//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - The Awakening Of the Soul II // Story: Tails of the Ponyverse // by alfonso_rd_33 //------------------------------// 7 Days Later... As we enter we see Poncho, The Alicorn of Ponyville, in his temporary lodgings in the Golden Oak Library, getting his presentation ready for pitching the "Instant Transmission Travel System" to the Diarchy. His back vibrates in what he affectionately calls his "Spider Sense"... Moments later the chirping of the PipBuck in his foreleg chimes in… "Boss... Another Soul is traveling towards that Ponyverse.." "Yes I've noticed... let's go see if we can render assistance..." he said in response. And so he opened a portal, hoping he would be able to intercept the soul. The white doorway was framed by his tricolored aura. Once it finished forming, he stepped through and out of Reality to the In-between… It didn’t take him long to find the soul. It was traveling fast, itching to reach its destination, so of course The Alicorn intercepted it, capturing it in his aura as he mused to himself. "Got’cha. Now let's see who are you..." Of course, the very blue, white, and red soul should have been a good enough giveaway, yet still the Alicorn got surprised as he recognized the next Hero to be requested by that Ponyverse… "¡No mamen...! ¿Primero Kal y ahora tú...? ¿Y cómo Moriste, Soldado...? ¿huh...? Nieblas de Terrigen... Toda la humanidad se volvió inhuman... decidieron recolectar artefactos de poder¿Te dispararon...? Mar-Vell tenía el Escudo..." ¿¡te volviste una estrella...!?* After venting his frustrations of seeing friends ultimately died, the Alicorn moved to work... a bare soul, yes, a soul that essentially was the soul of a country, yes, but still a soul, so he said, “You'll need Erskine's work, but where you’re going there's no Erskine, nor his Job. He was just like this... so bear with me a bit... Yes, I am Fine.... just trapped in this Universe... so the me you interacted the few last times had a 50-50 chances of being a clone... don't tell Parker, you know where he stands regarding clones..." And so, the Alicorn of Ponyville "sat" cross legged as he said, "Of course, Erskine's work is lost to everyone... even me, but that can be changed, even if temporarily. Besides, I will need assistance on this one. Do you mind if I call a friend?" After a blink of consent by the soul, the Alicorn closed his eyes, as he exerted a power few possessed. He started to telepathically communicate with Twilight Sparkle. "Twilight? Are you there?" Thought Poncho as Twilight herself was surprised of hearing voices in her head, thankfully, not voicing her confusion, only by a small tinge of displeasure even Poncho felt outside the universe before answering... "Huh? Poncho, is that you? where are you? what's going on?" "Don't panic, I'm using my mind to talk to yours. Another soul was called like last time, but this time I think your world should do the job. Another friend of mine was asked to help there, but like with the last one, his enhancements required an external source. What I'm planning with this one is to magically synthesize the external factor so the recipient of this soul can actually access to the abilities the external source granted, yes Twilight, one of the N.C.** versions of me has confirmed the souls are placed into ponies, and they merge and combine into a new soul, having the best of the Pony and other being traits." To this, the Alicorn paused, letting Twilight think on his offer. Meanwhile, the clone of himself outside the closed pony multiverse finally reached back, giving him the knowledge he wanted, as both of them, and to a lesser extent Twilight, felt the countless other Ponchos Rodríguez of every species, gender and moral compass stir out, some complaining for the blatant rupture of the Taboo, as the source of that friend's augmentations was to be unknown to all, others demanding to be allowed to keep the information and others praising him for the idea he used to help their mutual friend… "Yes, yes, sure I will help you. What do you want to create using magic?" was Twilight's answer as she felt the weight of the choice her friend Poncho had made. This was the secret to the greatest soldier in creation, and she could see the possibilities, positive and negative. So she just waited. "Basically it is a potion, a potion lost to time and violence on the world it was crafted, but I'm getting it via the shared mind we all Ponchos have. Of course, we will forget it as soon as this is done. That much power should not be in anyone's hooves, and that includes mine and yours..." Again, despite the fact that Twilight understood the logic behind his choice, she couldn't help but feel hurt at the utter loss of knowledge, yet she said… "Oh...I... I understand... Do you have the formula?" "Of course Twilight. Here it is." And so, the Human turned Pony offered the Knowledge of the Super Soldier serum to Twilight Sparkle, whom worked hard to translate the scientific prowess of a lifetime into a magical Matrix, so a spell would be created, a spell designed to change ambient energy into the magical Equivalent of the serum that created the greatest soldier in creation... and Twilight said... "Since we're doing this only once, I'm bypassing you learning how to cast a spell and will give you detailed instructions on how to cast this spell. Seeing that this spell is not something you or anypony could innately cast..." "Wait Twilight, I think I can 1-up you... Twilight Sparkle, Welcome to being a Poncho..." Poncho interrupted her. And then, the world opened for the Element of Magic. She had become her friend, her mind joining to the infinite chorus of anyone that was Alfonso Rodríguez. From there Twilight could see exactly how the spell forcing her Poncho into the Alicorn shape worked thanks to her innate magical talent, yet she remembered the task at hoof. To help the greatest soldier in creation to effectively help the ponies of his new world. As he knew whom said soldier was, and what pony was supposed to receive his soul… “Oh my Sweet Celestia! This… this is what you live with…? How do you know what thoughts are yours and what are of other versions of you…? I mean, the possibilities of knowledge alone are mind boggling, but… nopony should be able to cope with the sheer amount of personalities...” Mussed Twilight as she tried to focus, She knew now that the soul of the soldier was going to merge with Fluttershy’s… the idea of how her friend would be ending up making her squeal with glee, as another voice answered… “The consensus is that the expanded mind power came either from the running of the thunderstorm or what happened before the minute training...” To this, Twilight saw something strange… before her, the green scaly dragon was huge, serpentine and agile. Twilight was surprised as the draconic being kept looking at the purple pony that was with her mouth agape watching this behemoth of a dragon… “Hello, I am Alfonso Rodriguez, in my universe the dominant life form are the dragons, so, unlike the version of me you know, I did not need some meddling of the Deities before the discovery of America to become a dragon… I am sure you can recollect both events, Twilight Sparkle…?” To this revelation, Twilight stopped to think, dismissing the chaos that was trying to understand how somepony could sort out having the knowledge and connection to every version of him or herself… finally recalling those events… running from the school to home in a thunderstorm, her body covering her book bag as she said in a strange tongue the equivalent to “*yay* you”, to the point where her first younger sister gave her a couple hoof guards… which pulled her through the ether for the first time… she soon dispelled the fake memories, deciding to focus on the task at hoof of giving the Captain the means to make Fluttershy “Tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties...” noticing how the hero souls were meant to work, at least regarding magic... "You magnificent bastard I READ YOUR BOOK!" said Twilight, as she casted the spell to the soul resting in her new, wilder aura, noticing how the red, white and blue of the soul seemed to shimmer even more. "Thank you Miss," she heard, for the first time directly in her mind, his voice say to her. After that, the aura surrounding the soul vanished, and the soul raced to meet its new body. Twilight felt her mind starting to forget the spell she had just cast, and the formula from whence it came. Once the knowledge was gone, she felt herself being separated from the infinite versions of... herself? Only one thought of the experience of becoming her friend lingered in her mind... "About this Twilight... Let us not talk about it ever again..."