Celestia’s and Luna’s immediate reaction was to take off into the air, away from the incoming pegasi, who quickly changed direction and pursued them. Panicked expressions splitting their muzzles, the sisters lit up their horns and teleported, reappearing atop the library’s roof and leaving their pursuers momentarily confused. At the same time, the earth pony charged towards Dr. Mario, jumping at him with her hooves outstretched. He dodge-rolled out of the way just inches away from her, landing on his feet and facing his opponent with a steeled gaze. Something felt off about these ponies. Granted, he barely knew anything about this world and its peoples, and these ponies could just be so eager for help they aren’t considerate of others’ well-being. Or, maybe, they weren’t fully conscious of their actions…
“Dr. Mario!”
He briefly glanced up to see Celestia and Luna with their horns aglow, their pursuers each wrapped in the colored nimbus of their respective magic. They were struggling fiercely, trying their best to break free like fish caught on a hook.
“These two are proving to be exceptionally strong!” Luna called to him. She was visibly straining to keep a grip on the pegasus in her magic grasp. “You must defend against the third pony by yourself!”
Dr. Mario nodded. He readied his megavitamins as the earth pony turned to face him. Her tail continued twitching as did her ears. Her leg raised and hesitated for a moment before scraping the ground. The movement was awkward and labored as if their leg was broken and the action was challenging to perform, but her face remained blank, giving no indication it was painful in the least. He took note of this.
She charged at him, but this time Dr. Mario didn’t dodge. He put his shoulder in front, letting the mare ram it and putting all his strength against her. She proved strong, pushing him back along the cobblestone with ease; he could feel the rubber of his shoes rip and tear under the friction. They came to a stop after a few moments, locked in a stalemate. Dr. Mario’s body trembled, struggling to match the earth pony’s incredible strength. He reached his hand underneath his other arm and used his gloved fingers to try to pry their mouth open, but they refused to budge. He couldn’t cure them like this.
“Help… me.”
Dr. Mario’s eyes bulged. She had spoken to him! Her voice was strained like the words were a struggle to croak out. He glanced down at the pony’s blank face and was surprised to see a glimmer of awareness in them. At the same time, he felt the mare’s force against him weaken slightly. He seized the opportunity and moved his megavitamins toward her mouth.
“Don’t... want to... do this.”
The mare broke the stalemate and jumped back. The two of them stared each other down, unmoving. Her words played over and over in Dr. Mario’s mind. The way she was acting made it sound like the viruses had some degree of control over her, which was incredulous because nothing of the sort had happened to any victims back home in New Donk. But the ponies had already proven to be more ideal hosts than humans, so maybe this was what they could achieve at full strength. But how could that be?
He didn’t have much time to think about this as the mare lunged at him again and he dodge-rolled again. He grimaced. He couldn’t think of any way to make the mare open her mouth without her possibly biting into his suit and potentially ripping it, exposing him to infection from the Primary Virus. The mare attacked him again and he dodge-rolled again. Over and over this repeated without either making any progress in subduing the other. But Dr. Mario could feel himself tiring out; sooner or later his stamina would deplete and the mare would get the jump on him.
After dodging another attack Dr. Mario glanced up to the princesses again. They were still struggling to subdue their own attackers, but it was clear they weren’t in danger of being overpowered. Celestia met his gaze for a brief moment before Dr. Mario was forced to dodge another attack from the mare.
“Dr. Mario, please listen to me!” Celestia called.
He didn’t turn to face her, but he raised a hand up to his ear to indicate he was listening.
“I applaud your concern for the safety of our subjects, and I know that you seek to do no harm unto them. But right now we need to cure them by whatever means necessary! Do what you must!”
Dr. Mario took a moment to let her words sink in before he breathed a deep sigh. “Okie Dokie.”
The mare charged again, but he didn’t dodge again. Once she was close enough he shot forth his hand and grabbed their neck, eliciting a surprised gasp from her as she stopped in her tracks. Dr. Mario then hooked both his arms around her upper body and, with a measured amount of force, slammed her to the ground. A sharp exhale left her mouth as the wind was knocked out of her, rendering her immobile. Wasting no time, Dr. Mario reached down and pried open her mouth before forcefully shoving the megavitamins inside, then closed it and held firm. The mare’s eyes widened and she began struggling, but Dr. Mario put the full weight of his body on her, keeping her still.
“Swallow, per favore,” he asked.
The mare stopped struggling. She weakly nodded and began shifting her mouth to build up saliva. She continued this for a few seconds before visibly swallowing. She opened her mouth to show she’d swallowed them all and Dr. Mario nodded before getting off of her. She stayed on the ground, probably too tired to move anymore.
“Excellent work, Dr. Mario!”
He turned to see Celestia and Luna descending towards him with their pursuers still trapped in their magic.
“You truly are a warrior, Dr. Mario,” Luna complimented as they touched down. “I have borne witness to many powerful warriors throughout my extended life, but never have I seen one of your stature fight with the strength of ten earth ponies. It is most impressive.”
Dr. Mario felt a blush creep across his cheeks as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s-a nothing special, Princess.”
They spent the next minute forcing the remaining two ponies to swallow some megavitamins. With all three of them partially cured, they waited until they’d regained some of their strength before they began interrogating them.
“It happened… so fast,” said the red pegasus, another mare, weakly. “Everything feels so faint… so distant… Can’t remember much…”
“I understand, little one,” Celestia soothed. She turned to the green pegasus, a stallion. “What can you tell us?”
Slowly, weakly, he lifted his hoof, pointing towards the library. He sounded much less tired when he spoke. “There’s a large group of ponies in the basement; about a few dozen or so. There’s bound to be more clusters spread throughout the city, hiding.”
“I see… Thank you.” Celestia turned to Luna and Dr. Mario. “I’ll scour the rest of the city by myself and leave you two to the library.”
“Will you be okay, Sister?” Luna asked.
“I promise,” Celestia replied. “And I trust you wholeheartedly, Dr. Mario. I know you’ll help us save our subjects.”
Dr. Mario flashed her a thumbs up. Nodding, she spread her wings and took off into the air without another word, quickly disappearing over the surrounding rooftops.
“My sister has always been a better judge of character than myself,” Luna commented. She turned to Dr. Mario with a smile. “The fact that she wholeheartedly trusts you, despite only knowing you for a few hours’ time, says a lot about what kind of a person you are.”
“What about you, Princess Luna?” he asked.
She appeared to think over her answer for a moment before replying, “I will say this: I wish there were more ponies a thousand years ago that combined the qualities of a warrior and a healer like you do.”
Dr. Mario blinked, confused by one specific part of her reply. “A thousand years ago?” She said it as though she’d lived during that time.
But Luna had turned her attention to the library, looking down at where the basement was. She levitated her bottles into her suit pocket. “Well then, let us brave this threat together.”
She lit her horn and Dr. Mario was blinded by the signature white flash of teleportation. The light cleared from his eyes after a moment and he rubbed away the remaining spots swimming in his vision before he realized he was in complete darkness.
“Princess?” he said.
“I am beside you,” she replied.
A soft moan sounded from somewhere in the darkness, making Dr. Mario’s neck hair stand on end. The space beside him lit up and he turned to see Luna’s horn glowing with a brilliant blue light that easily lit up the space around her. More moans sounded as she expanded the light to encompass the entire room. A sharp gasp sounded from both of them as the light washed over shelves lined with books with ponies lying against them, sick in the face with multicolored snot coating their bodies. Puddles of snot littered the floor all around the room. Off in one corner were a couple of creatures that looked to be half eagle and half lion, but their limbs were visibly changing into human arms.
Dr. Mario shifted his foot, only to step in something wet. He looked down to see he’d stepped in a puddle of snot trailing from an elderly unicorn a short distance behind them with her eyes closed and breathing laboriously.
“Mamma mia.”