The sun shone bright the next morning as the beginning of a new day began its course. Out in the outskirts of Canterlot, just as promised, the twelve ponies and two plumbers where standing in a small clump getting ready for their sparring match. Despite their success to hold their own against the onslaught of the combined might of Bowser’s and Chrysalis’s forces, much improvement and polishing on their abilities were needed, especially for the human counterparts of the Mane Six; more specifically Applejack and Dashie to hone their pony bodies.
Mario looked at Luigi then turned his gaze to the ponified Applejack by his side. With a firm nod the red plumber stood with his hands on hips and took two side steps towards the high-schooler and clapped a hand on her back. "Just be ready for her to rush you." He advised.
On the other side of the group, Captain Rainbow Dash prep herself with some stretches. Alongside her were her fellow friends and their counterparts as they waited patiently with anticipation to see the outcome of this training session. Once she notice Mario was getting the non-native Applejack ready she walked over to her counterpart. "He probably taught her to counter, so don't rush in blindly." She whispered to Dashie confidently. "Earth Ponies are strong and durable creatures, so don't get hit or it'll will hurt a lot!"
"You can beat her." The plumber and captain stated firmly to their trained pupils.
Mario and Rainbow Dash then locked eyes as bolts flashed between one another. A silent 'My student can beat yours' mentally telegraphic between the two. Mario grinned confidently as Rainbow Dash flicked her mane.
Twilight Sparkle looked between the four with trepidation birthed by having hyper competitive creatures glaring at one another. "Was this a good idea?" She quietly asked Sunset Shimmer.
Mario reached into Pinkie Pie’s mane and pulled out a towel. "Probably not…" The fiery maned Unicorn replied with a sigh.
"Ok, you ready?" Rainbow Dash asked her counterpart.
"I’m always am!" Dashie replied and did a few stretches.
"You got this Applejack!" Mario smiled confidently.
The Earth Pony squared all her hooves as she got into a proper stance. "Wide base, trust my instincts, pull punches…" She muttered to herself as she went over the instructions she learnt from her training. She then looked towards the red plumber. "How long do you want us to go?" Applejack asked as she stepped away from Dashie to create space.
"Until I say stop." Twilight told the two.
The ponies and plumbers formed a large open circle around the two combatants as they all serve as both spectators and participants. Mario sat down and then tossed the towel he was holding at the epicenter of the gathering makeshift ring. Once the cloth touches the ground Applejack trotted towards Dashie as the sparring officially begun.
"This is gonna be interesting." Sunset commented as she sat beside Mario. Since yesterday she was told by both of her high-school friends how they struggled with a specific ability with their pony bodies and the intense training they went through by Mario and Rainbow Dash respectively to help them maintained control. She was proud to learn that her best friends worked so hard and very much looking forward to the end results.
Applejack stomped the ground with all her strength to cause a fissure to spread beneath her front hooves. Dashie reacted by spreading her wings wide. "Go!" Rainbow Dash yelled. Dashie shot off in a blur of every colour in the rainbow.
The ponified farm girl rolled to left with haste as she felt the pressure of a powerful wind smash against the side of her face. "Fast." She grunted.
Dashie glanced back down once she arched herself high into the air. "She dodged me?" She questioned to herself.
FLASHBACK
After gathering enough magic data from the Nth Metal bands attached to the Mario Bros, Twilight encouraged Mario and Rainbow Dash for one final test. The red plumber and the captain of the royal guard glared at one another in a standoff.
"How long do you want us to go?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice targeting the Princess of Friendship without removing the human man from her eyesight.
"Until I say stop." Twilight responded as she watched the two carefully.
"Ok." Rainbow Dash stated calmly.
"Let's-a-go!" Mario chanted.
Twilight raised one hoof, both combatants are prep and on edge to make the first move. "Go!" Rainbow Dash shot straight at the plumber. Mario narrowly dodged to the left, a wall of wind slammed into his inspecting face.
"Fast." He grunted after recovering his balance.
Rainbow Dash looked back as she arced high into the air. "He dodged it....”
CURRENT TIME
Applejack tracked the Pegasi flying in a circle around her. Mario’s teachings really paid off as the farm girl anticipated the athletic Pegasi’s movement and the training helped with her reflexes and senses. "Come a little lower Dash…" She muttered to herself. Applejack slowly began to squat, she flicked her tail to the left and right as she waited for the proper moment. She watched as Dashie continued to circle around her at a moderate pace slowly descending with each loop. 'Now!' With everything she had Applejack shot high into the air.
'What!?' The sight of Applejack rocketing towards her was quite a shock for the naturally gifted ponified human.
'Gotcha' With a twist of her hip she kicked Dashie in the chin, sending the Pegasi slamming into the ground.
Dashie bounced off the earth before skidding to halt. The moment Applejack touched the ground she quickly shot after the Pegasi with the thought that she had a much better advantage with a grounded winged pony. Dashie shook her head to regain her sense of surroundings. She felt a tingle of adrenaline pumped throughout her body and detected the approaching force of someone coming after her. Lining her body and leg positions the athletic high-schooler timed for the right moment. "Got her!" In a flash Dashie clothe lined the Earth Pony with enough force to skid her back five feet.
They grunted as they pushed off one another, although clearly Applejack had the advantage with strength, Dashie used her wings and speed to even the odds. After squaring off the two bounce back and Dashie shot high into the air once more as Applejack reformed position.
"Way to go Applejack!" Mario jumped high into air joyfully.
“Alright, Dashie!” Rainbow Dash cheered. “Show off some more of that speed!”
Various reactions and cheering applaud omitted from the surrounding friends. Both Applejack and Dashie sparring were encouraging enough to have them all try their best. Even the two Fluttershy’s who were against violence understood this would help them strengthen their bond by getting stronger together.
Each of the ponies, former humans, and plumbers took their turn in the ring to show off their skills and fighting prowess. Mario leapt into the fray knocking the Alicorn Princess of Friendship into ground, Luigi bumbled his way into a victory against the native Applejack, and Sunset Shimmer over powered both Rarity's. As the sun moved across the sky laughter, grunts, and gasp filled the air. An explosion shook the field as both plumbers were blown twenty feet back both smouldering masses of deep green and dark purple with swirling dazes in their eyes; Twilight and Sunset stood proudly with their horns smoking.
"Get them!" Both Rainbow Dash’s let out a loud battle cry as they rocketed at the two prodigies in an attempt for a surprise attack.
"Okie dokie!" A sudden claimed came from Pinkie Pie as she slid in front of Dashie.
"No, no, no!" Dashie skidded mid flight as she tried to stop.
"Ready?" Pinkie Pie inquired to her equestrian counterpart.
Quickly the native Pinkie shoved Dashie into the cannon. "Aimed!" She yelled out.
"Pinkie...!" Captain Rainbow uneasily exclaimed at the sight of the canon.
"Fire!!" The two pink party ponies shouted in unison once their ammo was fired.
A rainbow cannonball shot straight into the captain of the royal guard’s jaw sending the two tumbling to the ground. "Our turn!" Mario yelled out of nowhere while he swung Luigi by the feet. He tossed his younger brother straight at the ponified Pinkie.
"Luigi's...”, he flew head first into the former human’s mane and completely disappeared within for a second, "Gotcha!" He finished as he rocketed out of the ponies mane flying twenty feet into air. Mario laughed loudly as his brother let a yowl of fear.
The green cap crashed head first into the ground groaning loudly. "Ouchie…"
THAT EVENING
Twilight watched Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia from inside of the large infirmary tent, the comfort of the dim lit candle’s heat and an open book helped to relax her muscles. It had been hours during their sparring session since that early morning with her friends, nearly the whole day was dedicated to that activity and despite all the fun a much needed break was indeed required. She doesn’t know exactly what their next move will be for tomorrow, but she’s confident enough to know that they’ll be prepared for the worst. It was time for the day to switch to the night and Twilight was fixated on both magic users.
The large Alicorn princess had a reassuring smile on her muzzle. "Come on my second sun," she whispered into Sunset’s ear. "Slowly now, don't move it closer or further from the planet." Twilight looked upwards, and to her utter shock and amazement the moon moved. Slower then she had ever seen it move, the movements where clearly jagged and unrefined, but the moon made its way towards its resting point.
She could see the pure concentration flowing around the prodigy mare. 'Every ponies magic is unique.' Celestia had once told her. 'What comes easy to you may be difficult to your counterpart and vice versa.' Twilight frowned at those resurfacing voices from her mentor back during her naïve days. All the pieces are there, but what comes of it? She couldn’t in-point any of it; what exactly does this means for Sunset? What exactly does Celestia see in her that she sees in herself?
"So she's a Celestial Mage." Twilight whipped around at the sudden voice, breaking away from her deep thoughts; the sight of the injured Princess Luna limps towards her. "Greetings, Twilight Sparkle." She waved at her fellow princess with her good hoof.
"Celestial Mage?" Twilight asked the older princess.
"Yes, Celestial." She state in a sage manner as her horn glowed faintly. "They're exceedingly rare breeds of Unicorns. Like your student and yourself are Magical Mages, you pick up and can utilize high level spells as if it's a second nature to you. Sunset Shimmer’s magic enables her to use the magic of the cosmos." Luna explained calmly. "I can see why my sister took her under her wing." Luna smiled fondly as Celestia pulled Sunset into a tight hug, the moon in its proper place shimmering its glow of guidance in the dark void of space. "I mean, the last Celestial Mage we seen was Starswirl and he never embraced his gifts."
"She took Sunset because she can naturally move the sun?" Twilight frowned, quirking her head to the left.
The midnight Alicorn nodded in response, her sight not budging away from the two. "At the most basic level I imagine so." Celestia's eyes had softened as she proudly hugged the little Unicorn. "But love can change anything. Now I don't imagine Celestia giving her up."
????????
Queen Chrysalis and Bowser watched as twenty Unicorns and Magikoopas fluttering around a high arching stone portal. After their successful invasion of Canterlot and going over their next phase for preparations, the two ruling monarchs set forth to open the portal to Tartarus. A few days prior the hulking tyrant king had demolished and invaded a few neighboring homes and small towns; gathering resources and commanding forces to kidnap as many Unicorns they can possibly catcher as slaves. The ponies of this dimension are quite resilient if running for their lives mean anything, making them hard to catch, but very necessary if Bowser wanted enough power to accomplish his goal. It helped quite a bit with the aid of Chrysalis and her Changelings shape shifting abilities to deceive them into traps. It also helped that a few joined willingly as betrayers of Equestria.
"Unicorns..." Called out the lead Koopa mage, "Combine your magic!" Ten beams of multicoloured of energy flew towards the stone arch. After a few seconds a bubble of energy rippled into existence. "Magikoopas, now!" The lead Koopa called out. The ten Koopas swung their wands in a complicated manner. Beams of shapes and colour mixed with the Unicorn magic pour into the stream, the added fuel only making the concentrated bubble correspond out of control.
"Kamek!" Bowser called out as he looked up and watched the flying Magikoopas firing spells to suppress the chaotic beams of magic.
"Yeah boss?" The Koopa looked down worriedly.
"We need more Magikoopas and Unicorns." Chrysalis told Bowser as she noted the current amount of unsuppressed energy is not significant enough to hold together, making the process a bit more hazardous and dangerous if control wasn’t maintained. Suddenly an energy spike from the central concentrated mass arced straight at Bowser, but a wall of dark purple crystal erupted from ground in front of him. "STOP!!" She screeched over a resounding boom.
Bowser frowned at the displayed before him; runes darkened and smoking etched across the large arch after the channeled energy was suspended. The Koopa King slammed a closed fist on the ground out of anger, causing a crack to stretch across the room. His surrounding forces and allies scramble to balance themselves from the quake
"Calm down my king." Kamek calmly advised. He flew towards the hulking figure in hope to ease his temper.
"More Unicorns, more Magikoopas!" He voice shook the entire chamber.
After some time has pass, the Koopa Troop armada slowly rolled towards a small city hall. Bowser’s airship slowly floated in the back row pushing the baddies forward. Civilians were fleeing from the approaching armada while the local soldiers attempted to push back the invading troops, but they were outnumbered and with the Changelings in their midst the hapless defenders couldn't mount any form of defense.
As they grew closer to the city hall Bowser jumped from his place atop his flying warship. His shadow was cast over head of the defenders. "Look out!" They screamed as Bowser came crashing down in the middle of their lines. Small explosions of magic knocked back the lumbering brute. Bowser dug his feet into cobblestone and soft earth. Slowly, but surely, beams of magic bolts from the Unicorn ponies stopped exploding against his bulky scales. Bowser stood up slowly, his back muscles popped audibly. He slowly made his way towards the general, who in turn stumbled away from the massive figure.
The Mayor of this small town shook behind his makeshift cover. The main entrance of his towns hall had been upturned; tables had been flipped to create barriers and the door was completely barricaded. Suddenly, the sounds of war had completely stopped. An uneasy silenced permeated the room. Those present could hear their own hearts beating loudly into their ears. They all knew that the invading armada had them beat. All of a sudden the silence was shattered as Bowser burst through the wall of the large city hall. He closed his eyes as burst of magic smashed into his hulking figure. "Chrysalis!" He roared loudly in annoyance.
"Brute…" Chrysalis muttered as she began to feed magic into the corrupted Crystal Heart. Spires of black crystals erupted from the ground knocking back stallion and mare soldiers that were position within the opened room. She calmly trotted into the building and her eyes glance back into the small town.
Bowser leaped towards a singular figure quivering behind an over turned table. With a quick straight kick he destroyed the table with ease. "Mayor Gild", he growled lowly, his boiling breath licking the stallions face, "my armada needs food, we need building supplies, and any magical runes you have." He casually hefted up the stallion by the throat. "Now!" He threw the stallion through the hole in the wall he made towards the chaos outside.
Mayor Gild looked out in horror. His small town was ablaze, his ponies where scattered, and his soldiers injured or worse. Strange creatures that he never seen before alongside the Changelings gradually tore apart his town, he couldn’t bear to watch anymore and shut his eyes tight. "Bring them whatever they ask for.", was his simple command.
Chrysalis watched the ponies scattered across the town trying to desperately evacuate, find a place of hiding, or even fight back. She watched as their attempt went in vain as they were easily overpowered and catcher. She witnessed her Changeling soldiers allied with an elite force that have the power to conquer galaxies beat up a town full of wimps. The reality of the situation has just hit her; why are they wasting this vast amount of power? "Bowser." She announced as she trotted towards the Koopa. "We scattered the pony princess’s army."
"So?" Bowser quirked an eyebrow at her.
"We could’ve rule over Equestria, just look how fast this town bowed." She explained.
Bowser scratched his chin for a brief period. "Mario, as long as he is in Equestria we can't take over."
Chrysalis frowned at the statement she received. "You're scared of the plumber?" She questioned the Koopa inquisitively. Her fight with the human man was still quite fresh in her mind; strong, fast, and a nuisance. His stubbornness, and willingness to keep fighting did boil her blood…and that brief moment when she saw something unnerving in his eyes…Chrysalis refused to think further on that and instead distracted herself by watching Bowser end a battle the moment he leaped into the fray of opposing pony soldiers.
The Koopa King chuckled lowly. "You fought him once and he was already hurt." He stated simple before staring her sharply in the eyes and continued. "You don't understand. I've seen that plumber topple armies and bring gods to their knees. I've been thrown into a sun by him!" His voice was a low grumble. "We need an army hundred times this size. We need them all to bring down Mario!" Bowser looked away from the queen of the Changelings. "Maybe even more…" He muttered conspiratorially to himself.
Chrysalis could see tribute being made to the Koopa armada, her Changelings began feeding off the fear that they were causing in the towns ponies. Bowser’s words started to ingrain her mind as she thought about it some more. Was one human truly worth this amount of trouble in order to bring all of Equestria to its knees?
"Aren't you a little worried about those ponies joining forces with Mario?" Bowser asked Chrysalis.
"NO, never!!" She hissed turning on the Koopa King viciously. She nearly felt insulted.
"Well you should be, if they wanted to use their magical artifacts. They could wipe the floor with us." Bowser told her. He watched the resident ponies drop food in a small pile in front of the city hall and a small selection of highly skilled pony mages to be enslaved and transported on the airships.
CANTERLOT
A shimmering golden glow encased multiple stone blocks as solar plasma painstakingly etched runes along each block. Slowly an arch began to form as the solar princess worked. She fed each rune magic as she made significant progress. A dark purple veil shimmered between the unfinished arches.
She breathed deep calming breaths as she continued to work on the arch. "Doth thou need help sister?" Princess Luna's magic began bolstering Celestia’s own.
"You should be resting." Celestia replied calmly as a piece of stone slid into place.
"I am fine," Luna countered, "I am an Alicorn after all."
"Even our kind have their limits." Celestia and Luna began imbuing the stone with magic.
Luna stood next to her sister. "Yes, and you need help if you wish to complete this project." A fire blazed in her eyes as she argued with her sister. Dark blue aura and golden yellow met slowly, etching the runes in the archway.