Super Mario and the Elements of Harmony

“Ohhhhh… Ohhhh Princess Peach… Yes… Oh yes… I like it with whipped cream on top.”

“Mario’s dreaming of cake again,” Spike said to Twilight and Pinkie.  The four heroes stayed the night at the Toad Town hotel as soon as they returned from their adventure in the cold north of the Mushroom Kingdom.  They deserved the good night’s rest that they got.

The time was about six in the morning, the sun had just come up, and the four had a big day ahead of them.  Pinkie, who was wearing her Element of Laughter on her neck, went up to Mario, who was still fast asleep and drooling, and shouted, “Get up you lazy fatty-fatty-fat-fat!”

“Mamma mia,” Mario shouted out loud as he jumped from the bed.  His pants were clearly wet.

“Oh, sorry Mario!  I spilled my water on you because you shouted so loud,” Spike said while holding a now empty glass.  Mario looked down at his pants that were drenched in water.

“That’s okay, a-Spike.  We have a big day ahead of us,” Mario responded.

“He’s right,” Twilight pointed out.  “We have to go back to Shooting Star Summit to see where our other friends are being held captive.”

The heroes walked back to the Shooting Star Summit to meet again with the seven Star Spirits, with the exception of Pinkie Pie, who hopped all the way with a smile on her face.  Everything was as it was before on the way to the summit.  The day was absolutely beautiful, with just the right amount of clouds in the sky.

The four stood in the middle of the summit while the Star Spirits appeared again to them.  “Ooooooh!  They’re so shiny,” Pinkie shouted out in her cute and cheerful tone.

“Hello again, brave heroes,” Eldstar said.  “We see that you have found one of your friends!”

“Hi!  I’m Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie exclaimed while jumping in the air.

“Hello sir,” Twilight said in respect to the leader of the Star Spirits.  “We thank you for all of your help so far in helping us free our friend Pinkie from her captors.  We were able to defeat the Crystal King along with King Sombra, who was resurrected by Discord.  Can you please help to us where we need to go next?”

Mamar spoke in her motherly tone, “Miss Sparkle, we are impressed with your respect and bravery.  Your friend Fluttershy and her Element of Kindness is the next closest to us.  We are sorry to tell you that we still do not know where your element, Magic, is hidden.  We can only assume that Discord is the one who has it.”

Twilight replied, “Thank you very much.  Where can we find Fluttershy?  Is she also inside the boundaries of this kingdom?”

Eldstar held the answer, “Yes, she is actually very close to us!  We can sense her Element of Kindness inside Koopa Brothers’ Fortress.  We can only assume that she is being guarded by the Koopa Brothers, the four koopa ninjas whom Mario had defeated many years ago.  I myself was held captive by them.  They are very sneaky and smart creatures, and they have an army to protect them.  Be careful, young heroes.”

“Thank you so much again,” Twilight said.

Muskular, the strong and feisty Star Spirit, said while the four were turning around to leave, “Remember, if you guys are getting your butts kicked good, just call upon me and I will crush them for you!”

“NO!” interrupted Eldstar.  “Remember what we told you last time!  Bowser knows of our weaknesses. However, he and Discord do not know that we are helping you four out in your mission because this summit is shielded from them.  We must not leave here and go out where we will be unprotected!”

“We understand,” Twilight replied.  “We know how important you seven are to the members of this kingdom.  We really appreciate the help that you do give us.”  The heroes said goodbye to the Star Spirits once again and left to go find Fluttershy.

“It’s-a just over here,” said Mario, who was taking the lead as the four were walking through Toad Town to go to the path leading to the fortress.

The minute they stepped foot out of the town, Discord appeared to them.  “So, young ‘heroes’, you think that you are prepared for what lies ahead?” he asked sarcastically in his majestic voice.

“Of course we are!” Spike shouted proudly.

“Well you aren’t,” Discord replied.  Discord then, with a flash of light, transformed the entire landscape in front of them into a side-scrolling two dimensional obstacle course.  The heroes now had to walk just a straight line to get to the fortress that appeared at the end of it.  Discord continued, “If you think that isn’t enough, the game has now changed!  You each will now have lives, which are chances that I am giving you to fail without actually ending your existence.  The four of you will each start with five lives.  Every time you reach one hundred coins or collect a 1-up mushroom you will be rewarded with a free life.  Try not to get game over!  There will also be other power-ups and items you can use.  Have fun everybody!”  He then disappeared once again while laughing.

“What does Discord mean by ‘lives’?” Spike asked.

“I’ve a-been through this before,” Mario responded.  He had been through many different adventures and situations that the ponies and Spike were never aware of.  “When we get a-hit by an enemy or a-fall down a hole, we will re-appear every time until we reach zero lives.  Then our entire a-life is over.”

“Eeee!  Sounds like fun!” Pinkie shouted out while jumping up and down in place.

The four heroes stepped into the two dimensional landscape in front of them.  After walking a few steps there was a floating flashing yellow box with a question mark on it.  Mario jumped and hit it with his fist and out came what appeared to be a leaf.  As soon as the leaf hit Mario’s body he was then covered by what appeared to be a raccoon costume.  He flapped his tail back and forth and flew in the air.  Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike sat down with their mouths wide open in shock.

“Don’t-a be surprised, we will a-come across a-many weird things today,” Mario assured the three shocked Equestrians, who had to close their mouths and accept what just happened.  The four moved forward and came across a Goomba, whom Mario squished and collected the coin that appeared.  He did the same with a koopa that was walking towards him.  The koopa was reduced to a shell which Mario used to take out the next four Goombas on the road.  The heroes collected four more coins as they watched the shell fall into a hole that was up ahead.  They kept moving, with Mario just ahead of the other three.

“Mario, watch out!” Pinkie shouted out.

“Huh?” Mario asked as he turned around to see what Pinkie was shouting at.  Just then he fell down into the same hole that the turtle shell had fallen into.

“Mario!” Twilight yelled out as she looked down into the hole that he had fell in.

“What?” Mario asked while tapping Twilight from behind her.  Twilight let out a scream and little jump.  Mario explained to the three Equestrians, “This is a-what Discord meant by lives.  I still have a-four more to go.  We must a-keep moving onward!”

“Now I get it,” Spike said while snapping his fingers.

The four moved forward, knocking out many other enemies and collecting the coins that seemed to just keep coming out of thin air.  They ended up earning one hundred coins, now giving Mario five lives and Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike six.

“Take a look, we are here,” Mario said while pointing to the fortress which was now just a few steps ahead of them.  Mario, Pinkie, and Twilight each jumped over the final hole in front of the fortress.

Spike, who was not paying attention, fell right into it.  He then appeared right beside them.  “Whoa… Dying is pretty cool,” he said.

“If it is by accident it is okay, Spike,” Twilight reminded him.  “However, please do not do that on purpose because I do not want to lose you forever!  You are back down to five lives.”

“Okay, mother,” Spike said sarcastically, alluding as if Twilight was an overprotective parent.

There was a staircase just ahead of them that was made of blocks.  Mario went ahead and hopped up to the top and jumped over to the top of the flagpole that was there.  After sliding down he received another life, bringing his tally up to six.  The four heroes then opened the doors to the fortress, knowing well that they will be facing a battle in a matter of minutes.

They walked into the main room of the fortress, which was now just a large and empty room.  Inside waiting was Discord, who was standing over the four Koopa Brothers.  They were each dressed in different colours: red, black, yellow, and green.

“Welcome to your second battle,” Discord announced.  “In one corner, we have Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Mario.  In the other, we have the fearsome Koopa Brothers!  You are playing for Fluttershy and her Element of Kindness.”  Discord pointed over behind the four Koopa Brothers to where Fluttershy was sitting, hiding her face with her hair and shaking.

Red was the apparent leader of the Koopa Brothers because he was standing behind his three siblings.  He shouted at the heroes, “You can’t win this battle!  You are outnumbered four to four!”

Pinkie Pie looked at her friends and said, “I thought the star guy said they were smart!”

Mario responded, “Smart for a-koopas, a-stupid compared to us.”

“We heard that,” Red announced.  “We aren’t going to let you go easy for that comment!”

The four brothers jumped into a poorly designed large machine that was meant to look like Bowser.  The four heroes could hear arguing and other comments coming from inside the machine.  “Get off my shell!”  “Ow!  Not so hard!”  “Oh for the love of Bowser… Focus!”

The machine slowly moved forward towards the heroes and Discord rang the large gong again to signal that the battle had begun.  Twilight stepped up to the machine, and with one blast of magic the machine exploded, launching the four koopas onto the ground in front of it.

“Weeee!  That was easy!  You four are a bunch of dummy-dumbs,” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.  It was not over yet, however.  Now it became a battle on foot.  Red pointed to the four heroes.  His three brothers went inside their shells and launched themselves forward at the heroes.  Mario picked up a large wooden hammer that was on the side of the room and spun fin a circle, hitting the three koopas back towards Red.  The hit was hard enough to knock the four into the wall.  As the three lesser koopas stood up, Twilight sent a beam of magic in a line.  On contact with the three koopas, the magic made them disappear with a shine of light.

“Yikes…  It’s down to just me,” said Red, quite nervously.  He grabbed out a fire flower, one of the items that Discord had placed throughout the two dimensional land, and ate it.  He sent three fireballs towards Spike, Pinkie, and Twilight, burning the three and turning Pinkie and Twilight to ash.  The result was them being down to five lives once again.  Spike sucked the fireball hurled towards him into his mouth and shot it back at Red.  The fireball burned him completely to ash, ending the battle.  Once again Spike was the hero of the battle.

“That was just too easy,” Discord spoke out.  “That was not even fun to watch.  Here, take your Fluttershy and prepare yourselves for the next battle.  It will have to be a lot harder than this.”  He then disappeared once again, this time without a laugh.

Fluttershy, wearing the Element of Kindness on her neck, ran over to Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike and they engaged in a group hug.  Giggles could be heard between the three ponies who were happy to be reunited with each other.  “Oh my goodness, thank you all so much for coming to save me,” Fluttershy said.  “Who… Um… Who is the chubby creature with the mustache?”

All of them shared a chuckle together.  Thankfully Mario had a good sense of humour.  He needed one at this point, because this was not the first time he was insulted by a pony, even if it was meant harmlessly.  The four heroes now became five, and they returned happily to Toad Town, where the landscape returned to being the normal, three dimensional landscape that they were used to.  The time was about two in the afternoon, so the five had time to go back to the Shooting Star Summit to find out where their next friend was being held captive.  On the way they explained to Fluttershy all of the insanity that happened since she was captured.  The group was becoming happier as the journey went on.  So far nothing was a threat too big for them to face.