The Mushroom Kingdom. A vibrant kingdom filled with fungal inhabitants in a peaceful land, ruled by the beautiful and benevolent ruler, Princess Toadstool, or preferred to be named as Princess Peach. She is not like the mushroom people she rules, known as Toads, along with having unique magical power within her. Unfortunately, peace doesn't truly reign that long as the evil King of the Koopas, Bowser, shows himself and kidnaps the fair princess, whisking her away to his castle with his many minions protecting his fortress, with soldiers ranging from small, mushroom-like creatures called Goombas to reptilian, magic-wielding wizards called Kameks.
Though his capture of the princess always works in his favor, his plans are foiled when the pair of heroic plumbers, Mario and Luigi, storm through his fortresses, stomp his minions, and beat the spiky-shelled, fire-breathing reptile to save Princess Peach. Many times he had failed, and all of his ideas were thrown down the toilet whenever The Mario Bros. jump in and trounce him. However, this time, Bowser and his advisor, an elderly Kamek by the name of Kammy Koopa, have an ingenious idea to finally be rid of Mario and his rescuing of the young woman he pines for and take control of the Mushroom Kingdom...And it might actually succeed.
Up in the stars far beyond the land down below, a city of living stars lived peacefully in what is known as Star Haven. These stars grant wishes to those in the kingdoms across the world, but only to those with good intentions in their hearts. But, the ones who are able to grant the strongest of wishes are decided by seven powerful stars: the Star Spirits. These seven stars have unique powers, far stronger than any normal star, and one of their main objectives aside from wish granting is to protect a valuable artifact called the Star Rod. The Star Rod is able to grant anyone whatever they wish, no matter how good or evil they are. It is kept under their care, to be sure the powerful want is never misused by anyone who dares to visit Star Haven and the temple in which it resides.
Inside of the grand, glorious blue and sparkling dome, a pathway leading to it between a sparkling lake of starry water, the seven Star Spirits sit in their places, taking careful watch of the Star Rod and the wishes they hear from the Mushroom Kingdom. The leader of the group was Eldstar, a male yellow star with a bushy white mustache, being the eldest of the group as his name states. Next is Mamar, a female orange star with a pink bow on her head, her behavior suitable as a mother figure. Skolar, a male purple star with bifocals with bushy brown eyebrows and a thin brown mustache, stared out into space as he overheard the many wishes with his fellow stars. Muskular, a light blue male star with a sailor's cap on his head, watched the Star Rod intensely. Misstar, a pink female star, twiddled with the orange ribbon that was wrapped around her arms, floating serenely above her in the faint shape of a heart. Klevar, a genial yellow male star with a pink bowtie on his chest, read a book he always kept on him, whether it was a dictionary, a never-ending novel, or a journal he keeps is not known, but he is fond of it. And last was Kalmar, a relaxed yellow male star with a small black mustache.
"A lot of wishes this evening," Eldstar spoke. "Many young Toads down in Toad Town always want their favorite toys."
"As usual," Muskular said, slightly bored. "I know the youth are all about believing their wishes can come true, but not every single one of them can just be granted all willy nilly."
"And we got another one from Bowser earlier today." Misstar scoffed, waving her arm in disdain at the terrible tyrant's "demands". "He's surely not getting Princess Toadstool with his greedy, selfish, and egotistical wishes, that's for sure."
"He's been a spoiled little brat since he was in diapers," Skolar said. "Even back when they were babies, Mario had found a way to trounce that tyrant and even bring peace back to the kingdoms...At least, until he has another one of his insane plans that will eventually fail. When will that fool learn?"
"Not in a million years as an orphan," Mamar said with a sad sigh. "It's no wonder he's the way he is. Barely any parental guidance and raised by his own servants."
A moment passed in nothing but silence as the Star Spirits focused on their duties. However, hiding behind the pillars, sneaking inside of their sacred temple. Sensing a presence behind him, Kalmar turned around, only to be shot by a magic spell from a wand. The other Star Spirits turned in shock as an elderly Kamek in purple robes rode in on a broomstick, cackling menacingly as she flew in. Stomping in behind her was none other than the Koopa King himself, Bowser: a tall and burly Koopa, spikes on his large shell, sharp claws and teeth, spiky bracelets around his wrists and shoulders, curved horns, and mane and eyebrows a fiery red.
"Did someone start talking about me?" Bowser questioned with a sinister, toothy grin.
"Bowser! How did you find this sacred haven!?" Eldstar exclaimed in shock.
"Well, seeing as you Star Spirts aren't granting me my wishes, I've decided to take matters in my own claws!" he explained, clenching his claws.
"We don't grant your wishes because they are incredibly selfish," Klevar explained, keeping his distance from the powerful Koopa. "Wishing for Princess Peach to love you is not allowed, therefore, the thought of changing free will is heinous. And wishing for Mario's demise and winning by kidnapping the princess is morally-"
"Oh shut up, you nerd!" Bowser shouted. "It took a while to find this place, but I'll take what's rightfully mine!"
Bowser took in a deep breath and blew out a powerful torrent of flame at the Star Rod. The magical rod was protected by a magical barrier, but the strong fire managed to break through the shield, shattering it to pieces.
"No! You can't take that!" Eldstar warned.
"That's a sacred rod!" Muskular flew in to attack the Koopa King, only to get smacked aside by his powerful claws.
Bowser grabbed the Star Rod, the star at the end shimmering brightly. The Star Spirits gasped in horror, the dreaded tyrant now holding immeasurable strength that could give him anything he desired. He laughed maniacally as he held the Star Rod above him.
"Now, all my wishes will finally come true! But, to make sure you seven stars don't interfere..." He turned to Kammy, the old witch nodding her head as she held out her wand, creating seven blank cards with Bowser's insignia on the back. "Let's see if I can collect the whole set!"
Bowser thrust the rod into the air, releasing a powerful shockwave around him. The wave struck the Star Spirits, trapping them in a ball of yellow energy as they felt themselves forcefully being sucked away from where they stood.
"Urgh! N-No!" Slowly, one by one, the Star Spirits couldn't fight back against the gravitational pull as they were sucked over toward Kammy.
Each one was flung into a card, trapping them inside as their own power on their own wasn't enough to get them free. "B-Bowser! Y-You fool!" Eldstar yelled before he was flung into his card. The Star Spirits tried to bang their way out, but it wasn't enough to save them. "You cannot misuse the power of the Star Rod! Your wishes were never granted because of your ill intentions!"
"Put a sock in it," Bowser said, laughing evilly as he looked at the magical rod in his hands. "Now, I'll finally have my wishes granted after all these years. Peach will be mine, the Mushroom Kingdom will be mine, and Mario won't be able to stop me this time!"
He laughed louder as his ride flew into the temple, a large white helicopter clown car hovering before him with orange eyes and a smiley face. Bowser leapt into his vehicle as both king and witch aide flew off to the stars to formulate his next plan. Unbeknownst to the Star Spirits and the evil thieves and kidnappers, a small star kid had watched the whole scene, hiding behind a pillar the moment he heard them talk.
"Oh no...This is bad. The Honorable Star Spirits and the Star Rod...have been stolen..." The young star flew out and panicked, having no idea what to do and too afraid to tell the other stars what happened. "What do I do!? What do I do!?"
Meanwhile, in the wonderful land of Equestria, where ponies live in peace and harmony under their benevolent alicorn rulers, something else was happening in the small town of Ponyville. Inside the large crystal tree castle, owned by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the lavender alicorn was busy looking over the equations of a magical spell she had been going over. For a long while, ever since she was able to go between two different worlds of Equestria through a magical portal after a certain ex-student of her mentor's tried to take her Element of Magic, she wanted to study how dimensional travel was possible, but never had the time with her royal duties and Equestria always in some kind of distress. Even though there was a way to keep the portal open instead of waiting every thirty moons thanks to the device she made after an emergency message from Sunset Shimmer, keeping it open for too long can overheat the machine around the mirror and shut down.
"Hmmm..." Twilight looked over the numbers and runic symbols on the blackboard, finally nodding her head in approval. "Ok. I think this should work."
Entering the library where she was busy with her work, her friends walked in, guided by her student, Starlight Glimmer, having been a misunderstood villain now a student in friendship under her tutelage. "Everyone's here, Twilight."
"Excellent! And right on time!" Twilight turned to her friends, excited to tell them of her little magical experiment she feels would work. Her best friends since first meeting them when she arrived to Ponyville; Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy, and her number one assistant and surrogate brother, Spike, were curious as to what she had been busy with. "Guys, I think I finally managed to create a spell using the same magical formula from the mirror portal that will allow somepony to transport to another dimension!"
"Wow, that's a mite impressive," Applejack complimented. "But, why would ya be workin' on that?"
"Well, I can't exactly keep the portal opened forever with my device using Celestia's journal as a catalyst to connect with Sunset's in the human world," Twilight explained as she pointed at the mentioned portal nearby. It was off right now, especially after hearing what had happened earlier with the human version of the alicorn actually taking the magic from the portal when she was in the middle of a time traveling battle against Starlight to stop her revenge by preventing Rainbow's sonic rainboom she created as a filly. "Even though I would have to shut it down to prevent anypony here or humans in the other world from accidentally falling through, I don't want it to blow up if there's a malfunction with the machine.
"But I figured out the formula, and I want to test it to see if it'll work. I've looked over the numbers, and I think I can pull it off." After her explanation, her friends all looked at each other, then at her.
"So, we're here to watch?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I'm already excited enough as it is!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You think we can actually go there and meet our human selves!?"
"I'm not sure that's still a good idea," Twilight said. "And now that I know there's another Twilight that's there at CHS, I don't want to confuse everyone there with there being two of us in one place...Although, human me ties her hair in a pony tail and wears glasses."
"And Sunset also said that the actual Spike living there is able to talk thanks to the crazy magic human Twilight stole," Spike added. "She must have caused a lot of damage after writing everything we ended up missing when Starlight was messing around with time."
Starlight giggled nervously, never going to let that moment down after realizing just how extreme her revenge was with her problems with cutie marks. "Please don't remind me about that...I could have ended the world if I kept doing that."
"But now we know the real reason why you felt that way, and now you've made amends with Sunburst and have improved greatly on your friendship lessons since then." The others agreed with Twilight, making the pink unicorn blush.
"Well, if only I didn't think so negatively when I was a filly, I probably wouldn't have stolen other ponies' cutie marks and tried to end your friendship with the sonic rainboom," Starlight said. "...Then again, I kinda sorta realized a while after I was forgiven that you six became friends far later in your lives after that sonic rainboom. You all just got your cutie marks at the same time, and in different locations..."
"At least we didn't have to live through the timeline with Sombra still around," Fluttershy said. "That would be terrifying."
"Or the changelings taking over all of Equestria," Rarity added with a shudder.
"Thankfully, this won't be like time travel. Just warping through to another dimension. Now, let's see if this spell works." Twilight lit up her horn and concentrated on weaving the spell to do as it was meant to.
Everyone kept quiet as they watched, seeing the alicorn's pink aura glowing brighter as it sparked out of her horn. So far, it seemed to be working out pretty well as her aura began surrounding her. Suddenly, a sudden jolt in Twilight's body made her gasp, her spell suddenly going out of control as the aura began to flare wildly.
"Twilight, what's happening!?" Starlight asked.
"I-I don't know! Something happened to me!" Twilight tried to stop the spell, but she couldn't. "I can't control it! It's getting too strong!"
Her spell suddenly began to pull her friends toward her, Starlight quickly casting a shield spell around herself to keep herself from being dragged forward while Spike held onto the unicorn, safe in the protective bubble. The others tried to run away, but they were being constantly dragged, having no traction on the crystallized surface of the floor. The Mane Six began to panic as the spell began growing stronger, calling out for help when none of them had any idea how to reverse it. Twilight's horn flashed brightly, both Starlight and Spike shutting their eyes as they were blinded by the light as the spell took effect. Unable to hear them as the light faded away, they squinted their eyes, only to gasp in shock as they found no sign of the six mares.
"Oh no!" Starlight cancelled her protective spell as all she and Spike could see was a giant scorch mark where they all stood.
"W-What happened to them!?" Spike asked. "Did-Did they make it to the other world!?"
"I-I don't know...but something happened with Twilight's spell." Starlight looked over Twilight's equation, even paying attention to the spell she was weaving as she gave it a test run. "She was casting it perfectly. And she didn't end up in a magical surge that caused it to go out of control."
Thinking quickly, Spike ran up to the portal and grabbed the journal that connected them with Sunset's journal in the human world. He wrote a quick note to her, asking the former villain if Twilight or any of her friends were in their world. A moment later, he got a reply back, which made the baby dragon faint as his face turned pale. Starlight approached the unconscious baby dragon and read the message, gasping in horror.
No, I don't see your Twilight or any of her friends around CHS. None of the others saw them either. Why? Did they all come through the portal? What's going on, Spike?
In the hustle and bustle of Toad Town, several guests from across the Mushroom Kingdom had already begun arriving at the castle. Princess Peach is holding a social gathering and had invited many dignitaries from the neighboring towns and cities of her kingdom, including sending a last minute letter to Mario and his younger brother Luigi. The whole morning, the princess in her iconic pink dress had greeted many of her guests, her chefs cooking a banquet of delectable meals for all to enjoy as they conversed in her home. She excused herself from the party, keeping out of her Toadsworth's line of sight, an elderly Toad who was her caretaker when she was a baby as well as her chancellor. He had brown spots on his mushroom head, a bushy white mustache, a pair of bifocals, and walked with a cane.
Peach climbed up the stairs up to the long hallway that lead further up to the towers, letting out a sigh of relief as her footsteps were muffled by the red carpet underneath her. "Goodness. I didn't think I'd see so many people from around the kingdom today. I hope Mario comes by soon, otherwise he'll miss out on the food." She giggled at the thought of seeing her plumber hero going for the buffet, always rewarding him with a delicious cake she bakes herself and a kiss after he saves her from Bowser. "I need a break first before I go back down and-"
Suddenly, the crackle of lightning in the hall startled Peach, gasping in surprise as she saw what looked like a portal forming out of nowhere in her castle. She didn't know if this was another kidnapping attempt from Bowser, ready to call her Toad guards and flee if that were the case. After the magical portal grew big enough, she heard six female voices cry out and grunt as they hit the floor. The anomaly of magical energy then disappeared, her jaw dropping as she saw six equines tangled in a heap as they groaned.
"Ugh. Ah think Ah'm gonna be sick." The others voiced their agreements with sickly mumbling, unaware of the surprised princess staring at them.
"Everypony alright?" Twilight asked as they slowly stumbled off each other.
"Well, if I'm breathing and my wings are still intact, I'm good," Rainbow said while the others muttered they were still alive. After stopping their heads from spinning after Twilight's dimensional teleportation spell backfired, they got a look at their surroundings. "Are we in a castle?"
"That's odd," Twilight said. She looked down at herself as she and her friends were still ponies, so that meant they must have wound up somewhere else. "I don't think there were any castles anywhere around Canterlot High."
The Mane Six finally noticed Peach at the other end of the hall, both sides completely silent. The human princess was amazed to see the colorful ponies and know that they can talk. They looked like something from a storybook she had read when she was little, only imagining them as nothing but fictional creatures, especially when she stared at Twilight. The first to break the silence was Pinkie, quickly running up to Peach before stopping in front of her.
"Hi!" the pink earth pony said, making Peach yelp as she expected Pinkie to ram right into her. "I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight dragged their hyperactive friend away, clearly seeing the young woman was royalty from the tiara on her head. The rest of the mares walked up to her, calmly, so they don't scare the human into calling guards. "Uhh, sorry about her. She loves making new friends, no matter who or what they are. Along with suddenly appearing your castle, your Highness."
"...I see..." Peach was speechless, and even though she wanted a break from talking with the guests downstairs, she was interested in the six ponies before her. "And...you're not dangerous at all?"
"N-No. Not really," Fluttershy said timidly.
"We promise we're not a threat," Twilight said. "You see, I tried to cast a spell to take us to a different world, but something happened and...we suddenly appeared before you...in wherever this world is." Peach nodded her head as she understood, knowing they could use magic not a surprise to the princess. "Anyway, I think we should introduce ourselves. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and you've already met Pinkie Pie."
As Twilight pointed out her friends while saying their names, they bowed to her, except for Pinkie, who waved at her enthusiastically. "Oh. Well, my name is Princess Toadstool, but you can just call me Peach." Peach curtsied as she introduced herself, making her way toward the new arrivals from another world. "I don't believe any of your kind live here in the Mushroom Kingdom, but you do look like mythological creatures from stories I've read."
"'The Mushroom Kingdom'?" Rarity suddenly felt sick, unable to imagine this land was filled with fungus.
"Strange name for a kingdom," Rainbow said, looking out the window to see a clean town, gasping as she saw the mushroom-headed citizens strolling around the streets. "Wow! Those mushrooms are alive!"
"Actually, they're called Toads," Peach explained.
"Living fungal creatures with sentient thought?" Twilight asked, wishing she had brought along a quill and some paper, highly interested in this strange world. But at the thought of being in this world, she winced as she needed to bring herself and her friends back to their home. "Oh no. I think Spike and Starlight Glimmer are going to worry about us right now."
"Can't you use that spell you used to come here and return back?" Peach asked.
"I...I don't know," the alicorn said. "I'm afraid to cast it again after I felt something off right when I was in the middle of weaving the highly complex spell. I don't know if I'll end up taking us somewhere dangerous."
"So, does that mean we're stuck here until you fix that spell?" Applejack asked.
"I'm afraid so." The rest of the mares were disappointed, trapped in a new world until Twilight finally fixed her spell so it wouldn't wind up backfiring and send them elsewhere.
"I'm sorry. I wish there was some way I can help you girls," Peach said. "Magic isn't anything new in our world, but I'm not sure if there's anything around traveling through other dimensions in any spellbooks we might have in the library." She brought a hand to her chin, thinking of anything she could do for the six ponies. Even if she can't help Twilight with her spell, she can at least make them feel welcomed as honorary guests in her kingdom. "Well, until that spell of yours is fixed, you're all welcome to stay here in my castle until then."
"Really?" Rarity asked in surprise. "You'll allow us to stay after barging into your castle and your kingdom?"
"Of course! Anything to make your stay as pleasurable as possible!" Peach knelt down to their height with a bit of childish glee. "Besides, I think all of us might be a bit curious about what our worlds are like. I just hope that Toadsworth doesn't make a fuss if I'm gone from the party for too long."
"A party!?" Pinkie exclaimed. "Why didn't you say there was a party going on!? I love parties!"
"I don't think the denizens of this world would like to see new creatures crashing a royal party," Twilight reminded Pinkie, making the earth pony wilt in sadness.
"Oh, we have stranger creatures throughout the kingdom that aren't as weird as you...ummm..." Peach tried to remember what they were called from the stories. "...Horses?"
"Ponies," Twilight corrected. "In our world in Equestria, Pinkie and Applejack are earth ponies, Rarity's a unicorn, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are pegasi, and I'm an alicorn. Alicorns are...mostly the royalty back home, but I used to be a unicorn before...ascending, I guess you can say."
"I was wondering about that," Peach said, absorbing the new information.
The girls soon began to talk about each other: their homes, families, worlds, any similarities or differences between the Mushroom Kingdom and Equestria from their flora to their fauna. Peach was heavily invested in the colorful world her new guests talked about, wondering if she could one day visit Equestria if Twilight finds a way to safely teleport anyone between worlds.