leaned into view.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, though I think I just hit my mana limit with this..." Something warm began trickling down my muzzle.
"I can tell. Your nose is bleeding."
I wiped a paw across the trickle and brought it up into my line of sight. "Huh. So it is."
Spike wrapped his claws around me and hefted me up over one shoulder. "C'mon, lets get you to Conner."
"I can walk on my own..." I pouted. Spike ignored me and trudged his way back around the town.
After about half an hour, Fluttershy's cottage came into Spike's view. "Hey, Yomega? When you look at Angel, do you see a very large, glowing, bipedal rabbit with a red vest and headband?"
"Turn around so that I can see?" Sure enough, a large, glowing, bipedal rabbit with a red vest and headband hopped between the various bird feeders, filling them up as he went. "Yeah, that's Angel. Turn back, and tell me if he still looks like that."
Angel swung out of view. "Nope, he looks like Angel. And I only really saw the other thing for a quick moment."
"Okay, so that's a side effect of me mind melding with you, I guess. It should hopefully fade with time." I nodded, feeling Conner's ripples approaching.
<<Okay, what did you do?>> He asked as Spike finally put me down.
<<I learned Teleport, and promptly used up it's PP trying to figure out how to land on my feet.>> I admitted.
<<Great.>> Conner sighed. I could see a pink glow radiating off the grass as he placed his paws on either side of my head. <<Okay, no more teleporting today. This will get you back onto your feet and avoid mana exhaustion, but you're still going to need to rest up.>> He stepped back from me with a sigh. <<First Cy, Leo and Zann, and now you? Can you guys not hurt yourselves when you learn a new move?>>
I stood up with a stretch. <<Well, how else are->> I cut myself off and took four steps to my left. Just before Conner could ask me anything, a blur of light blitzed past us. I held up a paw to stall further questions. A moment later we were buffeted about by the wind.
"So, Leo's back in town." Spike helpfully observed as Angel stomped off towards the Daycare.