Mario and Luigi: Super Mare-io Brothers.

Chapters

The Quest Back to Canterlot
Building Miracles
Two Birds With One Stone
Return of the Brilliant Thief Pt. 1

The Quest Back to Canterlot

"The hay is that thing?"

"Looks like a sewer pipe."

"Crazy thing scared me half to death."

A small side street in Ponyville had been torn up by a green sewer pipe the suddenly burst from the ground, shocking the nearby residents who had been leisurely passing by that afternoon. They were even more astounded after they saw another being pop out of the pipe. He was similar in build, but he wasn't a pony. He was dressed in green and blue overalls, and he heaved himself up out of the pipe, falling over the rim and face-planting right into the ground. The mysterious figure was followed by a similar being, but dressed in red, and they both had glorious moustaches (the green man's being slightly less glorious than the red man's). As a third surprise, another person popped out of the pipe, quite literally, and slowly glided down on a parasol she drew out of nowhere. The red thing walked over the green one and held out his hand saying, " 'Ey, Luigi, this is-a no time to be laying down on the job!"

The one named Luigi looked up and upon seeing all the faces of the many ponies surrounding him staring at him, he jumped seven feet straight up into the air, screaming in fear, and he hugged a nearby lamppost. The red man sighed and covered his face. The female walked up to Luigi.

"Luigi," she said in a light but firm tone, "I told you you don't have to worry about the locals." She chuckled as she turned back to the small crowd. "They're probably more scared of you than you are of them!"

Luigi was shaking his head with his eyes shut tight. "Princess, I'mma not comin' down," he whined. "You and Mario are just-a gonna have to carry on without me." Luigi was now on the verge of frightened tears.

Mario pivoted and walked away, calling back, "Okay, but remember, if ya get lost, don't blame us."

Luigi's eyes popped open as he detached from the pole and yelled, "Lost?? On second thought...I'll stick witch you guys!" and he dashed away to catch up with the two travelers.

The trio was well inside the center of Ponyville by now, and were constantly getting weird glances from the residents.

Mario glanced around at the archaic style of the buildings and the ponies surrounding him. He had seen strange things over his career, but this...this just took the cake.

"Well, Peach, you weren't kiddin' when you said you were-a taking us to a special place," he said.

The princess giggled. "It's a quaint little town, isn't it? I remember being here so long ago."

Luigi's interest piqued. "Huh? You know this-a place that well?"

Peach nodded. "I find that a little hard to believe," Mario added.

Just then, an older mare passed by. She wore a stetson and her coat was lime-green. As the group walked on, she turned and squinted at their retreating backsides. Then she perked up and smiled. The trio heard a sudden whistle behind them and turned to see the old mare waving and calling, "Ms. Peach! Izzat you? Goodness me, child, you...have stayed pretty much the same since I last saw ya. Did y'all bring a couple male suitors, 'r who are they?" in a light Southern accent.

Peach blushed and waved back. "No, Granny Smith, they aren't suitors. They're friends, and I guess bodyguards, to an extent. Listen, I can't really stay and chat today, but maybe we can catch up later."

Granny smiled and called, "G'bye," before carrying on her way. As Mario, Luigi, and Peach resumed walking, Mario leaned close to Peach and whispered, "Now I believe it."

Pretty soon, the trio had come to the foot of a grand purple mountain. Peach started up before turning to the Marios.

"You two can go off and look around for awhile, if you want. I think you'll be surprised at what this little town has to offer."

Mario took a step forward as if to walk up the mountain with Peach. "Are-a you sure ya don't need an escort?" he asked.

Peach smiled daintily and shook her head. She walked up the steps carved into the lavender rock. "Just remember to come see me after, maybe...two hours?" she called back.

Mario nodded and tipped his cap, then ran off. Luigi turned, but hesitated and looked back at Peach and said, "Bye Princess, have a safe-a trip. Don't fall."

Peach giggled again and said, "Don't worry, Luigi, I won't."

Luigi tipped his cap and followed his brother.

Twilight was finishing up her errand of running around town and taking any unused books that other ponies had lying around. Her pack was heavy and weighed down with old textbooks, foal's picture books, and other assorted media, and was on her way home.

"Wow, so many books!" she said to herself, lugging a few of them in her arms.

"I'm surprised more ponies don't read. There's some great classics in here: Don Qipony of La Manecha, A Hearth's Warming Carol, and more! But then, most ponies can't pull off three all-nighters in a row like me," she mused.

The Mario Bros. were leisurely strolling down the walkway. Mario was keeping his eye out for any pasta stands to grab a quick bite to eat, but as far as he could guess, as he walked to a street vendor, there were only bakeries.

Aw, that's-a disappointing, he thought. Too much cake, not enough spaghetti.

Luigi was looking all around at the scenery, and he found it quite fascinating.

So fascinating, in fact, that he didn't watch where he was going.

Mario turned his head to see Luigi on a crash-course with Twilight, who couldn't see over her tower of books. "Luigi! Watch where you're-"

*Whack!*

"...Goin'."

Luigi had turned around just in time to get a face-full of "The Sisters Karamazov," and both he and Twilight fell over each other and onto a pile of hardcovers. Luigi kept flinching as the corner of one book was poking him in the stomach.

"Owie..." he groaned.

Twilight had closed her eyes during the impact and scrambled up, tripping over a couple books in the process. She finally got to her feet and tried to say, "Oh, dear, I'm sorry! Are you all right?" but what she saw lying under her stopped her cold.

There was...a thing there. It had the build of a pony, but it wasn't one. The nearest thing she could see it being was a hairless monkey, clothed in green.

"Luigi!"

Twilight looked up to see another monkey just like the one she fell over onto running toward them, but it wore red. He ran up to the green one and grabbed him, stood him up, and dusted him off. The green man had a very glazed look in his eyes. Mario looked him over and snapped his fingers in Luigi's face.

"Luigi?"

Luigi gave no response. Mario facepalmed and shook his brother.

"C'mon, Luigi! Wake up!"

The shaking seemed to do it, because Luigi shook his head violently and stared right back at Mario. He smiled and said, "Thanks, bro." Mario grinned too. The brothers turned to face Twilight, who was still on the ground with her jaw hanging open in disbelief.

Luigi grinned sheepishly and faced the other way, murmuring, "Sorry..."

Twilight brought her hand up and pointed at the Marios, whispering, "Who...?"

Mario walked up to her and held out his hand. Twilight retracted away from him at first, but slowly held out her hoof and Mario picked her up.

Mario smiled and exclaimed, "It's a-me, Mario!"

Applejack had just come back from the orchard, hauling a bounty of Red Delicious apples up to Sugarcube Corner.

"This'll be enough fer Mrs. Cakes' pies, Ah reckon?" she asked a waiting Pinkie Pie.

"Hmm..." Pinkie looked over the cart, zipping around it and measuring the amount of apples stored inside. After awhile, she looked back at Applejack with pride and said, "Yep!"

"Thank goodness," said Rainbow Dash, who was reclining on a cloud just above them. "I can't wait until they're made. Twilight can try out that new heat spell to cook'em faster."

"Speakin' a which, anypony seen Twilight 'round lately? She said she'd join us'soon as she collected a few donations from the villagers. Ya'd think she'd be done by now," Applejack asked.

The other two shrugged and looked around. But then they heard something very out-of-place.

"Yippee!"

Applejack lifted her head quickly. "Y'all hear that?"

Dash nodded. "But who said it? It sounded really far-off."

"Sounds like it came from waaay up there," Pinkie said, pointing to the sky.

When Applejack and Rainbow looked up, they could just barely see a figure in the middle of the sun. It was slowly getting bigger, as if it were descending.

"What'n tarnation...?" Applejack began. She was cut short after the figure landed. It was Luigi. He stood up and glanced around to see the girls staring in shock. He blushed, never having been the center of attention, much less to a bunch of girls.

"That was amazing!" a familiar voice called.

The three mares and Luigi turned around to see Twilight and Mario rounding the corner. Mario beamed with pride at Luigi.

"That's-a my brotha," he said.

Rainbow Dash jumped off of her perch and flew over to Twilight. She was visibly shaken from Luigi's sudden impact.

"What in the name of Celestia was that!?" she cried.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Pinkie shortly after. "Because it was so cool!"

Twilight looked at Mario, who gestured for her to explain. Twilight strode forward and said, "Girls, this is Mario, the man in red, and Luigi, in green, the Super Mario Brothers. They come from a place called the Mushroom Kingdom. From what they told me, I can gather that they're regarded as heroes over there, and have gone on numerous adventures, almost all of them revolving around saving..." she stopped and looked up, pondering what to say next. Mario leaned in and whispered, "Peach."

Twilight perked up again and continued, "Oh, right! Saving someone named Princess Peach from the clutches of a...for better lack of terms, thing named King Bower. And if not that, then they're tasked with saving Peach and the kingdom from a higher evil."

All of them were stunned, trying to comprehend everything that was happening around them. Rainbow Dash asked, "Okay, but can I just ask why..." she looked back and forth between Mario and Luigi, trying to remember which was which. "...Luigi. Just catapulted in here out of absolutely nowhere."

Twilight smiled and blushed. "Well, they told me they were really good at jumping, and Mario told me Luigi was better at it, so I wanted to see how high he could go..."

Luigi turned to Twilight. "And-a whaddaya think?" he asked.

A crazy happy grin crossed Twilight's face. "Unbelievably awesome," she stated.

"My stars," said another voice. Everypony looked to the alley ahead of them and saw Rarity and Fluttershy standing there. "That's quite a yarn, darling. If they weren't standing right in front of me, I wouldn't believe it myself."

"So," said Mario. "These-a must be all-a your friends, eh, Twilight?"

He looked around at them and gave them a warm smile and laugh that only a hearty, fat Italian plumber can give, and at that moment, everybody took a liking to him.

Mario looked around and bit his lip. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know any good pasta joints around here? I'mma starvin'!"

That just endeared him even more to everyone.

After a quick snack with apple pie and ravioli, provided by the pizzeria just down the street, which Mario described as "the one place I haven't a-looked yet," the gang was chatting, sharing different stories. It quickly became a contest to see who could come up with the best tale. The Mario Bros. were winning exponentially.

"...And I jumpa'd up, higher an' higher on those fallin' stones, all the way back upp'a the castle to where Peach was. Bowser was right on my tail, but I just barely made it to the switch, sendin' him down, down, into the lava below."

"Darn it!" Rainbow Dash slammed the table, having lost another round of their little game.

Luigi shrugged and said, " 'Ey, it's okay. Besides, you wouldn't wanta be there. It's scarier than it sounds."

"That was really nice story. Wait, did you save the princess, right?" Fluttershy asked.

Mario nodded. "Of course! It's what we do."

She smiled. "Oh, that's fantastic!" she gently exclaimed.

Mario leaned over and pulled his white glove back. Under it was a watch, and when he saw it, he jumped backward and almost fell off his chair.

"Mamma mia! Luigi, we gotta go! It's been two an-a-half hours!"

Luigi bent his head forward and sighed "Aww..."

Pinkie squinted and asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Luigi looked up and replied, "Princess Peach told to come-a back in two hours. Sorry, that means we gotta leave now."

Everypony "Aw"-ed in disappointment. As Luigi stood up, Mario grinned and said, "Hey, don't be sad. We'll probably be a-comin' back-a someday."

As the girls got up to leave, Mario looked up and thought about the situation, and got an idea.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. The others turned back to him. "You haven't met-a the Princess yet, right?"

They all shook their heads. Mario continued, "Then you can a-come with us to meet her! How does that sound?"

They all smiled and yelled, "Yeah!" in unison. Luigi beamed and motioned for them to follow him. "This-a way!" he called, and they all began their trek to the mountain.

As soon as they got to the first step, they could see something was wrong. There were small fires in some of the windows, and violet mist rising from the spires. Twilight was extremely confused.

"That doesn't look right..." she muttered.

Mario and Luigi were tense, teeth clenched and they looked about ready to punch someone in the face at a moment's notice.

"What is going on?" Rarity asked, still looking at the near-black smoke billowing out of the windows.

Mario spat out one word, the one name he despised over everything else: "Bowser."

"Who?" said Pinkie as she turned to the Marios.

Mario didn't answer, he only stared straight ahead and yelled, "Come on!" and began to bound up the steps with almost feral determination. Luigi noticed his brother practically fly away and reached out to try and stop him.

"Hey! Mario! Come back-a here!" he called, and raced away after him. The Mane Six looked at each other and saw they really had no choice but to follow the two plumbers.

At the top of the stairs, the Royal City of Canterlot looked very different all of a sudden. Gone were the higher-ups, aristocrats, and nobles. The only things roaming the grounds were...turtles. And brown mushrooms with fangs. Mario and Luigi dashed through the entire crowd of them, jumping on heads and using the turtles' shells as soccer balls. The six followed in close step, not wanting to get caught by these foreigners. They were very confused, but there was no time to stop and ask questions. As they ran up to the main castle's front gates where the Marios were standing, Twilight was just about to ask what in Celestia's name was happening, but Mario charged forward and used his bare fist to punch the front gates open. Behind the doors was the main hall, and in it, three figures: Princesses Peach and Celestia, who were bound in the same dark mist that was pouring out of the spires, and a reptile much like the turtles they fought, but larger, and with red hair, and extremely mean-looking. He stared the front door, as if expecting company.

Twilight strode up to Mario and whispered, "That's Bowser, isn't it?"

Mario made no sound, he only nodded.

Bowser smiled maliciously, and took a couple steps forward. Then he laughed with a deep, booming voice.

"Well, well, if it isn't Mario. How very...expected."

He turned his back to them and walked over to the princesses. "I suppose I should explain how I got here. To put it simply: you can't escape me. Since out first fight all those years ago, our destinies are intertwined. And I have spies. That helps too." He faced the group again and continued, "When I saw you leap into that Rainbow Pipe, I thought I'd follow you. And, boy, am I glad I did! This new kingdom, this 'Equestria...' it's just ripe for the picking."

Bowser then snapped his fingers and the Rainbow Pipe popped out of the marble ground.

"From what I understand," Bowser said, "this here Rainbow Warp Pipe is the only one of it's type. It'd be a cryin' shame if something were to..."

Bowser walked up beside the pipe and with one mighty swing from his arm, he bashed it in, causing the Warp to be cancelled and destroying the only way for the Marios and Peach to return home. "...happen to it."

Mario looked at the destroyed pipe, then looked up at Bowser and smiled. "Well, now ya goofed," he said. "You just locked me and Luigi here in this world...now there's nothin' that can stop us from-a stoppin' you!"

Bowser shook his finger at Mario. Then, quick as a flash, he released black bolts from his scaly hands, immobilizing the Marios and their companions. "Au contraire, ya pasta-pulverizin' plumber," he said. "I destroyed it so I could send you idiots home. That way, I can siphon all the magic Sun-girl has over there, as well as the light magic Peach has in peace."

He then lifted his hands to the sky, flinging the group up, up, and away. They burst through the roof and kept going. Bowser's dark magic began working, slowly vaporizing the heroes, and sending them somewhere else.

Bowser stared after their trajectory. "And then, it's on to greater things."

Twilight opened her eyes and was greeted by the bright, afternoon sun. She rubbed her head and sat up. All around her were her friends, as well as Mario and Luigi, who was already up and trying to help his brother and Fluttershy wake up.

"Luigi?"

Luigi immediately looked up at Twilight and rushed over, laying Mario back down next to him.

"Twilight? You're awake already? Are you okay?" Luigi asked quickly. Twilight nodded.

"Oh, thank goodness! I was really worried," Luigi gasped. "Listen, you gotta help me get my brotha and everyone else-a home! I've got some stuff there that'll make them better."

Twilight nodded and gave a light, "Okay," as she picked up Mario, Applejack, and Rarity while Luigi held Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash under his arms and Pinkie over his shoulder. From there, Luigi instructed Twilight to his house, where he'd whip up some Super Mushroom Soup to get everyone feeling better.

Author's Note

If the Marios' dialogue is confusing, just remember, they're Italian. Also, if you're Italian and reading this, I apologize for the offensively inaccurate Italian-English accents.

Building Miracles

"How's she doing?"

Mario stood up from his chair and jumped straight up to the upstairs balcony that housed Mario and Luigi's beds that were being used to help the ponies recover. So far, only Pinkie hadn't gotten up yet. Mario walked over to his bed where she was snoring peacefully. Mario nodded and went right back to the kitchen saying, "She's doin' okay," as he fell from the rafters.

After arriving home via Bowser's teleportation ability, the entire group was in bad shape, including Luigi and Twilight, but they managed to not only drag themselves home, but Mario and the other girls as well. After a couple miles of walking, Twilight and Luigi reached the brothers' house. Following Luigi's orders, Twilight tried to make the others comfortable while Luigi set to work. Using nothing but Super Mushrooms and spaghetti, Luigi cooked up a batch of Mario's favorite pasta dish. Luigi told Twilight this would wake them up for sure. Twilight questioned if it would really work. Luigi said, "Well, if-a the Super Mushrooms don't get'em up, the taste will!"

Sure enough, everyone but Pinkie was awake and fine in less than a half-hour.

Rainbow Dash was pretty pissed at what had happened. "I can't believe that big jerk just kicked us out of our homeworld. I didn't even think that was possible!" she fumed.

Mario wasn't paying attention to her, and was staring out the window at Peach's Castle, off in the distance. "I'd have'ta chalk this one up as one-a Bowser's smarter moves," he mumbled.

Luigi walked over and sat beside his brother, putting his arm around Mario's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay, bro," he said. "We'll go back and save-a Peach. We always do, right?"

Mario smiled weakly and nodded without looking back.

Twilight heard the brothers' little conversation and said, "That's wishful thinking. I'm in no way powerful enough to teleport us back, and as far as we know, the Rainbow Warp Pipe is busted."

"M-maybe somepony knows how to fix it...?" Fluttershy suggested.

Mario sprang up at this thought and slammed his fist into his other hand.

"That's right!" he exclaimed. "We can just go ask-a Toadsworth! He knows everything!"

Shocked at Mario's sudden outburst, the girls recoiled and Applejack asked, "...Who...?"

Luigi explained, "Toadsworth is one of the oldest toads we know, and he's a-the Princesses personal adviser. If anyone knows what he's doin', it's Toadsworth."

Rarity began to understand and added, "Ah, so he's 'been around the block a few times,' I take it?"

Luigi winked, nodded, and pointed at Rarity. Then, all of them heard someone coming down the stairs. Pinkie Pie was finally awake.

"Morning, everypony," she yawned. "I just had the craziest dream ever," she said before opening her eyes and blinking a couple times. "Hey, wait a minute..." She looked around at the scenery before her before smiling her biggest smile yet.

"Oh, I knew it! We're going on an adventure!" she cried.

Mario held up his finger and was about to speak, but he stopped short and lowered his finger. He was silent for a minute before he pointed to Pinkie and said, "We'll see."

There was a rapping at the front gates of the castle, and the Toad Guards quickly opened them up. In came none other than the Super Mario Bros...and company. They walked into the majestic castle and were greeted by the fantastic marble architecture of the great hall. The Mario Brothers ran straight forward, to the staircase in the back. The girls followed at their own pace, looking at the interior of the castle to get a feel for it, but making sure not to fall too far behind. The group kept walking through the castle, up the many flights of stairs that had been built. Finally, Mario and Luigi stopped at a room situated outside on the balcony. Mario knocked loudly, and there was a muffled reply of, "I'm coming, I'm coming! I daresay, stop knocking! I'm on my way!"

The door opened and an old Toad with a tan complexion of his mushroom cap and brilliant white moustache answered the door. He wore fine clothes, at least by Toad standards. When he saw the brothers, he jumped.

"Oh! My stars, if it isn't Masters Mario and Luigi! You two gave me quite the shock," he said in a refined manner. He then looked behind them and saw the mane Six.

"By Jove," he exclaimed, "I certainly wasn't expecting the company of Mistresses Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie either! Please, do come in. It's awfully chilly up here."

Applejack smiled and put her hoof behind her head and scratched in an embarrassed manner. "Nah, we're fine, Mr. Toadsworth. We jus' wanna know-" she stopped short.

"Wait...how did y'all know our names 's if ya'd known us for years?"

Dash's eyes widened at this sudden realization. She marched up to Toadsworth and bent over to look him in the face. "Yeah, how did you know that? Are you a spy...?"

"Oh, no, Mistress Rainbow Dash," said Toadsworth as he backed away. "Princess Peach just has ways of...'keeping tabs' on potential allies."

'What!? Peach knows all about us!?" Twilight cried. Toadsworth shook his head and told her, "No not 'all about you,' necessarily. She just has methods of watching out for you, and as her royal adviser, she imparted this knowledge to me."

"Oh, well, that's a relief."

"Indeed. It does me good to see we are on equal terms, Mistress Twilight," Toadsworth reassured her.

He suddenly jumped and exclaimed, "Oh! Pardon me, dear. I tend to completely forget that you have been coronated, Princess Twilight!"

Upon hearing this, Mario and Luigi fell backward if if they had been hit by an exploding fireball.

"What!?" they yelled in unison.

Twilight was visibly embarrassed. She had forgotten to mention she was a princess now to Mario and Luigi when they first met. She was even more embarrassed when she saw what Luigi did.

Luigi hopped right back up and ran over to Twilight, kneeling down and taking his cap off right in front of her. Although Twilight was more surprised than anything else, she was blushing.

"Luigi, what are you doing?" she asked while slightly giggling.

Luigi looked up and said, "I'm sorry, Twilight. If I had-a known you were a princess, I would've a-done this sooner-"

Twilight cut him off. "I don't have to be a princess to you, just a friend, okay?"

Luigi perked up and said, "Oh. Okay," and he got right back to his feet and put his cap on.

Toadsworth whispered, "I am glad you excused him. With Princess Peach being kidnapped all the time, they take someone being a princess seriously," to Twilight. She laughed.

Toadsworth chuckled and took a step back. "I do believe we've gone through the pleasantries," he said, wiping his glasses clean on his shirt. "What have you come to see me for?"

Suddenly, everyone was silent, scratching their heads or staring off in another direction. Mario nervously looked around and explained their predicament. Toadsworth listened intently, and when Mario was finished, Toadsworth nodded thoughtfully. He then walked back to a door and motioned for the group to follow. They did so obligingly, and upon entering the door, they found themselves in the library.

Twilight's jaw hung open at the amount of books standing on the near uncountable shelves.

"This library is bigger than the Royal Library in Canterlot," she breathlessly whispered.

Toadsworth walked near the shelves, running his finger along them and mouthing their titles in alphabetical order, until he came to a large book with a hard brown cover. He pulled it out, having a little trouble since the book was roughly one and a half times his size. He wobbled over to a table and reached up to put it down on the top. He exhaled deeply and cracked his back and hopped up onto a chair. The group gathered around the table. The book's title read, Encyclopedia Fungia. Toadsworth opened the book and began flipping through page after page of entries.

"Hey, where are all the pictures?" Pinkie asked.

"Shh," Rarity whispered.

After a few minutes, he came to one entry and stopped there. It read, "Rainbow Warp Pipe." Dash stared at the book and Toadsworth.

"Well...?" she asked.

"Well, Mistress Rainbow Dash, I think you have your work cut out for you," he said.

Twilight sighed. "Great. What's that mean?"

Toadsworth cleared his throat and explained, "The Rainbow Warp Pipe is extremely rare and almost impossible to find naturally. However, it can be artificially made. You only need five ingredients to create one. They are as follows: an enchanted 1-Up-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...enchanted?" Luigi said.

"Exactly," Toadsworth said. "An Enchanted 1-Up is made by dipping a regular 1-Up in the sacred Pool of King Kreem in Layer Cake Desert. Next, you need a Warp Pipe..."

"Shouldn' be too hard," Applejack said.

"Of course finding one won't be. It must be separated from The Warp Zone without cancelling the Warp. That will prove difficult. Then, you must gather a rainbow."

"Are you kiddin' me!?" Luigi screamed.

Toadsworth closed his eyes and wiped his glasses on his shirt to get the spit off. "I'm afraid not, Master Luigi," he said. "Anyhoo, you must also collect the extracts of various magical sources. These sources are: the magic found in Magikoopa wands, Sprixie Dust, and..."

"...And...?" Mario asked.

Toadsworth gulped. "A piece of the...the Dark Star."

"What was-a that?" Luigi asked again.

"The Dark Star," Toadsworth muttered.

Rainbow Dash chuckled, "Sorry, pal, but we can't hear what you're saying. It would really help if you'd speak up."

Toadsworth summoned all the courage he had in his tiny body and said, "You need to take a piece of the Dark Star."

Everyone froze, but in different ways. The Mane Six looked puzzled, but Mario and Luigi looked at each other with anxious grins.

"Oh, great," Mario groaned as he put his head into his hands.

"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked the brothers. Mario looked up at her from his chair and said, "Long-a story short, it's an artifact of pure evil. Why we need it, I-a dunno, but if the book says so..."

Luigi was quietly sobbing into his hands. Twilight whispered, "Is...is Luigi okay?" to Mario.

Mario looked at his brother and whispered back, "He had no appetite after we got swallowed by Bowser." Twilight wore an expression of pure disgust, but shook her head and muttered, "I'm not even gonna ask."

Toadsworth adjusted his glasses and continued, "Yes, and the fifth ingredient, if you will, is Mystic Metal."

Everyone said "What?" in perfect unison.

"Mystic Metal," Toadsworth explained, "is an extremely rare, naturally occuring metallic substance. It can mimic the properties of anything it desires on a whim-"

" 'On a whim'?" Twilight repeated. "So it's...sentient?"

"Exactly, Princess," Toadsworth said. "As I said, it can mimic anything in an instant. And since its sentient, it has a life span. On average, it lives for about...a minute."

"Well, this briefin's turnin' into a real downer," Applejack said.

"No kiddin'," Dash added. "This sounds impossible."

"Take heart, ladies!" Toadsworth exclaimed, slamming the book shut. "With Masters Mario and Luigi at your side, you'll soon find that 'impossible' is relative!"

As the group walked down to the main floor of the castle, Pinkie asked, "So where do we start first? There's just way too much to do!"

"Well, for a start, we should equip-eh ourselves," Mario said as he wandered off into a different corridor. Luigi smiled and followed his brother and the Mane Six trailed behind Luigi.

They came to an enormous vault with a large rotating lock mechanism. Mario and Luigi looked at each other and nodded. They then grabbed the lock and spun it around, releasing the door and causing it to swing back. Some of the Toads and Toad Guards came over to watch this spectacle they knew all too well.

The girls were confused, but Fluttershy overheard one of the Toads say, "Looks like Mario and Luigi are gearing up for another adventure." She swallowed hard. That didn't sound good.

As the vault opened, everyone was treated to a spectacular sight. Inside the vault were piles of the brothers' power-ups. Some from ages past, some they found in recent years. Mario jumped into the vault and began grabbing as many Super Leaves as he could find. Luigi beamed and went after his brother. The ponies went into the vault as well, astounded by the near-absurdity of the things inside. Rarity was looking at the stack Mario was digging into, but she jumped back when he came up suddenly. He picked out a Super Leaf from his arms and tossed it to Rarity and said, "Catch!"

Rarity reflexively reached out and caught the leaf. She stared at it. It was a light brown leaf, but it had black, beady little eyes. Suddenly, the leaf disappeared and in a puff of smoke and quick flash of light, Rarity was transformed. Behind her regular ears there were little triangular raccoon ears, and her tail was replaced with a large, cartoony raccoon tail. She looked at herself as best she could, and when she noticed her tail, she shrieked.

"What in the name of...! What have you done!?"

"I supa-powered you up! Now you can fly! Neat, eh?"

Rarity was just about to lecture Mario about her thoughts on flying when Rainbow Dash grabbed her and pulled her out of the room, trying to hold her back.

Pinkie was also rummaging through the many costumes and trinkets the vault contained. She got her hands on something rubbery and wet. Pulling it out revealed that it was some kind of frog.

She yelled over to Mario, "Is this a frog costume!?"

Not long after, Mario had taken more than enough powerups to take on an entire Koopa army. As he walked out, Twilight asked, "So...what was that all about?"

Mario replied, "These a-little powerups can help us take on different a-forms, which really helps in battle."

"So, we're going to use these to take on Bowser?"

"Yep! I think-a they'll come in handy," Mario said.

Twilight smiled and looked around. "Hey," she said. "Where's Luigi?"

As if on cue, an excited "Wha-ha-ha-ha!" came from the vault. Everyone looked back to see Luigi bouncing off the walls in a Shoe of Kuribo. Twilight was watching him with amazement, how he leaped around the room effortlessly. Mario leaned in and said, "He lives for this."

Then Pinkie ran into the room and called, "Hey, Luigi! That looks like fun! Can I try?"

"Sure! Hop in!" Luigi called.

Luigi stopped his bouncing midway to the ceiling while upside-down. He fell like a cat, quickly twisting back up before he hit the floor and landing right next to Pinkie, who climbed right in and they took off. By the time they finished, it was late evening, and no one was willing to go out treasure-hunting in the darkness. The group headed back to Mario's house for dinner and a good night's sleep.

Two Birds With One Stone

The smell of Luigi's Super Mushroom Omelette wafted through the entire house. When the smell hit Mario's nose, his body told him to get up now, 'cause if you don't, all the seats are gonna be taken. So he tossed the covers off and realized the entire living room was empty. The night before, Mario gave up his bed for Twilight, and Luigi slept on the floor, along with Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Rarity stayed in the one recliner the brothers had, and Pinkie slept in Luigi's bed. Mario rushed to get his shirt and overalls on. He didn't bother with the cap, because they weren't going anywhere. Yet.

As he entered the kitchen, he saw that Luigi was a miracle worker. Pinkie was stumbling into the kitchen in a dreamy trance, practically following the smell of the eggs and mushrooms. Luigi hadn't noticed her, so Mario went up to his brother and said, "Hey, Luigi, those eh-classes really paid off," and he pointed to Pinkie. "You're cookin's a-good enough to raise the dead!"

When Luigi saw Pinkie voluntarily sit down at the table and pick up her fork while still fast asleep, he doubled over, desperately trying to stifle his laughter. The other girls at the table chuckled. Luigi hit himself in the chest a couple times to get the giggles out and walked over to Pinkie and gently shook her.

"Pinkie..." he crooned. No response.

"Hey, Pinkie," Luigi whispered again, shaking harder. Pinkie went slack and her head hit the table, still out cold.

"Don't bother," Twilight said, waving her hoof aside. "She sleeps like a brick."

Rainbow Dash leaned close to Pinkie and articulated, "Gee, that's a shame, because she's going to miss breakfast," as clearly as possible.

In an instant, she picked her head up and asked groggily, "Huh? Wha-? Somepony say breakfast?"

Twilight put her head in her hand. "Until that happens," she added.

Luigi chuckled and picked up the eight omelettes that had been cooling on the counter. With a surprising amount of grace and poise, he slid each of them off his arms and onto the table.

"Order up!" he said as he came to his own seat. He tossed the last plate high into the air and quickly sat down. The omelette fell off the plate and the plate itself went down faster. Luigi caught it and a second later, he raised the silverware to catch the food. He set it down on the table. Everyone was looking at him. Luigi looked up from his dish and froze under their gazes.

"Whut?" he said with his mouth full.

Mario shook his head and smiled. "Showin' offa for the girls, eh?"

Luigi swallowed hard and slammed the table with his fist. "NO."

Once everyone finished up, Twilight brought out a piece of paper.

"What's 'at for, sugarcube?" Applejack asked her.

"Well, while Luigi and Pinkie were busy in that big room full of goodies, I went back to the library and did some research on the items we're supposed to find," Twilight said, as she turned the parchment around. On it were diagrams of the various items, containing footnotes, measurements, and location information.

"Wow, you did all that while we were in there?" Luigi said.

"Well, you two were playing around for five hours. I imagine it's possible," Dash remarked.

Twilight continued, "I've done some thinking and by process of elimination, I think the two easiest ones on this list to accomplish are getting a Warp Pipe and finding King Kreem's Pool. Considering Warp Pipes are everywhere here, and no doubt one leads to Layer Cake Desert, we can take one there, find the pool, do our thing, and when we come back, I'll just cast a stasis spell on the Pipe and see what that does."

Mario finished munching on the last Super Mushroom in his omelette. "Sounds-eh like a plan," he said, and stood up.

"Let's-a go!"

The sun beat down on the desert sands unrelentingly. Amidst the high dunes of icing stood a lone Warp Pipe. Twilight lifted herself out of it and immediately got sand in her eyes.

"Ack! Mother of Celestia!" she cursed.

She got out and rubbed the sediment away, and the entire group followed her. After everyone clambered out, Mario stepped in front of them and said, "Okeedokee, inventory check-eh! Mushrooms?"

Rarity held out a bag full of Super Mushrooms and a couple 1-Ups.

"Assorted powerups?" Mario said again.

Pinkie held up another bag and shouted, "Here!"

"Water?"

Fluttershy raised her hand.

"Great! Anything I forgot-eh to mention?" Mario said. Everyone thought a minute and Mario slapped his head.

"Oh, that's right!"

"Did-did I forget something?" Fluttershy asked meekly.

"Oh, no! I just have-a this!" and Mario pulled out a kitchen knife.

Dash cocked her head. "What's that for?" she asked Mario.

Luigi called, "Oh, I know!" and took the knife from Mario. He then went over to some exposed rock and plunged it in, cutting it into a triangular slice. He pulled it back out and showed it to Pinkie. She took it. It seemed to have the texture of cake, so she took a bite, and her irises widened.

"It is cake!" she cried excitedly.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "C'mon, y'all. We'll have time for snacks later," she told Pinkie.

Pinkie hung her head. "Aw...okay."

The group trudged away through the burning sands. Despite being told not to, Pinkie really couldn't help sneaking slices of cake from the dunes. She got caught by Twilight once and was instructed not to eat anything because that would just make her thirsty and drain their water supply. After that incident, Pinkie made her way slowly along in the back. Luigi noticed her lagging behind and swiped a piece of cake out of the rock again and made his way back to Pinkie. When he got there, Pinkie looked up at him gloomily...until he brought out the slice of cake. That made her smile so wide that her teeth reflected the sun.

Up another one of the almost-matching sand dunes, the group saw in the distance a collapsed stone tower, constantly pelted by the desert sands.

"What's that thing?" Dash asked as she shaded her eyes to shield them from the sun.

Mario looked in the direction Rainbow Dash was facing and said, "Halfway point," nonchalantly.

Luigi joined his brother. "He means-eh that that old tower was-a the halfway point to the boss castle. We'd haveta fight our way through this tower and take on the mini-boss to continue on."

Mario gestured for the others to follow his lead and he slid down the hill. The rest of the group followed suit. They made their way to, in, and through the tower with relative ease. After more long hours of trekking through the desert, they came to a large quicksand pit dotted by various islands of stable ground.

"What's all this?" Twilight asked Mario.

"This is a-the spot where King Kreem's palace used'ta stand," Mario replied.

Luigi whispered, "Y'know, I heard some stories about King Kreem. They say he was-a the most fearsome warlord of the time, and he lived to be two-hundred years old."

Dash looked at Luigi with extreme doubt and a hint of fear. "No way," she said, dismissing Luigi.

"No, it's-a true," Luigi insisted. "They say he died at-eh one-oh-two, but Death was too scared to pick him up. So he lived for almost a hundred years-a more."

"Well, stories about Kreem won't help us find him," Twilight replied. She looked at Mario. "How do we get to the Pool?"

Mario thought for a minute then said, "I read somewhere that-a the palace sunk-eh below the quicksand almost a thousand years ago, but I'mma not too sure."

Pinkie looked down at the quicksand. "Well, there's only one way to find out!" she yelled and jumped off the ledge.

Everyone screamed, and Luigi raced to the cliff like a madman and wasted no time jumping over. He landed in the sand with a splat and a sickening sucking sound quickly followed. He was right next to Pinkie.

"Pinkie! What we're a-you thinkin'!?" Luigi screamed at her.

Pinkie just smiled. "Relax! If Mario's right, we'll be fine!"

"An' if he's not...?" Luigi asked.

The sand had reached up to their necks and a second later, they were gone.

Meanwhile, everyone on the cliff was flipping out. Fluttershy was crying, and Mario was staring over the edge. He then looked at Twilight and yelled, "We haveta go after'em! That's-a my brotha down there!" Twilight was panicking. She knew she could easily part the quicksand with a magical compression blast, but if the sand was too deep, it would only force Luigi and Pinkie deeper.

"Twilight! Please!" Mario was on the verge of tears.

Looking back and forth from Mario to the quicksand, Twilight gathered her strength and aimed her hoof at the place where the two fell. With a surge of magical power, a magenta bolt flew out of her horn and went into the sand. A split-second later, the sand opened up, revealing that there was, in fact, a kind of island under the sand, with the solid ground above being supported by rock pillars. On that island was a palace that was falling apart, its color faded and cobwebs alighted in dark corners. There were also two figures standing on the edge, looking up a the bright surface above. It was Pinkie and Luigi, covered in sand, but seemingly okay. The magic bolt widened, creating a makeshift wall on two sides to hold back the sand.

Luigi squinted up at the others and waved after his eyes adjusted.

"Hi guys! We're okay!" he called.

The girls stared in a state between relief and astonishment. Mario's eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted dead away.

After everyone had safely leaped down into the abyss, the group resumed exploration for the Sacred Pool. The palace of King Kreem was a maze in itself, despite being out in the open. The adventurers also noticed that all the torches were lit and fresh.

"Sompony's been down here before..." Rarity whispered.

"Or is still down here," Luigi shivered.

Fluttershy whimpered and clutched Pinkie Pie. "Please don't say that," she quietly begged.

They passed by a couple structures that must have once been living quarters, because there were skeletons visible through the windows, still sitting in chairs and laying on beds, and they could smell the pungent aroma of vital organs that had been buried for so long that their embalming salt was losing its power.

The group continued with their search until they came to, what Twilight guessed, was the center of the palace courtyard. It was a small garden, divided into four quadrants filled with sand. Twilight guessed that at one point, the quadrants had been filled with grass and housed flowers, but those days were long gone.

Dash was panting and sat down on the marble pathway. "Can we take a break?" she gasped.

Mario looked at her and sat down as well. "That's-a good idea. Get out the mushrooms and water," he said.

Everyone sat down and had a quick snack to get their energy back up. Everything was calm for a few minutes, the only noise being the crackling fire of the torches. Then there was another noise.

*Click...click*

Everyone snapped to attention. Fluttershy whispered, "Um...what...what was t-that?"

Rarity listened intensely, trying to block out the sound of crackling fire.

*Click...click*

"I know that sound," she said. "It's...it's the sound metal makes when it hits stone, but this one is much lighter...more gentle..."

*Click...click*

"And judging by the pace...it sounds like walking. Somepony is walking down here...with us..."

Everyone was silent and braced themselves. But slowly, the sound faded away, and everyone relaxed again. Until they heard something louder, a kind of scratching on the southern wall of the garden. Everyone wheeled around to catch a glimpse of what was making the noises, and they were greeted with a message. There were words crudely carved into the wall that read, Who are you? Suddenly, the calm atmosphere was gone, and the sound of crackling fire slowly became ominous laughter. Everyone was scared beyond belief.

"Mario...?" Luigi stuttered.

More scratching, in the opposite direction. They spun around again and saw another message: You should not be here.

"Mario, I don't like this place anymore," Luigi whispered.

"I...I never...liked it to b-b-begin with," Fluttershy squeaked.

Then, a gust of wind blew out all the torches nearby, and everyone was stuck in pure chaos. No one could see and no one could tell what was going on until the torches miraculously re-lit themselves. Now that there was light, everyone could see what had happened: there was another message, scrawled into the marble that the group was standing on that read, Perhaps I will have to ask you in person. After everyone had read it, they looked at each other nervously.

"Who is this guy?" Dash asked.

"I'd be much more worried 'bout what he looks like in person, sugarcube," Applejack said.

Mario looked to where he last heard Luigi fumbling around in the dark. He was shivering violently while clutching Pinkie Pie as if his life depended on it. Mario grinned and said, "Luigi, you and Pinkie look-a like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo!"

Luigi stopped shaking and looked around. Sure enough, Pinkie was holding him up and he was hugging her neck. Luigi blushed and hopped back down, chuckling nervously.

"Sorry," Luigi mumbled.

Pinkie scratched the back of her head and blushed. "Hey, no problem. Isn't that what friends are for?" she giggled.

Then, the sand in the corners of the garden began to shake and come loose, kicking up dust which swirled around into a vortex high above everyone else. The pits of the garden were emptied, revealing four sarcophagi that had drastically different faces from most of the ones Mario and Luigi saw when they were jumping through ancient pyramids. While most had indifferent faces, these ones' expressions were filled with disdain and silent hate.

The dust tornado got thicker and thicker and lowered to the ground, where it dispersed. In its place was a tall man, taller than Luigi. He was extremely tan, and wore a traditional Egyptian head garment and loincloth. Around his arms and hands were linen bandages, greasy and stained. His body was an anomaly. His face was that of a middle-aged man, but his body seemed fit, poised, and strong. He held silver scimitars in each hand. He looked down upon the adventurers.

His voice was deep and imposing as he inquired, "I am King Kreem. Who might you tiny mortals be?"

Dash and Rarity nudged Twilight forward. She desperately tried to keep her knees from knocking together and show that she was nothing short of terrified.

"I...I am...My name is T-t-twilight Sparkle. *gulp!* And these are m-m-m-my friends. We've come...a long way to...to find your p-p-palace and the..." she swallowed at the thought of his reaction. "S-s-s-sacred Pool...?"

King Kreem looked up at the rock ceiling. "You as well? I should not be surprised. The lure of immortality temps all and the challenges to keep them away faze them not."

Dash's eyes widened. "Immortality? The Pool can do that?"

Kreem struck the ground with a scimitar. "Silence!" he shouted. Everyone was quiet without hesitation. Mario tentatively stepped forward and took off his cap. Kreem looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Mario nodded as if asking for permission to talk.

"Speak your mind, mortal," King Kreem said.

"Your highness," Mario began, "we don't have any interest in immortality. We just...well, it's a long-eh story, but we need to use the sacred eh-pool to create an enchanted 1-Up Mushroom."

The king's tone became suddenly informal as he said, "What...? Seriously? You crossed my once-rich desert, braved the Quicksand Ocean, and intruded on my palace just so you could soak a damn mushroom in my Sacred Pool?"

Mario nodded sheepishly. "That's-a 'bout the whole of it."

The king scratched his chin and was silent for minutes at a time, at which point Applejack whispered, "Whaddaya think he's doin'?"

Kreem quickly raised his hand palm-up, and everyone was dead silent again. He looked back at the group and nodded slightly. He said, "Considering you have no interest in immortality, and are genuine in your statements, I shall grant you some leniency. Stand down, men."

Everyone noticed that undead skeleton warriors dressed in Egyptian armor and carrying more scimitars had surrounded them and were standing in the four entrances to the garden. At the king's order, they lowered their weapons and stood in the doorways, blocking all exits.

"To deem yourselves worthy of the Sacred Pool, you must pass one test," King Kreem said. "You must defeat me in honorable combat."

Mario, Luigi, and the ponies looked at each other and nodded. Mario and Luigi took their battle stances and the Mane Six stood at the ready.

"Are you prepared?" Kreem asked the heroes.

"Bring it on," Dash told him.

In a flash, King Kreem sprinted toward the group and his swords glinted in the torchlight. He swung both scimitars in a wide arc when he reached them and they all dodged in different directions to avoid the attack. Kreem turned left and faced Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Mario. The king squinted and charged forward. Dash raced into him, jabbing him in the face with her elbow. Mario had leaped into the air, and was coming down fast. Kreem recoiled and saw Dash heading in for another attack. When she tried to hit him with a flying kick, he grabbed her leg and held her up to Mario, who was about to come down on top of them.

Mario had to make a split-second choice: continue his attack and risk hurting Dash, or find a creative way out of it and get her out of Kreem's clutches in the process. So, he did a backflip and when his upper body was close to Dash, he reached out, grabbed her, and used her as an anchor for a swinging kick that hit the king when Mario split his legs so they wouldn't hit her. King Kreem let go of Rainbow Dash, and Mario held on to her as they jumped back to safety. Kreem then threw one of his scimitars at Fluttershy. She yelped and ducked. The edge just barely clipped her wing, and the sword took an arced path back to the king like a boomerang.

Suddenly, Kreem felt the force of a cannonball hit him in the back. Pinkie had her Party Cannon out and had just launched Luigi out of it. His Green Missile could be surprisingly deadly, and that attack would've killed a normal person. Clearly though, King Kreem was not normal, because after he went careening into a wall, he stood up and, while not severely injured, was clutching his left arm with a very pissed expression.

"It seems I do not need to hold back on you," he said. He then dropped his scimitars and clenched his hands into fists. They started to glow with blue fire. He wound up his attack, stepping backward and yelling, "Fire of the Afterlife! Andeddo kasai!" He forced his palms out and a wall of blue flame came streaking at the heroes. Rainbow Dash grabbed Mario and Luigi, Fluttershy picked up Applejack, while Twilight grabbed Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and they flew up and over the flames. The fire spread and covered the garden.

"Looks like we ain't goin' back down," Applejack sighed.

Mario was hanging by his left arm, and looking up, he saw Dash wasn't holding on to him. He let go and fell down, and while he was falling, he brought his fist up, taking aim at King Kreem. His hand began to glow red and small tongues of fire were escaping between his fingers.

"Ken no kasai!" he shouted. He swung at Kreem with full force. The king brought his hand up and and caught Mario's punch. They stayed like that, with Mario locked in midair, as if the force of his punch was keeping him up.

"You have great power," Kreem said, "but you lack the speed to deal it."

Mario smiled wryly. "Actually, I wanted you to catch my hand," he said. Kreem froze, and his expression changed to fear in a second.

Mario's smile turned to a rage born of battle as he yelled, "Ue no hono!" All at once, gouts of fire erupted from Mario's fist and were as large as a solar flare. The force from this eruption propelled Mario's arm forward, breaking through Kreem's defenses and punching him square in the jaw. Kreem flew backward, smashed into the ground and slid aways before stopping dead still. The blue fire dispersed before Mario landed.

The others stared in shock and came down slowly, except Luigi, who was cheering his brother on and tossing his cap in the air. Twilight ran up to Mario and studied his hand.

"How...did you do that!?" she cried.

Mario rotated his shoulder. "Years-a practice," he said.

Suddenly, King Kreem sprang up and levitated in midair, arms outstretched. The heroes spun around and faced him, still ready for anything he could throw at them. But the king didn't do anything for a long time. Then, he brought his hands together and slowly started clapping.

"Impressive," he mused. "Very impressive. Not all of you may have partaken in this little tournament, but I can see your combined power vastly outmatches mine." Then, the four sarcophagi opened up, and water sprung out, filling the sections of the garden, and the marble pathway sank into the water. "You have proven yourselves more than worthy to use the Sacred Pool of Ages," Kreem stated.

The adventurers looked at each other and smiled. Rarity took off her pack, reached in and pulled out a 1-Up. She tossed it to Mario and said, "You won for us, would you like to do the honors, darling?" Mario smiled and tipped his cap. He walked up to the Sacred Pool and slowly submerged the mushroom in the holy water. When he brought it back out, the color of the cap had changed to silver. Mario looked up and bowed respectfully to King Kreem.

Mario set the Enchanted 1-Up on the table of the castle library.

"Oh, my! Splendid work!" Toadsworth exclaimed. "You actually found the Sacred Pool of King Kreem?"

Twilight smiled. "Well, technically, Pinkie and Luigi found it."

Toadsworth nodded in astonishment. "Ah, very impressive, Master Luigi and Mistress Pinkie."

Mario walked up to Luigi and said, "About that...never do that again. You gave-a me a heart attack!"

Toadsworth looked around. "Say, you said you had another ingredient with you...where is it, may I ask?"

Twilight's horn glowed and a Warp Pipe appeared out of thin air. She gently lowered it until it was perfectly level with the ground, and released the magic stasis field around it. The pipe stuck to the ground with the inside still being black and not empty.

"Oho, I see!" Toadsworth chuckled. "Well, then, an impressive start, if I do say so myself!"

"So, what shall we go after now?" Rarity asked.

Luigi thought for a minute. "I feel like-eh chasin' rainbows," he said.

"Okay..." said Twilight. "Just remind me...how are we going to physically get a piece of an actual rainbow?" Mario laughed.

"I'mma just gonna say 'we got friends on the otha side,' " he said.

Back at home, everyone was relaxing with some Syrup Surprise, made by Luigi, of course.

As Applejack took a drink, she asked Mario, "Hey, how did y'all get those fancy moves? The ones ya took down Kreem with?"

Mario put down his Syrup on the counter and said, "Learned-eh how to channel my Link. A Link some kinda element you're closely associated with. Mine's-a fire."

"Where'd ya'll learn that?" she questioned again.

"Place called-a the Beanbean Kingdom. It neighbors the Mushroom Kingdom, an' it's...interesting, to say the least. If you're curious, I guess we could go there tomorrow," Mario offered.

"Does Luigi have one? Can he shoot fire from his eyes?" Pinkie called from upstairs.

"Mm...Luigi's better with lighting," Mario said. Pinkie's head appeared over the balcony with a very serious expression.

"No way," she stated firmly. Mario looked over at his brother who was at the table, who was really in no mood to show off anything, much less to Pinkie Pie.

"No, thank you," Luigi said.

"C'mon, Luigi. Just-a once?" Mario pleaded.

Luigi groaned and stood up. He lowered his head. Everyone leaned in to get a good look, but Mario stood back. He knew better. Suddenly, Luigi raised his head and screamed, sending two lightning bolts from his white, glowing eyes. Everyone was sent reeling back, and Fluttershy ran into the living room and cowered under the couch. The sound of thunder soon followed this spectacle.

Twilight was staring at Luigi in awe and as she got back up she said, "I need to learn how to do that..."

Luigi sat down, his face more red than Mario's Fire Fist. Mario looked up and grinned weakly. "Looks eh-like we're goin' to Beanbean Kingdom tomorrow," he said.

Return of the Brilliant Thief Pt. 1

Toad Town was up bright and early, and so was Mario. The earliest he'd ever been up, in fact.

"Why couldn't we just a-get an eleven'o'clock ticket?" he whined. The current time was eight-thirty, and Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity were packed up and ready to go to the Mushroom Kingdom airport and depart for the Beanbean Kingdom.

"Where'n the almighty heavens are Pinkie'n Luigi?" Applejack asked impatiently.

"Pinkie must have woken up at the crack of dawn, because I found a note on the table that said, 'Luigi promised me he'd show me around Toad Town, so I'm probably not gonna make it to the airport, but we'll catch up, okay?" Rarity said, mimicking Pinkie's way of speaking.

Mario shook his head. "That brother'a mine," he mumbled.

Twilight started for the door. "Well, come on!" she called back. "We got places to go, things to see!" She raced out the door and down the street.

The rest followed Twilight out the door and onward to the airport. It wasn't a long walk, but the time to board sure was. While the group was waiting, Mario pulled out a map of the Beanbean Kingdom. Twilight peered over from a brochure advertising Poshley Heights and asked what Mario was doing.

"Well," Mario began, "we're gonna arrive-a here," he said pointing to the bottom of the map which depicted a landing strip, "and we wanna go here," he pointed to a large island off the coast of the Beanbean Kingdom in the lower-right.

"And that's where we'll find the secret to channeling our Link?" Twilight asked.

Mario folded the map up and placed it back in his duffelbag.

"I sure-a hope so," he said.

Five hours later, the plane had touched down at the Beanbean Airport. Twilight looked out the window to see the runway approaching fast. She turned and shook Mario, who was sleeping in the chair next to her.

"Hm...?" Mario blinked a couple times. "Eh...? Whas'a goin' on?"

Twilight pointed out the window to the runway, which was directly under the plane as it rolled in.

In a few minutes, the plane had stopped, and the passengers onboard, mostly just Toads, were disembarking. The first ones out of the plane, of course, were Mario and the girls (being in first class near the front). As they reached solid ground, Mario saw a familiar face, standing next to his preferred method of transport: a flying bean. It was none other than Prince Peasley.

"Mario! Over here, old friend!"

Mario smiled and ran over to the Prince, with the others in tow, marveling at how similar yet different the Beanbean Kingdom was to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Peasley and Mario embraced each other with pats on the back and jolly laughter. They then stepped back and Peasley said, "I was informed by the sight of a plane flying overhead that you would be arriving here, and here you are!" He reached to his blond, flowing hair and flipped it. It glided on the light breeze for a minute before falling back to the sides of his head. He looked over at the girls.

"And these must be friends of yours?" he asked.

Mario nodded. "Mm-hm. This is-a Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, an' they hail from Equestria," he explained.

Peasley laughed gingerly, tossing his head back. "I should have guessed they weren't from around here. They're much too pretty."

The girls giggled at the bean prince's charm. Mario rolled his eyes. He's a hero, but not above-eh showing off for the ladies, he thought. He took another step forward and said, "Listen, it's-a great ta see you again, but we need to go find the Oho Oasis. But maybe we'll-a do lunch, eh?"

Peasley turned to Mario and bowed respectfully. "Of course," he said as he stood up. "I understand you're a busy bean. No doubt facing another princess crisis?"

Mario chuckled and motioned for the girls to follow him. Waving goodbye to Peasley, they headed west, to the home of the Oho Jee.

The party had walked to the Oho Ocean, but there was no time to stop. Fluttershy carried Rarity and Rainbow Dash carried Applejack. Twilight carried Mario and listened to his instructions to get to Oho Oasis, which they saw on the horizon after a few minutes. They touched down on the sandy shores of the west side and a resident of the island just so happened to wander by. Twilight was very intrigued by the small, round figure before her.

"Whoa, what is that thing?"

"That's-an Oho Jee. They live here," Mario replied. "Ya don't havta worry about them. They're-a harmless, as long as you don't set-em on fire or electrify them."

Fluttershy had bent down to talk to one and giggled. "They're so squishy," she said as she held one.

The Oho Jee responded slowly, as if it wasn't aware of its surroundings. "Hm...? I not see you before, strange lady. You not from island. You good?" it said in a surprisingly deep tone. Fluttershy wasn't expecting it to have such a deep voice and dropped it after squeaking in surprise. The rotund islander flopped down into the sand and uttered a nonchalant "Ow."

Mario bent down and picked the Oho Jee up and brushed the sand off of him. The Oho Jee looked up at Mario and said, "Oh! Moustache is back! Are strange ladies travelling with moustache man?"

Although initially confused with its simplistic ways of speaking, the girls nodded. The Oho Jee leaped up and exclaimed, "Travelling with red moustache smart choice! You good people, then." It scuttled away as fast as its stubby legs could carry it.

Twilight chuckled. "What fascinating little creatures," she mused.

Mario bounded ahead of the group toward the center of the island where a massive temple stood.

"C'mon! This-a way!" he called back.

The inside of the temple was cluttered with so much debris that even walking down a straight hallway was difficult. "It's-a lot different than what I a-remember," Mario commented as he shimmied in between a narrow crack in a wall. "Could be because-a all the times I fought Bowser was, eh..." he trailed off.

"Pretty damn spectacular," he said smiling at the memories.

"Ah'm guessin' ya'll caused a few earthquakes?" Applejack wheezed as she slid between piles of rubble.

Mario laughed. "On a mild day." After working through a maze of crumbled stone, the group finally happened upon an iron gate with a metal covering on the floor.

"Looks like the inner sanctum," Twilight whispered. On the other side, they could barely make out an ornate podium with a red and yellow orb in the center.

Mario pondered, "Hmm...I think-eh, if the Fire Sphere's still a-there, then that-eh means..." He went digging into a pile of stone on the left side. Rainbow Dash had to help with larger chunks, but eventually, they found a hole cleaved into the lower wall that looked like it could fit a Toad easily. Mario smiled and stood back up. He then pulled a giant mallet out of seemingly nowhere and tossed it to Applejack, who caught it with surprise. He turned around and said, "Do me a favor, an' smack me ova the head."

"Beg pardon?"

"Just a-trust me, this always works," Mario stated.

"But...Mario, isn't that gonna-" Dash tried to say before Mario cut her off.

"C'mon! We're-a losin' daylight!"

The girls looked at each other with confusion, but Applejack raised the hammer and lowered it again with force on Mario's cranium. To their complete surprise, Mario's head didn't cave in, but he did get shrunk like a wool shirt in warm water. He was now tall enough to fit in the hole without having to crawl in. He looked at himself and jumped up, exclaiming, "Yippee!" as if he had swallowed a canister of helium. He raced for the hole, but Twilight called, "Mario, where are you going?"

"Through the crack in da wall, where else?" he called back.

"But...you know we can just-" but in a second, Mario had clambered his way through the hole.

It was dark, humid, and he was pretty sure there were some nasty Shy Guy Spiders crawling around in there, but Mario made his way through the tight space, and he came out the other side, behind the metal gates.

...To find the girls standing at the foot of the steps to the shrine of the Sun God, waiting for him.

"Wha!?" he exclaimed in confusion. "How...how did a-you get through that gate so fast? I thought-"

"I tried to tell you, Mario," Twilight giggled. "I could easily just have teleported us through the grate!"

Mario raised his finger with his mouth open, but he dropped it and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Whoopsie," he chuckled. "Sorry. Luigi tells me Imma bit-eh headstrong."

"Relax, Overalls. It happens to the best of us," Dash told him. "Now come on! I want to get my Link and do some awesome stuff with it!" and she flew up the many stone steps to the shrine situated on the top. The rest of the party grinned and followed Rainbow Dash up the steps. Mario lightly nudged Applejack and gestured to his hammer, which she still held tightly. He pointed to the top of his head, to which Applejack looked back at the hammer and nodded. She swung and bashed Mario over the head again, returning him to normal size. Mario smiled and a brohoof was shared.

Upon joining the girls at the altar, Mario strode confidently up to the orb resting on its pedestal. Everyone peered over to get a look at it. It appeared to be made of glass, with tounges of red, yellow, and white fire lashing around inside the sphere. "How does it work, Mario?" Twilight whispered.

"Like this," he replied. A great fire issued forth from Mario's hand, and he grasped the Fire Sphere with it. The orb turned red-hot and spat humongous gouts of flame into the air. Poor Fluttershy nearly had a heart attack and ducked behind Applejack. As the flames subsided, a humanoid shape appeared, dressed in a white cloak. His head was similar to the normal inhabitants of the Beanbean Kingdom, green and bean-shaped, but his head had a sun symbol attached to the back. He remained motionless until the fire was gone; then he looked down at the gathered party.

"What in the name of...? What have we here?" he said. The Sun God lowered himself down to get a better view of the girls. "Goodness me, horses? Standing on two legs? Gee...I wonder how long I've slumbered..."

Although nervous, Twilight couldn't help but be excited at the same time. She took a tentative step forward and cleared her throat. The Sun God looked down at her. "Um, excuse us, sir, but we came here for a special reason...you see, our friend here told us about the ability to channel a Link. We came here to find our own," she explained.

The Sun God seemed mildly surprised that apparent foreigners had learned about the ability to Link, but then he noticed Mario.

"Say, is that my old friend, Mr...Mr...bah, my apologies. Faces never escape me, but I have worse luck with names," he said. Mario opened his mouth, but the Sun God interrupted, "Wait, wait, wait! Don't tell me...Pietro!"

Mario smacked his forehead. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but giggle. "Close enough," Mario muttered with an embarrassed grin.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I can just call you Mr. Moustache if you want." This was met by uproarious laughter from the ponies and Mario lowered his cap over his face, now red as a Super Mushroom.

"But you wish to channel your Link, do you?" he continued. The girls nodded. "Well, I'm afraid I can't help you with that," he said shortly.

"Say what!?" Dash yelled.

"Calm down," the Sun God told her. "I can't teach you about Links because its more of a...personal thing," he explained. Everyone listened, even Mario, as he had never learned about what the Sun God said next: "You can't learn to channel your Link unless you're around a natural element, like water ot stone. And it, more or less, comes with practice. You need to stick to what you know in order to find your own Link. Does that make sense?"

"So you're saying we all can't learn what you teach, correct?" Rarity clarified for the rest of them.

"Well, if you're around fire a lot, yes. Otherwise, I'm really not all that helpful."

Fluttershy piped up, "So, um, where do we go from here, Mr. Sun God?"

He thought a minute before saying, "I have very limited knowledge about who you should see next, but I am fairly certain that there's a place called 'Yoshi's Island' that holds two answers you may seek."

There was dead silence for a couple minutes until Mario bowed respectfully and motioned for the ponies to follow him down the steps. Fluttershy turned around and said again, "Thank you very much, sir," with a pleasant smile.

The Sun God smiled back and called, "There is one more thing you should know: you learn your ability. I could only help you unlock its full potential." With that, he disappeared in a pillar of rising fire.

Once outside everyone was greeted with an unexpected surprise: Prince Peasley was waiting for them, and with him was his flying bean, as well as six more exactly like it.

"Prince...? What are you a-doin' here?" Mario asked.

Peasley laughed and flipped his golden locks. "I assumed you might run into some complications trying to reach your objective, believe me, I know from experience. I took the liberty of bringing multiple forms of my transport system."

Twilight approached on of the bean platforms and touched it. It was pretty much a normal bean, but with wings. "I'm seriously starting to question why I don't travel more and see things like this," she said to herself.

"Well, hop on!" Peasely called, and without losing a minute, the group had clambered onto the flying beans. "So," the prince began again, "are we going anywhere specific, old bean?"

Mario raised himself to his full height on the organic platform, albeit, with more difficulty than he expected, and said to Peasley, "Eva been to Yoshi's Island?"

Peasley thought for a minute. "No, I don't believe I have," he replied. He put pressure on his back heel and his bean rose up into the air. He looked back down at the adventurers.

"Shall we?"

The vast ocean separating the Mushroom and Beanbean Kingdom seemed to go on forever, especially after Mario explained the Yoshi's Island was extremely secluded from the mainland. The use of psychology made the trip drag on and on. After many hours, Rainbow Dash spotted a small dot on the horizon that constantly got larger and larger. She shot up from a lying position on the winged bean she chose and screamed, "Land ho!" Within minutes, the party had touched down on part of the sandy beach that surrounded most of the island.

Everyone hopped off the beans that Peasley had so graciously provided them. Mario turned around and said, "Thank you so much for lettin' us fly!"

Peasley chuckled. "Don't mention it, old bean. Always happy to help a friend." With that, his flying bean rose back up into the air and with another flip of his majestic golden locks, he flew off.

Applejack had walked up part of the beach to face a dense forest of palm trees that gave way to birch and pine after a few feet.

"Looks mighty peaceful," she said to herself.

"Meh. Looks boring," Dash retorted.

"Oh, it's-a not even close to boring," Mario said as he strode into the flora. "C'mon!"

The ponies looked at each other, nodded, and ran after Mario. Pretty soon, they were all in a lush field with lavender grass. As soon as Twilight noticed, she went a little haywire, freaking out over how "grass is definitely not supposed to be this color." The others calmed her down enough for Mario to lead on.

"If ya can't handle purple grass, I suggest ya close yer eyes when I show-a you tha denizens of the island," Mario cautioned.

"Why is that?" Twilight asked.

Mario put on something akin to a guilty smile and motioned through a grove of trees. The girls cautiously pushed through the foliage and found a village on the other side. There appeared to be things roaming around the crudely built thatched houses, and their outlines suggested they weren't human. Before any of them could walk any further, Mario burst from the trees and ran a couple more steps forward before sticking his fingers in his mouth and whistling shrilly. The sound bounced across the valley and one of the figures in the town turned in their direction. It seemed to stand there staring before hopping back in surprise and jumping up and down joyfully. Suddenly, the being took off in their direction.

Rarity squinted, trying to discern what was coming up the hill towards them. "Mario, dear, may I ask just what is barreling at us right now?"

Her question was answered as a green dinosaur, about as tall as Mario himself, charged into view. The girls were taken by complete surprise and before they could react, the dinosaur had tackled Mario to the ground and was licking his face like a dog.

"Ah! Yoshi...!" Mario laughed as Yoshi kept slurping at his face, "A'right, a'right! Ha-ha! I missed ya too, ya big-a drool bucket!"

Mario gently pushed Yoshi off his chest as the girls stared at the strange dinosaur, confused and amazed at the same time. Yoshi only stood in the same spot, looking around at random things and completely oblivious to being the center of attention.

"What...is that?" Twilight said after a long pause. Mario explained, in length, that Yoshi was a miniature vegetarian dinosaur (although he would still try to eat anything smaller than a household stove). Yoshi saved Mario when he was still just a baby. Baby Mario had been separated from Baby Luigi years back, and Yoshi took it upon himself to return the siblings to each other. He also had the help of the entire Yoshi tribe, which lived on Yoshi's island.

"Wow. So those dinosaurs are that smart?" Dash asked.

Mario nodded. "Mm-hm. If it wasn' for Yoshi, tha Mushroom Kingdom might'a turned out differently." The girls kept staring at the strange little reptile, who was busy amusing himself by trying to catch a wandering butterfly with his unnaturally long tongue. Mario, however, was gazing at Yoshi with what could be considered the look of a proud father. He turned back around when he heard a gentle cough, and noticed Fluttershy was shifting uncomfortably.

"Somethin' a-wrong, Flutters?" Mario asked.

Fluttershy looked up at Mario suddenly, but looked away again and whispered, "Um, no." Mario only crossed his arms and his expression told everyone he knew something was up. "Well," Fluttershy began when she saw Mario's face, "I was just wondering, if it isn't any trouble for you, would you mind...letting me pet Yoshi?"

Mario laughed. "A'course not! Yoshi loves tha attention!" Fluttershy stared back at Yoshi, who had caught the butterfly and was gazing intently at it as it reclined on his tongue. She glanced back at Mario, who ushered her on. Fluttershy gulped and cautiously strode forward. Her light footsteps in the grass were enough to catch Yoshi's attention, because the dinosaur was now staring at Fluttershy as she came closer and slowly reached out with her hand. She gently touched Yoshi's round, bulbous nose and Yoshi immediately let out a lightly punctuated sneeze.

Fluttershy jumped back a little in surprise and Yoshi shook his head to clear it. Fluttershy didn't move, fearing she may have hurt the dinosaur. Yoshi blinked a couple times and focused on Fluttershy again. He inched his way over to her and stared up at her face. Neither one moved until Fluttershy cautiously reached out and stroked Yoshi's chin. The little dinosaur was obviously enjoying it, because his eyes were closed and his foot was twitching like a dog's leg when their belly is rubbed. After a solid two minutes, Yoshi shook his head again to brush Fluttershy's hand away and to everyone's surprise, he licked her face and exclaimed, "Yoshi!"

Before Fluttershy could react, Yoshi ducked between her legs and stood up quickly, giving Fluttershy a seat on his back. This caused Fluttershy to yelp in scared surprise. "What...?" Twilight hesitantly asked to no one in particular.

Mario whistled in surprise. "Wowie. Yoshi mus' think Fluttershy's somethin' special if-eh he wants ta give her a piggyback ride already. But then..."

"...Fluttershy is quite good with animals," Rarity finished for him.

"So...he likes me?" Fluttershy squeaked.

Mario nodded and Fluttershy looked back down at Yoshi, who eagerly licked her face again. Everyone giggled and Mario strode up to his little friend. "Hey, Yoshi," he said, bending down to Yoshi's eye level. "Are a-there any ancient temples 'round here we a-never explored?" Yoshi looked up to the sky for a minute before he straightened up and pivoted around quickly and pointed with his body, one leg raised in the air and looking in the direction he wanted the others to follow him. In a few seconds, he took off at breakneck speeds, causing Fluttershy to cry out in fear. The girls were taken back by the sudden burst of speed, but Mario quickly spoke up, "Quick! Folla' that dinosaur!"

The sun was lowering in the western sky, and the party had been walking up steep foothills all day, their only rest was two breaks for food and water and switching turns riding on Yoshi. It was apparent, however, that even he was beginning to tire, as he kept sagging behind the group more and more with each passing minute. Mario hopped up onto a jagged rock that obscured any vision beyond. He looked out and called back, "Hey, hey! I think-a we got somethin' here!"

The girls and Yoshi were leaning on the porous rocks that comprised the mountain they were walking up, but Applejack still had enough strength left in her to get off a boulder she was lying down on and trudge over to Mario. He hoisted her up and onto a foothold so she could see across the rock.

Wherever they were on the island, the landscape was shaped like a bowl. A great forest with vines draping the trees and a few open spots here and there, surrounded by jagged mountains on all sides. The setting sun glinted off the sides of the rocky peaks and the glare was so bright it almost concealed a stone statue of an ancient creature that could be likened to a golem, obviously on top of a hidden temple. Applejack whistled. "Well, stick reigns in mah mouth'n a saddle on mah back."

Mario tipped his cap lower to shield his eyes from the sun's glare. "And' I'mma pretty sure what we a-need is in that temple."

Twilight came over and glided up and looked over the edge of the rock barrier to realize that the drop was hundreds of feet deep and almost vertical. "Mario?" she asked. He turned to look at her. "How are we going to get down without anypony without wings breaking every single bone in their body?"

Mario only grinned and waved his finger, pulling out a small yellow feather. He closed his fist on it and a majestic cape of gold materialized and unfurled behind his neck. He then pulled out three more and tossed them to Rarity, Applejack, and Yoshi. Yoshi immediately sucked the feather into his mouth with his tongue, sprouting a pair of wings. Applejack and Rarity received capes just like Mario. Twilight only stared at him wide-eyed, as every law of physics had been ripped apart in front of her. "You are full of surprises," she said breathlessly. Mario only shrugged, a naive grin on his face. He stepped onto the edge of the precipice and, spreading his arms out like an Olympic swimmer, he dove off the side, falling gracefully for a few seconds, before snatching the corners of his cape, backflipping, and pulling up to shoot upward even higher than his friends who were still on the ground. He hung in the air like an angel, staring down at the ponies for awhile until he smiled and motioned for everyone to follow him. Yoshi did so eagerly and gracefully, flapping his wings as if he was born with them. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight followed soon after. Applejack and Rarity, however, were haphazardly flying in all directions, not used to having any means to fly aside from Twilight's spells. Mario had to rush to Rarity's rescue twice, but Applejack insisted she would be fine piloting herself with a cape. It was a half-truth, but she didn't crash, and soon enough they had arrived at the temple entrance.

The doorway was blocked with crumbling stone boulders, but Mario walked up to them and started knocking on them in random places trying to discern their weak point. None of the girls understood what he was doing, of course. "Uh...hey, Overalls...?" Dash called.

"Yeah?" Mario said as he looked back at her.

"I don't think knocking on boulders and expecting them to let you in is going to get us anywhere."

"Relax," Mario said. "I'll have-a this open in no time." He resumed knocking on the boulders.

Dash turned around and whispered, "I think he might be a little crazier than I expected."

"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied. "I have a plan to get those boulders out of the way."

"How?"

"Well, I'm guessing, since they're not magically locked and they collapsed over time, I can easily levitate them out of the way, but of course, there's no telling what will happen if I move one, as even more could collapse. So, I'm going to need a few vines to construct a pulley and use it to winch..." she trailed off as she stared at the temple entrance.

"Twilight...? Is there something wrong?" Rarity asked. Her question was answered when everyone heard a loud *CRACK!* come from the temple entrance a split-second later. They all turned around to see Mario standing in a combat stance and his fist firmly connected with one of the boulders. His head was down and he was breathing heavily, and there was a small crevice clearly visible in the stone he had punched.

"Did he just...?" Dash never got to finish her question as Mario wound up his right arm again and drove it forward into the same boulder, shattering it into thousands of shards and unleashing a deafening roar as the stones around it flew away from the entrance in a burst of wind. After the commotion died down, everyone was staring at Mario in front of the entryway, breathing between his teeth and shaking his fist to rid it of the pain. He blew on his knuckles a couple times as well.

Nobody could believe they just saw a fat, Italian plumber bash in a metric ton of stone with his bare fist. Rainbow Dash rushed to Mario's side and yelled, "How the hay did you do that!?"

"I've-a punched harder things," Mario said between puffs of air across his knuckles. "An' lemme tell ya, having gloves on does not help ease-a tha impact."

Twilight slowly released her breath in astonishment. "Well, there goes that plan," she muttered to herself.

Mario hopped up onto the cold stone floor of the entryway and called, "Come on! We gotta go an' get this ova' with! I'mma hungry!"

In seconds, the party had all filed into the temple. It was not as large as the temple in Oho Oasis, being possibly only one or two rooms, but it was taller, the ceiling reaching up multiple floors, and crumbling stone balconies were visible in the dimly lit shell of what could have once been a majestic piece of architecture. One half of the room was covered in ivy, moss, and other invasive plant life and the other half retained it's stone base. But there was something off about the entire setup.

"That's weird," Twilight said as she bent down to study the temple floor for anything of interest.

Applejack, Mario, and Fluttershy walked over to her. "What is?" Applejack questioned her.

"Look the vine formations on the floor and walls," Twilight said. "Notice how they just kind of stop at the halfway point of the temple? And yes, I know it's the halfway point. Believe me, I measured it already."

"Well, I guess it makes sense," Fluttershy said softly. "The vines couldn't support growing any longer with no sunlight ever coming in here."

"No, but that's the thing. They just stop halfway through this room," Twilight said as she pointed to the ivy on the floor. The vines almost made a visible straight line separating one half of the temple hall from the other. "And they stop way to abruptly to be natural."

"Yeah, dis rickety ol' ruin's still got some nifty secrets to keep, see?"

Twilight looked up at her friends immediately next to her. "Did somepony say something?"

"Didn' sound like any-a us," Applejack said as she stood up, searching for the disembodied voice.

"Yeh...I did, see!?" the voice said again, this time clearly from a ruined balcony on the second floor. Everyone looked up to see a small figure surrounded in shadows. He seemed to be holding a sack over his shoulder. The mysterious thing proceeded to vault off the ledge and gracefully corckscrew-somersault over the party, landing at a shrine in the center of the temple. Mario took one look at him and stared at the intruder as if there were daggers coming out of his eyes.

"You," he seethed.

The thing standing in front of the party was definitely Beanish in race, a beret laid upon his head and he wore a striped shirt colored in purple and white. He also wore a bandit's mask with holes cut out for his beady yellow eyes.

The stranger looked down at Mario and paused in thought before saying, "Oi...I remember you. You's da sorry sack'a lip hair dat foiled my plans not once, not twice, but four, yeh, four times in a row!" he said in a New York Mafia-style accent.

"I got'ta name, ya know," Mario replied indignantly.

"Yeh, an' I do, too." He looked past Mario and at the ponies. "I'm guessin' these be-eautiful young ladies don't know, so allow me to introduce myself." The bandit spun around and bowed down after crossing his legs with extreme bravado and showmanship. "You's can call me Popple, da Brilliant Thief."

A cricket sung its song quietly somewhere outside.

"...Who?" Rainbow Dash said quizzically.

Popple got annoyed real fast with that remark as he jumped back up and started ranting, "Popple! Da thief dat flawlessly stole a replica'a Beanbean Castle from WooHoo Hooniversity, plundered Chateau de Chucklehuck an' imitated da late tightwad owner..."

"Not ver-eh well, mind-a you," Mario whispered to Rainbow Dash.

Popple carried on, unaware of Mario's revelation. "...gracefully conned da fashion designer Harhall inta handin' over millions, even goin' so far as to pull such a fast one on the Beanbean guards at da Beanbean castle itself, dat dey din't even suspect a thing had breached da castle 'til I was forty an' one quarter-inch miles away, see!"

"I think I did'eh hear about that in tha news," Mario commented. "He planned to get fifty miles away, but they'a caught him at forty-an'-a-half." Applejack and Rainbow Dash chuckled. And Popple lost it.

"Why, how dare ya!" Popple screamed. "Ya keep talkin' as if I'm da same pushover ya fought all dose years ago. Well, I got news fer ya, see? I'm a brand-spankin' new bandit; hard'a, bett'a, fast'a, an' a thousand times strong'a!"

Mario grinned cockily and tilted his cap forward before striking his signature fighting stance. Popple stared for a minute then smirked and motioned for Mario to bring it on, which he gladly obliged. Mario charged forward and issued a battle cry as he swung his fist at the Beanish bandit. Popple casually caught Mario's fist and swung his sack of stolen treasures he always had handy in hammerspace. It hit Mario square in the jaw and he stumbled back a few steps, trying to block out the pain.

"What...what in tha world do you-a have in there?" Mario panted.

Popple smiled maliciously and reached into the sack. He pulled out some kind of glowing orb. It seemed to be made of glass and sparks of green and tan ethereal energy were jumping from the center to the inside surface and back to the center again. "You chumps wouldn't believe da crap I found lyin' around in da back room'a dis here temple, see? I been scourin' da crypt alone fer hours."

"Wait, if you've been here for hours, then how come we didn't see you before now?" Twilight asked.

"I took da back door, see?"

"Ah don' think there's a back door in here..." Applejack muttered.

Popple looked at her with surprise, but it slowly turned into a devious smile as he pulled out a Bob-omb. "Dere is now," he said. Without warning, he chucked the Bob-omb straight at the party. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw the small sphere of death approaching, but thankfully, Twilight was on top of her game and used her magical telekinesis to stop the bomb and send it hurdling straight back at Popple.

The Bob-omb hit Popple in the chest and it flashed red and exploded a second later, sending him careening backward and into the solid stone wall. He gasped on impact and shook his head to get his vision in order. It was a terrifying sight to see Mario charging straight at him, screaming his lungs out. Mario jumped up and brought his fist down hard into Popple's chest, which made and audible cracking sound. Twilight winced, hoping, for once, that Mario had punched Popple so hard the wall behind him had fractured and it wasn't his ribs buckling under Mario's fist instead.

Mario vaulted backward and made a ten-point landing a few feet away, a few feet in front of the girls. Popple fell forward limply and faceplanted into the ground, gasping air down to keep himself from vomiting. He staggered up to his feet and choked, "Damn. Yer tougher than last time, too, lip-hair. An' ya got help from a posse. Dat ain't very fair now, in'nit?"

"Say-a tha guy who had Bowser's help once," Mario commented, breathing heavily.

"Bah! Rookie was a chump, an' ya know it," Popple shot back. He stopped gasping and a wicked smile formed on his lips again. "I'm thinkin' we gotta even da playin' field." He then drew out his sack and whipped out the orb again, holding it up over his head dramatically. He gripped it tightly and yelled, causing the sparks inside to fly out and wind and twist their way around his body before they grew thicker and brighter and enveloped him in tan and green light. When the blinding lights died down again and the group removed their hands from across their eyes, they saw Popple was slightly taller than before, as well has having lost his beret to reveal an unsurprisingly bald green head with a few oval lumps on top to signify his hair. The biggest difference was that he now had glowing orbs of green and brown circling him, as well as having heterochromia of the same colors. He grinned maliciously again.

"How's about round two?"

Author's Note

Oh. My God. I sincerely apologize it's taken me this freaking long to get one chapter up, and considering this is my most popular story, that's a real turn-off to most people.

But here it is. I doubt it will have been worth the wait, but I aim to make that up to you, my dear readers, in the next couple chapters. Thank you for your patience.