The warp pipe allowed everyone through, popping up into Twilight Town. They were baffled by the town, mostly due to the sky looking like it was entering twilight hours despite it still being the middle of the day. The moon was out as the sky had a purplish-orange hint, the trees lacking any leaves near the normal houses, and the others got a good look at the Twilight Town natives, wearing ragged, dark clothing and yellow eyes that pierced through their dark upper faces. There were also some pigs wandering about, which they found a bit odd.
"Where's the sun?" Applejack asked. "Ain't it still daytime?"
"It should be," Goombella said. "Maybe there's a reason why Twilight Town is called that. And if Starlight telling us about Darkly was true, then this place must be the only suitable environment for them to live in without being blinded by the sun."
"How can they tell the difference between day and night?" Scrappy asked.
"I'm wondering how it's possible for one location on this continent to not get any direct sunlight at all," Starlight pondered. "At least we can see with the...moon, I think."
While getting their bearings, one of the Twilighters approached them. "Hello," he greeted. "It's been a long time since anyone's come from...outside. Are you guys adventurers?"
"You could say that," Rainbow said.
"Well, I would say welcome, but you all seem to have come at the worst time," the Twilighter said. That confused the visiting group, a little disturbed by what was going on. "Or...maybe the perfect time?"
"Er, I beg your pardon?" Rarity questioned. "What is going on? And why did you say it was 'the perfect time' after telling us bad news?"
"Umm...Y-You see, it's kind of a scary story to tell..." Suddenly, an ominous bell tolled and echoed throughout the village. The Twilighter gasped and looked out to the forest out in the distance, where the bell seemed to originate from. "Oh no! The bell's ringing again! Who could it be now?"
"What about that bell is so-?" Flurrie began to ask, only for her and the group to gasp when smoke suddenly engulfed their greeter. When it disappeared, in his place was a pig, who let out a distressed squeal and cried out in anguish. "My goodness! He turned into a pig!?"
"Is this some sort of curse?" Starlight questioned.
"But...if it's a curse..." Fluttershy looked out to the other pigs in the village, whom everyone assumes that they aren't actually pigs. "Oh no. I think the villagers in Twilight Town are all turning into pigs."
"Not everyone just yet." Approaching them was an older Twilighter, walking with a cane in one hand with gray bushy eyebrows concealing his eyes and an equally bushy mustache on his upper lip. One thing that was startling to the group was the elder's head looked a little torn, fluff sticking out from the opening with some loose thread, which made the Twilighters actually appear to be living ragdolls than ordinary people who thrive in the darkness. "Oh, and now it's Freddy who's been turned into a pig."
"Umm...Who are you, mister?" Goombella asked.
"I'm the mayor of Twilight Town. My name is Dour," the elder introduced. "I assume you adventurers are wondering what's going on here. Let us talk inside my home. It's not safe for telling tales out in the open." Mayor Dour led the group to the larger house in the center, making their way inside as they gathered in the mayor's living room. "I would like to welcome you all to our town, but as you can see and take a guess, Twilight Town has been cursed."
"Do you know who's turning all of you into pigs?" Starlight asked.
"Is it an evil baddie?" Pinkie asked, then tapped her hammer against her hoof with a glowering sneer. "Because we have a few ways of getting them to stop..." She then tossed her hammer aside and wore a huge smile. "By being their friends!"
Mayor Dour shook his head in response to Pinkie's solution. "I doubt the creature causing us such turmoil will want to make friends," he said. "Beyond the forest outside of town, and at the heart of it is an ancient building, the Creepy Steeple. When the steeple bell rings, one of us Twilighters living here gets turned into a pig." The mayor sighed in distress and paced nervously. "I worry about my village, I can barely sleep. Will a loved on be turned into swine? Will I be transformed into a curly-tailed oinker? If this keeps up, Twilight Town would be nothing more than a giant pigpen." He stopped and faced the group. "However far you've traveled to be here, I suggest you leave before you, too, become...piggified!"
The heroes looked at each other, all of them silently agreeing these people needed help. And they couldn't leave when the Crystal Star they need to find next is in this area.
"Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but we're staying!" Rainbow said. "And we're gonna help get rid of this pig curse for you!"
"We might as well help since we're also looking for a Crystal Star here," Goombella said. Mario pulled out the Magical Map, where the location of the powerful artifact seemed to hover over the steeple the mayor mentioned where the curses were being cast from. "Maybe the monster cursing everyone is using the Crystal Star to make it possible."
"Hmm...Well, I don't know much about these Crystal Stars you mentioned, but I've heard there was a glittery red stone in the shape of a star," the mayor said.
"Then that's where we're heading, regardless," Starlight said. "Don't worry, Mayor Dour. We'll stop the curse and find the counter spell to restore everypony back to normal."
"You really are going to go there?" Mayor Dour asked, letting out a terrified shudder. "Well, I wish you all the best of luck."
They made their leave and made their way off to the forest toward the east, where Creepy Steeple awaited them. Unsure of what dangers might lie in wait in the forest, they entered the shop close to the village's entrance to stock up on supplies. As they entered the shop, they found a female Twilighter and another swine-transformed Twilighter. The female seemed upset, unable to run the store in her state.
"Oh. Hello," she greeted with a sniffle. "I-I'm sorry. We're not open right now."
"Is everything alright, ma'am?" Koops asked.
"No. My husband...He's been turned into a pig," she said, pointing to the pig between them. "He went into the woods yesterday to collect herbs...But no husband came home. Instead, a pig returned! A pig! And we got into a big fight before we left, too. The last thing I called him was a chauvinist pig...And now he really is a pig!"
The Twilighter started bawling, her whining unintelligible as she seemed to have cried about her husband's positive aspects compared to their bickering. "Ok, ok, ma'am, calm down," Koops said gently. "We're going to help everyone in Twilight Town."
"We're going off to Creepy Steeple to stop the one responsible for cursing all of you," Fluttershy added. "And we'll get your husband back to normal so you can make up for the awful fight you must have had." She heard the pig snort, trying to say something. Having a better understanding of animals, she looked down at the pig, only to be confused by what it said. "Umm, I'm sorry?"
"Oh, thank goodness," the Twilighter said, wiping away her tears. "If you can bring my husband back, I'll let you take anything in our storeroom. But he had the key, and didn't come back with it."
"We're pretty good at finding things! We'll find that key and cure the piggifying!" Pinkie said.
With the shopkeeper feeling better, she was well enough to open her store back up. The group bought some supplies, then headed for the gate, which was unfortunately blocked by a Twilighter acting as the entry/exit guard.
"Sorry, I can't let anyone through," he said.
"But we need to get through," Starlight said, Mario nodding in agreement with the unicorn.
"There's a nasty monster in the forest, and I don't want anyone, not even visitors to our town, to get hurt out there," the guard insisted. "If you really need to get through, then you'll need the mayor's permission to pass."
"Oh no. Here comes the backtracking," Pinkie whined. "And the chapter just started!"
"It was going to be obvious that we'll need permission to leave the town, anyway," Flurrie said. "He never even allowed us before we rushed off to save the poor villagers."
The group trekked back to the mayor's house, only to hear the ominous toll of Creepy Steeple's bell ringing in the distance. "Ah! The bell!" Scrappy screamed, quickly clinging onto Fluttershy's leg. "Please don't let me turn into a pig! I like being a Yoshi!"
They waited a few seconds after the bell went silent, none of them thankfully getting cursed into pigs. "Someone else must have gotten hit," Applejack pondered. "There don't seem to be much of the townfolk left to turn, though."
"Then let's hurry and stop this before we're too late!" Rainbow said. They hurried to the mayor's house, quickly entering, but instead of finding the old Twilighter, in his place was a pig. "Oh, come on! The mayor was the one that jerk caught in its curse!?"
The pig let out a depressed snort, wandering around the living room while contemplating what to do with his life now. "Now what? We can't leave the village without the mayor's permission," Rarity uttered.
"Maybe we could just lie and say we got his approval," Goombella suggested. "Even if it is wrong, how can we help them if we're forced to stay here and wait for all of us to be cursed, too?"
As wrong as it felt, they all agreed with Goombella and headed back to the gate. Along the way back, they heard the bell again, wondering who the next victim was. Ironically, it wound up being the Twilighter guard, the newly transformed pig snorting in frustration, unable to perform his duties.
"...Well, I guess we don't have to fib to pass after all," Fluttershy said.
"Thank goodness," Applejack sighed with relief. "Ah would have blown our chances with how bad Ah can lie. A shame for the poor fellah, though."
"I don't think he'll mind letting us through after we restore him and the other villagers to their old selves," Starlight said.
They passed the pig guard and the gate, making their way down Twilight Trail. Along the way, they encountered some Hyper Goombas, all three of the normal, Para-, and Spiked variety. Mario, Pinkie, and Rarity knew how dangerous these green-skinned mushroom creatures were with their hyper charging before attacking from their trek through Gusty Gulch back in the Mushroom Kingdom. They warned the others to watch out when they bulk themselves up and took them out before they had a chance to unleash that built up power.
Just as they were about to reach the path leading into the forest, the road was blocked by a massive fallen tree that was cut down. There was a small gap underneath the tree, barely able to let someone like Scrappy squeeze under, and it was too big to climb over, which would result in exhausting work trying to lift everyone over and back when they needed their strength to traverse the forest and face the monster at the Creepy Steeple. A pig was seen wandering around, almost like it was looking for something, though whether it was actually livestock or a Twilighter, the others weren't sure. There was a shed nearby, Scrappy running over to check inside, which was mostly empty aside from a black key.
"Hey, I found a key," the Yoshi called out as he ran back to the group. "You think this is the Twilight Town lady's storeroom key?"
Mario recognized the key's design, making him groan as he was going to eventually find another black chest that'll "curse" him. He took the key from Scrappy, wondering what might happen to him this time. While examining the fallen tree, Pinkie tried to poke her head through the small gap, but she was too big to fit under.
"Of all the rotten luck. A tree blocking our way," Pinkie grumbled. Peering underneath, Pinkie spotted a key laying on the other side. "Hey, there's another key!"
Starlight joined Pinkie and crouched down. "Wonder how that got over there." Using her magic, Starlight telekinetically grabbed the key and dragged it toward them. "This might be the actual key to the storeroom. That owner's husband must have dropped it when he got turned into a pig."
"We should return it to her," Fluttershy suggested. She heard the pig nearby snorting, her eyes growing wide at what it was saying. "Huh? What did he mean by...?"
"Mama Fluttershy? Is something wrong?" Scrappy asked curiously.
"Umm...I'm not really sure," she said.
Before she could voice her concerns, Starlight spoke up. "Ok. I'll teleport back to town and return the key." Before the unicorn could leave, Mario quickly interjected, wanting to come along with her. He showed her the black key, explaining how the chest for it might be hiding somewhere in Twilight Town. "Oh. You want to get cursed in another way again, Mario?" Starlight joked, making the plumber sigh. "Well, it's better than turning into a pig, right?" The bell rang again, startling the group. None of them were cursed after the ominous drone faded, though they all gave Starlight a blank stare. "...Heheh. Uhh, we'll be right back."
Starlight gave a nervous grin before lighting up her horn, teleporting both herself and Mario back to Twilight Town. "Starlight sure has a weird way of seeing the brighter side of things in a dire situation, doesn't she?" Goombella asked.
"She pokes fun at herself when she mentions the terrible things she did before she changed," Rainbow said.
"That's...strange," Koops mumbled.
Starlight and Mario appeared back at the entrance, the unicorn being mindful of her magic aura hurting the Twilighters' eyes after accidentally blinding Darkly back in Rogueport. They headed for the store, but before they could let the shop owner know they got her storage key, Mario and Starlight balked when they found two pigs in instead of one.
"Oh, great. Now she's turned into a pig, too," Starlight groaned. "Running out of villagers, and we're gonna be next at this rate." Mario scratched his head, trying to think of what to do now. Even though it felt wrong to go into a shop's personal storeroom without their consent, he had a feeling that the black chest for the black key might be in the storeroom. Taking the storage key from Starlight, the unicorn stammered, following Mario to the door in the back. "Umm, Mario? I hope whatever you're gonna 'borrow', we can pay them back after they turn back to normal."
Mario unlocked the storeroom and walked inside. Just as he thought, there was a black chest hiding in the back, but he ignored the inventory since he didn't want to be branded as a thief if the store owners found out. He approached the chest, which began shaking as a familiar voice came from within the locked chest.
"Hello!? Is anyone there!?" the voice said. "Oh, thank goodness! I've been stuck in here forever! If you kind find the key to this chest-!"
"We set you free, then 'reward' us by cursing Mario," Starlight finished, silencing the voice inside. "There were two other chests we met with the same sort of demon spirit inside."
"What? Demon?" the voice asked, then blew a raspberry in disbelief. "No, no! What demon? I'm just an innocent bystander who got locked away in this chest for no reason." Mario and Starlight gave each other a deadpanned guess before Mario took the key and unlocked the chest, opening it up for their next demon friend. "HA HA! I lied! Prepare to be cursed, fools!" Black mist poured out and shrouded the two in darkness. A pair of eyes and a jagged mouth appeared in the dark mist. "You should have kept me sealed inside that chest, FOOOOOLS! Did you expect a damsel in distress? A glittering treasure worth millions of coins?" While the evil spirit gloated, Mario sighed and pulled out his Lucky Star pendant, gesturing to the demon face to hurry up with his speech and hit him with his curse. "All lies! You shall be gifted with something, though. And that is a terrible curse!"
The spirit laughed manically and cursed Mario, though it stopped laughing when the Lucky Star reacted to the curse, making it shine brilliantly. The curse it gave Mario turned into something much safer, shrinking Mario down to a smaller size. Starlight and the spirit gawked at the ant-sized plumber, the latter baffled by his curse not doing what he expected it to.
"...You were going to let him shrink in size as your curse?" Starlight asked.
"Umm, no. Well, close to that size, but...he was supposed to look like a rolled up newspaper," the spirit said. "...I...I guess this is...better?" Mario used his pendant's new blessing to grow back to normal size, making Starlight note how it sounded like going down a warp pipe, though the growing sounded more upbeat in tone compared to the shrinking. "Oh, that's not fun at all! Did you two know my curse was gonna fail!?"
"More like changed into a blessing in disguise thanks to the magic from our world in Mario's lucky pendant," Starlight explained. "We weren't buying your little spiel after we met the first chest in the Rogueport Sewers."
"This stinks! It would have been funny watching you rolling around like a thin tumbleweed going under gaps or tiny spaces a bug could easily crawl through!" the spirit whined. "Urgh! At least I'm out of that stupid chest. Don't have too much fun with my curse."
The dark mist dissipated as the spirit fled, returning Mario and Starlight back in the storeroom. "Well, I'm sure that's gonna come in handy," Starlight sarcastically stated. "Although, there might be some parts of the old steeple we might not be able to get through without shrinking in size. And with that tree blocking the road, that'll save us some energy getting through that forest."
Mario nodded in agreement as Starlight shrouded them both in her aura, teleporting them back to their friends on the trail near the fallen tree.
"...You know, we could probably go around the tree," Goombella suggested. "No idea why we can wait when the blockade isn't blocking the whole thing."
"Silly, Goombella! There's a thing called 'boundaries'!" Pinkie stated. "You can't just break the rules of a game THAT intensely, otherwise you'll just be called a hacker!"
Goombella blinked trying to process what Pinkie was trying to say. "...Boundaries?" she questioned.
Before she could question the pink mare's logic, Starlight and Mario reappeared in a flash. "Well, good news and bad news, everypony," Starlight said. "Bad news is the shopkeeper was the one who got turned into a pig from that last bell."
"What's the good news?" Rarity asked.
Mario gathered everyone around him as he held his Lucky Star. In a dark purple light, the blessing's power enveloped the group, then startled everyone as they all got smaller. As soon as they reached the literal minimum size from the new blessing, everyone stared in awe.
"Holy Monty Moley!" Pinkie squeaked. "We're tiny! And with mousy voices!"
"Ugh. Don't remind me of mouses," Flurrie growled.
"Umm, are you and Goombella still...jealous of Ms. Mowz?" Koops asked, only to earn a death glare from both the Goomba and wind spirit. The Koopa giggled sheepishly, slowly ducking his head in his shell. "...I'll...take that...as a yes..."
Mario hoped they wouldn't run into Ms. Mowz again, though he doubted she would show up at an abandoned steeple deep in a dangerous forest like that. Especially where there's a creature cursing everyone in the area with the bell and turning them into pigs. After getting used to the size difference, everyone walked underneath the giant tree trunk, then grew back to normal size once they completely passed under.
"Once we find this monster and defeat him, someone should probably move this tree out of the way," Fluttershy suggested.
"Or we go around it," Goombella restated.
"Boundaries~!" Pinkie sang as she sidled up to the Goomba.
"Ugh. Whatever. I give up," Goombella grumbled as the group trudged their way on the path through the thick forest between Twilight Town and Creepy Steeple.
The woods weren't as safe as the path of dead trees and empty wasteland. The thick grass left a winding road on the path, and there were Hyper Clefts posing as rocks in the shrubbery, along with the annoying flower creatures Applejack recognized in her time in Flower Fields: Crazee Dayzees. While dealing with foes in their way, they had other strange obstacles that almost got them lost or pondered where to go next. One of which had the path leading them to a dead tree, though there was a similar tree in the distance that had an opening. Luckily, they had a wind spirit able to blow away invisible barriers that hid certain pathways or obstacles as Flurrie revealed the entrance to the hollowed tree.
Another came after exiting the tree, where a huge boulder blocked the path, and the thick shrubbery made it hard to try maneuvering around it. Flurrie revealed a hidden hole, which led to a small area with a smaller boulder similar in shape to the blockade. Mario pushed it over, which was connected with the bigger stone, revealing a hole underneath, which tunneled to the other side. At least it wasn't as convoluted to get through this forest like in Forever Forest with similar paths to take, but only one difference out of the other three would lead them closer to their exit.
The party finally arrived at Creepy Steeple, the crooked building slightly weathered over the years, yet still stood strong. They could see the bell tower high above, overlooking the forest, though the trees around the steeple were as dead as the ones back in Twilight Town. A brick wall with some pointed metal bars sticking out were set up to keep out guests, a rusted iron-barred door along the road to allow guests in, but it was locked up with a chain. Outside of the wall was an empty well, no longer useful to give those who once came to this building a drink, cook, or wash with.
"Oh my," Fluttershy mumbled as she and Koops trembled at the sight of the terrifyingly creepy church. "It's...pretty scary."
"Oh, please. Bow's mansion is much creepier, darlings," Rarity said. She blinked when she realized what she said. "I complimented an abandoned mansion filled with Boos. It's dusty and horrid...Mario, if you have Bow's contact on your little mail device, I'd like to have a chat with her."
"Oh no. Being in a creepy mansion made Rarity appreciate dirt and grime," Rainbow teased, making Applejack snort a little. "Where has the real Rarity gone?"
"Oh, hush, Rainbow Dash," Rarity huffed.
"Ok, focus, everypony," Starlight said. "Whatever's in this place doing all this, it'll probably just as dangerous as it is with that bell."
Seeing the only way in was through the gate, Rainbow flew over to the other side, bucking the chain off to open the gate. Everyone filed inside the "abandoned" property and into the iron doors of the steeple. Inside the main foyer, the first floor was mostly empty aside from a stone pillar with a star statue on top. The second floor balconies had worn out bridges, the one on the right as they entered had a piece that broke off nearby. The strangest thing within the room was the stained-glass window shining moonlight down in the foyer, depicting a strange, ghostly-looking creature with red eyes and a blue party hat with yellow stars, posing creepily with Piranha Plants in a twilight background.
"What is that thing supposed to be?" Scrappy asked as he looked at the window.
"That creature in the middle kinda looks familiar," Applejack uttered. "Lose the party hate, and Ah see a Duplighost."
"You think that's the monster cursing everyone in Twilight Town?" Flurrie asked.
"At least we know what we're going up against if that's true," Goombella said, pulling out her book and flipped through the pages to look up Duplighosts. "They can transform into anyone they see to try to trick their foes and impersonate them. Some, unfortunately, don't do it properly, especially in big groups."
"Yup. Sounds about right," Rainbow said. "They did that a couple times when we went to the Crystal Palace. They all failed miserably."
"Then let's hope this one is just as incompetent if it's by itself," Starlight said. "I've had enough dealing with shapeshifters to last a lifetime."
The other ponies voiced their agreements, recalling their last unfortunate encounter with the changelings in their world, and how Equestria almost fell to their now dethroned queen. Walking toward the stone pedestal, there were two doorways leading to different sections outside the main room. Curious, Starlight tried to open one of the doors, only for it to be held back, then get startled as a Boo appeared, looking depressed.
"My friends have all been taken away...So lonely..." The Boo disappeared, keeping the door from opening until it had its friends back.
After Starlight's heart finally stopped pounding, she backed away from the door. "Sweet Celestia, where did that thing come from?"
"Maybe the monster kidnapped the Boos who used this place as their home," Rarity pondered. "Never mess with a haunting ground, even though I do wish they did at least a little bit of cleaning with the dust and cobwebs they let build up."
Not willing to try the other door on the opposite end if another Boo is keeping it sealed, there wasn't much else for the group to traverse. Scrappy walked over to the pedestal curiously, and as he walked around it to see the carved stone star from every angle, he looked down and noticed something strange.
"Hey! There's weird marks on the floor next to this thing!" Scrappy called out.
Everyone gathered around the pedestal and looked down at the scuff marks on the floor in the back of it. "Scuff marks? Suspicious," Pinkie hummed curiously. "There's gotta be a secret passage hiding under this very statue! Stand back everypony!" Bouncing in front of the pedestal, Pinkie spit on her forehooves, rubbed them together, then pushed against the pedestal. It managed to move with some effort, though Pinkie failed to notice the deep hole it covered, slipping into it with a surprised yelp. Panicking, everyone quickly looked down, only to hear a spring bouncing and Pinkie grunting as she seemed to safely land. "I'm ok! There's a spring down here!...That was kind of fun!"
"Pinkie, for goodness sake, don't scare us like that!" Rarity scolded.
One by one, everyone filed down inside the hole, bounding off the safety spring down below in what seemed to be an abandoned basement in the steeple. There was a doorway nearby, walking down into a hall with another door at the end, and a strange-looking box colored purple with a rose design in front of it in the middle. Mario went ahead to check out the door, only to find it was locked.
"No further going, it seems," Applejack said, then looked at the box. "Wonder what's in this thing?"
"I say we find out," Rainbow said, opening it up before the others could warn her. When she looked inside, the pegasus was disappointed to see it was empty. "Aww man. Nothing? What a rip-"
Suddenly, a massive horde of Boos flew out, scaring the living daylights out of Rainbow Dash as they cried out freedom or let out spooky wails. After the hundreds of Boos escaped from their boxy prison and phased through the walls and ceilings, everyone stared in shock as they tried to recover from the incredible amount of ghosts that startled them, especially Rainbow Dash. One final Boo popped out of the box with a smirk.
"Hey, thanks for getting us out of there," he said. "Back to haunting up this joint!"
The last Boo flew up to join his friends, leaving the group with an empty box. "...Well, maybe we can explore more of the steeple now?" Fluttershy mumbled.
"And avoid running into those Boos we freed, too," Rainbow added with a shudder. "I've never seen so many ghosts in my life."
"Scared, Rainbow Dash?" Applejack teased.
"N-No! I laugh at the face of creepy ghosts!" Rainbow scoffed. One of the freed Boos snuck up on Rainbow Dash, and as she turned around, he let out a terrifying shriek with a creepy face. "AHHHHH!" Rainbow zipped behind Rarity while the Boo laughed uproariously as he faded away to haunt somewhere else. Rainbow peeked behind the white unicorn, fearing the Boo was hiding somewhere, but when she noticed the amused smirks and stifled giggling from her friends, she stood back up, pretending she didn't get freaked out as she brushed off some dust on her chest. "H-Heh. S-Scared him off by screaming back at him. He was lucky I didn't...come back to give him a good thrashing."
"Nah. You got scared by a ghost," Scrappy said. "Mama Fluttershy's braver than you, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow sneered at the Yoshi, grumbling to herself as she marched on ahead. She heard Pinkie and Applejack break out in laughter, even Fluttershy giggled at her adopted Yoshi kid's praise for her bravery compared to her best friend's. They headed back to the main foyer, ignoring the Boos continuing their haunting, now able to go through the doors on both sides of the room. Splitting up into groups, they each explored the different hallways, both of which were outer walkways toward the back end of the building. Up on the ceilings were Swoopers, each split group carefully walking beneath them without disturbing them. At each end of the halls, they saw red buttons and a doorway beside them.
They met up in a room that was mostly empty save a staircase, where it led up to a doorway in the center, along with two other doors just sitting in midair without any platform to reach. "Well, this is a weird design for a building," Goombella stated. "How exactly are we supposed to reach those other two doors?"
"The other side of that wall is where we first walked in this place, right?" Starlight asked.
"Let's see!" Pinkie bounded up the steps, opening up the door and walking through. They heard her yelp and fall down, hearing her crash, then rapid hoofsteps on the other side getting quieter, only to pick back up from the northern hallway. Pinkie reappeared through the door with a scowl, slamming the door behind her. "Curse you, automatic walking through doors after confirming! I had to run all the way back around here! This is why backtracking dungeons are the WORST concept in RPG games!"
"...Uhh, Pinkie, did that door...lead back to the main room?" Koops asked, trying to divert Pinkie's tangent back to what they needed to know.
"Oh, yeah. It goes back there, by the star statue," Pinkie said. "The other two doors seem to connect to those two balconies on the sides."
"Ok. Then...why is there only one staircase leading to basically nowhere?" Applejack questioned. "That's some poor plannin' if this steeple was visited often back then."
"It's physically impossible to move this staircase over," Flurrie said.
"Unless..." Starlight looked back at the two doorways. "There was a switch at the end of one those walkways out there." Curious, she headed out to the northern door and approached the button. She pushed down on it, startling her and hearing the others exclaim as the building seemed to shake. Fearing she caused a cave in by pushing the button, she ran back in the room after the shaking stopped. "What happened!? Did something break!?"
"No, we're fine! But look!" Scrappy pointed at the staircase, only now it had moved to the right-most door. "Whatever you did, it made that staircase slide across the floor!"
"There was another button down the other way," Rainbow pointed out. "They had a moving staircase to reach these other doors."
"Why couldn't they have just built other staircases instead?" Goombella questioned. "I might need to ask Prof. Frankly if there's anything on the Creepy Steeple if we can find a book on this region."
The party saved a lot of the technical questions for later and went up the staircase. Like Pinkie mentioned, this door and the one further down exited to the balconies in the main foyer. They carefully walked across the slightly crumbled stone walkway, getting a much closer look at the stain-glass window of the strange Duplighost. There was a door leading up to the belltower, but the door was locked. Luckily, the very key for it was on the other side of the room on the other balcony, and they had a few fliers able to easily nab it. Rainbow volunteered, still being cautious with the Boos now freed from their prison, taking the key and flying back to the others. She unlocked the door, letting Mario lead the way as they climbed up a winding staircase, but it stopped partway near the top with a spring aimed at a hole in the ceiling.
Taking point, Mario bounced off the spring and landed in the bell tower, which wasn't as empty or abandoned as he expected with there being a bathtub with a shower head and curtain, a television set, a lamp, a fridge, and a green chair, though it was occupied by someone. "Hold on a second there, Slick!" Mario was shocked to see that the squatter living here was the very Duplighost on the window: pure white sheet over its body, red eyes, a blue party hat, but with red stars instead of yellow, a blue ribbon tied in a bow on its chest, and red shoes. "What are you doing, interrupting my 'ME' time?"
"Mario, what's going on up there!?" Starlight called out from the hole.
Pinkie bounced up and peeked out from the hole. "Did you find the monster?" she asked. She finally noticed the Duplighost, though she was more fixated on his party hat. "Oh boy! A surprise party! Where's the streamers and cake!?"
"What the-?" the Duplighost mumbled, startled from seeing the pony. The rest of the group joined Mario and Pinkie, all of them surprised to see the creature responsible for piggifying all of Twilight Town sitting casually in the bell tower. "How many more of you guys are invading my place!?"
"Are you the monster turning everyone into pigs?" Flurrie questioned. "Because if you are, we cannot allow you to harm anymore innocents!"
"Monster!? Who you calling a monster!?" The Duplighost growled at the insult, jumping out of his chair. "But if you're that curious, then yeah! I'm the one turning those villagers into pigs! You know how hard it is to come up with a good prank when one good idea gets old!?"
"A prank!?" everyone exclaimed.
"That's not a prank! That's mean!" Pinkie shrieked.
"And Pinkie and I know about pranking!" Rainbow added. "You're just a jerk messing with that bell and terrifying everypony in Twilight Town!"
"Why'd you do it anyway, huh!?" Scrappy questioned, putting his fists up in preparation to wallop the culprit.
"It's kinda obvious, don't you think?" the Duplighost asked. "You've been in that town, right? You've seen how depressing, boring, and dimwitted they looked. I thought, instead of wallowing in gloom, they might as well wallow in mud!" He laughed at his hilarious prank, infuriating the party sent to stop him and find the Crystal Star here. Fluttershy had to hold back Scrappy by his tail, even though she was just as upset with the Duplighost as the others. "Ain't that a riot!?"
"No, that's just awful!" Goombella exclaimed.
"You're hurting other people!" Koops added.
"Oh, so you've all got a problem with that, eh? If you wanna tussle, then let's go!" The Duplighost suddenly lunged forward, flying toward the group to headbutt them.
Everyone quickly dove out of his way, readying themselves as they watched the ghostly shapeshifting creature fly up and hover in the air. The Duplighost dove back down, aiming to slam into Fluttershy, but Scrappy leapt in his way, flutter kicking up to her height and gave the Duplighost a few good swift kicks in his own hover. Caught off guard by the quick Yoshi protecting his surrogate mother, the Duplighost stumbled back into Applejack, who gave him a hard, powerful buck in the back, crashing him into his chair and toppling it over.
"You leave Mama Fluttershy alone, you jerk!" Scrappy grunted, hopping from side to side, ready to fight more.
The Duplighost grunted, climbing back to his feet with a slight stagger. "Ow. Who smacked me with an iron block?" he asked. He glanced down at his chair, letting out a growl as he saw one of the legs got snapped off. "You broke my chair! You better not break anymore of my stuff! Especially not the T.V.!"
"Then cease your dastardly 'pranks' and leave this area forever!" Flurrie said.
"How about no!?" The Duplighost dashed toward the wind spirit, catching her off guard and tackled her hard.
Flurrie grunted as they slammed into the wall, but managed to recover and use her powerful breath to blow the piggifying prankster away. He was sent back, but flew around to recover, only to be met by Mario's hammer being flung toward him. It smacked the Duplighost's face, causing him to spiral out of control, then felt it fly back in a lavender aura and hit the back of his head to send him back down to the ground. Just as he was about to land, Koops tossed himself, knocking him back in the air, followed by Goombella jumping up and headbutting him in the gut. Struggling to breathe, he tried to dive down, but Rainbow flew up and bucked the Duplighost hard in the face, knocking him higher and smacking him against the bell high atop the tower, making it ring from the impact and deafen him.
Dazed, the Duplighost fell back down, a pair of magical auras of differently shaded blues surrounded him as Rarity and Starlight telekinetically increased his descent, aiming him down in the hard, marble bathtub. Letting out a groan, the Duplighost shakily climbed out of his tub, his party hat askew as he regretted underestimating his foes while being completely outnumbered.
"Had enough, yet?" Starlight asked. "One last chance for you to give up now and leave."
"Also, if you know where there might be a red Crystal Star around here in this steeple, can you tell us that, too?" Pinkie asked. "We kinda need that, but you also gotta go!"
"Ugh...Crystal...Star?" the Duplighost questioned. He shook his head, snapping back to his senses. He reached under his sheet body, surprising the group as he held the Ruby Crystal Star. "You talking about this weird gem?"
"Ah, there it is! You had it all along!" Pinkie said cheerfully, though her smile quickly changed from chipper to sadistic as she held out her hammer and waggled it menacingly. "Now gimmie, you bad ghostie-goo!"
The Duplighost growled, hiding the Crystal Star back under his sheet body. "If you want this, then you'll have to take it from my cold dead hands." His bravado wavered as he glanced at the six ponies, Goomba, Koopa, wind spirit, Yoshi, and plumber. The moment his eyes locked on Mario, a sneaky grin appeared, his eyes glowing slightly in the twilit moon outside the windows. "But I'm just getting started. If you thought me changing folks into pigs was impressive, you ain't seen nothing yet!" The Duplighost's red eyes shimmered, then with a yell, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The others looked around, wondering what he was up to, unaware of him copying Mario while hidden by his magic power. A few seconds later, rising from the floor where he once stood, the doppelganger took Mario's appearance, though his entire form seemed to be his shadow instead of a complete copy. They had expected worse out of the Duplighost if he managed to disappear like that, but he seemed to be worse than a normal Duplighost if he couldn't pull off a perfect visual copy of his victims. "Yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk! How do you like these apples!? You're fighting against yourself, Slick!"
Everyone blinked, baffled by the poor attempt at the Duplighost's copycat shapeshifting. "...Seriously?" Applejack questioned.
"He doesn't even look like Mario," Rarity said. "He was more dangerous as himself."
"Pth! Easy boss fight!" Pinkie said. "Mario, just whomp him so we can get out of this dumb chapter and move on to the next, actually scary one."
Seeing how little of a threat this Duplighost was, Mario agreed, then charged at the terrible doppelganger. The shadow copy did the same, pulling out a hammer of his own as both plumbers clashed, pounding their hammers into their opponents, Mario surprised to see the Duplighost was able to match his strength. But just copying the Mushroom Kingdom's savior's strength wasn't going to help the dastardly monster if he didn't match his experience. Mario's friends cheered him on as the duo continued swinging their hammers. Mario managed to knock the impostor's hammer out of his hands, giving him a hard smack in the side, sending the shadow of him staggering away. Stuffing away his mallet, Mario lunged forward and gave the fake a few good punches, knocking the Duplighost back with each blow while throwing in a good kick for measure.
Mario wound his fist back, neither him nor the others noticing the smirk hidden under the shadow's face. The fake reached into his silhouetted overalls, clutching something right as Mario threw his fist into his doppelganger's cheek, causing the fake to spin rapidly in place. Mario watched the Duplighost as his spinning slowed, then with one more punch to his chest, a faint red flash appeared on impact, hidden from the plumber's companions. The fake fell back, dropping the Crystal Star it tried to reach for, landing hard on his back with a defeated groan.
"Alright! Nice work, Mario!" Rainbow cheered. "That'll teach him!"
Mario crouched down and picked up the Crystal Star, then walked back to his friends. "Wow, that seemed a bit unfair, but he's not gonna move after getting pummeled like that!" Scrappy said.
"And maybe the curse is lifted after we beat that Duplighost," Goombella hoped.
"Let's head back to Twilight Town and check in on everypony before we head back to the sewers to find the next Crystal Star," Starlight said. With everyone in agreement, the group jumped down in the hole, everyone hearing Pinkie letting out a relieved sigh and mentioning more about backtracking. Starlight and Mario were the last to follow, but when Starlight glanced back at the plumber, she noticed him eyeing his hands and clenching them out of curiosity. "Mario? You coming?"
Snapping out of his stupor, the plumber nodded silently. Starlight shrugged, then jumped into the hole to join the others. Mario slowly approached the hole, only to stop and then glance back at the defeated impostor. Slowly, Mario grew a snide smirk, his eyes glinting red for a brief moment before tilting his cap down and gave a sinister chuckle. Pocketing the Crystal Star in his overalls, he hopped down into the hole after the others to return to town. The shadow winced slightly, his fingers twitching as he woke up after getting knocked unconscious.
Groaning, the shadow sat up, clutching his chest, confused by the amount of pain he was in. Feeling around his chest, he pulled out a shadowed replica of the Lucky Star, but unlike the rest of the darkened form that copied the plumber, the bright, colorful lights made it stand out, filled with magic from Equestria that came from the Mane Six when Mario recovered and journeyed with them to save the Mushroom Kingdom previously. Confused, the shadow looked at the television's screen, the moonlight reflecting off the surface to show their reflection, and it let out a startled shock upon seeing himself. Whatever happened after that "finishing blow", he wound up in this body; that Duplighost was much smarter than he seemed, because Mario was now the shadow, and the impostor managed to swap the real Mario's body with his copied form. His friends were in real trouble, especially the mares.
Looking around for his hammer, which was just as shrouded in blackness as his "new" body, quickly gathering it and chased after the others. He had to warn them about the impostor actually snatching his body away, fight the Duplighost and actually beat him, and take back his identity. Even if Mario was now alone, he bested Bowser and his minions by himself in his own castle many times in the past. How hard could it be in a twilit area with a small town, a dense forest, and a haunted steeple?