“I don’t understand how such a small human could have possessed so much power…” Nightmare Moon said, “Even the six elements have gotten much stronger since our last encounter, this may not be as simple a task as we believe it to be as long as they stand in our path…”

“Relax Princess of the Night,” Mecha Mario replied, a somehow calming tone in his robotic voice, “we will succeed in due time, and we cannot just jump into the fight and expect to come out on top, we have to approach this entire situation with strategy…”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Moon asked inquisitively.

“We continue our own search for the remaining stars, they possess two to our one, there are still four more to recover, each with their own unique and versatile abilities, you have already seen what the gold one can do, and each other one only gets better, and obtaining all seven? This world will be ours yet.”

“How do we expect to locate these last four then?” Moon asked inquisitively.

“My creator installed a tracker that was integrated into my systems when I was built. It uses the energy of any of the seven stars to get a fix on the rest, too bad he couldn’t have finished building that device before Mario was at his front door. Regardless, I can sense each one from miles away, I could even tell you where those ‘heroes’ currently reside right this very second, and having a fix on their location at any given moment is going to work to our advantage, I can assure you of that.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s take them out while they still posses the few that they have now, as long as you are with me this time, defeating them will be nothing.” Nightmare Moon stated.

“We already saw how that went down; they didn’t even have use of the stars during your battle with them while you were supercharged by the one we have, and look what happened. Even if I was to accompany you this time, that still would not guarantee our success in defeating them. Our foes are quite powerful; do not let their looks deceive you. The best thing will be to track down the remaining Crystal Stars, you and I are both quite powerful, and considering we currently possess the star that allows us the ability to power up even higher at a moment’s notice, obtaining the final few will not be a chore at all, your highness…”

Nightmare Moon pondered the words of her mechanical ally for a few moments and finally had to agree with him in the end.

“The more Stars we have, the more power we will ultimately have…then we will search for the remainder, and when we finally encounter them again, they will not be so lucky.”

“Excellent, this world will be yours soon enough your highness…” Mecha Mario stated, activating his thrusters to take flight.

Nightmare Moon took her thoughts in for a moment before following suit with Mecha Mario.

For your sake, you’d better be right about all of this; my patience is wearing thin…

“It sure would be nice to stay and catch up with everypony down here,” said Applejack, “been quite some time since we’d been here last…”

“We will, Applejack,” said Twilight in a reassuring manner, “when everything has settled down again, we will come back here and just take it easy a little while, it really has been a long time since we’ve been to Appleloosa.”

“It really is a cozy little town; I can see why you would want to come back.” Said Goombella. “What did you all do when you were here last?”

“The last time we were here was meant to be a simple delivery to my cousin, Braeburn,” said Applejack, “but it ended up turning into a full scale war between the settlers of Appleloosa and the Buffalo Tribe.”

Goombella’s jaw dropped suddenly. “Well how did that happen?! Surely something must have sparked such an action!”

“I can tell you all about it on the way to the hive, let’s get a move on.” Replied Applejack.

Goombella and Applejack took lead as everyone else followed close behind them, walking through to the end of the town’s small boundaries and making their way out into the dry, arid desert ahead.

“As I said before,” she began, “it started out as a delivery but turned into a conflict with the Buffalo Tribe that lives not too far from here. You see that orchard out in the distance?”

Goombella squinted her eyes a little, noticing the relatively large amount of trees with a path cutting through them. “Oh yeah, I see it alright.”

“Well, the Buffalo Tribe wanted the settlers to remove the apple orchard to make room for their traditional stampede. The problem was, that orchard serves as a source of food to all the pony folk in town.”

“Taking it down would deprive them of their food and force them to either leave or plant a new one. But that would definitely take some time…” said Goombella.

“Exactly, so you see where the issue comes in.” She continued, “They attempted to solve things peacefully at first, but things would quickly get heated and uncivil, and before anypony knew it, the conflict had escalated into a battle between the settlers and the Buffalo Tribe.”

“Yikes!” Goombella said surprised, “Hopefully there were few casualties? I can’t imagine what that war must have been like…”

“Luckily there were no casualties, save for the amount of apples that were destroyed in the process. This was the only way the pony settlers really knew how to defend themselves from a raging stampede of Buffalo.” Applejack said coolly.

Goombella held a puzzled expression as they continued trudging through the desert.

“They used…apples to defend themselves? I don’t really see how that would stop them from trampling over everything.” She replied finally.

“I have to agree with ya on that,” Applejack replied, “but believe it or not, that’s what ended up solving the entire problem.”

“Oh really? Care to explain that one?” Asked Goombella.

“An apple pie stopped the destruction of the orchard as well as Appleloosa. A single one that had been launched into the air managed to hit the leader of the Buffalo Tribe, Chief Thunderhooves. Smacked him square in the snout.”

“How did that not just tick him off even more? If I got hit in the face with an apple pie, I don’t really think I’d be too happy about that.” Goombella replied.

“Feller finally got a taste of the sweetness of apple pies. Never had one a day in his life until that moment. He enjoyed the taste of it so much that he called off the stampede and a compromise could finally be made.” Said Applejack.

“Well that’s a relief, what were the conditions of this compromise then?” Goombella asked, very interested in her response.

“You saw that path that cut through the orchard earlier? In exchange for a portion of the food supply that the pony settlers would grow every year, the Buffalo tribe would do their stampede along that path through the orchard instead of overtop of it, and the settlers would get to keep the orchard and continue to live in Appleloosa. Both sides finally agreed to the conditions, and this is how things have been ever since.”

“Wow…” Goombella said with deep interest, “Equestria really does have a rich history, huh?”

“Oh, definitely, and this was recent, that’s not even getting into how Equestria was founded in the first place, but that might be a better story for our ride back home.” Twilight said.

“Fair enough, I could probably share a bit about Rogueport’s history later on; our worlds seem to be very relatable.” Goombella replied. “Almost as if these events were supposed to happen…”

“Whatever do you mean, Goombella?” Asked Rarity.

“I don’t know,” she replied, “it just seems like this all worked out too perfectly. Two similar worlds with similar stories to tell. Each with their own unique heroes, villains, and lifestyles, such a coincidence that we would all come together like this…”

“Well,” Rarity answered after a moment of thought, “fate has its way regardless of what we think we control, we’re merely actors on the stage called life, doing what the script says, saying what we think we’re supposed to, causing us to carry out actions already set aside for us. In every decision we make, there’s always that sense of ‘did I do this? Did this happen because of the decision I made?’, but we all have to understand that everything happens for a reason. We are only ever asked to do the best we can, and fate will continue to change as it sees fit.”

Everyone had to stop and stare at Rarity after her response.

The now blushing fashionista stopped to stare at everyone else.

“…what?”

“That was really deep, Rarity.” Fluttershy said, smiling at her friend, “You should become a writer! You’d be really good at it!”

“Goodness, not me! I’m simply much too busy to take on another creative medium…but thank you.” She replied, smiling shyly. “I still think you both should definitely drop by my boutique at some point while you are away from home. Haven’t you ever had a day where you aren’t always dressed in the same casual outfits?”

“Not for a little while, to be honest with you, “replied Goombella, “ever since I started researching with Professor Frankly, a small tie and my helmet has typically been what I wear, haven’t really given it much thought.”

“At least it seems like you wore something different at one point or another, what about you, Mario?” Rarity asked.

Mario shook his head.

“You mean to tell me all your life you’ve just worn a hat and overalls?!” She said, surprise in her voice.

In a little more detail, Mario explained that it always depended on the occasion, for instance, if he was throwing a party with his friends, they all might dress up the way the party was themed, or in some regard, whenever they played a certain sport, but that his plumber’s attire was all that he needed, even mentioning that his hat has been with him ever since he and his brother were babies.

“Well, you should let me make you something while you are here, indulge in a little of what Equestria has to offer.” She said, smiling.

“You bet! When we have a moment to relax, I wouldn’t mind that at all, Rarity.” Goombella replied.

As they continued their trudge through the desert, they noticed the sun was starting to head towards the horizon, signifying nighttime was fast approaching.

“Dang, how much further is this hive?!” Rainbow said impatiently. “Feels like we’ve been walking for daaaaays!”

Applejack rolled her eyes at the impatient, cyan mare.

“We’ll get there, Rainbow, you just have to keep your head occupied, why don’t you take part in these little chats we’ve been having? I hadn’t even noticed how quickly we’ve been pushing through this desert.”

“No offense, but they are just soooo boooring!” She exclaimed, “I mean, can’t we talk about anything a little more interesting?”

“What did you have in mind, Rainbow Dash?” Asked Twilight.

“Anything besides history lessons of Equestria would be fine with me…” She replied.

Twilight sighed. “To be fair, this is all that any of us have to go on. Mario and Goombella have only been here a short time, and all we really have to go on is learning about each other’s experiences and history.”

“Would it make you feel better if you gave us a lesson about the Wonderbolts?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash.

Suddenly her eyes lit up.

She began to revel on everything she knew about the Wonderbolts, explaining their history to the largest details of the achievements of each of them to the smaller details of favorite colors and foods to eat. She knew everything possible about the Wonderbolts. She also explained how she is striving to one day become a Wonderbolt herself. She knows that with enough hard work and determination, she’ll be able to reach that goal.

“Keep at it Rainbow,” Goombella said, “After the way I’ve seen you fly, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll become a Wonderbolt!”

After a little more walking, they finally came across a river, to which the question finally arose from Fluttershy.

“Are you all sure we are going the right way? Any further this direction and we’ll end up in the San Palomino Desert…”

“Well, if I remember viewing an old map in a book I read earlier, the hive is supposedly located south of the San Palomino Desert, so if we just follow this river south, then we should be there in no time!” Twilight stated.

Without missing a beat, Mario pulled the magic map out and confirmed Twilight’s theory. Following the river south will lead them directly to the location of the Sapphire Crystal Star, thus leading them to the Hive and Queen Chrysalis herself.

“Well, let’s get a move on then, looks like there’s just enough light out here to see for another couple hours, after that, it’s going to be difficult to see anymore.” Goombella said.

They continued their journey along the river, using the calming sound of the river as their guide through the desert, which was now beginning to get very cold as the sun continued to fade.

“Hopefully their hive is warmer than it is out here…” Fluttershy said finally, beginning to slow her walking pace down to almost a stop. “I’m so freezing, I don’t know how much longer I can keep moving.”

Mario created a small fireball in his hand and held it close to her as they kept walking, attempting to keep her warm so that it was easier for her to walk. She walked close to him and thanked him very lovingly for his gesture to her.

At least with the fading light of the sun, the night time sky created enough light to be able to see a little better in the dark, despite the fact that the air was still freezing.

Within a few minutes more of walking through the chilly air, luck finally turned in their favor. The small cave entrance in the distance finally reassured them that they had arrived.

They scoped the entrance to make sure that the immediate area was approachable and no Changelings were guarding it.

When they confirmed that it was clear, they walked inside of the dark tunnel, keeping all wits about them and trying to stay together as close as possible.

“It’s really dark in here, anyone wanna remedy this problem?” Goombella asked no one in particular.

Twilight and Rarity sparked their horns in a glow that illuminated the section of the cave that they were all walking in. As the small amount of light began to flood the room, several shadows could be seen moving away from the light.

“What was that?!” Shouted Pinkie Pie.

“What else would it be?” Replied Rainbow Dash, “They’re getting away! After them!”

With that, they took off after the shadows into the dark corridors of the Changeling hive, quickly losing sight of them within the maze.

“They’re in here somewhe-OOF!” Twilight said as Pinkie Pie landed on top of her.

“Gotcha! Wait, darn…” She said.

“Pinkie! Quit fooling around! And if you could please get off of me…” Said Twilight with an annoyed tone.

“But I’m right here next to Dashie,” replied Pinkie, “I’m not on top of you.”

“What? Then who is this? There’s not enough light to be able to tell.” She said confused.

“Well duh! It’s me, Pinkie Pie silly!” Said the Pinkie Pie that was pinning Twilight to the ground.

Upon realization, the Pinkie Pie that was standing next to Rainbow Dash immediately yelled:

“STICK TOGETHER TEAM!”

The Pinkie Pie that was pinning Twilight then held a slightly confused look before being blasted off by Twilight’s horn.

The false Pinkie Pie hit the ground with a solid THUD and flashed in a small green light before returning to its original changeling form. It quickly scurried off in a random direction, in which the group proceeded to follow it.

“Darn, where did he get to now? Goombella said.

“I don’t know,” replied Applejack, “but I can see light up ahead. Hopefully the feller got away in there.”

They quickly made their way to the part of the tunnel where light was coming from. Slowly, they entered the well lit chamber, which was scattered with torches all across the room.

“Finally out of that dark cave, now we can start searching for that star.” Fluttershy said, while exhaling all of her fears away.

They spread out across the room to look around for a moment to see what they could find.

Suddenly Applejack came galloping as quickly as possible straight towards Mario.

“Did you find anything, Applejack?” Inquired Rarity, to which she got no response, however, Mario would have disagreed on this statement.

Applejack ran right towards Mario, and when she was within an arm’s reach of him, she spun around and bucked him as hard as she could.

“MAMA MIAAAAAAA!” He cried out.

He could only stand with a very painful look upon his face as he began holding his hands around his male reproductive organs, which now must be swollen to the size that he could ball his fists. He fell to the ground rolling in agony, attempting to stand up, but the extraordinary pain in his stomach prevented him from being able to do so.

“Mario!” Cried his companions. Fluttershy attempted to hold him still and let him catch his breath. Meanwhile, the real Applejack bucked the false one into the wall on the opposite side of the room, reverting it back to its original changeling form as it scurried off to gather its comrades.

For the moment, everyone huddled close to make sure Mario was alright. After a few minutes of uncontrollable pain he had experienced, he was finally able to stand up, assuring everyone that he would be alright.

“These changelings play so dirty!” Exclaimed Rarity.

“That’s true, but they are very clever about it,” Goombella replied, “If he hadn’t disguised himself, someone would have stopped him before he could attack, but we all thought he was Applejack, and we took it for what we saw it as. Clever girls…”

“Uhh, guys? Get ready, we got company.” Replied Rainbow Dash.

Everyone turned to see the other side of the room flooding in with Changelings. Big, small, it didn’t matter; the point is their numbers were terrifying.

As they entered the room, they transformed into the eight heroes, who had now started standing back to back to back in response of the shear amount of doppelgangers that were now surrounding them.

“Wow these guys are good,” Goombella commented, “I don’t know how they can pull off looking like Mario and I, let’s just see what they can do!”

Remembering the little incident with the false Applejack from earlier, Mario drew from his anger. Steam appeared to be releasing from his head in short bursts as he eyed the Changelings around him and his allies. He reached into his overalls and found his hammer. He flipped it into the air and caught it with one hand. Then, drawing it to his side; he bore his teeth out at his enemies, followed by the sound of an angry grunt.

Everyone else followed suit taking battle ready stances of their own. Rainbow Dash flared her nostrils, Twilight and Rarity began to charge their horns, Applejack was ready to pounce, Goombella readied herself for her famous head-bonk, and Fluttershy looked confused as an excited Pinkie Pie hoisted her up into the air with one hoof, ready to toss her like a projectile into the crowd.

A false Applejack leaped toward Mario to begin, and he responded by swinging his hammer when she got close, knocking her away, where he leapt forth into the fight.

Fluttershy huddled into a ball as Pinkie Pie threw her at an approaching clone. When she hit the fake Pinkie Pie, the real one jumped up and caught the Flutterball, flipping and landing as she did so. She then pulled out the party cannon and launched Fluttershy at a group of the doppelgangers. Pinkie appeared to be having the time of her life.

Meanwhile, a false Mario jumped in front of Applejack, as he was about to punch at her, she quickly turned around and bucked him with the intent of launching him far away, however, she accidentally bucked this particular Mario in the family jewels as well. The false Mario clutched the afflicted area and transformed back into a changeling. Applejack bit her lip and smiled in the most innocent way she possibly could.

“Sorry about that, pardner…” she whispered to him as she ran passed him to fight off more of the changelings.

“Goombella! Hop on!” Dash yelled to Goombella.

Goombella hopped on to Rainbow Dash’s back, and she started flying as fast as the confined space would allow, holding Goombella with her head out.

Goombella closed her eyes as a countless number of doppelgangers were slammed out of the path that she and Dash were flying in.

“All right! That’s the way to do it!” Rainbow Dash called out excitedly.

In her excitement, she failed to notice the false Goombella that was prepared to head bonk her from behind. It almost got her, but Twilight blasted it away before it could.

She and Rarity were holding their own from their original spots. Things seemed to be working out just fine. The only problem was that for every one that was taken down, a few more would take the place of the fallen ones, and soon, it was more than they could handle.

Mario kept mashing all that he could, but he was caught by a blast from a false Rarity, dropping his hammer in the process and getting pushed through the mob.

Pinkie fired the Flutterball but soon realized that the Changelings were catching on. They finally caught the Flutterball and threw her back into Pinkie’s cannon, where the cannon then exploded on itself, leaving a mildly charred Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. They were then caught in the crowd with Mario.

Several of the false Rainbow Dashs and Fluttershys made their way to the real Dash and Goombella, overwhelming them and slamming them onto Twilight and Rarity. Soon there was just a massive pile up of Changelings that had overtaken their original position in the center of the room. For once, they could not fight back, every time the real heroes tried to attack, they would get beaten back to the ground.

That was when Mario sprung an idea.

As fast as lightning, he quickly pulled out the Diamond Crystal Star.

“YEAH!” He shouted in pure exhilaration.

The opposing creatures were blasted back from the starting energy, and Mario and his team jumped onto the star, holding on tightly.

He began to focus its energy, allowing the star to grow in size. When it reached an appreciable status, it bounced on the ground several times, creating shock waves each time which shook all of the Changelings out of their false forms, and left them on the ground, alarmed as to what just happened to them.

The heroes hopped off of the Crystal Star, and the now stunned Changelings attempted to retreat.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Taunted Rainbow Dash. “We aren’t finished with you just yet!”

As the remaining Changelings scurried out of the room, a voice called out to the heroes.

“We’re feeling pretty cocky today, aren’t we Rainbow Dash?” The voice said.

“Chrysalis!” Shouted Twilight, “Show yourself!”

“That’s no way to address a queen!” Chrysalis replied.

In a flash of green light, Chrysalis appeared in front of the heroes.

“To what do I owe this intrusion of the Changeling Hive? And who might these two freaks be that are standing alongside you?”

“Hey!” Shouted Goombella, “That’s pretty big talk coming from a creature who looks like they work at the factory that creates Swiss cheese!”

Mario observed Chrysalis, and finally agreed with Goombella, laughing at her comment. Afterall, she kinda does look like Swiss cheese, at least her legs do.

“We’ve come for that Crystal Star that you found, and don’t try to lie about it, we know it’s here!” Twilight said affirmatively.

“Crystal Star? You mean that blue stone that landed outside of our hive a while back? If you think I’m going to relinquish that then you are sadly mistaken, Sparkle.” Replied Chrysalis.

“This ‘Crystal Star’ has served as our new source of food ever since you thwarted my plan to marry Shining Armor over a year ago. Just another reason I will not be handing it over to you, my mortal enemy.”

“How has that thing been supplying you and your subjects with the love you need to thrive?” Applejack asked, to which Goombella replied.

“That particular star has restorative properties. That would make sense as to how they have been using it as a replacement for a food source. Regardless of the fact, we need that Crystal Star.”

“If you want it so bad, you’re going to have to take it from us.”

“Lady, we’ve had a looooooong day, and you don’t even want to know what’s to come if you don’t just give it back to us.” Said Goombella, “and I’m not talking about ‘us’ taking it from you. There’s another being that is in this world tracking them as we speak, and he’s even more dangerous than we are.”

“Oh please, you don’t look much like a threat at all, and anything else that comes this way with the intent of taking this stone from us will have to deal with not only me, but the entire Hive.” Replied Chrysalis.

“Look where that got you last time,” Rainbow Dash said, “you didn’t succeed a year ago and you won’t succeed now, why don’t you just save us the trouble?”

“Idiots, how else are we going to obtain the nourishment we need just to survive?”

“Have you tried, you know, not being senseless jerks and being friendly with other ponies?” Rarity said, “I’m sure you would be able to survive if you didn’t go around behaving in the manner that you all currently do.”

“ENOUGH!” An enraged Chrysalis shouted, “I WILL NOT SIT HERE AND BE LECTURED BY A LESSER BEING THAN MYSELF! IF YOU WANT THIS STONE SO BAD, YOU’LL HAVE TO TAKE IT FROM US!”

The group recoiled at her words and prepared themselves for a fight with the Queen of the Changelings herself.

Author's Note

So yeah, I know it took some time to release this one. Hopefully you all will understand, same reasons as always, friends, school, life, the works. As always, tell me what you think and I will update as often as I can. Enjoy.

It's been some time, I know. I guess I should be outright. I haven't been updating this anymore because I've lost interest and life has only gotten more stressful for me as time has passed. I view it now as a chapter of my life that's ended and it's time to move on. I won't tell myself I'm going to finish something that I know I won't anymore. I asked a friend about seeing if he would take up the mantle to finish it but he's just as busy with his own life and I'm not going to have either of us force the ending to this. I'm really sorry to everyone that was really into it, I know it sucks to be left on a cliffhanger that inevitably ends with nothing, but 1. I wouldn't want to force myself to do something I'm not enjoying anymore and 2. Even if I did, the chapters would only be dull and show my lack of enthusiasm to continue. Again, I'm sorry to end it all on a note like this. I wish you all the best in your own futures.