Mario And Luigi: Friendship Is Magic

Luigi opened his eyes, but he still couldn't see. The smell that immediately hit his nose was anything but pleasant, it smelled like apple juice combined with stomach acid. And that's when he realised that he was soaked in something, he was floating in some liquid even. He grabbed his flashlight from his soaked pocket and quickly activated it to make some sense of all this.

And as the light illuminated his surroundings he saw that he was in a big "cave" made entirely of pink flesh, and the water that he was floating in had the same colour as apple juice. He scratched his head and began swimming towards a small island amongst the apple juice and climbed up without slipping. And that's when he remembered that they had been gobbled up by the Hisstocrat and he must have passed out when he hit the surface of the apple juice.

Another question arose in Luigi's head as he began remembering, where was Applejack and Spike? He remembered that he had been trying to hold onto Spike while they were falling and Applejack was with them as well. Rainbow Dash had been gone while it happened, but did she get eaten as well?

"Heeeeello?!" Luigi shouted as he searched for Applejack and Spike nearby, shining with his flashlight in the apple juice to see if they were there.

A loud rumbling could be heard afterwards and the meaty floor began shaking intensely as Luigi tried to hold on. Some seconds passed and suddenly more juice began flowing down in small tubes that hanged in the roof, making the room fill up significantly with more juice. Luigi began to panic at the rising levels of juice and noticed that there was a dark path ahead underwater which probably lead to some other area.

He quickly jumped into the apple juice and tried to hold his breath as he quickly swam to the tunnel. It wasn't a dead end at the least and seemed to lead up into a bigger tunnel which he quickly began swimming towards. But as he continued to shine underwater with his flashlight it suddenly began blinking and he started to panic. He began to swim even faster as he tried to cover as much distance as he could before his flashlight died, and as he swam into the big tunnel he saw that there was a surface just ahead.

He quickly surfaced out of the juice a moment after and searched around this new room with his blinking flashlight as he saw that this room wasn't as filled with juice as the other had been, and it looked like he could mostly walk in here. Luigi crawled up from the juice and stood up on the meaty floor, as he looked around he saw that Spike was sitting restlessly against a wall and his eyes were empty of hope.

"Spike! Is-a that really you!?" Luigi shouted as he ran over to Spike and hugged him, crying tears of joy to find someone else in this crowded inside of a giant snake.

"Luigi! I thought you and Applejack were dead!" Spike said with a smile but the happiness was shortlived as it began rumbling again, the floor beginning to shake intensely.

Luigi quickly retracted from the hug and looked around for any sign of trouble, but he only noticed that there was now a round opening to a straight tunnel that seemed to be glowing faintly. But soon it began rumbling again and as Luigi looked towards where the sound came from he saw that a big tube opened and juice began flowing out in a big river into the room.

"Waaah! Run!" Luigi shouted as he grabbed Spike and threw him on his shoulder before turning around and running as fast as he could into the tunnel.

The sounds of splashing juice echoed from behind them but the same old rumble could be heard again before the opening closed and the water couldn't get into the corridor. Luigi sighed and wiped some sweat from his forehead in relief as he looked back at the closed opening and instead slowly walked towards the glowing light. And as they walked through the corridor his flashlight suddenly died, but it didn't matter since the light from the other end of the tunnel was enough to illuminate where he was stepping.

"I wonder where that light is coming from," Spike said as he scratched the scales on his head and tried to see what laid before them.

"Hopefully ice cream and birthday candles!" Luigi said naively as he patted his belly.

Spike heard another rumble and made a panicked expression. "Luigi! Quick! Another rumble!" Spike shouted as he held onto Luigi's cap.

Luigi chuckled and made an awkward expression. "Sorry, just-a my belly. I'm really hungry!" Luigi said as he continued to walk slowly forward as the end of the tunnel slowly approached.

The light shined so bright that Luigi and Spike had to cover their eyes with their hands as they stepped through the opening to what they assumed was another room, but as their eyes adjusted to the light and they retracted their hands to see their surroundings they both stared with an open mouth.

This room was bigger than the others, significantly bigger than the other rooms infact. It was as big as Celestia's throneroom in Canterlot but entirely made of flesh, with weird looking round glowing things hanging from the ceiling. And as Luigi and Spike took another step into the room and took in their surroundings they saw Applejack ahead, but she was surrounded by weird black Koopas with turqoise eyes and with an insectile structure.

"You leave Applejack alone!" Spike shouted towards the group of insect-Koopas.

Applejack peered up her ears and smiled before sighing in relief, but her expression soon changed into one of worry instead as one of the creatures turned around slightly and glared towards Spike and Luigi with turqoise glowing eyes.

"Spike! Luigi! Be careful there fellas!" Applejack shouted to Spike as every insect-Koopa turned around and showed off their razor sharp teeth.

"R-r-run!" Luigi shouted as he immediately began running to the left with Spike on his shoulders as the insect-Koopas approached, but they didn't stop either and gave chase after him and Spike.

"What are you doing?! Running isn't going to solve this situation!" Spike shouted as Luigi ran for his life around the room to distance himself from the creatures.

"There are too many of them!" Luigi screamed as he stopped at the right upper corner of the square room, looking at the insect-Koopas as they approached.

"Yeah, well, we gotta save Applejack and then get out of here!" Spike said as he began to panic, Luigi stood still against the corner and the creatures were approaching quickly.

But Luigi smirked as they were almost within a hands reach and instead jumped over them as they couldn't stop and ran into the fleshy wall with their head first. The wall sucked them in as if it was made of jelly and they tried to futilely escape but just ended up drawing themselves in even more.

"Woah, that was kind of smart of you, Luigi," Spike said as he wiped his forehead but soon began to panic as he saw that not all creatures had gotten stuck in the jelly-like wall of flesh, three remained, and they looked more agressive than before.

"Hang on, Spike," Luigi said with a smirk and jumped up into the air and masterfully landed on one of the creatures as it fell to the ground before slightly exploding and turning into green glowing dust.

All the creatures looked on in horror and then began running away themselves in panic, one creature quickly began singing on a familiar tune, it was the tune that the female Hisstocrat had sung to make her servants attack and become more agressive. A moment passed and familiar rumble returned as an opening in the wall revealed itself which the creatures quickly ran into to escape from Luigi and Spike.

"Well, could ya believe it? Ah could have probably taken them down if ah was prepared, but they ambushed me when ah finally had found mah family. They left me here but they took Applebloom, Macintosh and Granny Smith down that tunnel," Applejack said as she approached, she was without her hat and to Luigi, that was a strange sight to see.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go save ourselves some apples!" Spike said heroically as he sat on Luigi's shoulders.

"Yeah!" Luigi shouted as he struck an heroic pose together with Spike on his shoulders infront of Applejack.

"Hehe, come on then, heroes," Applejack said as she smiled before turning around and changed her expression into one of determination. "Celestia knows what they're doin' to mah family right now," Applejack muttered as they walked towards the tunnel, she began doubting if she really would see her family again, but she would. There was no way she was going to let anything horrible happen to them.

"Applejack! Luigi!" Twilight shouted across the acres as she levitated Applejack's hat behind her.

But she got no answer, something had happened to one of her best friends and she didn't even know if she was gone, or something worse. She looked at Mario and Fluttershy that stood behind her in the sand, she had at least some friends left. But something instinctively told her that Applejack wasn't the only one that was missing, because, where was Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Spike?

"What are we going to do, you two? We can't find them anywhere, and I have no idea on how to find them! If only there was a spell for this particular reason!" Twilight said as she frowned and walked towards Applejack's house and away from the sand with Fluttershy and Mario following her.

Suddenly they heard someone shouting from within the barn and they all looked towards it, Twilight, Fluttershy and Mario instinctively ran towards the barn as a feeling of hope began to grow. Was it Applejack, was it Spike, was it Luigi, was it Rainbow Dash or was it all of them?

"Help!" They heard from within the barn, they could recognize the voice but they weren't sure.

Twilight quickly powered up her horn and fired an explosive magic bolt towards the door as it blew open and she hurried in and infront of her she saw Rainbow Dash laying on the floor, her left wing stuck to the floor by a hayfork.

"Sweet Celestia, Rainbow! What happened!?" Twilight shouted as she carefully enveloped the hayfork with a magical aura and lifted it up from Rainbow Dash's wing.

"Nghn! Gah!" Rainbow Dash screamed in pain as Twilight lifted the hayfork, her wing aching in agonizing pain as small driplets of blood fell to the floor.

Fluttershy covered her eyes with her wings as she saw the blood, she unwillingly began imagining herself having a hayfork impaled in her wing and winced.

"Rainbow, what happened here? Answer me!" Twilight said as she worriedly ran forward and pointed her horn towards Rainbow's wing and tried to heal it with a spell.

"Applejack told me to fetch a rope in the barn so we could catch the giant snakes that attacked us, but just as I grabbed the rope I bumped into something and suddenly that hayfork fell down and impaled my wing!" Rainbow Dash said as she bit her lip while Twilight tried to heal her wounds.

"Giant snakes? Oh, that sounds awful," Fluttershy said, looking up from her wings.

"Yeah, they looked like quite a pain even for me, but something happened to the others, I don't know. I tried screaming after them but they never arrived," Rainbow Dash said, looking at Mario and Fluttershy.

"Who are "the others"? Do you mean Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Luigi, Spike and Applejack?" Twilight asked as she finished healing Rainbow Dash's wounds.

"What are you talking about, Twilight? Only Luigi, Spike and Applejack went back to Ponyville, the others stayed in Canterlot," Rainbow Dash said as she quirked an eyebrow and saw that only Mario, Fluttershy and Twilight were the ones present.

"Wait what?! Mario?! Why didn't you say something?!" Twilight said as she froze in place before turning around and glaring towards Mario.

"Not-a my fault! We-a got ambushed by-a changelings!" Mario exclaimed as he crossed his arms. "We-a barely got away ourselves anyways!" Mario added as he lowered his arms again and looked back and forth at Fluttershy and Twilight.

"The changelings got them...?" Twilight said as she calmed down and instead frowned, her eyes staring down into the ground. "If only I had been awake to protect them," she muttered to herself before looking up again and walking out of the barn with determined steps.

"Uhm, Twilight? I really need to return to my animals, I haven't fed them in a while and oh, I'm so worried about them. I'll return right after that though!" Fluttershy said as she prepared to take off, but patiently waited for an answer from Twilight.

"Yeah, but stay careful, Fluttershy. We don't want yet another one of our friends to go missing do we?" Twilight said as she looked back at Fluttershy and waved her hoof slightly.

"Bye, Flutters!" Rainbow Dash shouted to Fluttershy as the yellow pegasus lightly flew up into the air and headed to her cottage.

"Rainbow Dash, where did these quote on quote "snakes" go?" Twilight said as she walked out of the barn and onto the sand and looked around for any other signs of Applejack, Luigi and Spike's disappearance.

"I don't know, they just appeared out of the ground," Rainbow Dash said as she walked up to Twilight with Mario behind her.

"Hm? Appeared out of the-a ground?" Mario said as he began stroking his moustache, pondering as some things began fall into place. Big snakes that appeared out of the ground... that live in sand.

"Yeah, and they had a Canterlot accent and then there were these super giant snakes that used those normal giant snakes as servants, one female and one male!" Rainbow Dash said as she tried to explain how they looked.

Mario dropped his jaw as he slowly began realising, he pulled up his cap and growled. "The Hisstocrats! They took-a Luigi! They're gonna pay for-a doing this to my-a brother!"

"Yeah, Luigi said something about some Hisstocrat too, you know these things, Mario?" Rainbow Dash asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

"Mhm, and they're going down!" Mario said as he pulled out a Super-bell and put it on his neck as he spinned around and transformed into Cat-Mario.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash exchanged some weird stares as they looked at Mario, he was covered in fur and had a cat tail and cat ears.

"How is that 'thing' you're wearing going to solve anything, Mario?" Twilight asked as she scratched her mane with one of her front hooves.

"You'll-a see! They'll return, we-a just have to wait," Mario said as he looked out towards the acre and glared at nothing really, but he was prepared to avenge his brother.

Applejack, Luigi and Spike peeked through the end of the tunnel and the exit lead to a big room covered with some weird kind of black cobweb or something. Luigi recognised it at the least, it was like the thing that had been covering the changeling egg chamber in the old castle in the Everfree Forest. But how?

"Ah'd reckon that this is the place where they're keeping mah family," Applejack said as she crawled through the end of the tunnel but was surprised as she suddenly began falling down towards the floor. She wasn't prepared that the end of the tunnel was positioned quite high up on the wall, but none the less she still survived the fall and got up slowly as she looked around.

The floor of the room was filled with turqoise glowing liquid and some familiar-looking changeling eggs scattered here and there. Weird looking pods were attached to the walls with the same black substance as the floor and everything else in this room and inside the pods were creatures of all kinds from what they could tell. The room was square just as most other rooms that came before and was the biggest one yet, the sizes of the rooms just seemed to increase for each room they entered and Applejack began doubting if they were still even inside the snake.

Luigi crawled out with Spike on his shoulders and was unprepared of the height as well, flailing with his arms to try to stay in the air, which worked to some degree due to the 'slapstick laws of physics' which only he and Pinkie Pie seemed to be able to use, but in the end he fell down with his face first and landed with a loud 'smack' onto the insectile floor.

"Ya okay there, sugarcubes?" Applejack said as she looked behind her at Luigi who's face was stuck in the floor and Spike who was comfortably sitting on Luigi's back.

"Yeah, I think so," Spike said as she stepped off Luigi and looked around the room as well. "I mean, he survived jumping off a train and getting slammed into a big rock... I think he'll be fine."

"Awawa..." Luigi said as he pulled his face up from the floor and sat back, seeing stars spinning around his head for a moment as he tried to come back to his senses.

"So, got any clues on where the others are?" Spike said as he walked up to Applejack and looked around of what was actually inside the room.

"Nah, but ah think they can actually be inside one of these pods right here," Applejack said as she looked at all the pods that were attached to the walls, trying to find at least someone she could recognise.

"Then let's start looking, Luigi, could use a hand here," Spike said as he looked at Luigi and waited for him to get up, which he did.

"Oke dokee!" Luigi said as he picked up Spike and threw him onto his shoulder to give him a piggy-back ride.

But before they could start searching, Applejack heard the sound of what could only be a filly struggling to breathe. She turned towards the sound and saw Applebloom with her ribbon stuck in of the pods that were slowly being filled with the turqoise liquid.

"Applebloom!" Applejack screamed in panic and ran towards the pod as quick as she could and smiled for a second to see her sister again, but she was also VERY determined to get her beloved sister out of there.

She turned around to buck the pod with her strong hooves but it didn't budge, it was like hitting very solid rock. Applejack didn't give up however, she was known to be stubborn and she would not let her sister drown in whatever liquid that was. She tried couple of more times but the pod still didn't budge. Applejack looked at Applebloom once again and saw that she had gone unconscious, probably because of the lack of air. But suddenly she saw two small thin tentacle-like things reaching down within the pod and traveling up into Appleblooms nose.

Applejack hoped that these things provided oxygen, but that was only mere hope. She raised her hind-hooves and bucked onto the pod again, but nothing happened yet again. A single tear ran down Applejack's cheek as she struggled to save her sister but her efforts were useless, without thinking she began banging on the pod with her front-hooves while starting to cry uncontrollably.

"Applebloom! Please sob h-hang in there, ah'll save ya!" She shouted as she continued to cry, banging on the pod even more before she gave up and slowly fell to the floor as her tears began forming a puddle on the floor right infront of the pod.

Luigi and Spike approached Applejack as fast as they could and looked at the pod in horror as a bright green flashing began lighting up the room. Applebloom's fur began disappearing and her skin slowly turned into the insectile chitin of a changeling, holes beginning to form on her hooves and a small twisting horn starting to sprout just like a plant on hear forehead as her mane slowly disappeared.

Spike growled slightly and got angry inside, the changelings would surely pay for this. But he was more worried for the well of Applejack's sanity and jumped down from Luigi's shoulders and held his hands over Applejack's eyes so she would not see the new Applebloom if she were to look up even once.

"W-what are ya doin', Spike?" Applejack said as her sobbing came to an end and she pulled away Spike's hands just because they were a bit irritating, but she regretted her choice as she slowly stood up and looked at Applebloom.

She roared out in anger and stomped down in the ground as her nostrils fired up, she looked at her little fragile sister that wasn't her sister anymore, she didn't even resemble Applebloom anymore. The only thing that did remind Applejack of who it was the ribbon that was now attached to the changeling horn and acted most only to aggrevate Applejack even more. As she looked next to Applebloom at the other two pods she saw a big muscular changeling and in the other an old normal sized changeling, their past identities dawned upon Applejack as she looked at them even more.

She was sad, but anger and rage were the feelings she felt the most, she began walking towards a big tunnel that lead elsewhere with heavy steps, almost marching even. But she was determined to get out of the snake and find whoever was responsible and make them dig their own grave.

But just as she was about to step in, three unique changelings dropped down infront of her, one insectile-Koopa, one normal changeling and one armoured changeling with a diamond horn that stood in the middle of the group. Applejack didn't care and instead pulled up her front hooves and swinged with her left hoof with all her anger inserted into it. The hoof slammed into the changeling-Koopa and it flew back and turned into dust.

The other two changelings tried to figure out her next move, but that proved to be impossible as Applejack didn't use tactics, she only wanted to avenge her sister in any way possible. She brought up her hooves and leaped onto the armoured changeling and began hitting it repeatedly as she seethed her rage, her punches all in full force. The armoured changeling turned into dust as well from just three hits and Applejack proceeded her rampage with picking up the armor and throwing it at the one remaining changeling's head, the force of the metal armor strong enough to actually make the changeling die and turn into green glowing dust as well.

"Applejack? Are you okay!?" Spike shouted as he and Luigi ran up to Applejack, trying to keep their distance as they knew Applejack was beyond the level of having a normal conversation without punching something now.

Applejack ignored the two concerned friends and instead stood still as her nostrils continued to flare in anger, she was going to avenge her family at all costs and find a way to turn them back. She wasted no time and immediately marched towards the end of the big tunnel, she was going to stop at nothing and if someone would try to block her...

...a strong and anger-infused punch awaited their 'once' pretty face.

"Mario, we can't just wait like this, for each second that passes Chrysalis grows stronger from all the plentyful love in Equestria," Twilight said as she walked back and forth, beginning to freak out at Mario who was just sitting and expecting the 'snake' to pop out of the ground.

Suddenly the ground began shaking to everyones surprise. Rainbow Dash and Mario recognised it as the sign that the Hisstocrat or Hisstocrats were about to pop out of the ground. The shaking intensified as suddenly the female Hisstocrat appeared out of the ground, shaking herself as he shook off most of the sand from his royal cape. Her eyes bulged as she saw Mario sitting with angry eyes in his cat-suit.

"Oh! My goodness! I d-didn't expect you to be here, mister Mario. Hehe," she said as she blushed in awkwardness and was about to travel down into the ground again but waited just to see where this was going.

"You took-a my brother!" Mario shouted as he jumped up from the ground without warning, getting high enough up in the air as he dived forward with his cat claws aimed forward, landing right on the female Hisstocrat's head as tears formed at the sides of her eyes before she spinned around and then dived down into the ground.

"Prepare yourselves! This ended bad for Luigi and Applejack, remember?" Rainbow Dash said as she flapped her wings and lifted from the ground, her healed wing feeling better than ever.

"Right, well. We'll see how this goes!" Twilight said as she flapped her wings as well and flew up into the air.

Mario felt the ground starting to shake even more than before and ran away from the spot where he landed, and just as he did the male Hisstocrat surfaced and began gobbling up into the air before stopping and looking around to see who he was really facing. As he saw Mario he whimpered in fear but knew that it was now or never.

"Twilight, Rainbow! Dive-a down towards his-a head!" Mario shouted as his angry eyes almost piercing the male Hisstocrat's soul.

"Okay!... wait what?!" Twilight said as she looked down at Mario and got confused by the question but was surprised to see Rainbow Dash flying up into the air and then diving down towards the Hisstocrat's head, her front hooves slamming into the clean reptile head of the male Hisstocrat as he spinned around and dove under the sand again.

It didn't take long before the ground shaked again but this time both Hisstocrats surfaced and looked at the two ponies and Mario with a somewhat fearful expression. They were afraid that maybe they had chewed off more than what they could swallow.

Just as Luigi, Spike and Applejack entered the tunnel it began shaking and the floor began to slowly tilt downwards, everything began tilting actually. Suddenly what used to be floors turned into walls and walls turned into floors, and Applejack, Luigi and Spike began falling down into the next room without warning while screaming.

Luigi landed first even though Applejack was infront of him, but she fell ontop of Luigi and Spike landed on Applejack. Spike took in his surroundings and saw a person with red robes that concealed most of his body, but he looked like a male and he was picking small glowing orbs from the floor.

"Hey, you! Did you get eaten as well?" Spike shouted as he climbed off Applejack and Luigi.

The person turned around and pulled down his hood, revealing his green face and his blue glasses with weird spirals in them.

"Eaten has happened to me indeed!" the weird person exclaimed as his big smile widened. "Swallowed like a waffle I has!"

Spike quirked an eyebrow at the weirdo, something about the guy was very unsettling. "Uh, so. Do you know any way out?"

"I say to you, no! If it had been so, the rotten fink-rats would be as sorry as a child that dropped a sandwich with peanut butter on the floor!" The weirdo said as he gathered all the glowing orbs and put them in a sack on his back. "Anypaths, the must be going is I!"

"Yeah, and where are you supposed to go? You said that you didn't know a way out," Spike said as he looked at the weirdo who sat himself down on the floor, seemingly waiting for something to happen.

"You is mistakenness, snake has explode soon!" the weirdo said in his very 'cryptic' language which Spike had a hard time understanding.

Luigi and Applejack finally stood up and were surprised to see Spike talking to the weird guy, but Luigi gasped at the realisition and looked at the weirdo with the red robe and light-blue glasses and green skin... Fawful.

"Oh, the fink-rat is there. Has you feel the fink-ratness wafting off the fink-rat like three spring-lambs covered in rotten socks? Fawful has felt the fink-rat," Fawful said as he stood up again and grinned with his big teeth at Luigi.

"What-a you doing here?!" Luigi asked Fawful as he raised his fists a bit.

"I has abandoning, I has loneliness! Green and red mustard defeat Fawful, so Fawful are exile!" Fawful said with his terrible grammar and made a dramatic pose as he frowned before returning to his wide grin.

"Ah can't make a lick of sense out of this fellah," Applejack said as she tried to understand Fawful, but it was like reading an ancient language while sitting upside down.

"Me neither," Spike said, his eyes wide as he looked at Fawful, clearly amazed about how someone can be so strange.

The floor began shaking again and Fawful looked up, before looking back at all the others. "When snake has explode, the escape is us."

"What do you mean with 'snake has explode'?!" Spike said as he rubbed his forehead, his mind going into an overdrive to understand.

"He means that the snake is-a going to explode, and that is-a going to be our escape," Luigi said, being familiar with Fawful's antics he at least could understand his way of speaking to some degree.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense, then let's just wait!" Spike said as he jumped up on Luigi's shoulders again.

"You is bad understanding, Fawful has outstanding language," Fawful said mockingly towards Spike and chuckled.

Spike shaked his head and facepalmed, how would this end?

The Hisstocrat couple both sang the snake-charmer tune in unison as the ground shook, summoning their loyal servants to their side as they used them as a protective wall against Mario, but he only smirked menacingly and looked up at Twilight who was high up in the air.

"Hello! You-a Twilight, get-a me up in the air!" Mario shouted before he looked towards the Hisstocrat couple as they began singing on another tune, which was very unfamiliar to him. He raised an eyebrow as the servants dove into the sand again, confused as to why they had retreated beforethe ground shook beneath him and he quickly jumped away from the spot as he looked back and saw a female Hisstocrat servant rising up from the ground and chewing up towards the air in an attempt to eat Mario, but he was already gone from the spot.

Twilight descended towards Mario and he quickly jumped up on her back as she then soared up into the sky, out of the Hisstocrat's range.

"Okay, so here is-a the plan. You dive-a towards them and in the last second I-a jump off and hit the female Hisstocrat's head and-a you continue diving towards the male, oke?" Mario said to Twilight as he held on tight on her back.

"Yeah, got it. But won't that hurt?" Twilight asked as she turned to look behind her at Mario.

"Haha, no," Mario said as he chuckled. "Their heads are-a like jelly, you'll-a be fine."

"Alright, let's go!" Twilight said as she dived towards the male Hisstocrat, her speed almost uncontrollably fast and within seconds Mario jumped off and dived down towards the female Hisstocrat. Both landed at the same time and both Hisstocrats spinned around with tears in their eyes before they plunged into the sand again.

The snakes surfaced again, this time they looked more furious than afraid of Mario, and as they surfaced the female spit out fireballs and the male spit out concentrated balls of boiling mud into the air which slowly mixed with the fire and rained down towards the ground. Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Mario avoided the projectiles with ease and turned to face the Hisstocrats once again.

"This is a crime against wealth and law! I dare you to stomp on my head one more time, because I won't hesitate to call my lawyer on you, Mario!" The female Hisstocrat shouted before she sang the snake-charmer tune and summoned her servants once again.

"I'll say the same, you rude baboon!" The male Hisstocrat said as he spit out a rapid stream of heated mud against Mario, which the plumber avoided swiftly in his catsuit.

Both Hisstocrats sang the other tune again as the ground suddenly  egan to shake violently around Mario, and before he knew it all their servants appeared out of the sand and immediately began chasing Mario as he turned around and ran for his life. "Wahahaho! Help-a me!"

"Twilight, take pinky over there and I'll take blue-guy," Rainbow Dash said before she soared up into the sky much to Twilight's surprise.

But Twilight did as she was tasked to do and began diving down towards the female who was too occupied looking at Mario as he ran for his life away from their servants. Twilight raised her front hooves and held them straight forward as she crashed down onto the female Hisstocrat's head.

The giant royal snake spinned around as she began to glow in all the colours of the rainbow, her servants also stopping dead in their tracks and slowly spinning around. Twilight distanced herself and she was caught off guard as the female Hisstocrat suddenly exploded into a myriad of colours, all of the sand disappearing with her as it just magically disappeared, revealing the oddly enough fertile soil under it.

"Woah! Oh no! How am I supposed to move in this dirt?! My cape is going to get all messy as well!" The male Hisstocrat said as he found himself stuck in the dirt.

Suddenly Twilight looked up in the air and saw Rainbow Dash quickly approaching, she tried to distance herself again as the pegasus dived down towards the Hisstocrat. Rainbow Dash's wings were flapping like crazy and she showed no sign of stopping as she crashed down towards the Hisstocrat and slammed into his head with her front hooves, which in return made her bounce off the jelly-like surface and into the air again.

Twilight and Mario looked at the Hisstocrat as he blinked, unaware of what just happened as tears formed at the corners of his eyes. He suddenly began glowing and his servants who were also stuck in the dirt glowed as well before the inside of the "king's" mouth suddenly started to glow even more intensely. Mario and Twilight quirked an eyebrow and within seconds the snake spewed out a stream of sparkling golden magic into the air which slowly scattered across the acre and quickly made the apple trees regrow into their former state as if nothing had happened to them.

"What was that sound?" Spike asked as a loud hissing noise echoed throughout the insides of the snake and the floor began to slightly shake.

"I have explodeness!" Fawful shouted as a mysterious force pulled them off the ground and back the way they came from, travelling up through all kinds of rooms and sections of the giant snake's body.

"What now?! Put me down, what or whoever that's makin' us levitate!" Applejack shouted as she tried to hold onto a wall or something but failed significantly as she had to let go and continue flying upwards through all the tunnels and before-visited places.

"Uh, you guys, we're n-not alone!" Spike shouted as he began to panic, seeing many changelings floating ahead against their own will.

"Hang onto Luigi and you'll be fine, sugarcube!" Applejack shouted back to Spike as she swiftly flailed her hooves to avoid any incoming changelings that just happened to float around.

Spike swimmed over to Luigi and held on tightly as they ascended quite quickly, they were travelling through the first few rooms now and were approaching the throat... soon they would be free. Luigi suddenly noticed that all the apple juice was now mysteriously gone, but he didn't care that much because before he knew it they were dragged up in the long and pitch-black throat.

"Uhm, are we dead? Because I can see the light!" Spike said as a faint light slowly began to illuminate the inside of the throat while they were ascending very quickly.

"I-a don't know!" Luigi shouted as the light blinded them and they were forced to close their eyes.

Seconds passed and Luigi felt fresh air hitting his cheeks and blowing through his moustache, he felt at peace and thought that he was in heaven for a while. First the light, and now this. But that illusion was crushed in a matter of seconds when he heard Spike and Applejack screaming for their lives.

"Aaaaah! We're falling, and we're falling fast!" Spike screamed as he had regretfully opened his eyes, the ground seemed so far away but it inched significantly closer and closer for each hammering heartbeat.

Luigi opened his eyes just to see what was happening and immediately started to flail his arms as he saw the same thing as Spike. He struggled to flap his arms repeatedly but the laws of physics weren't going to be ignored this time.

"Well, could ya believe it? Mah apple trees are back!" Applejack shouted as she looked down and saw that the whole acre was covered with healthy trees and red glistening apples.

"How can you worry about that now?! We're gonna die for Celesti-" Spike shouted before he was cut off by Rainbow Dash grabbing him with her hooves, a moment later he saw that Twilight safely stopped Applejack's fall with a levitation spell.

But Luigi continued to fall alongsides with Fawful who was leaning back against an imaginary pillow while in the air but just as they were about to hit the ground Fawful pulled out a remote from his robes and pressed it as he deployed his trusty jetpack and quickly grabbed Luigi. "Hya! Saved like a bug about to fly into a spiders mouth you is!"

Luigi was hyper-ventilating, his face inches away from the solid dirt on the ground. He calmed down as Fawful slowly descended and dropped him on the ground and Luigi immediately started to calm down.

"Thank-a you, Fawful," Luigi said as he sat up and adjusted his cap.

"Fink-rat has luckiness, Fawful just happens to be in a good mood," Fawful said as he landedand deactivated his jetpack.

"Thank Celestia that all of you are alive!" Twilight said as she swooped down and placed Applejack safely on the ground near Luigi as Rainbow Dash did the same with Spike.

"Not everyone," Applejack muttered as she looked up at the sky were a massive swarm of changelings gathered and began heading towards Canterlot in the distance.

"What do you mean with that? You're all here," Twilight said as she raised an eyebrow and looked at Applejack.

"They turned mah family into changelings, right before mah eyes!" Applejack said as she bit her lip in frustration and tried to hold back some tears.

"Changelings?" Twilight asked, looking up into the sky as she finally heard the buzzing sound above them, seeing the changeling swarm moving towards Canterlot. "Wait, what?"

"Uhm, well. The changelings had built a small hive within that snake. Probably some egg laying changeling that somehow got gobbled up and proceeded to do what it was born to do," Spike said, trying to explain the situation with his own words.

"Okay, I guess that makes some sense at the least. And I'm sorry to hear about that, Applejack. I'd gladly go to Canterlot right now and rescue all of our missing friends but I fear that Chrysalis is too strong by now," Twilight said as she slowly rubbed her hoof across the soil.

"She'll only grow stronger, Twilight. I'd recommend we ask Zecora for assistance, if we're lucky she's still sleeping at the library," Spike said, crossing his arms and looking at Twilight.

"Good idea, Spike. Let's make our way to the library!" Twilight said as she was about to begin running but stopped as she realised that there was another person with them now. "Uh, would you like to help us?"

"Ha! I laugh at you! Fawful doesn't help fink-rats like you! Fawful has loneliness!" Fawful said and activated his jetpack before flying away.

"Okay..." Twilight said before rolling her eyes and sighing.

What was left was just to meet up with Mario and then get on their way back to the library.

Those changelings would pay...

...But we haven't checked on Bowser in a while, have we now?