Super Mario and the Elements of Harmony

The afternoon was now upon the five heroes.  They all had very high morale while walking back to the Shooting Star Summit for the second time that day.  Fluttershy had eyes of amazement as she made the beautiful climb up to the summit with the four others, who were already used to this route.  “This kingdom is amazing,” Fluttershy said with her quiet voice.

“Fluttershy, you won’t even believe the things we have seen so far,” Twilight told her yellow pegasus friend.

Upon arriving at the summit the seven Star Spirits appeared to them once again.  All of them had wide smiles.  “My, my, back so soon?” Mamar said to the five who were standing in the middle of the summit.

Eldstar floated over to Fluttershy and greeted her, “Welcome, Fluttershy. We are the Star Spirits, and we are helping you on your journey.”

“Yes… Twilight told me everything.  It is… It is an honour to meet you,” Fluttershy said with a nervous voice.

Eldstar touched her mane to comfort her and said, “There is no need to be afraid.  You must be brave in your journey.”  He then turned and looked at the rest of the heroes and continued, “We are, however, a little concerned that Discord does know about us helping you out.  I have a bad feeling about it.”

Twilight, who also had a little concern on her mind about this, spoke up, “We are also concerned too.  Discord had been waiting for us both times.  He must know about you seven, but is just letting you help us for now. That is what I am a little worried about.”

Misstar, the pink and bubbly Star Spirit who was quiet in the previous meetings, tried to comfort the young heroes by saying, “You need not have any worries on your minds right now.  We must take every challenge when it comes to us, and not worry ahead of time.  You have been equal to every challenge so far.”

“But still be aware of more dangers to lie ahead,” Eldstar interrupted.  “You must be ready but not afraid.  We can sense the next element is inside Mount Lavalava, the volcano on Lavalava Island, yet another place that Mario has been.  That is where he saved Misstar from the clutches of the Lava Piranha; the three headed mutant plant that lives in the lava deep inside the volcano.  The element appears to be the Element of Loyalty, so we can only assume that your friend Rainbow Dash is there too.”

“Good luck, heroes,” the seven Star Spirits said in unison.  The five heroes said their goodbyes for the second time that day and left for the Toad Town Harbour in order to take a boat to Lavalava Island.

Upon arriving at the harbour, the five now needed to find a boat that could take them to the island.  “Hmm… there are not a-many boats here at all today,” Mario said while looking at the nearly empty harbour.  There were only two boats left.  One was a small fishing boat, and the other was a large cargo boat.  The five decided to go first to the small fishing boat to ask the creature on it for a ride to the island.  Mario recognized the creature to be Fishmael, who was always fishing by the docks.

“That creature’s a-name is Fishmael.  He’s a nice guy.  He’ll a-definitely say yes to helping us,” Mario told his hero friends as he walked up to the well-known fisherman.  “Hey, Fishmael!  It’s a-nice to see you again! Can we a-please have a ride to Lavalava Island?  It’s-a very urgent!”

“NO,” was Fishmael’s response while taking off the ropes and rowing his boat away from the five heroes.

“Testa di cazzo!” Mario shouted back at him from the shore.  “I a-saved your life without you even a-knowing!”

Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy had their eyes open in shock to see the sudden burst in anger from the usually calm Mario.  Pinkie was on the floor laughing hysterically.  When Pinkie was finally able to pick herself back up, she asked, “Wait a minute, what does that even mean?”

“I’m a-sorry, my friends. Please excuse my a-bad language,” Mario responded.

The five of them now had to go ask the workers on the cargo ship for a ride to Lavalava Island.  The ship was labeled ‘Toad Town Sea Shipping.’  It was the premier boat for transporting goods in all of the Mushroom Kingdom.  But the heroes had no choice but to ask.  A Toad who was working for the company was just about to life the ramp so that the boat could set sail.  He was standing on the boat, just about to press the button.

“Wait!” shouted Mario as the five of them rushed towards the boat.  The Toad looked at them, and upon noticing it was Mario, who was shouting at them, yelled at his shipmates to hold on.  He went down the ramp to greet the five running towards him.

“Hello, Mario,” he said.  “It is great to see you.  Is there something you need?”

Mario responded while out of breath, “We… pant… need… pant… We a-need a ride to Lavalava Island.  It is a-very urgent!”

“Of course!” responded the Toad, who was very happy to be helping out the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom.  “Do all five of you need a ride?”

“Yes,” said Twilight, who spoke up.  “My three friends and I have teamed up with Mario to stop an evil plot that could potentially threaten the whole world!”

“Well then, we better get going,” the Toad responded.  The five heroes boarded on the cargo ship, and the ship set sail.

On the ship, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Mario, and Spike were brought to the captain of the boat, who was in the man control room.  He was a Toad wearing a captain’s hat.  “It’s an honour to be helping such brave heroes,” said the captain.  “We are delivering a shipment of goods to Rogueport, but we will be passing Lavalava Island on the way.  We can drop you off at the dock close to Yoshi Village, if that’s okay with you.”

“That would be wonderful,” Twilight responded with a voice full of gratitude.

“Excellent,” the captain responded.  “I actually have a room with five beds in it for my workers that is free for tonight because we do not need as many workers for this run.  I’ll show you to the room.”

The room was in the lowest level on the boat.  It was small, only had one light on the ceiling and one small, round window, but it was enough. After all, it was only for one night.  At this point it was about nine at night, and the heroes had gone through a lot on this day.  They went inside and thanked the captain of the ship for his great generosity.  They each sat down on their own bed.  The moon was shining bright and reflecting against the water.  The stars were out, and there was just the right amount of clouds to make the sky beautiful.  Pinkie and Fluttershy were talking quietly about the things they had experienced thus far in the journey, Mario was eating a complimentary pizza given by the captain, and Spike let out a huge yawn after gazing out the window for a few minutes.

   “Spike, you have had a long day.  You have saved us twice on our journey so far.  You need a good night’s rest,” Twilight told Spike in a very caring way.

“Twilight, can you please sing me that lullaby that your parents used to sing to you?” he asked his good friend and caretaker.

“Of course, Spike,” Twilight replied.  She looked over to see Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Mario all staring at her.  They wanted to hear the lullaby that Twilight was about to sing to her little dragon assistant.  She cleared her throat and began to sing in a gentle, soothing voice.

“Fate has been cruel and order unkind

How can I have sent you away?

The blame was my own; the punishment, yours

The harmony's silent today

But into the stillness I'll bring you a song

And I will your company keep

Till your tired eyes and my lullabies

Have carried you softly to sleep

Once did a pony who shone like the sun

Look out on her kingdom and sigh

She smiled and said, ‘Surely, there is no pony

So lovely and so well beloved as I’

So great was her reign and so brilliant her glory

That long was the shadow she cast

Which fell dark upon the young sister she loved

And grew only darker as days and nights passed

Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine

And rest now in moonlight's embrace

Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth

Through cloud, and through sky, and through space

Carry the peace and the coolness of night

And carry my sorrow in kind

Luna, you're loved so much more than you know

Forgive me for being so blind

Soon did that pony take notice that others

Did not give her sister her due

And neither had she loved her as she deserved

She watched as her sister's unhappiness grew

But such is the way of the limelight, it sweetly

Takes hold of the mind of its host

And that foolish pony did nothing to stop

The destruction of one who had needed her most

Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine

And rest now in moonlight's embrace

Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth

Through cloud, and through sky, and through space

Carry the peace and the coolness of night

And carry my sorrow in kind

Luna, you're loved so much more than you know

May troubles be far from your mind

And forgive me for being so blind

The years now before us

Fearful and unknown

I never imagined

I'd face them on my own

May these thousand winters

Swiftly pass, I pray

I love you; I miss you

All these miles away

May all your dreams be sweet tonight

Safe upon your bed of moonlight

And know not of sadness, pain, or care

And when I dream, I'll fly away and meet you there

Sleep...”

Twilight looked down to see her little dragon sleeping soundly.  She used her magic to lift the blanket over him, and she gave him a little pet on the head and a goodnight kiss to his forehead.  She looked over to her three other friends.  Mario had his mouth wide open, Fluttershy was staring at Twilight with watery eyes, and Pinkie was just smiling at her.

“Twilight… That was beautiful,” Fluttershy told her.

Twilight responded, “Thank you, Fluttershy.  My parents would sing me that song when I was a filly.  It would always help me get to sleep.  I never quite understood it until I came to Ponyville and we had to fight Nightmare Moon.”

“What was that a-song about?” Mario asked her.

Twilight explained, “Well, Mario, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the Alicorn leaders of Equestria.  Celestia raises the sun every day, and Luna raises the moon every night.  They controlled the Elements of Harmony together.  But one day, feelings of jealousy overcame Luna, and she rebelled against her older sister.  This turned her into the villain Nightmare Moon.  The bond between them was broken; therefore the power of the elements was no longer controlled by them.  Celestia banished her younger sister to the moon for a thousand years.  When Luna came back, there needed to be new ponies who would take control of the Elements of Harmony.  My five friends and I were the ones who now controlled the elements, and we stopped Nightmare Moon, turning her back into Princess Luna.  Only after we did that did I understand what that lullaby was about.  It was about Princess Celestia missing her younger sister.  Even though Luna was evil, Celestia still loved her and was willing to accept her back, which she did.  I can only imagine this is how Princess Luna must feel now.  Luna is in Canterlot and is the sole one raising the sun and the moon while her sister is in captivity.”

Twilight looked over to see Mario fast asleep.  Pinkie and Fluttershy looked back at her and the three shared a chuckle.  They spent the next few hours talking and catching up with each other, and also wondering about what was to come in the morning.  The most important thing they did on this night, however, was get a good night’s rest.  The gentle waves of the Mushroom Sea were very calming, and it rocked them gently to sleep.

“Get up, heroes!  It’s time for you to go,” came the voice from the captain.  Mario, Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Spike opened their eyes to see the captain at the open doorway of their room.  They had arrived safely at their destination.  The large ship they were on stopped at the dock on the edge of the island.  It was a tropical island with plenty of vegetation, especially palm trees.  The heroes thanked the wonderful staff of the ship, who brought them safely to the island without even wanting any kind of payment in return.  They did it out of the kindness of their hearts.  “We will be able to pick you up tonight on the way back.  Best of luck to you,” said the captain as the heroes walked off the boat and onto Lavalava Island.

After walking for a few minutes across the beach, the five found themselves in Yoshi Village.  The village was a small one, with a small number of yoshis living in huts made of bamboo, straw, and other natural materials.  Yoshis were human-sized dinosaur-like creatures that lived on this island.  They came in many different colours, had very long tongues, could lay eggs, and appeared to have a saddle on their back that was a permanent part of their body.

Mario was not paying attention to what was in front of him while he was walking, and he suddenly found himself tackled to the ground by a green yoshi.  “Oh… Yoshi,” he said while giving the green yoshi a big hug.  “I have not a-seen you in a-such a long time.”

“Yoshi,” is what the yoshi said in response.  Yoshis did not talk very much, but they could still get their points across.

"Would you like to a-come along on our adventure?” Mario asked the yoshi.

“Yoshi,” responded the yoshi while nodding his head up and down in excitement.

“Oooo… He’s so cute,” Pinkie Pie said while checking out the yoshi.

“Yoshi is one of my-a oldest friends.  He a-comes along with me on a-many adventures,” said Mario while hopping on the saddle on the yoshis' back.  The yoshi only seemed to be recognized by the name Yoshi.  The five heroes now became six as they went on their way across Lavalava Island towards Mount Lavalava.

The six heroes walked into the Jade Jungle, which was the way between Yoshi’s Village and Mount Lavalava.  Mario, riding on Yoshi, led the way.  They arrived at a tall tree with a little basket in it that led to a high branch on the tree.  There were jade ravens, big birds from the island who have been helpful to Mario the last time he was here, on the top of the tree.  They helped lift Mario by using a pulley system to lead him up to the high branch.  One by one, the ravens pulled up the heroes to the branch.  “Uh… Thank you?” said Twilight questionably while looking up at the jade ravens, who just made bird sounds in reply.  She figured that she would ask Mario about these on the way back to Toad Town.

The next thing to do was zipline over a river of lava and in front of the cave that was the entrance to the inside of the volcano.  Mario went right by with ease, even while no Yoshi's back. Spike and Twilight went together, nervously.  Pinkie Pie smiled and laughed all the way across. Fluttershy, however, just stood there, shaking.  "Ahhh... I can't do it," she whimpered.

Twilight yelled from the other side, "Just fly over!"

"Oh... right," Fluttershy said while remembering that she had wings.

Fluttershy lifted her wings and slowly flew over.  She went up and down as she made the short flight over to the ledge where the cave entrance was.  Her friends waited for her on the other side.  Flying across was easy for most pegasi, but it was very hard for a calm and tame one like Fluttershy.

The six entered into Mount Lavalava.  Inside was a truly hot and steamy sight.  The walls were made of dark rocks, and there were rivers of lava flowing throughout.  The heroes made through a few rooms and it was getting hotter and hotter.  They had to make it to the lower parts of the volcano towards the location of the Lava Piranha.  "Wow... It's so very hot in here... I better leave," Fluttershy said while turning around towards the door.  Behind her, looking her right in the face, was a lava bubble, a fireball that was floating with yellow, angry eyes.  "Ahh!" Fluttershy screamed while running to hide behind Mario and Yoshi.  Yoshi took decisive action and stuck out his long tongue, dealing the lava bubble.  He laid an egg right after that was white with red polka dots.  It was flaming and followed Yoshi around like it had a mind of its own.

The heroes moved on into another room.  They came across a few spike tops, small yellow turtles with red shells that had an upward facing spike on top.  Mario kicked the first one that came up the them, and he slid across the ground into the others, defeating them.  They turned into a few more coins.  A little further in the room was an ice flower, like a fire flower, but eating this one would allow the person to throw ice balls out of his or her hands.  "This will a-come in handy later," Mario said while storing it in his pocket.

The heroes kept moving further and further down the volcano until they came to a small hallway that had a fairly steep but consistent drop to the end of it.  "We're getting close, I can feel it," Spike said confidently.  Suddenly there was a loud bang behind them.  A spiny tromp, a spiky giant sphere, had fallen from above and was now blocking the door behind them.

"Run!" yelled Twilight.  The heroes ran down the slope of the hallway as the spiny tromp gained speed as it rolled towards them.  It was getting closer and closer.  Just as the heroes reached the end of the hallway, they all leaped forward.  A loud noise and a cloud of dust came from behind them.

The spiny tromp had gotten stuck in the doorway as the heroes made it to the bottom of the volcano.  "Is everypony okay?" asked Twilight while picking herself from off the ground.  All of her friends grunted and groaned but seemed all right.  But something was missing.

"Fluttershy?  Where are you?" Spike shouted out.  It was apparent that Fluttershy was too slow and had gotten trapped behind the spiky orb of death.  She then reappeared in the room.  This was the first time she had died, so she was down to four lives.

She spoke up while in a state of relative shock, "You... You guys told me about losing lives, but that was really scary! I... I thought I was done forever."

"You're okay, Fluttershy!" yelled Pinkie while giving her a massive hug.

Twilight, with a voice of concern, said, "We're very glad you're okay, but we need to keep going.  We must be very close."

Twilight's hunch was right, and what happened next confirmed it.  A green and yellow putrid piranha with red polka dots popped out of the ground and yelled out, "Warning, warning!  Heroes approaching."

He then disappeared back into the ground.  "Be ready," said Mario.  "The Lava Piranha is a-just around the corner."  The heroes went down one final small ramp.  They were now in the lowest part of Mount Lavalava.  The heat was almost unbearable.  They went into a large room with a pool of lava in the middle.

"Welcome again, heroes.  I am truly impressed that you have made it this far!"  Discord was waiting in the room, sitting on a throne made of dried chocolate, just waiting for the heroes to show up.  "Let's see who you will be facing in the battle today!"  Suddenly the Lava Piranha shot out of the pool of lava.  It had three heads, one larger one and two smaller ones, which were red with white circles on them.  They had a long, green, and spiky vine extending back down into the lava.  The large head on the piranha shouted out to the heroes, who were tiny in comparison.  "This is where your journey ends," the large head of the Lava Piranha said.

Discord pointed over to Rainbow Dash, who was tied up in the corner with an apple in her mouth.  She could only get a few sounds out, but they were muffled.  Her eyes showed that she was severely scared, as she had tears of fear coming from them.  She was also wearing the Element of Loyalty on her neck.

Discord rang the gong to signal the battle had begun.  Mario instructed Yoshi to throw his fire egg at the largest head.  "Wah!" yelled Yoshi as he through it.  The egg smashed off of the big head, but he just laughed it off.  Fluttershy was hiding her face in her mane while lying down in the corner of the room.  Twilight shot out a beam of magic that hit one of the smaller heads and injured it severely.  She did the same to the other smaller head, with the same result.

"Give me a boost," Mario said.  Pinkie braced herself, and Mario jumped on her back to get a lift high enough to reach the large head.  He jumped on the largest head, giving it a powerful blow with a double-footed stomp.  When Mario landed, the Lava Piranha shook violently back and forth and dropped back into his lava pool.

"That's it?  It's over?" asked Twilight.  She looked over to Discord to see him eating a bag of water and drinking a cup of chips, a good sign that it was not over.

The Lava Piranha shot back up, all three heads now flaming with fire!  "Uh... Mario... Use the ice flower," Spike suggested.  Mario pulled the flower from his pocket and ate it.  While he did that the large head of the Lava Piranha sent a large amount of fire, burning Pinkie and Twilight and reducing them down to four lives each.  Mario, having transformed into bluer coloured clothing after eating the flower, sent the perfect ice balls right into the open mouths of the three heads.  They completely froze over from the inside out and were now stuck in place.  The battle was won, once again by the heroes.

"Ugh... I should have expected that," Discord said while throwing his weird snacks on the ground.  "No matter, you won't be getting out of here anyway."  With the snap of his fingers the ground began to shake.  He then disappeared once again.  Discord had started the volcano, and the heroes had only a few precious minutes to get out before the lava would burn them and trap them in the volcano forever.

Mario, Twilight, Spike, Pinkie, Yoshi, and Fluttershy ran over to free their blue Pegasus friend.  Mario untied Rainbow from the ropes holding her four hooves together.  She spit the apple out of her mouth when the ropes were off.  "Thank you so much, guys.  I thought I was a goner," she said in appreciation of being saved.

"Yay!  You're safe, Dashie," Pinkie shouted while giving Rainbow Dash a huge hug.

"We can all hug later, we must get going," Twilight reminded.

"There is another way out, let's-a go," Mario said while leading the way to another door, because the way they came in was blocked by the spiny tromp from earlier.

Mario led them to a few rooms further.  The seven went up a few ramps to get higher.  The lava was rising behind them.  They kept moving up higher and higher, and so did the lava.  They came to the spout of the volcano.  Looking up, they could see the sky; looking back, they could see imminent death.  The only way out was straight up.

Twilight shouted out to Rainbow and Fluttershy, “You two need to help us escape!  You are the only ones who can fly.”  Spike hopped on Fluttershy’s back.  She also grabbed Twilight and tried her best to fly.

“I… I can’t do it,” she cried out.  Rainbow Dash let out a growl and kicked her in the flank.  Fluttershy let out a loud ‘neigh’ and flew the three of them upwards to the top as fast as she could.  Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie, who grabbed Yoshi.  Mario went on Rainbow’s back and she dashed up the spout, just in time.

“Wow, you’re heavy,” Rainbow grunted to Mario while spreading her wings and taking off.  As soon as the heroes left the top, the lava poured out and shot rocks into the air.  The seven had to take a rest after flying back to Yoshi’s Village, clear of the trees and the erupting volcano.  They needed to sit down and breathe a sigh of relief.  This was the hardest task of their journey so far.

Spike ran up to Rainbow Dash.  “We’re so glad that you’re safe,” he said.

“Ah, don’t get too sappy,” Rainbow said back while waving her hoof in the air.  Just then Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy gave her a massive group hug.  Rainbow Dash accepted the hug, as it was her only friendly contact with other creatures in many days.

Yoshi and the others said goodbye to the village residents.  Chief Yoshi gave the heroes a few items for their journey: a fire flower, a pow block, to hit all ground enemies with an earthquake, and a life shroom, to resurrect a fallen hero who lost his or her final life.  That item would have to be saved until the very end of the journey.  The seven heroes thanked the chief and went on their way to the boat, which had returned.

“Congratulations, brave heroes,” said the captain of the ship while welcoming back the group.  On the way home, Twilight and Spike shared a bed while the others had their own.  The sunset was upon them, reflecting off the water.  The sky was a beautiful mix of orange and red.  The heroes were more than half way done their journey.  Tomorrow would come a different day, and a different challenge.