To say Peach was surprised to see a barrel-like airplane fly around the castle would be an understatement. She was even more surprised to see the inside was absolutely crowded with ponies, humans, and various other creatures. She stepped outside the castle and approached the plane when it landed, Funky Kong stepping out of the cockpit.
"We reached our destination, dudes!" Funky called. "Thank you for choosing Funky's Flights!"
The airplane tipped over and everyone inside the barrel spilled out, thankful to be back on their feet and not tightly packed together. Some more than others.
"That's wrong, and you know it!" K. Rool shouted. "Power Ponies was ABSOLUTELY based off of Rise of the Koopa Bros.!"
"I can't even believe we're in this argument!" Spike shouted back. "I am so glad we're out of that plane so I never have to talk with you again!"
"Give me one SHRED of evidence that Power Ponies came before Rise of the Koopa Bros.!" K. Rool challenged.
"THEY'RE FROM DIFFERENT WORLDS!" Spike yelled. "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHEN THEY WERE RELEASED, THERE'S NO POSSIBLE WAY THEY COULD BE BASED ON EACH OTHER!"
The two reptilians continued their on-going argument. Twilight just sighed and face-hoofed.
"Why did you bring him along!?" Twilight whispered to Fluttershy harshly.
"I-I didn't!" Fluttershy whispered back. "He just... decided to come with us!"
"AB, why haven't ya taken off that cape n' crown?" Applejack asked. "Ya'll aren't followin' K. Rool anymore."
"To be honest Ah kinda like it," Apple Bloom said, flipping her cape. "Plus K. Rool showed me that cool boomerang trick with the crown, and-"
Before she could finish, Diddy Kong jumped over the little filly and snatched the crown from her head. She hopped on Donkey Kong's shoulders as the giant ape took off running, his little buddy turning back to blow a raspberry.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Get back here!" She ran right past Cranky Kong and Granny Smith, who were sitting on wooden rocking chairs giving a story to the kids that sat around them: Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Piranha Plant.
"...And that's when Mario threw me down the construction site!" Cranky finished. "All to rescue some dame I just HAPPENED to capture during my rampage through New Donk City. Bet that's all he cared about."
"That's a cliche narrative if Ah've ever heard it," Granny Smith said. The two elders were becoming fast friends, and the kids they were telling the story to just looked at each other in confusion.
"So I don't get it," Sweetie asked. "Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"
"Little girl, I was Mario's FIRST bad guy!" Cranky said, waving his walking stick around and bopping her on the head. "But even so I got kicked out of the spotlight. Mario just used his victory against me as a way to rocket his popularity to new heights. Spotlight hog!"
"Boy do Ah know that feelin'," Granny Smith reminisced. "Ya'll know just how many members the Apple Family has? Real easy to make some ponies feel less important than others."
"See? Finally someone gets it," Cranky Kong said.
Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Piranha Plant just looked at each other in confusion and had no idea what either of them were talking about.
Mario and Luigi just watched the entire scene play out. It was nice they had the extra help, but with the addition of Funky, Cranky, Diddy, Big Mac, Granny Smith, K. Rool, and all four Crusaders, it was getting really hard to keep everyone under control. Peach approached them, surprised with all the new allies they had recruited over the course of a day.
"I um... don't think we have enough room in the sleeping quarters for everyone..." Peach said.
"I figured," Luigi sighed. "How many more do we have to find?"
"Well there's Yoshi, Birdo, Toad, and Toadette we still haven't found anywhere," Mario said.
"Of my friends we also haven't found Pinkie, Rainbow, Trixie, or Starlight," Twilight said as she approached them. "Come to think of it... we also haven't seen Princess Celestia or Luna either. And who knows how many more are still out there?"
"Well it is getting late," Peach said. "I'll make sure everyone has at least SOMEWHERE to sleep. In the meantime dinner will be served soon."
"Thanks, Peach," Mario said. The princess nodded and walked off.
"I'd say we had a pretty successful day," Luigi said. "I mean, look at all the friends we found."
"Well, I'd call most of them friends..." Twilight sighed, starting at Spike and King K. Rool still arguing with each other over comics. She could tell things were not going to get any easier from here.
It wasn't easy, but everyone managed to find a place to sleep around the castle. Mario, Luigi, Twilight. Spike, Fluttershy, and Piranha Plant all slept in the same bedroom as the night before, and another bedroom was provided to the Apples, Rarity, and the Crusaders. The Kongs were perfectly fine with sleeping outside, so they were lounging around in the backyard while Funky made improvements to his plane. This just left King K. Rool, who demanded he sleep indoors. But by popular demand courtesy of no one wanting to share a bed with him, he slept outside with the Kongs.
The king had managed to make himself a suitable bed, throwing together a couple of leaves to make a comfortable mattress, and stealing one of the castle's carpets for a blanket. He made sure to keep his distance far, far away from the apes, who have already dozed off. Soon, K. Rool drifted off as well.
The familiar jungle rustle managed to stur Donkey Kong awake. He looked around, and saw he was back in his treehouse. Everything was there, the piles of bananas, his TV, and various pictures of him and his friends. Eager to know how he got here, get quickly got up and beat his chest. Hearing a small groan behind him, he turned around to see Diddy Kong here as well, who was also waking up. Diddy was equally surprised with his surroundings, and got up to join his big buddy.
A particularly loud snore was heard, and they looked down to see King K. Rool, sprawled on the ground asleep. A pretty big bubble was forming on his snout, so Diddy Kong popped it. This instantly drove the Kremling king awake, who flailed his arms and legs around while babbling nonsense.
"NO OFFICER I SWEAR, SHE WAS-" K. Rool shouted before noticing he was in DK's treehouse. "Hold on... what in the name of Tiki Tong am I doing here? How am I away from that castle!?"
The trio noticed a peculiar navy glow coming from the window. DK and Diddy pressed their faces against it to try and get a good look at where it was coming from.
"Let me have a look!" K. Rool said as he pressed against the window too, practically squishing DK and Diddy.
The glow became stronger and brighter, and a strange silhouette appeared in the distance. DK, Diddy, and K. Rool were pushing so hard that they destroyed the window, creating a massive hole in the treehouse. Now that they could get a better view of the figure, it looked like a pony, though was pretty tall, with wings like Fluttershy and a horn like Twilight or Rarity. She also seemed to have very long and wavy mane.
"Who is this!?" K. Rool demanded. "Show yourself!"
The strange figure ducked down into a crouching position, and various costume parts flew away. Out of the costume came a strange creature who seemed to be a mish-mash of other animals, having a giant snake-like body, and arms, legs, and horns that were anything but matching.
DK, Diddy, and K. Rool's eyes widened, and their mouths were held agape. All they could do was watch as the strange beast scurried around the jungle, driven to tears with his laughing, proud of the massive prank he just pulled. Suddenly, another figure who looked like the pony before appeared behind him.
"ENOUGH!" she yelled as she bucked the strange creature away before he could react, his laughs still being heard in the distance. Now the trio were even more confused.
"Ahem..." she began. "Greetings. I am Princess Luna, princess of the night."
"Night?" K. Rool asked. "But it's sunset out!"
"You three are all in a dream," Luna explained. "I'm sorry this had to be so sudden, but there was no other way for me to reach you and your friends in my current situation."
Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong jumped out of the massive hole in their treehouse to approach the tall pony. King K. Rool followed suit.
"So you brought us here?" King K. Rool asked.
"Not quite," Luna answered. "You three were all having a dream about being back home in the Mushroom Kingdom. I simply saw the opportunity to appear to you all in the dream realm."
"So why are you here, then?" K. Rool asked.
"I'm here because I can help with your journey to reset our worlds to their normal states," Luna said. "When you wake up, tell your allies that you saw me in a dream, and you can find me on Pi'illo Island. It's north from where you are."
DK and Diddy gave a thumbs up, while K. Rool nodded.
"I wish you all good luck on your adventure," Luna said. "I predict it will be quite a long one..."
Soon, the jungle landscape morphed and transformed, returning the three back to outside Peach's castle. They shot awake, and it was still nighttime. DK, Diddy, and K. Rool looked at each other for a moment before racing into the castle to tell everyone the news.
"WAKE UP EVERYONE!" K. Rool hollered throughout the castle. Aiding him were Donkey Kong and Diddy causing a racket, beating on the walls as hard as they could. Soon enough, lights began turning on, followed by the tired groans of Mario, Luigi, Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy walking downstairs to see what all the commotion was about. Piranha Plant was especially snappy, and Fluttershy was too tired to try to console him.
"What is it you want at 2:00 in the morning!?" Spike demanded, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sure whatever it is, it can wait until morning," Twilight groaned.
"It can't," K. Rool said. "Me and the apes were pulled into a dream with this tall pony named Luna."
That got everyone's attention, specifically the ponies.
"Wait, you saw Princess Luna!?" Twilight gasped. DK and Diddy nodded to attest to it.
"Oh thank goodness Luna is OK," Fluttershy said.
"Luna is one of those princesses you were talking about, right?" Luigi asked.
"Yes, she's one of the royal sisters that rule over Equestria," Twilight explained. "She goes into the dream realm to help everypony with their nightmares and give them guidance."
"So what did she say?" Rarity asked.
"She said something about meeting her in Pi'illo Island to help us out on whatever we're doing here," K. Rool answered. "Said it was north from here."
"Hey, I remember that!" Luigi said. "That's where we helped free all the Pi'illo people and get the Dreamstone back, remember bro?"
"I remember it like it was yesterday," Mario said. "Had to go into your dreams a couple times too. It was weird... but fun at the same time."
"Well then Pi'illo Island should be our next destination," Rarity said. "We'll meet Princess Luna and-"
"Oh, looks like I caught all of you at a good time!" E. Gadd's voice cut through the crowd as he walked into the castle. Polterpup followed him into the room. "Have to admit, I wasn't expecting you all to be up this late."
"Neither were we," Spike moaned, still pretty tired.
"Well, anyway, while researching the various creatures I've come across in Equestria, Polterpup here found something interesting," E. Gadd said, motioning to the ghostly dog. Indeed, he seemed to hold something in his mouth, presumably a letter. Luigi knelt down and motioned the Polterpup to hand it over, which he obliged. He unrolled the paper and read it aloud.
To Twilight,
Starlight has been sending letters to you all over the place since this mess started. She's unavailable at the moment for reasons that will become obvious shortly, so the Helpful and Compassionate Trixie is writing this one in her place. If by some miracle you find one of them, we are both in desperate need of your help. The two of us are locked up in the Castle of Friendship, and there's these guys who keep calling themselves Wario and Waluigi running amok. They're digging through it for treasure, and they've found a bunch of spellbooks, using us as drones to cast them in hopes of them becoming even more rich. I don't know where exactly the castle is, Starlight should be able to write it down once her turn ends.
Signed,
The Great and Powerful TrixieThanks to Trixie not sending this letter immediately, we've probably just ruined any chances of this letter reaching you, but I'm sending it out just to be safe. We appear to be in a large, bustling city... kinda like Manehattan but way more busy. It looks like there's way more buildings too. I can't give clearer directions, but I hope you can find it yourself. And please hurry, what these two are doing to us is... less than pleasant.
Also signed,
Starlight Glimmer
"I'm assuming both of these are from your world?" Luigi asked.
"Yes, close friends of mine, in fact," Twilight said. "Starlight is my student who lives with me in the Castle of Friendship, and Trixie is a travelling showpony who hosts magic shows."
"Looks like Wario and Waluigi ended up here too," Mario grumbled. "First we get King Boo and now we have to deal with these two?"
"Well whoever they are, I can't imagine they're pleasant to be around," Rarity mused. "And it sounded like they were using Starlight and Trixie... whatever that entails..."
"Well I'll leave you to figure it out," E. Gadd says. "In the meantime, I'll just-"
"GAH!" Spike cried as the professor put a feather to his nose. He was too shocked to retaliate, and sure enough, the young dragon sneezed green flames. These would have hit E. Gadd had it weren't for the special container he pulled out to trap them inside.
"-take these flames from our good dragon friend," E. Gadd chuckled. "I need to get a head start on my next artificial power-up: Dragon Suits!"
"We're not lab experiments you know," Twilight shot at him, remembering how he used her DNA for the Alicorn Mushroom the previous night.
"But it's for the greater good of science!" E. Gadd said. "Just wait until I get the ad campaigns for this up and running! These Dragon Suits will be flying off the shelves! Oh ho ho!" With that, he headed back to his lab to get a head start on his new experiment, Polterpup tailing behind.
"Well that was weird, but I don't care enough to find out why," K. Rool commented.
"Y'know, I think Starlight and Trixie might be up in New Donk City," Mario said. "It's the closest thing I can think of when I think of a bustling city."
"Then perhaps we should split up," Twilight suggested. "Half of us go to Pi'illo Island, and the other half-"
"OK OK, hold on," K. Rool interrupted. "Who put you in charge of this whole operation?"
"No one," Twilight said, trying her best to push down her irritation. "I'm just saying that it'd speed up our search if we-"
"Well since I'm the only king around here, that puts me above you all in the scale of hierarchy, so I should be in charge," K. Rool said proudly.
"OK fine," Twilight spat. "You have a better idea!? Spit it out then!"
"With pleasure," K. Rool said. "We should split up into teams and go to Pi'illo Island and New Donk City separately, so as to make this search for Luna and the other two faster."
"But that's what I ju-" Twilight started before being interrupted again.
"We leave IMMEDIATELY!" K. Rool announced as he turned a heel and marched out of the castle front door. Noticing no one was following him, he turned back and gave an angry glare.
"Well!?" he demanded.
"We're goin' back to bed," Applejack said grumpily.
"Indeed," Rarity agreed with a yawn. "A lady needs her beauty rest after all."
"Fine them," K. Rool said. "We leave IN THE MORNING!"
As he and the Kongs walked out of the castle, everyone else went back to their sleeping quarters to resume their sleep.
"Seriously, why did you invite him!?" Twilight groaned.
"I... I didn't... H-He just-" Fluttershy tried to say. Piranha Plant quickly snapped to her defense, and the alicorn turned to her pegasus friend for a translation.
"He says he doesn't like the way you're talking to me," Fluttershy said. The plant nodded in confirmation.
"OK, I-I'm sorry," Twilight said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just... K. Rool is REALLY starting to get on my nerves."
"I don't think any of us like him," Mario sighed. "But we'll need to put up with him anyway. At least he's willing to help."
"True," Twilight said with a nod.
The Castle of Friendship starkly contrasted the taller, modernized, and much duller buildings of New Donk City. Stacked quite precariously on top of the city hall, the castle looked like it could tip over at the slightest movement, plunging it down and crushing any unfortunate souls who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hopefully, that wouldn't happen.
Of course, with it being so high in the air and all of the entrances to the top of the city hall being blocked off, there wasn't any real way for the residents of New Donk City to investigate the strange fortress that loomed above them. This, in turn, allowed Wario and Waluigi to cause as much mischief as possible.
Starlight observed the dastardly duo run amok in the castle from behind bars, using Trixie like a kid's first magic kit. The two were scavenging the castle for any signs of money, particularly for the vault that this castle obviously had hidden away (it didn't). Not only that, but they were also nose-deep in spell books in search of one that could get them rich quick, and using the unicorns as their guinea pigs. Wario's portly body weighed down on poor Trixie, as he commanded spells left and right at the props Waluigi was holding up in front of them. With little success.
"What's the deal, Blue?" Wario asked. "Pink over there can use-a spells just fine! Why are-a you so difficult to work with!?"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie prefers not to be referred to such broad terms as 'Blue'," she protested.
"Just-a do the spell already!" Waluigi hollered, holding up the apple the spell was to be used on.
Starlight could only sigh. With Trixie only being real experienced in show magic, any and all efforts to use her to further their gold-digging were in vain. If she could, she'd warp out of the bars she was held behind, bust Trixie out, and make a run for it. But they just so happened to find a spell that restricted any and all use of their magic unless it was at their command. Otherwise, they were essentially earth ponies without their characteristic strength.
"Seriously, who makes a spell like that!?" Starlight thought to herself bitterly.
"Bah, she's-a useless!" Wario groaned, unsatisfied with Trixie's fruitless efforts. "Throw her back in!"
"We'll try with-a Pink later," Waluigi said.
Wario hopped off Trixie and led her back to the cell, throwing her in alongside Starlight. The two went on to resume whatever they were doing, leaving the mares to themselves.
"This is embarrassing..." Trixie sighed. "Since when were we fated to be enslaved but these morons?"
"Tell me about it," Starlight agreed. "I just hope one of those letters reaches Twilight... wherever she is..."
"As much as I hate to admit it... Trixie hopes so too..." the blue unicorn said.
Now knowing Bowser and his forces were planning to raid the Crystal Empire, the unlikely team of Yoshi, Pinkie Pie, Maud Pie, and Rainbow Dash stowed away on one of the Airships that were to take off. They hid themselves in a large crate, waiting to bust out and ambush the Koopa soldiers at the right time, and perhaps stop the invasion before it began.
Of course, being confined in such close quarters was uncomfortable, especially for jittery Pinkie.
"I'm so booooooorrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeed," Pinkie moaned, trying and failing to find a comfortable position among all the cannonballs and Bullet Bills they were laying on.
"Will you quite down?" Yoshi snapped in a harsh whisper. "Do you WANT to give away our hiding spot?"
"Whose brilliant idea was it to hide in a crate, anyway?" Rainbow Dash said, also getting a little antsy.
"Yours," Maud Pie deadpanned.
"That was a rhetorical question," Rainbow shot back. It was quickly proving to not be one of her smartest ideas. Truthfully though, she was getting antsy moreso because of her lack of wings and needing to rely on this dumb cape to fly around. She could hardly wait to pummel that wizard guy and have her wings back.
"Shhh, someone's coming," Yoshi said as everyone quieted down as footsteps were heard. Outside they could make out two soldiers walking by.
"So what was the plan again?" one Koopa asked.
"Didn't you hear Lord Bowser!?" the other Koopa snapped. An audible slap to the face was heard. "We're off to invade the Crystal Empire and take their princess. There's even rumors going around that he's gonna marry her."
"Marry her?" the first Koopa asked. "I thought his heart was for Peach."
"Well there is no Peach ever since that twister happened," the second Koopa said. "So we're going for one of those pony princesses, and if what we read is to be believed, they're heavily armed and we need to be on our A game. So hurry up and help me load the last of this ammo on deck!"
The four stowaways could feel their weight shifting as the crate was picked up and hauled on board. No one dared make a sound, lest they'd be found out.
"Since when did... Bullet Bills weigh this much?" one of the Koopas asked as he struggled to carry the crate.
"Yeah I thought we loaded the Banzai Bills," the other said, under as much strain.
The crate was soon carried on the Airship, and it was dropped with an big THUMP. Unfortunately, this caused one of the cannonballs to crush Rainbow Dash's hoof.
"YOWCH!" she shrieked.
"Who was that!?" a Koopa asked.
Rainbow had to quickly make up something. "Uh... just... one of the Bullet Barts... or whatever you call them! I hit my head when you dropped the crate and... yeah..."
The three others stared at Rainbow Dash in a range of expressions. Yoshi was looking daggers at her for not keeping quiet. Pinkie was on the brink of bursting in a fit of laughter for how terrible Rainbow's cover-up was. Maud just stared blankly, perhaps accepting the inevitable.
"Oh, sorry about that," the Koopa responded. They were heard walking away after that.
"Whew," Rainbow sighed. "Good thing those turtle guys are morons."
"We should be on board now," Maud said. "Now we just need to wait."
"But I haaaaaaate waiting," Pinkie complained. "Can't we just-"
"Shut it!" Yoshi said as he covered her mouth. "Someone else is coming!"
These footsteps were much bigger and heavier, no doubt belonging to Bowser. Two pairs of much lighter footsteps also came, seeming being Kamek and Kammy.
"Everything is accounted for, your Burlyness," Kamek said.
"And we have the finest troops on board," Kammy followed.
"Excellent," Bowser said. "Seems like you two aren't screw-ups after all. If things go well, I might just forgive you for that warp machine nonsen-" The Koopa king stopped himself as a realization just hit him. He looked around a few times before turning back to the two Magikoopas.
"Where's Jr.?" he asked.
"And then maybe I can put an outdoor pool here!" Bowser Jr. said to no one in particular.
Right now he was outside Canterlot castle, which was now being converted to Bowser's Castle. Sure, his father was in charge of remodeling, but why should his son not have any creative input? He wanted to make an outdoor playground in the backyard, for himself and himself only. Plans were going swimmingly, at least they were if it weren't for all the statues in the way.
"Stupid statues!" Jr. protested. "There's way too many of 'em. Maybe when Papa gets back, he can take some of them down. What are half of these supposed to even be anyway?"
While each one was either dedicated to one of the royal sisters, or major Equestria events, Bowser Jr. didn't know or care, and just wanted all of them gone so there wouldn't be any interruptions for his playground planning. However, just on the edge of the garden covered in shrubs, there was one statue that caught his eye. The Koopa prince moved in to get a closer look, and pulled some of the greenery away.
Three rather... interesting figures were depicted here. One looked like a spooky, grotesque version of those ponies his father bested. Another looked like some powerless old geezer. But the one that piqued his interest the most was the small little girl above them. To him, she just looked like one of those children that were being held prisoner in the castle. What was so special about this one? Jr. looked down and saw an inscription on the stand.
Here stand three of Equestria's most notorious, evil villains, all of whom were sentenced to become inanimate for their crimes. Queen Chrysalis, the Changeling queen who sought to feed off of the love of Equestria's inhabitants and take it over.
"Lame," Bowser Jr. said.
Lord Tirek, who escaped Tartarus in order to steal the magic from everypony in the land for his own selfish deeds.
"Boring," Jr. said.
And Cozy Glow, the filly who tricked everypony into befriending in order to destroy all magic in Equestria.
"What?" he said. "A little girl did all of that?"
The Koopa prince looked back up at the statue, and suddenly, he got an idea. It was a stretch... but if it could help his father in his efforts, surely it'd be worth a shot. He took out his Magic Paintbrush, and climbed up the statue to paint some of Cozy Glow's face. Soon, he could see the statue start to animate again. Now no longer a statue, or her face anyway, the little filly coughed up some of the paint and looked around, obviously surprised by her surroundings and that she was now set free.
"I'm... free!?" Cozy Glow asked herself.
"Almost," Bowser Jr. said. The filly turned her attention to the Koopa prince with the paintbrush. "I read your little story on the statue, and thought you might be helpful in Papa's takeover of this strange pony world! If you help us out, I'll free the rest of you."
Cozy didn't even have to think. "Deal!"
And so it was done. Cozy Glow was set free from her stony prison.