"Why do we have to find-a Luigi?" Mario asks me as we see Dr. Mario emerge from his room as we walk past it.
"I got a message from the Princess of the Night. In my dream, she told me that someone is trying to take over Equestria and that she had been trapped in a part of the Dream World she doesn't recognize." I say as we approach the door to Starlight's room with Dr. Mario close behind us. "The only thing I can think of is that she's stuck in Subspace." I say before knocking on the door. It only takes a few moments for Starlight to emerge wearing a nightcap, with a delirious look on her face.
"Guys, it's the middle night. What couldn't possibly wait until morning?" She asks as she rubs at an eye with her hoof.
"I'm sorry, Starlight, I know it's late, but . . . " I start before Mario cuts me off.
"Have you seen Luigi?" Mario asks Starlight before I facehoof.
"Thank you, Mario." I say with annoyance as Starlight looks at us with a confused look. "Luna talked to me in a dream. From what she told me, Equestria may be in danger, and that with the help of Mario's brother, we'll be able to get more information from her." I say as Starlight removes her night cap enters the hallway, closing the door behind her. "We were wondering if you knew where he was. I had asked him to meet us here at the castle."
Starlight stops and turns towards us, pointing a hoof at Mario. "Does he look like your friend there, except only taller? And does he wear green instead of red?" She asks as she turns to look at us.
"Yes, that's him!" I exclaim as Starlight starts to lead us down a series of hallways.
"He arrived a while before you did. The guy got bored, so he offered to clean the castle. I decided to let him, but he started making so much noise that I had no choice but to get out of the castle for a bit and do some errands. That's why I met you two outside the castle earlier." She says as she stops in front of a door. "You'll find your friend in here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to sleep." She says before turning and going back down the hallway while concealing a yawn with her forehoof.
"Now, knowing how well your brother sleeps, Mario, we may need some assistance in waking him up." I say as I open the door and see Luigi sleeping on the bed, with the Poltergust 3000 on the floor at the foot of the bed. "Well, that explains the noise Starlight was talking about." I say as we walk over to Luigi, where Dr. Mario prods his arm to try to wake him up with no result before Mario jumps on him. After seeing the two of them try to wake him up for about a minute without success before getting them stop and trotting over to the Poltergust and picking it up in my magic. "I hope this works," I say to myself as I place the Poltergust beside Luigi's ear and turn it on. Immediately, the device loudly starts to suck up air, startling Luigi awake, who quickly sits up, with his hands in a protective stance.
"Wah! Who's-a there?" Luigi shouts as he looks around and I turn the Poltergust off.
"It's alright, Luigi," Mario says as he walks over and puts his arm on his back to comfort him. "Dr. Mario is here as is Lucky Ness, the pony who invited us here." Mario says, pointing at both of us as Dr. Mario and I walk over to stand in front of Luigi.
"Took you guys long enough," Luigi says as he climbs out of the bed and slips his arms through the straps of the Poltergust. "So, you wanted to see if it was possible to catch ghosts here?"
"About that, Luigi. We're going to have to wait on that. Equestria is in danger, and one of the princesses has been trapped in the Dream World. We need to rescue her and see what she can tell us to help her save the nation." I say as a new orange clad entity with a head the shape of a pillow and a yellow Star Sprite emerges from Mario.
“Then I guess you’ll need our help!” Prince Dreambert and Starlow say simultaneously as they look at Luigi, who nods as he takes the Poltergust off, before turning into a similar looking pillow that Luigi places on the bed. Luigi then proceeds to lay down on the bed, making sure to place his head on the pillow while Starlow floats over beside Luigi’s head. The moment his head hit the pillow, Luigi fell fast asleep as a multihued portal appeared above his head.
"You two go ahead," Dr. Mario says as Mario moves in front of the portal. "I'll hold down the fort here."
"Actually, Doc, it might be a good idea to get a message to Sunset Shimmer in the human world. I have a friend here named Soldering Torch that built a device that can connect to and communicate with the technology there. While the Journal would probably be quicker, his device would be more reliable." I say as I produce a scroll and ink well with my magic as I move into position behind Mario. "Follow the directions on this scroll to find his lab. He'll know what to do when you explain the situation to him." I say as I write them on the scroll before rolling it up and handing it to Dr. Mario in my magic, who takes it and quickly walks out of the room.
"Wait until you're you're ready," I say to Mario after watching Dr. Mario leave. Mario immediately turns to me and nods as I watch him leap into portal to the realm of dreams before quickly following behind him. After swimming through the thick air of the portal, the two of us eventually emerge in a dense forest with a decrepit old castle in front of us. Shortly after arriving, a bright flash of light occurred behind Mario as Dreamy Luigi fades into existence behind him in a green mist.
"So this is-a where you got the message from Luna?" Mario asks as he produces a flask containing a red fluid from his pocket. I nod and Mario throws the potion at the entrance of the castle, causing a red door to appear in its place. The three of us enter the door to find a muted inverted version of the castle interior.
"Now remember, we can only stay in Subspace for a short amount of time before we're returned to Dream World." I say as we group up by the other side of the door. "So we're going to have to find Luna quickly and get back to the door if we want to bring her with us, unless if Mario brought another Magic Potion?" I ask, only to see Mario shake his head in response. "Then we'd better start looking." I say as we start to call Luna's name as we move towards thrones. After a few moments we hear a voice calling back. After following the voice for about a minute, we eventually found Luna in a room encased in a floating chunk of pure nightmare.
"I knew you'd come for me!" Luna exclaims as Mario and Dreamy Luigi head over to the chunk of nightmare and start jumping as a way to strike the chunk with their fists. It only took four jumps to free Luna from her prison, allowing her to gently glide down to the ground.
"Thank you for rescuing me, but we don't have time to rest. Right now we have to save Equestria!" She says as we all follow Mario to the door out of Subspace before she started to explain what happened. "The son of Sombra, Shadestar, attacked us when we were in our chambers. After he incapacitated us, he summoned Cadence, Twilight and her friends in Celestia's name. They didn't stand a chance against him." She say forlornly as we exit the door and returned to the Dream World. "After he defeated the others. He encased me in that stone-like prison and placed me in that unfamiliar part of my domain before I could see where he put the others." She says before we reach the portal, where Mario quickly hops into the multihued entrance as Dreamy Luigi takes his hat off waves goodbye with it.
"Your turn, Princess." I say as Luna and I trot closer to the portal before she unfurls her wings and flies into the portal before I quickly jump into it behind her. After another brief swim through the air, we arrived beside Mario and a sleeping Luigi in what appeared to be a dungeon, much to the confusion of both me and Mario.
"How did we get here?" I asked as Luigi wakes up and starts to stand up. "Shouldn't we be in the castle?" I ask before the four of us hear laughter coming from behind us. We turn around to see Starlight standing in front of a group of ponies consisting of the captive Princesses, Twilight's friends, and another Starlight.
"I'm glad to see that you've returned to the waking world. For a second there, I thought I'd have to follow you into the Dream World." The free Starlight say as her facade starts to fade to reveal a dark grey unicorn stallion with red eyes, a deep red horn, and a black mane and tail, causing Luna to gasp.
"SHADESTAR!" Luna exclaims as Mario and Luigi get into a battle stance.