Super Mario and the Elements of Harmony

Dear Mario:

Please come to the castle. I have baked a cake for you.

Yours truly,

Princess Toadstool

Peach

It was just an ordinary day in the Mushroom Kingdom.  Mario had just gotten up out of bed to get the mail, and he received a letter from Princess Peach to come to the castle for a delicious cake.  He left for the castle at once.  Mario could never turn down an offer for cake.  While walking along the roads, he was greeted by all of the neighbourhood toads.  Everything pointed to this day being just a normal da.

When Mario arrived at the castle he quickly noticed that this was not just a normal day as he first thought.  There were no toads guarding the doors to the castle.  The doors were unlocked, so he just walked right in.  There was no sign of anybody in the castle at all.  It was as quiet as a library.

'Maybe the princess is waiting for me in the dining room,' Mario thought to himself.  Upon arriving in the dining room Mario saw a sight that was most horrifying.  “Mamma mia!  There is no cake!”

But that was the least of his worries.  All of a sudden there was a huge crash, and it came from right behind him.  “Wahahaha!  You fell for the fake letter I see!”  It was Bowser, who had broken down the door behind him.  Mario’s suspicions were right; this was not an ordinary day.

“Bowser, where is the princess?” Mario demanded.

“Princess Peach is locked away in a place where you will never find her," Bowser replied with an evil and confident grin.

“In your castle?" Mario asked sarcastically.

“Grrr.  Very well.  But I assure you that you will never be able to free her from her prison!”

Kammy Koopa, one of Bowser's assistants, then came in while flying on her broomstick.  She was an older koopa, wearing clothing of different shades of purple and was holding a wand that gave her magical powers.  With a wave of her wand she showed a moving image of Princess Peach.  She was encased in what appeared to be a glass chest with six holes of different shapes on the front.  There was also something else in that cage, but all Mario could see was flowing hair of green, blue, and purple, among other colours.

Bowser explained, “In order to free your princess, you must first find the Elements of Harmony!”

‘The Elements of Harmony?’  Mario thought to himself.

Dearest Twilight,

Please come to Canterlot.  I have a special lesson teach you on the magic of friendship.

Yours truly, Princess Celestia

‘What could this mean?’ thought Twilight.  Things had been going so well in Ponyville that Twilight was starting to think nothing exciting would ever happen again, so a letter from Princess Celestia asking her to come to Canterlot was very interesting news.  “Spike, stay here and watch the library, I’m going to Canterlot to see the Princess,” she told her dragon assistant.

This day seemed like a normal day in Ponyville.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Twilight could smell fresh muffins coming from Sugarcube Corner.  But quickly she realised that something was different about today: she could not find her five friends anywhere.  Rainbow Dash wasn’t the one clearing the skies today, Pinkie Pie wasn’t the one baking the muffins, and there were signs of Fluttershy, Applejack, or Rarity anywhere.  ‘Maybe they’re all with Princess Celestia,’ thought Twilight as she made her way to the train.

When Twilight arrived at the castle in Canterlot, she knew that something must be wrong.  There were no guards at the castle, and everypony walking around seemed to be dazed, confused, or frightened.  When Twilight entered into Princess Celestia’s room, she saw something shocking to her!  There was no Princess Celestia.  In fact, there was nopony at all inside the room.

“Twilight Sparkle, we meet again!”  Twilight looked around the room.  There was no sign of anypony, but she knew that voice.  That evil, deep, amazing voice.

“Discord!  Where are you?  What have you done with my friends and the princess?!”

“Oh Twilight, you are just as boring as Celestia,” said Discord as he appeared in the room.  “I made them disappear.  I was bored.  Do you know how boring it is being encased in stone?”

“How did you get free?” asked Twilight.

Discord responded, “All I could see was a bright light, and after my eyes adjusted, in front of me stood a dragon by the name of Bowser.  He came to Equestria to free me from my stone prison.  You see, Twilight, Bowser was bored and wanted a little bit of fun in his life, and as the God of chaos I knew just how we could have that fun.  We are going to play a game Twilight, and the first rule of the game is: I win.”  Discord put on a pair of sunglasses and crossed his arms.

Twilight yelled out, “This isn’t fair Discord!  At least give me a chance!”

Discord rolled his eyes and said, “I knew you’d say that.  Okay, I’ll tell you how the game will go: your friends, along with their elements, have been locked away in different locations, and they are guarded by creatures of our choosing.  In order to free your Princess, you must find your friends and their elements, and meet us at Bowser’s castle.  Do you think you want to play this game?"

Twilight boldly replied, “I would do anything for my friends, Discord.  Where are they hidden?”

“Oh Twilight, even you know I couldn’t make the game that easy,” said Discord as he disappeared into thin air with lightning strikes.

Twilight knew that she would need to do some reading before she embarked on her journey to save her friends.  She did not know where they were, or even who this Bowser was.  Twilight headed home to do some reading.

“Spike!  Find any book that might have something to do with a dragon named Bowser!” Twilight yelled as she entered the library.

“Yawn... A dragon named Bowser?  Never heard of him,” Spike replied after just waking up.

“I know, I have never heard of him before either, but finding out about him is the only way to find where my friends and Princess Celestia are,” said Twilight.

The two began looking high and low in the library to find anything about Bowser.  “Hmm.  I have never seen this book before,” said Spike.  Twilight, while pushing Spike to the floor, grabbed the book and began to read it.  "Owwww... Twilight, why did you do that?  You could have just asked me to give it to you," said Spike as he laid against the wall from the push.

“‘The Adventures of Super Mario’… hmm… it seems like there is place called the Mushroom Kingdom, where there are creatures called Koopas.  Bowser is their king, and he always wants to take over the Kingdom by capturing Princess Peach, the leader of the toads.  There is a man by the name of Super Mario who always stops him.  Spike, if we can find this place and get in contact with this Mario person, we may be able to find our friends!”

Spike asked with a voice filled with excitement, "Wait, you mean I can go with you?"

"Of course Spike!  Usually I have my friends to go along with me.  With this task, I need help from my very special assistant," Twilight said while giving Spike a hug.  The two shared a smile while embracing.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike set off to go find the Mushroom Kingdom.  No matter how far this place was, or how hard they expected their journey to be, nothing was going to stop them from finding their friends.

In order to get to the Mushroom Kingdom, which was an island many kilometres away, the two would have to go by boat.  Ponyville was a town in the middle of Equestria, therefore there was no place to catch a boat anywhere close.  The closest city to catch a boat was Baltimare, located on the east coast of Equestria.  Baltimare was a six hour train ride from Ponyville.  Twilight and Spike had packed enough things to fit in one bag, which included: five hundred bits, water, a map of the world, and a pillow, in case Spike would get tired later on and would have to sleep on Twilight's back.

At the train station, Twilight asked the clerk for two tickets to Baltimare.  "That will be fifty bits ma'am," said the clerk.  Twilight paid the fifty bits, and the two were off to Baltimare.  They recieved a small room with a couch on either side.  It wasn't much, but thankfull the trip was not even a day long, so it would do.

"Oh Rarity... Yes... Yes I do want that ruby ice cream."

"Spike!" yelled Twilight to try to wake him up.

"Huh?  What's going on?" Spike asked while just waking up.

"We're here," Twilight said as the doors opened, revealing the beautiful city of Baltimare.  The sun was just setting, and the sky was filled with many different colours.  The rays of the sun shined against the glass of the tall buildings.  "Wow Spike, would you look at that?  Isn't it beautiful?" Twilight asked Spike.

Spike said in reply, "it sure is Twilight.  I wish we could stay here, but we have to go find a boat that will take us to the Mushroom Kingdom."

The two went looking for anybody willing to take the two, any small boats for rental, or any big boats carrying large amounts of ponies.  But the two of them found nothing.  No boats in all of Baltimare seemed to go to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Just as soon as the two were about to give up and find a hotel for the night, they saw a small sign.  The sign was on top of a stand, where an old sailor pony was stanging.  The sign read: 'Baltimare to Mushroom Kingdom- 225 bits per pony.'  Twilight, looking in her bag, discovered that she only had 450 bits left, which was just enough to make the trip.

"Y'arr, are ya lookin' to go to the Mushroom Kingdom?" asked the sailor pony who spoke up to get the attention of the two travellers.

"Yes!  But I only have four hundred and 450 bits left, and that is just enough for the two of us to go.  Is there any way you can help me out and give a discount?" pleaded Twilight.

"No!  I am the only sailor in Equestria who will go the Mushroom Kingdom.  That is a land filled with horrible creatures.  I can not lower my prices!" he replied.

"Twilight, we have no other choice!" Spike reminded her.

"Ok... 450 bits," said Twilight with a little bit of sadness, handing over the last 450 bits in her bag.

"Aye, matey.  Thanks a lot!  The trip will take us all night!  You can rest in me captain's quarters while I steer the ship!" said the sailor.

The boat was really old and run down.  It had a few sails and the sailor pony was the only crew member.  Twilight and Spike got on the ship and went into the captain's quarters, not knowing what the trip would be like across the sea.  They were nervous going on a boat with only one other pony, a pony that they didn't even know.  But it was the only choice they had  in order to continue their journey.  They would rest for the night, trying to put all their worries behind them.  A good night's sleep is what they needed at this point.  So the two went to sleep, without having any idea with what they were going to face when the morning comes.  This was where their adventure truly began.