//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Daring Dungeon Duo // Story: Friendships Unite!! // by Phantom-Dragon //------------------------------// The remaining heroes: Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Spyro, Sparx, Tails, Mario and Luigi, are running and flying through the halls of Bowser's castle as they try and get away from the duplighost that changed itself into Hooktail. They ran around the next corner, only to find another duplighost, which later shape-shifted into, Gloomtail. The heroes immediately hightailed away from the duplighost as it gives chase with the other. The heroes came across three doors in front of them, each leading to a different hall. Twilight and Spike, both quickly jumped through the middle door which closes after they entered it. Mario and Luigi both picked the door on the left and it slammed itself shut after they entered. Lastly, Tails took the one on the right, which sealed itself shut afterward. Spyro and Sparx are left to fight off both duplighosts on their own. --- Twilight and Spike were running through a hall that appeared empty and not much of a challenge. However, unknown to the two, Twilight had stepped on a hidden switch that activates the hall's secret traps: Arrows, hidden cannons, flying razor blade disks, and thwomps that almost crushed them. Meanwhile with Tails, he was flying over a pipe full of pirahna plant as he tries to avoid getting hit by some bullet bills that are being fired at him. Among the bullet bills, are missiles that would explode into flying nets that would capture Tails and entangle him. Tails finds it too difficult to make it through by flying and decides to try and walk across a rope and avoid losing his balance if he doesn't want to end up becoming piranha plant food. Meanwhile with Mario and Luigi, the brothers were running until they stopped to catch their breath. "Mario!" Luigi said, "What a-do we do now?" "Good thing I have a star-a-man with a-me in case of emerency!" Mario said as he took out a starman and tries to activate it, only for the starman to just disappear in a puff of smoke. "Oh no!" Mario cried. "We can't a-use a starman Luigi!" And as if their bad luck couldn't get any more worse, the statues of armored-changelings began to move and come alive as they attacked the Mario bros. Luckily, the Mario bros. were able to get away from them. Only dead ahead, was a Buffalo Beetle. It thrusts its flaming stinger forward in an attempt to strike one of the Mario bros. But the Mario bros. were able to dodge the attack by jumping out of the way and avoiding getting grabbed by its snapping claws. Then, they ground pound it before moving on. -- Twilight and Spike were able to make it out of the room alive as they meet up with Tails, Mario and Luigi, who all barely made it out with their lives. "Can we a-go home a-now?" Luigi asked, completely terrified. Then, before anyone could answer Luigi's question, black smokes began to fill the room before they disappeared to reveal ten boxing ghost-like monsters called Broozers, all glaring at the heroes with their boxing gloves at the ready. The heroes had the same idea as well, as they get in their fighting stance. All, except for Luigi, who just cowers as he hides inside a suit of armor. The battle began as both the heroes and the baddies charge at each other before they clashed. Twilight blasted one of the Broozers with a lightning spell. Spike destroyed one with his Ghost Pirate Swords, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Mario jumped on a Broozer three times before it disappears in a puff of smoke. Tails took out five Broozers in the same fashion that Mario just did. During the fight, Tails notices something hidden behind a wall that is actually just paper. He looks inside to see some equipment that used to be his. "Looks like Dr. Eggman had been snooping through my workshop," Tails said as he takes some of the equipment and stored them in his satchel. Then he holds onto a small flash grenade as he runs toward some Broozers that were overpowering Twilight and yells, "Twilight! Close your eyes!" Twilight heard what Tails said and did as he said as a loud bang and a flash of light emitted through her eyelids. After that, she opens up to see the Broozers dazed and some of them accidently fell out of a window, while the others crashed into each other and into the walls. "Now's our chance!" Tails yelled as he runs toward a door and opens it up, before entering with all the other heroes. As the heroes run through some more halls, Twilight asked, "What do we do now?" Then, Twilight noticed that two more of the heroes are missing and asked, "Hey! Where are Spyro and Sparx?" "We thought they were with Tails!" Mario explained. "They weren't with me!" Tails answered. "They were right behind me when we were chased by those duplighosts." "They must a-be with the others in the dungeon!" Luigi said. "We need to get to the dungeon and free some of the Toads! Rainbow Dash and Sonic are probably there as well, with Spyro and Sparx, so we'll need to free them as well!" Tails said before he turns his head to Mario and asked, "Mario! You know this castle inside out! Where's the dungeon?" "It's a-just down this a-hall! We should a-find a pipe up ahead and use a-it. Come on!" Mario answers as he breaks into a run, "And once-a we a-get a-there! I'm a-gonna get a-Sonic for ripping my mustache!" "Here!" Twilight said as she and all the heroes screeched to a stop. Then, she shot a magic beam at Mario and making a mustache appear on Mario's face. "Oh, that's a-better" Mario said as he feels his own mustache again. The heroes then resumed their running, and just like what Mario said, a green pipe is just ahead and immediately, the heroes all at once, jumped straight into the pipe. The heroes later came out from the other end of the pipe, where they found themselves in a room full of Toads locked behind bars and gilded cages. "Don't worry you guys!" Twilight said quietly, "We're here to save you!" The remaining heroes all spreaded out as they each unlocked some of the cages that contained the Toads. "Polterpup!" Luigi shouted in joy, as he ran up to an orb that held his ghost dog captive. The dog barked with affection, wagging its tail upon seeing its master, and licking the glass wall. Mario, meanwhile picked the lock on a door that kept three Toads captive. Twilight meanwhile was using a spell to turn the bars on most of the cages into cheeses which later crumbled and scattered so. This enables the captive Toads to escape. Spike breathed fire on some cage bars and was able to break them all off. Tails was elsewhere in the dungeon looking for the other heroes. Then, he hears a call. "HEY! Tails over here!" It was none other, than Sonic, who is locked up and is constantly running while being contained in a huge glass sphere (don't worry; it has holes so he can breathe) that is being held up by two iron bars which kept it off ground. "Sonic! Don't you know that you look like a hamster running in a ball?" Tails asked, while looking as if he was about to laugh. "I know the indignity I'm in, so don't bring it up again okay?" Sonic grumbled. "Now get me out of here!" "Um, shouldn't your stop first?" Tails asked. "I can't!" Sonic replied. "Those X-Nauts dude placed something in my ear and….now I can't stop!" "You think you're suffering?" called out a voice. Tails turns around to see Rainbow Dash being chained to a wall as she constantly flaps her wings and appears to be struggling to break free while she said, "One of those weirdoes placed a chip in my ear as well! Now I can't stop my wings and it feels like they're gonna fall off!" Then, Twilight suddenly came up. "All the Toads are free Tails!" she said. "But we couldn't find Princess Peach. She's not in the dungeon." Then, Twilight notices what Sonic and Rainbow Dash are doing. She said as she giggles slightly, "What are you guys doing?" But before Sonic or Rainbow Dash can answer, Koopas, Goombas, Changelings, Duplighosts, Trolls, Cyclops, Egg Swats and Rhynocs appear in the room. Twilight then thought of a plan before she said, "It's now or never." "Twilight? What are you…wait….WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!" Sonic asked as Twilight uses her magic to destroy the bars that keeps Sonic's rolling ball off the ground. This causes the ball to roll onto the ground at a high intense speed as it rolls into the enemies and squashing most of them. Twilight then moves onto Rainbow Dash and cuts the pegasus's chains. After that, Rainbow Dash took off, screaming, and was flying so fast that she immediatly, created a Sonic Rainboom in the room, and was unable to stop herself from breaking through a wall, leaving a Rainbow Dash shaped-hole in the process. Then she came back into the room, but left another hole that is shaped like her next to the first one. More enemies enter the room as they attempted to capture the heroes, only some were squashed by Sonic's hamster-like ball, while the others were sent flying like bowling pins by Rainbow Dash. The rest of the heroes just sit back and watch what was happening. Then Twilight noticed that Spyro and Sparx aren't anywhere in the dungeon. "Hey! Where are Spyro and Sparx?" The heroes all looked around, before they replied, "Looks like they're not here." Mario then answered. "They're a-probably in the next a-room with the other a-Toads!" "So you know where it is?" Twilight asked. "Yeah! It's a-this a-way!" All of the heroes followed Mario as he runs toward a door that slides open as he slams down on a big red button on the control pad next to the door. The heroes broke into a run after they entered through the door, mainly because they want to save the Toads and Princess Peach as quickly as possible. That and they wanted to avoid getting run-over by either Sonic or Rainbow Dash, who are still running and flying nonstop. At last, they made it to the next room. All of the heroes cleared a path for Sonic and Rainbow Dash to get through and avoid getting crush by either of them. Only the problem is. "SONIC!! You're gonna fall of the ledge!" Tails called out. But too late. Sonic couldn't make a swift turn fast enough and went flying off the ledge and almost crushed some Toads trapped in a few cages beneath him. But luckily, Rainbow Dash was able to knock the ball into a different direction, which happens to be heading towards a troop of a few Egg Swats that were patrolling through the dungeon and crushes them. "Thank you Rainbow!" Sonic screams, before he realizes he's heading toward a pool of lava. "HELP ME RAINBOW!!!" "I'm coming Sonic!!" Rainbow Dash replied, as she makes a right turn while knocking some more X-Nauts, Egg Swats, Cyclops, Arkeyan Jousters, and Koopatrols out of the way like bowling pins, and made it in time to knock Sonic away from hazard with one big punch. "Thank you Rainbow Dash!!" Sonic yells as he now rolls in the other direction. "You're welcome Sonic!" Rainbow Dash replied before she noticed some more caged Toads ahead and sent them flying in the air. "Sorry," she apologized. The caged Toads later landed back down, before they screamed as Sonic came running up to them while saying, "No, no, no, NO, NO, NO!!" The Toads were sent flying up into the air after Sonic crashed into them, leading him to say, "Sorry!" "Sorry!" Rainbow Dash apologized when she crashed into the Toads again. "Sorry!" Sonic apologized, as he repeated the incident. "Sorry!" "Sorry!" "Sorry!" "Sorry!" "Sorry!" The two speedsters kept this going on until Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed ahold of a nearby pole with her hooves to prevent herself from moving any further. "Twilight! Help!! Get this thing out of my ear!!" Twilight jumps down from edge of the platform along with the other heroes as they gather around Rainbow Dash. Tails took out a flashlight and shines a light inside Rainbow Dash's ear allowing Twilight to see the chip before she takes it out with her magic and Rainbow Dash finally stops. "Oh yeah! I'm going to feel this next week!" Rainbow Dash said as she sits down and folds her exhausted wings. "GUYS!! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" Sonic screams as he was heading towards the heroes. The heroes got out of the way. All except Mario, who summons a huge hammer and hits the glass ball that Sonic is trapped in. The force made from the hammer was so tremendous that it causes the ball to flying into a wall with great momentum, and the ball was smashed into pieces after it bounces off the wall and Sonic flies out of the ball and onto the ground. However, this still doesn't stop Sonic as he continued running and accidently knocks Mario into a cannon, which fires the plumber into the air and straight towards a gilded cage where Princess Peach is. "Mario!" Princess Peach called out in surprise. "Princess!" Mario cried. "Don't a-worry a-princess. I'll a-save a-you!" Meanwhile, Sonic, like Rainbow Dash, was unable to stop himself and constantly runs out of control while repeatedly bounced off of cages and walls and into some of the heroes as well. Sonic eventually grabs ahold of the pole that Rainbow Dash had grabbed onto earlier, and struggles to move anywhere else. Unfortunately, the pole was brittle and badly damaged from Rainbow Dash's strong grip, so it broke off and Sonic is once again running like crazy. "Somebody stop me!!!" Sonic cried out before he unknowingly steps onto a switch that causes the cage that Peach is trapped in and the same one that Mario is on to fall at an alarming speed. The cage, however, fell on top of Sonic and knocks the chip out of his ear in the process, while knocking him unconscious. "Princess a-Peach! You okay?" Mario asked after he frees Princess Peach from the cage. "I'm okay Mario," Princess Peach said. "Oh dear! Poor Sonic!" "He'll be okay," Tails said as he places Sonic onto Twilight's back. "But we need to find Spyro and Sparx before we're on our way to confront Bowser and stop the Syndicate." "Spyro and Sparx?" Princess Peach inquired. "Are they the purple dragon and a yellow dragonfly?" "Yes!" Twilight said. "Do you know them?" "I think I've seen those two before!" Princess Peach began. "Last time I saw them, they were in this room, chasing a Bandit who was carrying a badge. They were able to catch the Bandit, but the badge ends up in the paws of a mischievous rabbit and they both went after it. That's the last time I saw them." "Gosh," Spike began. "I hope they'll be okay." "I'm sure they'll be fine, Spike," Twilight said as she placed a comforting hoof on Spike's shoulder. "We just need to go and free some more Toads. I'm sure they'll show up eventually." "Then let's go and free some toads and kick Spiky Shell's butt!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "C'mon, let's do it to it!" And with that, the heroes all left the room.