Morning came early. Well technically morning is always early. But... yeah you know what I mean.
I awoke to Cappy tapping on my head, saying "Mario. Mario. Mario." I gave an exaggerated yawn and stretched so hard I thought I gained five inches of height by doing so. Finally, I blinked up at the floating hat. "That time already?"
"Yes, Mario," Cappy said frantically. "We need to be at the Princesses' castle in an hour and a half."
Before he could say more, I dashed out of my room and into the restroom.
I set a new world record for fastest teeth brushing in the world, and then probably at least won a medal for a nice and speedy face washing, or what Luigi called later "Face Peeling," since I was going so fast I almost took off my face as well. I didn't need to look that guy from Gotham who lost his face.
Less than two minutes after I went in, I was back out, jumping down the stairs while simultaneously trying to shove my overalls on. I ended up tumbling down the stairs, and got completely tangled up in my clothing.
Luigi came out of the kitchen and saw me lying on the floor. He started to snicker. "Spike?" he called back into the kitchen. "Look at Mario."
Spike came out, and spotted me lying in a heap at the base of the stairs. He started laughing. "Did you trip on your overalls?" When I grumpily gave an attempt at a nod in my awkward position, he laughed some more. "Overalls? More like Over-Falls!" He and Luigi laughed harder, not noticing Twilight and the crew walking in.
"Oh, goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed at the sight of me. She quickly untangled me from my rather disgruntled clothing, and helped me get my overalls on the right way. Cappy flew onto my head, and I adjusted him until he looked just like a regular hat again.
I brushed myself off, and tried to look like I meant to do what I did. "So," I said, looking around at everyone. "We need to be at Canterlot in..." I looked at my watch. "An hour and twenty minutes."
"EEEP!!!" Twilight exclaimed, beginning to bolt out the door so fast Rainbow Dash looked slightly impressed. Slightly.
"I guess... follow her?" Spike asked.
I shrugged and said "Yeah, in Twilight terms anyway." We briskly followed behind her out of the tree house and towards the train station.
"I... never... thought.... that.... Twilight could... run... this fast....!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
We had been running nearly nonstop for the past ten minutes, and I started to wonder how many cups of coffee Twilight had had before she had her panic attack. Her wings were flared outwards, and her hooves barely even touched the ground as she flew onwards.
Just as my lungs began to threaten to collapse like the Berlin Wall, the train station came in view. I almost never before or since felt so happy to see a building.
I wasn't alone in this thought either, because after we ran inside and we finally stopped, Rarity began kissing the cement floor so dramatically, it was like she thought someone was watching her, and she was showing off. Rainbow Dash was fine, she just flew the whole way, Fluttershy as well. The rest of us without wings all were panting, well, I was a bit out of breath, but I've run so much in my lifetime that it was very slight.
As Luigi and the wingless ponies continued to search for their lungs, which Luigi panted he might have left behind near one of the houses about two blocks ago, I watched Twilight as she breathlessly exclaimed to the ticket pony "I need..." she counted all of us "...nine tickets for Canterlot!"
The ticket pony, who was probably old enough to be Twilight's grandpa's grandpa, slowly began looking at his papers. Eventually, he wheezed "What?"
Twilight sighed in frustration. "Eight...tickets...to....Canterlot!" She pronounced every syllable very distinctly and loudly.
"Ah... yes..." the ticket pony sighed, but in blissful remembrance. "I remember when I lived there as a young colt. It was quite a beautiful place..."
"TICKETS!" Twilight yelled, looking ready to blast the pony back to Canterlot.
"Oh, right!" the pony exclaimed, looking at his papers. "You said eight correct?"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Nine."
"For Canterlot?"
Twilight looked ready to turn into the Hulk by now. "YES!"
"Alright, alright, hold your horses young lady."
"We need to be there in an hour!!"
"Well, the last train for Canterlot left about five minutes ago. If you want a train, you'll have to wait about half an hour."
"HALF AN HOUR?!?!" we all exclaimed, our breaths back by now.
"Yup," the ticket pony declared. "Afraid so. Very sorry princess, but there's nothing I can do."
"Well, there's certainly something I can do," Twilight said, her horn lighting up. For a second, I thought she was about to blast that pony like I thought she might, and I ran forward to stop her. Suddenly, everything went purple.
Then, the world returned, and I staggered to the ground.
To my right, Luigi blinked rapidly. "What in the $%^& just happened?" he asked.
"Language!" Fluttershy exclaimed in disapproval.
"I used a teleporting spell," Twilight explained.
"Why did you not just do that from the get go?" I asked, giving her an eyebrow raise.
Twilight looked sheepish, and I heard a plush toy going "Squee!"
I decided then to look at where we were. We were standing on a sidewalk in a very luxurious town, much richer than Ponyville. Ponies in suits and dresses walked the streets, talking but rarely laughing.
"Cheerful place," Luigi remarked sarcastically.
"Canterlot," Twilight said. "Home of the elite in Equestria."
Applejack gestured with a hoof behind her. "That right thur is thu Princesses castl'.
It was massive. The castle would have dwarfed Disney's Cinderella Castle without a problem. And it looked very jagged, so much so that I wondered if looking at it could cause my fingers to start bleeding.
"Now you're just showing off, Equestria," I said, gazing at the massive structure.
About a half hour later, all nine of us sat before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Luna seemed to be busy brushing her mane, and Celestia seemed a bit absent minded. She would continuously look out the window as if watching for a tornado to suddenly appear and demolish her garden which looked like serious work. I would have hated to work at even a quarter of her "garden." More like, "Zoo."
Finally, I asked the question. "Is the Odyssey charged and ready for flight?"
Luna suddenly spoke up. "It is airworthy once again, and ready to sail the skies in a bright spectacle of splendor and grace."
"So, yes?"
"That's what she said," Twilight hissed.
"No, she spoke like Shakespeare."
Celestia looked at us and smiled. "And since I knew that your brother and My Little Ponies were wanting to accompany you, we have had our best carpenters make some modifications to your ship. I think you'll like them."
She beckoned to us to follow her outside. As we entered the zarden (zoo garden) we found the ship, which looked about the same to us.
I stared at it, looking disappointed I assume. "It looks no different."
Celestia smiled again. "Remember Mario, that outside appearances matter not." She opened the door, and beckoned inside. I looked in the door, and my jaw almost literally hit the floor.
Inside looked like a mansion. Gone was the one small chest, and the two chairs. In its place was a lounge, a gaming room, several bathrooms, nine bedrooms, a dining hall, a computer room, a music room, a bowling alley, and to top it off, an improved balcony with several chairs and cup holders.
"Holy #$^%." Luigi breathed.
"It's what's inside that counts," Celestia finished, grinning at our astonished faces.
"I'm not even going to question how you did this," I said, trying to regain my composure. "But thank you very much Princess. It will make travel much more pleasant."
"Good luck," Celestia told us. "Bowser must be stopped, and your Princess must be saved."
I was fully aware of this already, but I nodded. "Will do."
As I and the rest of the crew stepped into our luxurious new Odyssey, I thought to myself This has to be the strangest and most difficult adventure I've had to go on. I smiled at the thought for some reason. I mean, I had a coffee machine! Bowser couldn't brag about having that.
I stepped to the globe, and threw Cappy on the top. As Cappy began firing up the ship, the Princesses yelled "Goodbye and good luck!" over the roar of the engines.
I waved back at them as the ship lifted into the air, and began its long journey towards Bowser's Kingdom, and towards my most difficult challenge yet that would either make me... or break me.