The entrance to Evershade Valley was not far of the Apple Mansion, in the Everfree Forest, so the group passed beside the manor on the way, giving Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo a good view of it and of how big it was.
"And you built it just for the ghosts?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"And for the lab," Apple Bloom reminded.
To enter the Evershade Valley, they had to pass by a tunnel in a cliff. Once inside the valley, plunged in eternal night, Apple Bloom then led them through the ghost town she built here, Spookane, to the first manor that Apple Bloom used as a base in the valley.
On the way, Apple Bloom didn't miss the occasion to point out some of the buildings.
"That huge building over here is the hotel! We built it to look exactly like Eternal Rest's hotel, but more friendly looking and without all the traps and dangerous stuff! Beside it is the museum that Ah told ya about! And there, ya can see the theater. If I'm not mistaken, Piano Virtuoso's currently having a concert in it!"
"Piano Virtuoso? THE Piano Virtuoso?" Sweetie Belle asked with some stars in her eyes.
"Eeyup! He was one of Eternal Rest's slaves."
After reaching the manor and entering it, they went to the basement where there was another lab, and the portal.
"Mmh... Ah'll have ta remember to place it somewhere more accessible if we're gonna use it more often."
"Twilight's castle would be good. This is where we put the portal to Mobius back in my universe," Scootaloo said.
"And where does it lead? To this E. Gadd's lab?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"No. The emplacement of the portal in the Mushroom Kingdom had been subject to debate for a bit. Many wanted to put it in Princess Peach's castle, which was the obvious choice, but it was then reminded that it was a bad idea because of how often the castle was assaulted, taken over, or destroyed by Bowser or other bad guys. Ah didn't want a villain to suddenly appear in mah basement, and the risk of the portal being destroyed would've been too high. So they decided to put it somewhere where nobody'll think of searching for it: the basement of Luigi's own mansion. It doesn't take long to reach Toad Town from there. Luigi didn't mind, but they'd ta dig a room for it."
"So, this Mushroom Kingdom has a bad guy problem?"
"Ya've no idea. During the several months Ah was there, Bowser attacked so many times that Ah stopped counting after twenty, at least half of these attacks resulting in Peach being captured and a couple of times in the castle being taken over. Let me tell ya, there's no bad guy more determined than Bowser."
Scootaloo whistled. "Not even Eggman attacks that often."
"And Ah only saw his lamest attacks. Ah was told that Bowser once had a "conquering the universe" phase where he not only captured Peach but also brought the whole castle to space with some kind of UFO spaceship. But don't go too hard on him if you meet him. Despite everything, he can be a nice guy, and he never goes too far. He knows where to draw the line, he doesn't use fear to make himself obeyed by his troops, and he even has a son that he loves and treats very well."
Sweetie Belle sighed. "If only all villains were like that."
"You can't be serious," Scootaloo deadpanned.
"Ah'm very serious," Apple Bloom replied before she jumped on the pipe and moved down it as if she was on an elevator.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. "While weird, it's not as bad as using cannons to move around. Also, remember that we are in a world where hills and clouds have faces. Using pipes to journey isn't that weird in comparison."
"Right. And how are you not weirded out by all this?"
"I must admit that hills with faces is a new record in the craziness meter, but after spending over a year in the Dream Universe, I learned to not ask and just accept things."
"You told me that the Dream Universe had at least the excuse to be literally an universe made from the dreams of a whole civilization. What is this universe's excuse?"
"Different physics."
"......... Yeah... Okay... I can't say anything against that."
The short journey to Toad Town happened without incident, and before long, the trio could see the mushroom-looking houses in the distance as well as the famous castle.
And they could also see the airship flying above it. An actual seafaring wooden ship only it had propellers instead of sails, more propellers at the back, and a figurehead at the image of some horned monster with a fiery-looking mane at the top.
As soon as she saw the airship, Apple Bloom facehooved and let out a groan.
"Figure..."
"Seems like we arrive just in time for one of Bowser's attacks," Scootaloo said.
"Eeyup. And if we act quick, we can stop him from kidnapping Princess Peach. Yet again."
"Let's go on the ship and say a quick "hello!" then," Sweetie Belle said before she teleported the three of them on the airship, slightly in the air to ensure that they didn't teleport into someone. So Sweetie Belle ended up dropping on a small brown living mushroom in pajama for some reason while Apple Bloom landed on a bipedal winged turtle with a bucket on the head and a red shell.
Sweetie Belle looked down at the crushed mushroom under her who was thankfully still alive but stunned. "Oops! Sorry."
Many other little brown mushrooms and bipedal turtles, some with red shells and others with green or blue or yellow shells, with and without wings, were around them on the ship among some walking living bombs, masked guys with their body entirely hidden behind clothes generally red, and green bipedal reptilian creatures with small black shells on their back and blue hair only at the top of their head. Some of the turtles also had helmets and were armed with hammers while others were in wizard robe and had wands and glasses. Not only some of the turtles had wings, but also some of the brown mushrooms. And was that a living turtle skeleton over there?
Apple Bloom recognized the turtle she fell on. "Howdy Corporal Paraplonk! Ah finally have the drop on ya, uh?"
Sweetie Belle giggled at the pun while the corporal groaned.
Suddenly, one of the masked guys, this one in green clothes and wearing a backpack with a pipe and a wand pocking out of it, took a hammer and went to attack the Earth Pony filly, but Scootaloo intercepted the weapon with one of her legs, stopping the masked guy. Scootaloo was then able to take the hammer out of the masked guy's grip and used it back against him, but the masked guy jumped back and took his scepter before pointing it at the pegasus filly.
By now, everyone on the ship was surrounding the fillies, the turtles with helmets ready to throw their hammers, the wizard ones ready to use their wands, and the green reptiles holding big spiked balls that they spat out.
"So, girls, let me do the presentations," Apple Bloom began. "The brown mushrooms are Goombas, and the one ya landed on, Sweetie Belle, is Private Goomp. The turtles are Koopas, the wizard turtles are Magikoopas, and the ones with the helmets and the hammers are Hammer Bros. The Koopa skeleton one is a Dry Bone. The ones with wings, both Goombas and Koopas, are simply known are Paragoombas and Paratroopas, like Corporal Paraplonk here..." She put a hoof on the back of the Corporal's head and pressed a little. "The masked ones are Shy Guys, and Sergeant Guy's the name of the one who attacked ya Scoot. The bombs are Bob-ombs, and the lizards are Spikes."
"Well, hello everyone!" Scootaloo said with a wave of her leg and a happy smile that quickly turned sadistic. "Don't mind us, we're just here to break your skulls!"
"All in good fun!" Sweetie Belle added.
Some of the troops gulped.
At this moment, a Magikoopa flew down from the sky on a flying broom and faced the three fillies.
"You! You are these equine pests who helped Mario all these months ago! Uh? Wasn't the orange one a robot? And since when the white one has wings?"
"Howdy Kamek! Nice ta see ya again too! Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo here ain't the same Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo who were with me before."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded, the alicorn finally moving away from Private Goomp.
"Alternate universes," Sweetie Belle cleared.
"Great... Alternate universes again... What next? Elder Gods?" Kamek mumbled to himself before he shouted to the ponies, "It doesn't matter! You dared to board Lord Bowser's personal airship and even assaulted without warning like cowards two of our most esteemed soldiers! Prepare to be at the receiving end of my wrath!"
Kamek then fired from his wand a magical beam made of colored geometrical figures like circles, triangles, or squares toward Sweetie Belle. The alicorn readied herself, only to see that the beam was disappointingly slow (not THAT slow, but still very slow compared to actual beams). She looked at it as it slowly approached her, then punched it out of existence once it was close enough, making Kamek's jaw drop along with many others.
"Please, tell me it was a joke," Sweetie Belle said. "I was supposed to be scared of this? Please! Let me show you a REAL magical beam!"
Sweetie Belle then fired from her horn a magical beam that almost immediately hit the Magikoopa and exploded upon impact. When the explosion cleared, Kamek was now entirely black, face frozen in shock, before his broom turned to ash and he fell on the ship unconscious.
Seeing how easily Kamek had been defeated, pretty much all the soldiers on the ship gulped again, some even stepping back from the fillies.
Suddenly, a huge Koopa with spikes on his shell and wearing black spiked bracelets on his arms as well as a similar collar around his neck jumped on the ship from the roof of the castle. Where a normal Koopa was about the size of an adult mare, this one easily dwarfed them and was even taller than Celestia! His head was exactly like the ship's figurehead, with fangs and claws and a large muzzle and he even had spikes on his tail. He was pretty much the cross between a turtle and a dragon.
Anypony would easily be intimidated by him.
The fillies weren't anypony, but Sweetie Belle was still awed at the beast.
Under his left arm, he was holding a human woman with long blond hair, a royal pink dress, long white gloves, and a crown. She was obviously Princess Peach.
Behind who was clearly Bowser, a small, round and white vehicle flying on a propeller and with a clown face arrived, a being looking like a younger version of Bowser inside it, about the size of a normal Koopa, maybe a bit taller. The young Koopa, however, was wearing a bib-like bandana with a fanged mouth childishly drawn on it instead of a collar, and his bracelets were missing the spikes.
Seven other Koopas then jumped from the roof of the castle and landed behind Bowser. They all had characteristics like Bowser, with spiked shells, large muzzles, and everything, and they even had spikes on their bracelets, but they were all about the same size as the Koopa child, the smaller being even smaller than a normal Koopa while the bigger one was easily half the size of Bowser. They also all looked very different, with different colored shells and skins, some of them possessing hair, having unique accessories, and they were all armed with a wand like the Magikoopas.
"Let me go!" Princess Peach shouted.
Bowser only laughed in answer before he said, "Alright everyone! I have the princess! Now let's hurry before these pesky plumbers come and ruin everything!"
"My Lord. We have a problem..." Sergeant Guy then said as he slowly moved toward Bowser, not stopping from watching the fillies and from pointing his wand at them.
"Mmh?" Bowser simply replied in wonder before he got a good look of the situation. Seeing the fillies, he gave a small roar of rage at them. "You! You're these pipsqueak furballs from a few months ago! Uh? Wasn't one of you a robot? And since when the white one has become half-chicken?"
"Hey!" Sweetie Belle shouted in indignation.
Scootaloo laughed. "For once, it's not me who's called a chicken!"
"Ya know he just implied that all pegasi were chickens, right?" Apple Bloom remarked.
"... Hey!"
Peach looked very happy and relieved to see the ponies, and stopped struggling.
Kamek, at this moment, recovered consciousness. With difficulty, he got up and, using his wand as a cane, walked toward Bowser.
"Your Evilness. They said that these two came from alternate dimensions. Be careful. The white one managed to defeat me with just one magical beam. She's clearly more powerful than the one we fought all these months ago."
One of the smaller Koopas, the one who had a blue shell and large blue hair as well as an overbite on the upper snout, chuckled. "That's pathetic from you, Kamek."
Kamek became red in rage. "Shut up, Ludwig! You wouldn't be laughing if you had seen what she did! Also, she took me by surprise!"
"Hey! Knock it off you two!" Bowser yelled before he pointed at the ship's wheel. "I want someone at the wheel right now! Let's move before Mario comes!" He then carefully placed Peach on the floor. "And I want the Princess to be escorted to her special room."
Two Koopas and a Shy Guy answered the orders. The Shy Guy went to the wheel while the Koopas gently grabbed Peach's arms and led her into the ship.
"And I want these three equines to be thrown out of here! Everyone! Attack!"
"Yeah! What are you waiting for?! Attack!" the Koopa child shouted.
One of the seven other Koopas who came with Bowser, the one who had darker skin compared to the others, a black shell, and a white head with a grey star around his left eye then yelled, "Morton will break little equines in pieces!!!" before he jumped toward the fillies and readied his arms to smash them.
The three avoided him by jumping in three different directions, and Morton instead ended up smashing Corporal Paraplonk who had still been under Apple Bloom's hooves. Apple Bloom landed in front of Sergeant Guy and bucked him on the mask before he could react, sending him toward the only female Koopa who had a pink shell, a pink bow with white dots on her head, a necklace of red pearls, large rings around her wrists, and pink shoes. The girl jumped high in the air to avoid the Shy Guy before she used her wand to send a large ring in the direction of the filly.
The ring was intercepted in the air by Sweetie Belle who caught it by putting one of her legs in the hole, not affected by the ring's hurtful magical nature. This shocked the Koopa girl, but her shock quickly turned to anger as she stomped her foot on the floor before she sent more rings.
Meanwhile, Morton assaulted Scootaloo, jumping again toward her. At the same time, the smallest of the Koopas, who had the particularity of having yellow, pink, and blue hair in a punk style as well as an orange shell and googly eyes like Derpy, had gone to the opposite side of Scootaloo before he materialized with his own wand a big spiked ball and kicked it toward the pegasus. Scootaloo rolled her eyes before she jumped back, resulting in Morton punching the balloon back at the small Koopa who was hit by it. Scootaloo then punched Morton hard in the stomach, sending him crashing right into the mast and cracking it.
It wasn't enough to knock the dark Koopa out however as he quickly got up and prepared himself to attack again. Before he could, Scootaloo sent a Phantom Cube at him, trapping him in her power. Morton found himself facing a big cannon that fired at him and he was hit by the cannonball which resulted in him being sent through the mast before he fell beyond the edge of the ship. The mast was destroyed, not only causing the ship to lose flight power but it also fell toward Scootaloo. The pegasus simply avoided it with a sidestep, and the mast fell instead on the small Koopa from earlier who had been now on a giant ball about to roll on her. The mast then fell from the ship, dragged by its weight as most of it was beyond the edge.
The other minions decided that it was time to intervene, and before long, hammers, spiked balls, and magical beams were thrown in all directions, as well as bones from the Dry Bone.
Seeing this, Apple Bloom decided to turn into her ghost form just as the buffed Koopa who had a purple shell, pink skin on his head, and pink sunglasses was about to punch her, the punch traversing her as a result. Apple Bloom then used telekinesis to grab all the projectiles before sending them at the minions, knocking out a good majority of them. At the same time, she made ice spread from the Koopa's arm, and before long, he was entirely trapped in it. She then kicked it, sending the trapped Koopa sliding around, bouncing off the walls and ramming many minions.
Ludwig decided to attack her with his wand, sending magical beams like Kamek, but also fireballs while he levitated around. While Apple Bloom didn't have to fear physical attacks, magical ones were another thing. So she made sure to avoid them before she mentally took control of the Dry Bone and forced him to throw a bone at the floating Koopa from behind, causing him to drop. Just before he crashed, Apple Bloom then caught him by the arm and used him as a shield against the Magikoopas' magical beams. After a few seconds, she then used him to ram more minions before she threw him in the air and used her powers to throw a Bob-Omb at him. The bomb hit him before exploding, and a now unconscious Ludwig fell beyond the edge of the ship.
Scootaloo dealt with the last few minions before she suddenly received a punch from behind that sent her rolling and crashing against the railing on the edge of the ship. When she got up from this, she saw that the origin was the Koopa Child still in his flying clown car, mechanical arms with boxing gloves coming out of it. The child himself had some weird paintbrush in one of his claws.
"Ahahahah! What a bunch of idiots these Koopalings! It won't be as easy against me! Come on! I dare you to-" Slash slash!
There was a sudden moment of silence as Scootaloo was suddenly behind the child with her red sword. Then, the two mechanical arms of the clown car fell off, to the child's shock. "Wow! What?! How dare you damage my car? You will pay!"
He then raised his paintbrush and charged at Scootaloo who was joined by Apple Bloom.
All this time, Sweetie Belle played with her three opponents: the Koopa girl, the Koopa who was a lighter shade of blue than Ludwig and who used a tennis racket to send fireballs and bombs at her, and the tall Koopa with green hair, a green shell, and glasses who was sending magical projectiles seemingly randomly but actually cleverly used them to impede Sweetie Belle and make sure that she would be hit by the others.
Of course, this totally failed against her.
By now, Sweetie Belle had a good collection of rings around all four of her legs.
Thinking that she had enough, she levitated all the rings from her legs and merged them so they formed a long chain. She then sent the chain toward the Koopa girl, made the last ring grow until it was big enough to get around her, and shrunk it back, trapping the girl. Sweetie Belle then used her as a flail to hit the two others, sending her crashing on their heads, back and forth until they were KO.
Smirking, Sweetie Belle then sent the girl right at Bowser's face only for him to catch her. Growling, the huge Koopa then destroyed the chain with his claws before he dropped the girl.
"To defeat my Koopalings so easily... I'm not dealing with everyday creatures."
A giant broom suddenly appeared and went to attack Sweetie Belle, but the filly flew up just before and caught it by the top of its handle. She then swept the floor of the ship with it, sending unconscious minions away, before she suddenly swung the broom at the one who materialized it: Kamek.
"HIAAAAHHH!!!!"
The Magikoopa was swept off the ship.
Sweetie Belle then went to smash the giant broom on Bowser, but he easily destroyed it with a punch before he took a big breath and let out a large stream of fire. Sweetie Belle surrounded herself in a shield before she went through the stream toward Bowser who jumped at the last second before he dropped back right on her to crush her under his butt. She teleported out of the way and appeared further away. Seeing this, Bowser threw several hammers that Sweetie Belle avoided by slaloming toward him. When she was close enough, Bowser attempted to crush her again, this time by smashing a hammer on her. Sweetie Belle countered by punching the hammer, then avoided the punch he sent just after, then quickly flew backward to avoid being bitten by the Koopa's sharp teeth. Bowser then forced her to fly away as he entered his shell and spun rapidly.
When he got out, he continued to attack her with everything he had, using all his strength. Punch after punch, fireball after fireball, hammer after hammer, he attacked, and attacked, and attacked, many of his attacks damaging the ship as a result as he got angrier and angrier. A fireball even destroyed one of the propellers on one of the two remaining masts, causing the ship to start to lose altitude which made Bowser even more angry. But none managed to hit the filly who toyed with him.
Then, Sweetie Belle stopped moving and sat on the ground, and Bowser went to punch her again.
Sweetie Belle caught his arm, stopping it right here much to his shock.
She smiled sweetly at him. "Enough playing. The ship is about to crash, so time to end this."
Scootaloo and Apple bloom were still facing the Koopa child, which Apple Bloom revealed to Scootaloo was named Bowser Jr. The child was surprisingly tough, and the paintbrush was an amazing accessory that was pretty much like the Magic Paintbrush, having the ability to create pretty much anything Bowser Jr. wanted, the only limit being his imagination. And being a child, Bowser Jr. had a really wild imagination! He could create all kinds of monsters, send droplets of paint that turned into lava or some kind of blue electric stuff, create portals, and do many other things.
His clown car wasn't to be underestimated too. That thing had a lot of hidden tricks that managed to catch Scootaloo off guard more than once, but not Apple Bloom since she was more used to fighting the Koopa child. For example, a cannon could come out of the clown's mouth, or it could drop some kind of mechanised Koopa that eventually exploded.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo still quickly managed to destroy the car, which enraged the young Koopa who then put his bib-like bandana.
And suddenly, the child had a totally new appearance, looking human with a blue translucent body, including a mustache under a big nose, a cap with a "M", overalls, gloves, and shoes.
In this form, Bowser Jr. was extremely agile and, allied to his mastery of the paintbrush and his propensity to use tricks, he was an impressive foe. He still had no chance against the two fillies, but he still gave them some work.
But it still wasn't long before he had a knee on the floor.
But before they could end the fight, the two fillies and the young Koopa suddenly heard a succession of loud crashes that prompted them to look at the direction they came from...
Where they saw Sweetie Belle repeatedly smash Bowser on the floor back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, again and again and again for many long seconds.
After a whole minute of this, Sweetie Belle eventually stopped and released Bowser who wasn't moving anymore.
"I think we're done here," she then said before she jumped into one of the many holes in the floor that the battle created. Just a few seconds later, she flew back out with Peach on her back. "Hurry up, the ship is getting very close to the ground!"
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom decided to leave Bowser Jr. knowing that Sweetie Belle was right, and they flew away with her, landing not far to watch the ship crash.
But it wasn't over. Out of the wreck, Bowser jumped and landed beside it. Now, he wasn't just angry, he was livid! He began to advance toward the fillies when...
A human with a red cap, a red shirt, blue overalls, and a yellow cape suddenly dive-bombed right on Bowser's head before he bounced away. If this attack wasn't enough to finally knock out Bowser, a similar human in green also dive-bombing on his head did the job, and the Koopa King dropped unconscious.
Or not. Bowser still managed to open his eyes before getting up with a lot of difficulty, growling. He was staggering, but he refused to give up.
"Mario... Luigi... Don't think I'm... done yet...!"
The two humans readied themselves to fight, getting hammers out.
Sweetie Belle looked at Peach still on her back and gave her a nod. Understanding, the Princess got down, allowing the alicorn to join the plumbers, followed by her friends.
It was overkill to go all together against Bowser now that he was so much weakened, but Sweetie Belle didn't want to miss an occasion to fight alongside the local heroes. Scootaloo wanted to beat down Bowser for the heck of it, and Apple Bloom wanted to fight the Koopa King alongside the brothers like in the good old times.
But just as the fight was about to start, Peach suddenly screamed.
Everyone immediately turned toward her.
And they saw Wario now standing beside her, holding forcefully her arm with a big grin.
And black eyes piercing them right at their souls.
"What the-?!" Apple Bloom shouted.
"Wario?" both Mario and Luigi said in surprise.
"Hey! Hand off of her!" Bowser yelled.
Wario chuckled. "She's perfect. A heart so pure... Thanks to her, the day will finally come..."
"What are you blabbering about, fat face?!" Bowser roared. "Last warning! Hand off the Princess!"
Wario didn't reply, instead giving them an even bigger grin before the sky was suddenly covered by grey clouds.
And legions of ghostly beings came, spreading in all directions, a small number going toward them and the wreckage.
Without warning, Wario then disappeared with Peach just as the first ghostly beings, six of them, about the size of Mario, with a single eye and two disembodied hands, landed in front of the group.
When the ghostly beings charged at them, some punches was all it took to make them poof.
But more of them landed after that, including a ghostly being two times bigger than the others with four disembodied hands, little pyramids floating above two of them.
At the same time, many of these beings reached the wreckage, which worried Bowser.
"Junior!"
Mario eyed Bowser, the ghostly beings, and the wreckage not far behind. Then, with a sigh, he took two red mushrooms with white dots from his pockets and handed them to Bowser.
"One for you and one for your son."
Bowser was visibly reluctant to accept the plumber's help, but with a growl, he took the two mushrooms and ate one, healing some of his injuries before he ran toward the wreckage, punching two of the ghostly beings into oblivion on the way.
The three ponies and two plumbers then readied themselves to face the ghostly beings that surrounded them.