Universe 220822

Now that the four teams have divided, Team B was struggling a bit.

Their mission is to look after help in any friendly universe they know about, but there's one problem: None of them even had an idea on how to travel to other worlds.

Thankfully, though, Firefly gave her watch to Tails, as the perfect chance to open a portal to any other world. Of curse, she forgot to explain how the hell the watch works and how it opens portals in the first place, but Tails is a genius, he'll figure it out... Hopefully...

Right now, he was trying his very best not to screw it up, as he tried to understand how the watch that Firefly gave him works at all... Yet he's incredibly frustrated because he simply can't find a way to make it work.

"I've avoided a city to get blown up, I helped to take down Neo Metal, I saved an entire country from getting infected forever with a dangerous virus... But I cannot figure out a watch on my best department skill!" Tails groaned in anger, as his powers started to show up.

"Deep breaths, honey..." Zipp spoke suddenly, as she came by and started to massage Tails' shoulders, which did made the trick, because his powers were slowly evaporating. "Deep breaths..."

Tails sighed and took one last time deep breath. "Thanks, Zippy..." He said with a smile, sharing a kick smooch with her, before looking back at at the watch on his hands with a frown. "Well, one thing is for sure: It doesn't really matter if they give me this... I have no idea on how to use it..."

"Perhaps we're thinking on this the wrong way?" Knuckles suggested.

"What do you mean with 'the wrong way'?" Misty questioned.

"They're asking us to look for help, but they didn't considered that we have no idea on where to go, or how to use the watch, yet they still trust us with this mission," Knuckles pointed out. "Perhaps we don't have to look after another universe, but instead another dimension."

"Huh?" The three mores in the workshop said confused, but Tails did got what he meant.

"Wait a second... Are you implying what I think you are implying?!" Tails asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, I am!" Knuckles stated with smirk.

"What are you two talking about?" Izzy asked confused. "I... We are really lost here!" She pointed at herself, Zipp and Misty.

"Yeah. What do you mean we must travel to other dimension and not other universe?" Zipp asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Aren't those things the same?" Misty questioned.

"Believe it or not: Nope!" Tails replied with a smile. "Let us explain!"

After saying this, Tails brought a board, then handled a pen to Knuckles so they could both draw over it. Soon, Tails draw a single line in the board, while Knuckles drawn more lines using the one Tails drawn as the start, then finished by closing said lines in a giant circle.

The three mares looked confused at the board, even tilting their heads, while Tails finished drawing something on the other side of the board, and then he came back to the first side.

"Okay, so: This line in the middle..." Tails started to explain, as he pointed at the first line he drew before. "Is our current dimension: Mobius."

"And these lines around it are the dimensions we have interacted with!" Knuckles said, before pointing at one of the lines with the pen. "Let's say, for example, that this line is Equestria's dimension."

"As you girls can see, our realities coexist in the same plane of existence, even though we belong to a different dimensions!" Tails said. "Now, the lines around ours consist of dimensions, and ours is one, too..."

"But the circle that surrounds them all is our universe!" Knuckles pointed out with a smile. "Of course, no universe has an actual name, but one of the few things FS did well was giving a number designation to each world, so let's stick to this fact: Our Universe is Number 220822."

"Uh, what does the number stands for, exactly?" Misty asked confused.

"We honestly don't know," Tails replied. "FS might have made them up, or he might be the only one who knows why these universes are assigned with those numbers..."

"I guess we'll never know." Knuckles shrugged.

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Zipp said with wide eyes. "Are you guys saying that we've never been in different universes... But different dimensions?! A-And that each one of our worlds are part from the same universe?!"

"Yup!" Tails said with a smile. "This also means that maybe, and just maybe, our universe is either the first one that interacts with the dimensions between itself, or the first one the Multiverse Guardian Sonic talked about has ever heard about, considering he says that Mobius and Equestria interacting the way they do in our universe is something that never happened before."

"Wait a second..." Izzy said with narrowed eyes, before gasping and covering her mouth with her hooves. "D-Does this means that you guys could... S-Stay with us in Equestria... A-And everything will be fine?!" She asked, as she started to tear up from happiness.

"...Is a big possibility..." Knuckles replied with a hopeful smile, before shacking his head to focus back on the task at hand. "But let's not get so ahead of ourselves here! As much as I would like to say that staying with you is the definitive choice, we still have to deal with Opaline!"

"And to do that, we're going to a different dimension!" Tails declared with a smile, placing the watch firefly gave him on his right wrist. "I don't know how this works, but I'll still have it just in case."

"Wait, hold on a moment!" Misty stopped them. "How do you guys know so much about this kind of stuff? I mean, I know you have your experience with weird stuff and all, but doesn't changes the fact that you gave sense to something that sounded so off!"

"Well... Before meeting you guys, we already travelled to other dimensions... Although we did had a way to come back from those..." Tails pointed out with a sheepish smile.

"Specially Sonic with his Smash Brothers dumb fighting tournaments..." Knuckles said with anger, also crossing his arms.

"Are you still mad because they made both Shadow and you assistants instead of actual fighters?" Tails mocked up with a smirk.

"I didn't wanted to be on their dumb crossover event, anyways!" Knuckles groaned loudly with a frown.

"Uh, what's a 'Smash Brothers'?" Izzy asked confused.

"An event that happens every certain time were some selected fighters from some selected dimensions are chosen to fight on a big tournament until one of them is declared the winner!" Tails explained. "Sonic's always the chosen one from our dimension. He even has a special phone to talk with anyone from the other ones!"

"The white one with the ball and the two lines?" Zipp questioned, and Tails nodded with a smile. "Huh... I always thought he only had an extra phone like Pipp for no apparent reason..."

"How do you think we went to Mario's world through a pipe? We told him our location through that phone!" Knuckles pointed out.

"Yeah! And we even travelled to Mario's dimension to participate on the Olympic Games as well!" Tails pointed out.

However, that last sentence made both his eyes and Knuckles' widen, then they slowly turned to see each other, before grinning with complicity and even laugh a bit sinisterly.

"Uh... Guys?" Zipp called concerned, chuckling nervously and looking around confused. "W-What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing special... We just know where we could ask for help!" Tails declared with a confident smirk.

Izzy gasped with sparkling eyes and placed her hooves on her cheeks. "Really?! Where? Where?! Where are we going?!" She asked, as she zoomed up to Knuckles' face and squeezed his cheeks.

"Just you wait and see!" Knuckles replied happily.

After saying that, Tails walked over to a frame of Longclaw, Sonic and him when they were kids, and even though Tails smiled at the sight, he still moved the frame aside and pressed a button that had the shape of a red mushroom with eyes.

Then, a piano suddenly showed off from the wall in front of Tails, which made both Knuckles and him smirk, while the mares behind them were confused.

"Uh... What are you guys doing?" Misty asked confused.

However, instead of replying, Tails stretched his fingers, and then, he played a happy little melody with the piano, and after 40 seconds, he stopped playing.

This just confused the mares even more, but then, the ground suddenly started to rumble, and once it stopped, a giant green pipe literally showed up from the ground and stopped in front of the group, surprising and confusing even more the mares, while Tails and Knuckles just smiled.

"What the heck did just happened?!" Zipp questioned with wide and panicked eyes.

"A pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom just showed up!" Tails replied with a smile. "If there's a world that's in constant danger in the same level than Mobius, that's Mario's world! And I know he'll be happy to help once he finds out that Sonic's in danger."

"Wait... Are we going to that 'Mushroom Kingdom'... through the pipe?" Misty asked, cringing a bit at the idea.

"Oh, but this are not conventional pipes, girls: This are..." Tails began with a smile, before jumping over to the pipe and then dive in it, as the pipe made a strange sound. "MAGICAL PIPES!!!"

"TAILS!!!" Zipp exclaimed out loud in panic, before not thinking twice and enter to the pipe as well.

Knuckles groaned and facepalmed after she did that. "That's what happens when you jump without thinking..." He said with a bored expression, before grabbing the two unicorn mares and then jump to the board of the pipe.

The three of them looked down to the warp pipe, which was glowing with colorful lights, although Misty still gulped nervously by the sight.

"A-Are these things safe?" Misty asked in panic, trying her best not to fall into the pipe by accident.

"Depends on how fast you dive in!" Knuckles said, before curling into a ball and then get dragged downwards by the pipe.

Izzy simply giggled and then made a cannon ball, also getting dragged into the pipe. This left Misty on her own, and she looked around in panic, not so sure what to do.

"Oh... Sometimes I wished I was evil... This good guy stuff is not for what I'm made of!" Misty told herself in slight panic, before covering her mouth with her hooves in more panic, her eyes widening. "They better never discover I said that!"

Then, she looked back at the pipe, then took a deep breath, nodded to herself determined, and then launched herself in the pipe as well, while the pipe disappeared from sight.

Misty was screaming as she saw blue and white lights and lines moving around her.

She ended up covering her face with her hooves once a flashlight suddenly appeared, but then, she opened her eyes again, and felt amazed by the sight: The background now seemed to be a bunch of pink clouds that floated around the tunnel she seemed to be in.

Around the place, she could see more pipes and tunnels, as well as some weird turtles and armless critters moving around them. She also saw some strange mushrooms with bodies going through the pipes.

"Whoa!" Misty exclaimed, as she passed down one of the tunnels, while one of the turtles was shrunken before entering the pipe. "What is this place?"

"I don't know!" Izzy said, as she suddenly appeared at Misty's side and made the other unicorn mare yelp in surprise. "But this place is definitely so colorful and wonderful! Wheeee!"

She began to spin as she hugged her hind legs, while Misty did her best not to loose her balance.

"Chill out, Misty!" Knuckles said, as he also appeared suddenly while crossing his legs in the air and his arms behind his neck. "Think about it like swimming, but in the air!"

Seeing the point he was trying to make, Misty moved her forelegs ahead, like if she was actually swimming, and the trick worked! Her balance was better now, and she could move as much as Izzy, even giggling happily as she did so, not being so scared anymore.

Zipp, on the other hand, was yelping a bit panicked as she spun on her place with wide and panicked eyes. "What the hay IS this place?!"

Soon, Tails came by and grabbed her from her hooves, helping her get some balance while they travelled through the warp pipe towards the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Is the warp dimension!" Tails replied. "Is basically an exclusive reality we can only access through a warp pipe. And now we're in one!"

"Brace yourselves, lovebirds!" Knuckles warned with a smirk, as he saw the end of their wipe tunnel ahead. "We'll reach the Mushroom Kingdom in 3, 2, 1!"

And once the countdown was over, the whole group was shrunken as well, as they all traversed the other side of the wipe pipe they initially entered.

The wipe pipe seemed differently than any other one.

This pipe had decoration around that reminded to Green Hills, meaning it was a pipe that straight up connected with Sonic's dimension.

Then, the pipe started to shine and made the same strange sound from before, and then Tails and Knuckles were the first ones to came out of it, as they rolled in the ground and then posed like superheroes at the end.

Next, Zipp came out of the pipe and twirled in the air, but then managed to stop thanks to her wings, and she sighed in relief when she did so, while Izzy used her magic to levitate herself.

She smiled and sighed in relief once she saw she was fine, but that relief didn't lasted, because Misty came out next and landed over Izzy, making her fall to the ground all the same, while the two unicorn mares groaned in pain, and Zipp landed at their side.

"That was a really bad experience..." Zipp said with a dizzy expression, even shaking her head.

"If it makes you feel better: The worse part is over," Tails said with a smile. "Now we just gotta move ahead towards the town."

"Is gonna be one hell of a journey!" Knuckles declared with a smirk, as he and Tails fist bumped, before they moved ahead.

However, as they did so, the three mares finally came to notice that, outside of the Green Hills themed pipe, there was a bunch of mushrooms around, from all sizes and colors. Not so far, there was a small river with red fishes that seemed to have wings instead of fins.

"Oh! So that is why is called 'Mushroom Kingdom'! There's so much mushrooms around here!" Izzy said cheerfully.

"Well, is also because 70% of the kingdom's population is based on talking mushroom men," Tails pointed out casually, and while Izzy kept hoping ahead happily and Misty felt confused, Zipp stopped walking and widened her eyes.

"...T-Talking mushroom men?!" Zipp asked concerned.

"They're actually called 'Toads', but yeah, talking mushroom men works, too." Knuckles pointed out.

"...Okay..." Was everything Zipp managed to reply, before keep going forward.

However, before doing so, three strange critters walked in front of her, not minding her presence at all, even though she did minded theirs. These critters resembled multicolored ladybugs and were red, yellow and green respectively, walking away in a row.

Zipp felt weirded out by this, but decided to not make a big deal out of it and kept moving ahead, catching up with her friends really quick.

"I can barely see anything above us with so many mushrooms..." Misty pointed out with concern.

"Aw, come on, Misty... Is not like anything's gonna come out of nowhere!" Izzy said cheerfully.

But right after she said this, the three mares heard a stomp, so they all turned to see behind them, yet they saw nothing, so they chose to keep going. However, as they turned around, the stomp was heard again, this time even closer, and they all turned to their left, which made their eyes widen.

They saw a strange creature with a round face and a sad expression that had two large legs with spikes, as well as yellow 'feet', and it moved to the right by using its legs.

The critter then moved in a position that had it facing down the three mares, whom ducked a bit in fright.

"U-Uh... H-Hello..." Misty said with a sheepish smile, right before the critter moved away.

The three mares sighed in relief after this happened, even though Zipp stared at it for a few seconds more before it got lost in the distance, but when she noticed that her friends kept moving, as well as the fact that there was another of those critters incoming, she chose to move ahead as well.

"Okay, um... Can any of you guys explain what are all these weird creatures, and what are we doing here exactly?" Zipp decided to ask.

Right there, they were passing besides the river they already saw earlier, and they witnessed a bunch of the fishes with wings flying around for a few seconds and twirling, before diving back into the water.

"Those fishes are called Cheep Cheeps!" Tails began to explain, right before reaching a small drop where more of those ladybug looking like critter walked by, and Tails stomped over the blue one, which was sent a bit backwards with a dizzy expression. "And the one I just stomped over is a Biddybud!"

"The critters that didn't stomp over any of you are called Bramballs." Knuckles added as well with a smile.

"Those are pretty weird names, if you ask me..." Zipp pointed out a bit concerned.

"But they're not the weirdest, either!" Misty said with a smirk, and Zipp smirked back.

"As for what are we doing here, well: Mario and company are pretty much under weird circumstances like us most of the time," Tails explained. "And like I said, he's going to help us with no 'buts' once he finds out Sonic's in danger!"

"As well as the multiverse!" Knuckles added.

Soon, they reached a point where there wasn't a path anymore, but there were many giant mushrooms that made the job, so Tails and Zipp flew over to one of them, while Knuckles grabbed Izzy and Misty and jumped ahead, before doing it again, with Tails and Zipp landing besides them.

"But to do that, we gotta reach Princess Peach in her castle." Tails pointed out with a smile.

"Princess who?" Misty asked confused.

However, as gasp from Izzy called the other two mares' attention, so they looked in the same direction than their friend... And they gasped as well.

In the distance, they could see a bunch of colorful hills that extended as far as the eye allowed to see. On top of one of said hills, there was a massive white castle with red towers and ceiling. Around said castle, many houses with mushroom heads extended across the kingdom.

"OH MY GLITTER!!!" Izzy exclaimed loudly with sparkling eyes, also squeezing her cheeks with her hooves.

"This place looks so... beautiful!" Misty said with sparkling eyes as well.

"And it only gets better!" Knuckles said. "Come on, guys! Sonic's counting on us to help him save the multiverse!"

After saying this, he jumped ahead towards more mushrooms that lead to the castle, while the three mares immediately followed him, while Tails stood behind and looked at the sky with a serious expression.

"Hang on, Sonic... We are coming!" Tails stated determined.

After that, he also started to jump ahead over the mushrooms, following his friends and his girlfriend.

It didn't took them long to finally reach the main town.

Once they did so, Zipp finally took a glance of the talking mushrooms, the Toads, Knuckles talked about, and she was actually impressed to see that they all looked... adorable, instead of creepy like she imagined.

"This way, girls!" Tails called out with a smile. "Princess Peach lives right up that hill!"

He pointed at the castle in the highest hill around, and even though the mares already saw it earlier, they were still amazed by how big it looked now that they were closer. However, they also noticed that the Toads were looking at them, although it was understandable.

They were talking ponies from other dimension, after all. Of course they were going to draw attention.

Soon enough, though, Knuckles whistled to them and made a move with his arm, indicating them to keep going, and the three mares did so.

As they walked around, they saw some Toads jumping and hitting with their fists some yellow floating boxes with a coin symbol, which released a coin everytime they hit them, and some other toads were catching the coins in the process.

"Meep, meep!" Knuckles said suddenly, as he carefully moved some Toads out of the way. "Excuse me, everybody. Coming through! We're in the middle of an important mission, so please let us pass!"

As he did this, he accidentally made a green Toad let go one of their coins, which rolled in the ground and stopped in front of Tails, who picked up the coin and gave it to a red toad nearby with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry for that! He gets grumpy when there's a lot of crowd, heheh..." Tails apologized, not noticing that the Toads were staring at the three mares behind him, which made them all but Izzy feel uncomfortable.

Suddenly, however, Knuckles cleared his throat, and then... "EXCUSE ME, EVERYBODY! COMING THROUGH!" He shouted in a green Toad's ear, who screamed and ran away in panic. "Our friend's gonna die if you don't get out of the way! PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!"

"Knuckles!" Tails scolded with a frown, before grinding his teeth. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm making them get out of the way, fox. Don't judge my methods, judge the results!" Knuckles replied with a whisper.

Tails rolled his eyes and shook his head with disbelief, but still decided to let him be. Knuckles was Knuckles at the end of the day, anyways.

Meanwhile, as they kept walking ahead, the three mares felt amazed by their surroundings: Small shops that sell special clothes, coins with a dinosaur printed in front, hammers, keys, all kinds of weird foods, and even a pet store, as a yellow Toad exited it with a Cheep Cheep in a bag.

The Cheep Cheep seemed really happy for a moment, but as soon as it crossed its sight with Zipp's, he glared at her, and Zipp felt weirded out by this, but decided to ignore it and keep looking around.

Soon, they arrived to a place were various Toads were working on something, mostly blue Toads. There was a big yellow platform that seemed to go up, as well as a traffic light with only green and red lights, and also a barrier that blocked the path unless you walked in front of it.

"And up we go!" Knuckles said, as Tails flew over the platform, while the echidna himself stuck to a wall so the platform wouldn't go upwards yet.

"Wait, up?" Zipp questioned, but then she saw Misty and Izzy getting over the yellow platform.

Zipp did the same just in time, because as soon as both she, Tails and Knuckles landed on it, the platform immediately moved upwards, startling the three mares.

As soon as they reached the top, Tails and Knuckles moved ahead and stood over other platform, while the three mares did the same, but they also lost some balance when the platform suddenly moved ahead. Then, suspended in the air, another platform came by.

Tails and Knuckles jumped to it, with Izzy and Zipp doing the same, but Misty had to make a quick jump and hang on the side of the platform, because she yelped in fear since she almost fell once the platform moved ahead.

Izzy noticed this and immediately helped her to get back, with them both sighing in relief that nothing bad happened, but when they saw that the rest still moved ahead, they both groaned a bit, before keep going as well, as they followed their friends.

Soon, Tails and Knuckles reached a point were some Toads were going down some pipes, and some platforms were going upwards. The three mares were over one of the platforms, and Izzy waved her hoof cheerfully to a Toad that stared at them with a confused expression.

Then, Tails whistled to the mares, and they looked at him, before keep following them. Zipp was flying again, and Izzy was running ahead, but Misty soon noticed that she was running over blocks suspended in the air and with holes in-middle.

"Whoa!" Misty exclaimed in panic, before still moving ahead. "Why are these bricks just floating here?!"

Soon, the group reached a set of three transparent pipes, all leading upwards, although heading in different directions as well, but the three mares felt surprised to see pipes like these ones.

"Now just pop on this pipe and we're on out way!" Tails declared, as he immediately entered in the third pipe to the left.

"Is like flying without flying!" Knuckles declared with a smirk, entering into the same pipe, as he cheered while traveling around it.

"Ooh!" Izzy exclaimed, as she approached the pipe and entered it too. "Wheee!" She exclaimed happily while moving across it.

"Well, this actually seems nice!" Misty said, entering the pipe as well, and even though she exclaimed "Whoa!" in panic at first, she eventually giggled at the sensation.

"Yeah, I've gotta admit it... I really like this pipe––" Zipp tried to say, smiling and carefully approaching the pipe, but the same released a strange air that ended up sucking her and made her scream.

As Zipp traveled the pipe as well, and unlike the others, she screamed in panic and yelped in pain, because she always hit all the curves instead of moving flawlessly like the rest of her friends. She even reached a point where her whole body crashed on the pipe.

Thankfully, the rest reached the end by exiting a red pipe, then Knuckles moved ahead and entered a blue pipe, with Tails, Izzy and Misty following, but since Zipp arrived late and looked around confused, she entered the green pipe instead.

That led her to a blue pipe at the other side, and she looked around confused again, so she entered the other blue pipe now, which made her exit a green one and then fell to the ground, but she quickly stood up and entered another green one that led her back to the exact same place.

So, she entered a red pipe that made her exit a green pipe that made her smash her head on the ground again, so she groaned and shook her head, but then noticed that there's more and more pipes around, and her eyes widened.

"AW, COME ON!" Zipp groaned out loudly.

Eventually, Zipp exited the green pipe right in front of Peach's Castle.

However, the mare groaned tiredly and rolled in the floor, smashing her head on the ground again and groaning for what felt like the sixth time this day.

"I thought you said that worse part was over, Tails..." Zipp said, still with her face smashed in the ground.

"What are you talking about?!" Izzy asked cheerfully, levitating Zipp back on her fours. "That was so much fun!"

"I haven't feel that alive in years!" Misty cheered as well with a smile.

"If you say so..." Zipp rolled her eyes.

"Here we are! Palace doors!" Tails called out, as he pointed at Peach's Castle ahead and moved towards it.

"Big big boom!" Knuckles said, clapping his hands and then moving ahead. "We're almost there!"

The three mares immediately followed after them, but once again, they felt amazed by how big the castle actually looked closer, and they could even appreciate a giant glass with Peach's form.

"Pretty impressive, am I right?!" Tails asked with a smile.

"Is it bad that I feel jealous even though ZH's Castle is technically bigger?" Zipp asked. "Because this Peach gal knows how to make a castle have style!"

"Don't feel bad, Zipp!" Knuckles said with a smile. "If anything, Peach is gonna feel flattered that you think that!"

Inside of Peach's Castle, Peach herself, the Mario Bros., Toadsworth, and a bunch of toads were around a table.

Suddenly, that table lifted a bit from the ground and created a map made out of LEGO that showed the entire demography of this world: Not only the Mushroom Kingdom, but also Sarasaland, Yoshi's Island, the Ice Kingdom, the Kong Kingdom, and Bowser's Kingdom.

"Council! Your attention!" Princess Peach called out with a slight frown, while everyone in the room looked at her. "Our agent infiltrated in Bowser's army has confirmed our suspicions: He's getting ready to invade our lands!"

This made everyone but Mario gasp, while Luigi squealed in panic and hid behind Mario, who still pat his head, although he also rolled his eyes.

"W-When is it gonna happen?!" One red Toad asked.

"In three days, just in time for the Mushroom Kingdom's 250th anniversary..." Peach replied with a frown. "Which is why we must stop any kind of preparation for the festival, and instead prepare to defeat Bowser and his army!"

"How?!" A Yellow Toad asked next. "Look at us! We're adorable!" He pointed out and made puppy eyes, while all the other toads around but Toadsworth did the same.

Heck, even a pair of Toads placed their hands together to make a heart, and that made both Mario and Toadsworth facepalm in disbelief.

"I know that Bowser has a record for surprising us in the most unexpected of the situations, but what change the tables this time is that we know he's coming, and is why we must be ready to take him down!" Peach declared. "You, my Toads, have been trained to face the impossible, no matter how scared you are. We count with the bless of the power-ups, our own defenses... and with the Super Mario Brothers!"

Mario immediately stood in a military pose with a salute, while Luigi kept trembling in fear, but he soon also stood in that position after Mario pushed him slightly on the shoulder.

"They had saved our kingdom so many times that I honestly can't count them anymore! And I know for sure that we can count on them!" Peach declared once again with a smile, and both Mario and Luigi nodded in agreement. "Now go, my subjects! We must be ready to fight Bowser and his army back!"

The mood of the Toads changed after hearing this, and they all cheered loudly, before quickly spreading up and work on stopping Bowser, just like they were asked to do.

"I must say it, Peach..." Mario spoke, as he soon stood at her side. "You're getting-a better with your speeches!"

Peach looked down at him with a smile and slight blush of embarrassment.

"I'm still kinda nervous for all of this-a situation..." Luigi said, as he rubbed his left arm.

"Chill up, bro!" Mario said, as he blocked Luigi's sight with his own hat, which made Luigi chuckle and then mock Mario back by touching his belly like drums, which made Mario pull Luigi's hands away with a chuckle as well. "Like Peach said, we've dealt with-a Bowser all the time! This won't be any-a different!"

But then, a red Toad knocked on the door and slowly opened it, popping his head to look inside. "Um, Princess?"

"Yes?" Peach replied with a raised eyebrow.

"There's some, uh... 'Neighbors' that want to have a word with you..." The Toad replied with a concerned tone.

"Neighbors?" Peach, Mario and Luigi all questioned confused.

The Toad ended up sighing, so he entered the room, closed the doors behind and approached Peach, while the princess ducked down so the Toad could whisper at her ear, and once he told her what he meant, her eyes widened in surprise, so she looked back at the Toad with a slight frown.

"Let them in." Peach instructed.

The Toad nodded and quickly ran back, opening the door entirely, but as soon as Tails looked at Peach and the Mario Bros. his eyes widened, and he boosted inside the room, which made Knuckles only pop his head confused.

"Princess!" Tails said with a smile. "Thank Chaos we reached you!"

"Tails?" Peach questioned confused, while Luigi came by and squeezed him in a hug. "What happened to your voice?"

"And where's a Sonic?" Mario asked as well.

"The first question is hard to explain..." Tails said with a sheepish smile. "As for the second one: He's precisely the reason why we're here!"

"We?" Luigi asked confused, as he let tails go.

"Yes. We." Knuckles spoke from the door, pushing it open and showing the three mares that came with them.

Zipp simply looked around confused, not sure what to say or do, while Izzy waved her hoof cheerfully, and Misty tried to hid behind Izzy with a sheepish smile.

While Peach and Mario got confused on why there were ponies with them, Luigi remembered that he already met Zipp and Izzy a while back when Sonic and Tails asked his help to deal with a ghost, and while his first instinct was to panic, he calmed himself down and smiled.

"Oh! Is your friends-a from that pony that pony world!" Luigi said with a smile, and his fear actually faded away entirely.

Peach and Mario looked at Luigi confused after he said that. "You know them, bro?" Mario asked.

"Kinda... I actually was afraid of them when I met them... But they're friendly!" Luigi replied.

"Yeah, well. They come with us, and just like my voice change, is a long story to explain how we met them, but there's no time for that! We need your help!" Tails quickly explained with concern.

"What's the matter?" Peach asked.

"There's a lot of context behind, so we'll just tell you the important stuff!" Knuckles stated, as he quickly zoomed besides Tails, while the three mares stood behind them and let them make the talk.

"There's this really, really bad Alicorn that's traveling across the whole multiverse and trying to conquer it all!" Tails began to explain.

"And there's this special group that joined to stop her, but... They have something against Sonic, and now they captured him..." Knuckles explained next with concern, which made Peach and the Mario Bros. gasp.

"That's why we came here!" Tails explained. "We don't know when it'll happen, but we know for sure that the Alicorn is going to attack our universe eventually."

"And we wanna ask for your help!" Knuckles added. "The Power-ups and defenses of your world could be a crucial key to defeat her! And... Even though there's some people already on their way to save Sonic, there's no guarantee they'll succeed, so... We must be prepared for anything!"

Peach felt conflicted now that she heard all of this. On one hand, she had to deal with Bowser before he attacked the Mushroom Kingdom... But on the other hand, Bowser was not even a real problem compared to what Tails and Knuckles were telling them.

Mario, on the other hand, had his answer more than clear. "If Sonic's in-a trouble, then count with me to help him out!"

"Yes!" Tails cheered, as he stretched his hand with Mario's. "I knew you wouldn't reject us, Red!"

"Hey! Wait a second!" Peach called out. "Mario, I understand that Sonic is your friend, but our Kingdom is still in danger because of Bowser!"

"But princess!" Luigi interfered. "Bowser's-a not the worse part! If that Alicorn destroys-a our world, Bowser won't-a be the threat the same-a level than her!"

"Oh, right... Bowser..." Knuckles aid with a sheepish smile, also scratching his neck. "That's another thing we wanted to discuss, heheh..."

"Since Bowser also has a big army, I was thinking if you could help us out to, uh... Ask for his help, too?" Tails explained with a sheepish smile as well.

Mario and Luigi's face went pale after he asked that, while Peach had a twitchy eye and was trying very hard not to explode in anger.

Peach took a deep breath and placed her hands together, looking at Tails with a forced smile. "...Explain yourself..."

"I know what are you thinking: Bowser has been a pain in the ass for you three for years! And he's clearly not friendly when it comes to work along Mario..." Tails admitted, and Mario shrugged after being pointed out. "But I know how to convince him so he'll help! I just need to know if you guys are willing to help us in that task as well."

Peach closed her eyes and crossed her arms for a moment. She knew that she could trust on Mario and Luigi, as well as on Sonic's friends, whenever it came to confront impossible odds...

However, she knew little to nothing about the ponies that came with them, and she was not sure if they could survive a fight against Bowser... So, she had an idea.

"...Let's make a deal, Tails..." Peach began with a smile, as she approached him. "If one of your... friends..." She looked over at the three mares. "Can pass my training course, I'll help you out to get Bowser's help."

"Training course?" Zipp was the first to talk, and that startled Mario, who yelped and fell backwards, while Zipp rolled her eyes annoyed. "Ugh, you've gotta be kidding me..."

Peach also felt a bit startled when she saw that they could talk, but choose to ignore it for now. "So? What do you say?" She asked Tails, extending her hand to him.

Tails didn't knew what to do, but when he saw the mares and they all nodded with determinate looks, he smirked and looked back at Peach, then stretched her hand. "We have a deal!"

"Good. Follow me, then." Peach declared.

With this, the Mario Bros, Tails, Knuckles and the mares followed Peach out of there.

Not so much later, they went to a balcony in the backside of the castle.

There, the balcony separated from the rest of the castle, startling both the Mobians and Equestrians. When the balcony stopped over the sea, confusing the visitors even more.

But then, the sea began to rumble, and then, a giant Mystery (?) Block came out of it, stopping in front of the balcony, surprising the visitors. And yet, said surprise increased even more when the block separated and spread around, transforming into a level course.

Floating platforms, mechanical Piranha Plants, plushie Bill Banzai, fake circles that twirled around like lava lines, and a bunch of pipes and blocks lined for parkour movements.

The entire thing finished when a pole and a pink flag with a red mushroom inside appeared in the middle of the floating balcony they were standing over, and now Zipp officially had no idea of what was going on, while Tails and Knuckles looked at the course confused.

"When did you make all of this?" Tails questioned confused.

"It's always been here!" Peach replied with a smile. "I just use it to train Toads, but Mario and Luigi like to use it from time to time as well."

"And if any of you three can pass this course, we'll help you out with-a Bowser!" Luigi declared.

"Wait... How do we pass this, exactly?" Misty asked.

"Yeah... Is just a massive square that technically isn't a square at the same time!" Zipp pointed out.

"Watch and learn!" Mario said, as he first jumped and hit a much smaller Mystery Block with his fist.

The block released a small red mushroom with eyes, which Mario eat immediately in one chomp. With that, his whole body glowed for a second, before he became much bigger and even taller than both Peach and Luigi.

This surprised and shocked the three mares, although Izzy had sparkling eyes, probably because she was imagining all the things she could do if she became bigger with a Super Mushroom like that one... I'm not showing you, this chapter is getting longer than I like already.

Then, Mario moved ahead and jumped over some bricks that worked as a road, then made parkour over some yellow brick that glowed, and then twirled in the air.

Soon, he jumped over the pipes with the mechanical Piranha Plants, and he barely dodged the last one, even grabbing his hat, but still managed to do so. Then, he slid down to dodge the twirling circles, and then he made another twirl in the air while saying "Wahoo!" to dodge another mechanical Plant.

Next, he stood over a spring that impulsed him upwards and helped him to make more parkour over yellow bricks, before he dived towards a group of regular blocks that worked like a path.

Soon, Mario ran upwards, then jumped, aimed a punch at a cardboard image of Bowser, and hit him, also destroying it in the process. Now he started to run over a bunch of yellow bricks that all fell to the ground with one touch, while a bunch of Bill Banzai were shot at him.

However, this only made the red plumber smile, because he soon jumped in the air and then used the Bill Banzai to jump even higher and higher.

Finally, Mario reached the Flag Pole and touched the button, slowly descending back to the ground, while a happy melody played to celebrate that he reached the end of the level, as Mario sighed in relief and cleaned some sweat from his forehead.

He also purposely hit his head against the pole, which made him shrunk and go back to his regular size, but he then only shook his head and smiled.

When he looked over at the three mares, they all had their jaws dropped on what they just saw.

"...You want us to pass that thing?!" Zipp asked, but in excitement.

"Yup!" Peach replied, before crossing her arms with a smirk. "Consider it a test to see what you girls are made of."

"Don't have to ask me twice!" Zipp replied with excitement, extending her wings and boosting towards the course.

She literally cleared the whole course and did almost everything the way Mario did, but she did it twice as fast and even passing through some more dangerous parts of the course, although she did so only with the idea of showing off her parkour skills a bit.

For example: There's a zone were various mechanical Piranha Plants moved and chomped wildly, so Zipp passed this part of the course by zigzagging around them, coming out completely unharmed.

Then, in the final part of the course, right before reaching the flag pole, Zipp dodged thanks to her wings a mechanical Piranha Plant that came out of nowhere, then finally reached the end of the course, as she then proceed to slowly land besides her friends.

Izzy and Misty both cheered at their friend, as they both hugged her and congratulated her for finishing the course so damn fast, while Tails smiled at her.

"Dude, your girl's a show off..." Knuckles deadpanned with his arms crossed.

"And that's exactly why I love her!" Tails replied with a huge and proud smile.

As for Peach and the Mario Brothers? They stared with wide eyes and disbelief at Zipp, who simply smiled at her own accomplishment and cheered as well. Then, Peach shook her head and focused again, as she slowly approached to Zipp... And then made a bow at her.

Zipp felt confused by this, but she still bowed back at Peach.

"I owe you my dearest apologies... I judged you bad." Peach said with a smile. "You're more than capable to travel across this world, and I hope your friends do as well!"

Zipp simply chuckled and scratched her neck embarrassed, while Izzy and Misty hugged her again.

"So... Does that means that you guys will help us to recruit Bowser?" Tails asked with a sheepish smile.

"Zipp did passed the course!" Knuckles pointed out with a smirk.

Peach looked at Mario and Luigi, who both nodded at her with smiles, and she nodded back. "A deal is a deal!"

Author's Note

LET'S-A-FUCKING-GOOOOOOOOOOO

I've been waiting to make a Mario-Themed chapter for MONTHS, AND IT'S FINALLY HERE!

Yes, it's mostly based on the Mario Movie, but come on: That movie managed to adapt the simplicity of the Mario Universe into a movie, you cannot expect me not to use it as a base for this chapter!

I honestly didn't wanted to make the whole "I need a hero" sequence because is... Is not really necessary, and having Zipp finish the level that fast felt a lot better, honestly.

Also, let's all be thankful this is Game Mario and not SMG4 Mario, otherwise... I don't wanna think on the horrors that would've happened in this chapter...

That's it for now. Thanks again for reading! And next chapter: We go with Team C and their mission to save Sonic! See ya later!