The walk down the mountain path was not a particularly leisurely one. Many sections of the path had broken away, leaving Mario and Luigi to resort to their platforming prowess. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a hindrance to them, but they also had to wait for their equine companions to navigate the terrain as well. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could fly, and Pinkie Pie’s bouncing rivalled the brother’s own leaps, though Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight had something of a harder time keeping up. Mario and Luigi were mostly tasked with clearing the path, though, by smashing boulders with their hammers, and make it easier for the others to get through, so they weren’t completely slowed up.
The biggest factor contributing to their slow pace, however, were the myriad of creatures ready to impede their progress, mainly consisting of Bowser’s forces, though there were a few Dig Dogs waiting to trip them up as well. Clearly, they had wandered into Diamond Dog country.
After a particularly nasty scrap with a Dig Dog that had elected to side with a pair of Monty Moles, they came to a small clearing with fairly even terrain.
“Twilight, must we keep trudging along like this?” Rarity said, bringing up the rear. “My hooves are simply aching, and this wind is making my mane all dusty…”
“We’ve got to keep moving,” Twilight said, looking back at everyone after she had taken the lead, everyone else starting to show signs of fatigue. She was answered by a collective groan from the rest of the group. “Come on! We won’t get to Ponyville any faster if we get lazy-“ Twilight suddenly stopped as she ran into a large rock that stood in the middle of their path. Shaking her head, she looked up at the monolithic stone that stood guard over the road.
“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, do you think you’re able to carry everyone over this?” Twilight asked the pegasi. Rainbow Dash flew overhead to get a look, then floated back down, shaking her head.
“No can do, Twilight,” Dash said. “It looks like this thing is blocking a cave, and the gap between the rock and the mouth is too small for anyone to fit through.”
“Hm…” Twilight thought, then she looked down around the base of the stone, and saw a small hole going underneath. She bent down to inspect it, and saw a small glimmer of light, perhaps from a torch. “Mario, Luigi, maybe one of you could crawl underneath and find some way to shove this rock aside.”
Luigi volunteered himself, being the skinnier of the two, and attempted to crawl through the small burrow. He soon found himself stuck, however, and waved his legs pathetically in the air, moaning pitifully. His brother hurried over and pulled Luigi out, sending him through the air a few feet before landing face-first in the dusty ground.
“No luck, huh?” Twilight said. “…Fine, let’s take a break while we try and figure out how to get past this thing.”
After a relieved sigh from everyone, they sat and put their minds to work on getting past their latest obstacle. Pinkie had attempted to push it up by inflating a balloon under it, but the rock was too heavy and the balloon ended up popping. Twilight and Rarity tried together to simply lift it out of the way with their magic, but their seemed to be something keeping their magic from working on it. Stumped, they all sat around for what seemed like ages. Not much activity happened, other than Pinkie trying to start up a party to cure the boredom, and Luigi looking mildly uncomfortable, as though he had some sort of heartburn.
Luigi’s heartburn seemed to worsen over time, until Fluttershy took notice. “Um… Luigi… is something wrong?”
Luigi simply shook his head and thumped on his chest, trying to get rid of the pain. Suddenly, his expression turned to one of extreme pain, and he clutched at his chest, collapsing on the ground. Everyone stood up in alarm and rushed over. Twilight kept them at a distance, shouting “Give him some air!”, before she went to the plumber and tried to figure out what was wrong. Suddenly, he let out a loud belch, and green flames escaped his mouth, singeing his ‘stache.
Rainbow Dash laughed as Luigi tried to recover from the experience. “Ha ha! Man! Talk about heartburn!”
The ponies all looked at Rainbow Dash, prompting her to ask “What?” Mario, however, was more focused on the scroll that sat on the ground a foot away from his brother. He picked it up, and examined it curiously. Twilight looked over, and gasped. “That’s the royal Equestrian seal!” she exclaimed. “It’s a letter from Princess Celestia!” Twilight quickly took the scroll from Mario, and unfurled it.
“Well c’mon! What’s it say?” Applejack said as Twilight read silently.
“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said. She then cleared her throat, and began reading.
Firstly, I’d like to apologize for the crude methods I had to use to send this letter. I noticed that Spike was not with you when you arrived in Canterlot, so I had to make due. Please extend my personal apology to Mr. Luigi.”
Luigi was still panting from his receiving the letter. However, at this point he simply seemed to be hamming it up. Twilight continued.
“Secondly, Princess Peach, my sister and I would like to give you our deepest, most heartfelt thanks for your efforts to rescue us. We overheard some of Bowser’s minions receiving a report that their forces in Canterlot had been dispatched, and we knew immediately that you were coming to rescue us.
“Do not worry, the three of us are quite safe. Discord’s insistence on making as little sense as possible has worked in our favour for once; our cell is very well furnished, and we are attended to quite-“ The letter seemed to cut off for a moment, before continuing down the page.
“Princess Peach has just informed me that this is how her cell typically looks. It seems that with the frequency Bowser has kidnapped her, she had some of her personal affects moved in to make her “visits” more pleasant. I personally question why Bowser would allow something like that, but no matter.
“Anyway, we have decided to try and help you in your quest in any way we can. We have managed to obtain a spell book from one of the Magikoopa guards, who, admittedly, seems to be quite negligent in his duties. Through this spell book we have discovered a spell or two that may come in handy. Enclosed is a page describing this first spell. We will send you more as we read through the book further.
“Your devoted teacher,
Princess Celestia”
Twilight finished reading the letter, and looked at the page that had been included. It pained her a bit to see literature destroyed, but it was serving a greater purpose. Detailed on the page was a size-changing spell, to be used on others.
“Wait, this is just what we need!” Twilight exclaimed. “I can shrink Mario, and then he can go in and somehow get this stone loose!”
Mario nodded, and moved in front of Twilight as she studied. “…Okay, I think I’ve got it.” She looked up at Mario, and concentrated on him, her horn beginning to glow. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light from both Twilight and Mario, and when it faded, Mario stood at about half his original size.
“It worked!” Twilight shouted triumphantly. “Now, go down in that hole and try to knock that stone loose!” Mario nodded, and leapt down into the hole under the giant boulder.
Mario leapt out the other side, and looked around with what little light the convenient torch on the wall provided. After examining the walls, he noticed that there seemed to be some sort of switch on the wall to his right. He took out his hammer, and whacked the switch into the wall.
Back outside of the cave, the ground began to shake underneath all of them. There was a loud crashing sound, and a large stone piston suddenly erupted from the cliff beside the cave and slammed into the giant boulder, toppling it over and kicking up a cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, a miniature Mario stood at the mouth of the cavern, looking proud of himself. Twilight rushed over and restored Mario to his standard size. “Nice job Mario!” She said. “Now we can keep moving!” Mario gave her a thumbs up, and went to go help up his brother (who had fainted when the boulder was knocked aside).
Rainbow Dash looked at the comatose Luigi and snorted. “Wow, and I thought Fluttershy scared easy!” Everyone looked at Dash once again, causing her to look around and say “What?”
After Mario woke Luigi up, the eight heroes proceeded into the dark cavern, bracing themselves for the dangers that lie ahead.