//------------------------------// // Library Break In // Story: Mario & Luigi: Pony Party // by NintendoBrony64 //------------------------------// One week had passed since the day Mario and Luigi arrived in Equestria. The Mario Brothers were sent to a little town called Ponyville to stay at Twilight's castle until the Princesses were able to send them back to their own dimension. Settling into Ponyville was fairly easy since all the townsponies were very welcoming, unlike the ponies in Canterlot who were none too happy about them interrupting the Gala even if it was not their fault. -Flashback- One week ago... Mario and Luigi stood before Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Discord after being escorted the Throne Room by Twilight and her friends. Mario had just finished explaining he and his brother's situation. "Yes, you said that this "Bowser" was the one that sent you here when I visited you in your nightmare," Luna said with a hoof under her chin. Discord chuckled as he floated on his back. "From how you described him, I doubt he truly knows what he did. He just saw an opportunity to get rid of his enemies and took it." "Can you send me and Luigi back, Princesses?" Mario asked. "Well, yes but..." Celestia paused as if hesitant to answer him. "I'm afraid that we won't be able to do so at this time." "Um, what exactly do you mean by that, Princess?" Applejack asked. "It means that we can not open another portal until the next full moon," Luna answered. That statement confused the ponies and plumbers. Twilight, who was seated next to Luna, spoke up. "Is it like with the portal to Canterlot High?" "Yes and no," Celestia said. "The portal to Canterlot High opens and closes once every thirty moons. Whereas a portal to other dimensions, although extremely rare in occurrence, can be opened after the moon reaches one full lunar cycle." Mario's face paled slightly. "So we're trapped here for a month?" "The Kingdom will be long since taken over by then!" Luigi panicked. "Not necessarily." Discord slunk over to Luigi's side and put an arm over his shoulders. "The thing about different dimensions, is that time itself flows differently." "What's that suppose to mean?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight clears her throat. "What he means, is that time here and time itself in another dimension wont necessarily flow at the same time as ours." "Correct, Twilight." Discord snapped his claws and a chalkboard with complicated looking diagrams flashed into existence. He walked up to it in a white lab coat and began explaining. "The flow of time is different in every other dimension. Compared to ours, time can either flow at the exact same time as ours, accelerate, and/or decelerate. For those who don't understand that," he gazed towards Rainbow Dash, "it means it can be the same, faster, or slower than ours." "Hey! I know what that means!" she glared. "Anyway, take our dimension and yours." With a snap, the diagrams rearrange themselves to form the Mario Brothers in one of two circles; one being titled "Equestria" and the other titled "Mushroom Kingdom". "You are currently under our dimension's time influence. As of this moment, time in your dimension is in one of those three categories. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell which one your dimension is currently in." Mario and Luigi shoulders sagged. "That is unless you're me, of course," Discord said with a grin. He pushed the chalkboard away, and with his eagle claw he tears open the fabric of space and time itself and the Mushroom Kingdom appeared behind a transparent veil. The plumbers and ponies, except Celestia and Luna, all stared in shock. Discord snickered. "I'm the Lord of Chaos. I can bend reality, time and space to my whim." He then lost his grin. "Unfortunately even my power has a limit to how far it can go. At the moment, all I can do is open "windows" to other dimensions once a portal opens and closes. If portals were able to be opened left and right, time and space would become unstable and collapse in on itself." Mario pretty much tuned him out as he ran up to the "window". Everything looked normal for the most part, but all he could see was the Peach's Castle. "Is there a way to shift the view point?" he asked. "Just a second." Discord swiped his paw over the veil and it began to shift. Soon, everyone was watching the veil soar over all the Kingdom until finally a familiar Koopa, and a massive army behind him came into view. The ponies gave a startled gasp when they saw the massive turtle. "So, that creature is Bowser?" Celestia asked as she analyzed his features. "He doesn't look all that tough," Rainbow Dash scoffed. "I bet I could take him down in ten seconds flat!" "Anypony gonna to tell us why they're movin' so slow?" Applejack asked. "Oh, so they are," Discord mused. From their perspective it looked as though Bowser and his army was moving in slow motion. "It appears that time moves slower in your dimension. So when the time comes to open the portal again, it'll almost be as if you never left." That made Mario and Luigi relax considerably. That really took a load off their shoulders. "Well, since it seems you have nothing to fear, I believe it's time to make living arrangements for you," Celestia said with a smile. -Flashback end- After they arrived at Ponyville later that day, there was a town meeting where the situation was explained to the townsfolk. Later that night, there was a "Welcome to Our Dimension!" surprise party even though Pinkie Pie clearly stated that there would be a surprise party, but they were still surprised nonetheless when they entered through the front doors of Sugar Cube Corner. Since that day, instead of lazing about until the portal is able to be opened once again, they decided to help in anyway they could around the town doing odd jobs and earning their keep at the castle even though Twilight said that wouldn't really be necessary. Luigi decided that he would help Spike, Twilight's dragon assistant, with chores around the castle. There wasn't anything that the ponies around town needed help with today, so he was helping Spike while Mario was taking a nap in the library with Twilight, who was busy reading. They were currently in the kitchen with Spike cleaning the dishes, and Luigi was scrubbing the floor. "I really appreciate you lending me a hoof with the chores, Luigi," Spike said. "Twilight can be a real slave driver sometimes." "I can relate, Spike. When it came time to do some Spring Cleaning, Mario would just laze about and sleep while I did all the work." "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to help Twilight," Spike said drying the last plate. "It's just that there's nopony here most of the time to help me when-*hrk*!" The young drake's cheeks suddenly puffed out. Spike's sudden pause caused Luigi to turn his head towards him. He became slightly concerned when he noticed Spike's face turning green. "Uh, Spike? You feeling okay there buddy?" Spike struggled to clear the kitchen and into the hallway before burping a green flame that formed into a scroll. He grabbed the scroll before in hit the floor. Luigi ran up beside him concerned for his friend's health. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, don't worry about it. It was just my Dragon Fire bringing me a message. Oh, and it's from Celestia!" He unraveled the scroll and skimmed its contents. His eyes widened and he then became a blur dashing down the hall. "Twilight! Emergency!" Dear Princess Twilight, I write to inform you that we have a situation here in Canterlot. Somepony has broken into the Canterlot Library Secret Archives, and activated the Emergency Entrapment Spell. The intruders are now currently trapped within a maze within the library. Now I ask that you come immediately to Canterlot with your friends, as well as the Mario Brothers, and investigate. Sincerely, Princess Celestia Celestia and Discord were in front of the building waiting for the Mane 6 and the Mario Brothers to arrive. Celestia had several guards patrolling around the building incase the intruders somehow manage to escape. "Who do you think managed to actually bust in?" Discord asked. "I have no idea. If my magic was able to bypass the enchantment I'd find out myself, but once the spell is active nothing magical and non-magical can get in nor out." Discord smirked. "Nothing expect me, of course." Then it hit him. "You do know that I could easily teleport you in and out of there. So, why bring Twilight, her friends and those humans into this?" "I wish to test Mario and Luigi," she said with a calm smile. "They are national heroes in their kingdom, so I wish to see what they are capable of." Discord snickered while filing his talons and laying on a cloud he had conjured up. "You expecting them to suddenly be thrust into an adventure that will require them to save Equestria or something?" "Of course not," she said. A slight smirk then formed on her lips. "But, knowing my little ponies, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if something like that happened." "Princess Celestia!" Celestia turned around to find that the Mane 6 and Mario Brothers had finally arrived. "Welcome, everypony. I'm glad you could make it." ""Your letter said there was somepony trying to steal something from the Library Secret Archives," Twilight said. "Any idea who it might be?" "I'm afraid not. We also do not even know how they managed to enter the building, fore there are no signs of forced entry anywhere." Applejack raised a hoof before speaking. "Uh, excuse me Princess, but what in tarnation would be worth stealing from a library anyway?" "Yeah, I mean, who would be that desperate to read a book?" Rainbow asked. "Please, darling," Rarity giggled. "I distinctly remember that you tried to sneak into Ponyville Hospital so you could finish reading a Daring Do book." Rainbow's face turned into a tomato as she gave Rarity a glare which had then shifted to a laughing Luigi and Pinkie. "Maybe they're minions of an Equality obsessed pony who wishes to turn all of Equestria into a dull and boring place by making everypony the same through and through!" Pinkie said out of the blue. Everyone turned to her as if she had grown a second head. "How did you come up with that assumption, Pinkie?" Applejack asked. "I don't know!" *Squee* Celestia gave a cough to gain everyone's attention. "Well if we're going to find out what exactly they're after, you'll need a way to get inside." Celestia turned her gaze towards Discord. The draconequus felt her stare, and snapped the cloud away and stood ready. "Discord will teleport you beyond the enchantment so you may investigate." Discord cracked his knuckles and out of thin air, opened a door that led into the building. "Right this way ponies and humans." Fluttershy trotted up to Discord's side. "You're not going with us?" "Maybe next time, dear Fluttershy. Besides you'll be fine!" Discord wraps an arm around her. "I mean, with two teams of national heroes here, I don't think you'll need me." He gave a smile to reassure her, which she returned. He then leaned in and whispered, "We're still on for tea later today, right?" "I wouldn't miss it," she smiled. After Discord floats out of the way, the ponies and plumbers step in front of the door ready to begin their investigation. They entered through one at a time, and once through, the door closed and vanished. "Now we just play the waiting game," Discord said sitting upon a new cloud with a class of chocolate milk in claw. Mario was the last one to jump out through the door before it closed and sank into the floor. They found themselves at a forked pathway that led down three different paths. "Right off the bat we have to split up?" Rainbow groaned. "I'm just going to fly up to get a better view. Maybe I'll see the right way we're suppose to go." With a powerful flap of her wings, she was soaring towards the ceiling. She was just inches away from the top of the labyrinth, when she was suddenly electrocuted and repelled crashing to the floor with a surprised and painful cry. "Oh dear!" Rarity gasped. "Are you all right?" The cyan pegasus shakily stood up with bits of static running through her now frizzled mane and several slight burn marks over her body. "Well, looks like we'll be doing this the old fashioned way." she said with a neutral expression. She coughed a puff of black smoke. "Okay, everypony pair up and choose a path," Twilight said. "I'll go with Fluttershy," Rainbow said as she trotted up beside the shaking pegasus. "You don't have to be scared. I've got you're back in case things get messy." "T-Thank you, Rainbow Dash," she whispered. They then went down the path on the left. "Well then Ah guess Ah'll go with Rarity," said Applejack. "She can handle herself fine, but there's no tellin' who or what is in this here maze." "Why thank you, darling. Though, when push comes to shove you'll do most of the shoving." Applejack rolled her eyes at her statement as they began down the path to the right. "Well, that just leaves us. Let's go everypony," Twilight said. "And Pinkie, don't touch anything." She made sure to emphasize her wording towards the pink mare. Pinkie had just thrown her tenth book onto a surprisingly neat stack. "Huh, did you say something Twilight?" "Pinkie!" "What?" The stack of books beside her began to glow, and then each individual book began to float. Twilight sent Pinkie a scowl. "Pinkie, you just activated the security system!" "Um, what does it do?" she asked becoming a little nervous. One of the books hovered over the two ponies. They observed its every sway; Twilight ready to react if necessary. The book froze over Pinkie, before suddenly bursting open and vacuuming her up into its contents earning a surprised yelp. The Mario Brothers and Twilight fell into a state of panic. Twilight was about to retaliate, but she was suddenly flanked from behind and resulted in the same fate as Pinkie. "Oh no!" Mario quickly jumped to grab the book, unfortunately the book floated higher out of reach and he faceplanted into the marble floor. Luigi tired his luck, but missed and slammed into the bookshelves. The books that held the two ponies flew down the pathway leaving Mario and Luigi to fend off the now magically possessed hardcovers. Mario and Luigi tried to fallow after them, but the remanding books blocked the path. They burst open and the pages within tear free of the bindings and began to form shapes. Within moments, two white earth ponies stood before them scraping their hooves against the floor, ready to charge. "Here we go again," Mario said. "How do we always find ourselves in these situations, bro?" "Just lucky I guess..."