Mario and Luigi: Super Mare-io Brothers.

"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.