Twilight awoke with a pounding headache as she slowly got off the metallic ground. To her surprise, she found herself in a strange metal magical prison cell with two bipeds resembling minotaurs sans horns standing on either side. One was very tall and muscular, wearing red and black colors with a pair of shades on her head. The other creature was shorter than the other but taller than Twilight. It wore red and blue clothing, overalls and had a big mustache with scruffy brown hair.
“Where am I?” Twilight asked her cellmates who noticed the now awake alicorn.
“I’m not sure...by the way, I’m Mario,” said the short man in red.
“You can call me Garnet,” said the tall woman with a nod.
“I'm Twilight Sparkle,” the mare replied in kind. She looked at her cellmates and couldn’t help but wonder if they in for the same reason as her. With nothing to lose, Twilight decided to recount her story to her cell mates. Maybe if they could work together, they could figure out some sort of pattern.
“The last thing I remember was this giant robot taking an item of great importance,” Twilight finished her account of her story while Mario and Garnet listened in genuine interest.
“The same thing happend to me and Mario,” Garnet nodded. “The robot stole my sword and Mario’s cap.” She turned to Twilight. “What did it steal from you?”
“An artifact that boosts magical power,” Twilight replied, “and that would make sense for why anybody would want to steal it but I don’t understand what they hope to gain by stealing your sword and cap?”
Twilight looked around the prison cell and the cell’s door noticing that there were runes in the walls powered by a foreign magic. It felt so alien yet she could sense the familiar aura of magic in the door.
“I’m not sure what this door is made of but I’ve tried knocking it down but we’ve had no real luck with it.” Mario told her, noticing her sudden interest in the door.
“Likewise,” Garnet nodded. “I can feel the magic in the door but maybe you should give it a shot Twilight,” she offered.
Twilight pondered the situation for a minute as she stared at the cell door. Her first instinct was to try teleporting.
Mario and Garnet in fascination as Twilight’s horn began to glow and to the collective surprise of everyone, the alicorn had vanished from the prison cell to the other side of the door. Twilight looked at the door, spotting a rune panel on the side. She then shot a small burst of magic at the rune panel causing the door to open and allowing her cell mates their means of escape.
“How did you do that?” Mario asked, amazed as he and Garnet joined her.
“Just a simple teleportation spell,” Twilight shrugged.
“Either way we’re free, so let me try something now,” Garnet stood there quiet for a few moments while Mario and Twilight exchanged a bewildered look.
“Okay,” Garnet said after several moments of silence. “My Future Vision sees a way out of here. Follow me.”
Twilight and Mario decided not to ask how she could tell such a thing and ran alongside her through the runed hallways. The trio spotted a window and looked out of it to see Mana-Prime, a living sea of magical energies clashing as waves of purple water and magic made physical. They stopped looking as the ship’s alarms sounded off and letting off warnings for escaped prisoners. The three exchanged panicked looks as they continued their trek.
. . . .
Thauma looked upon the three Foundation Elements, each of which was floating in a containment tube. The elder mage smiled as the thought of unlimited power excited her. She walked away from the elements and sealed the door just to be careful. Thauma did see one flaw in her otherwise perfect plan: the three uninvited guest she had thrown in the prison level. They were an unknown variable and she didn’t know what might happen.
She didn’t like surprises.
‘Warning...prisoners have escaped and are heading to Rift Portal room.’ The A.I. sounded out loud.
“What?! Get me cameras on their location!” She roared. Within seconds Thauma could see the three creatures running through her ship's hallways.
“Get the three on-bots to head them off in the opening section of the ship. Make sure those pests don’t escape this vessel alive!”
. . . .
With Garnet, Twilight, and Mario ran as fast as they could. Eventually, they managed to reach to an opening, like a large dome in this strange place. Suddenly the opposite doorway opened to reveal the three robots that brought them to the ship walking toward them and in front of the robots was a hologram of Thauma.
The three assumed a defensive stance as they cast a wary glance at the hologram. Twilight had to supress her desire to ask her numerous questions about the hologram.
“I don’t know how you escaped but you won’t leave here alive pests,” she told them furiously. “I am Thauma and this is my ship!” The hologram faded out of existence as the robots readied themselves for battle. Garnet summoned her gauntlets as Mario and Twilight read themselves for a fight.
Wrecker-On, Drill-On, and Claw-On jumped into the air as parts of them flew off and fused together and after a minute they landed on the ground as a new and larger three armed robot.
“Prepare to face Big Rig-On!” screamed the large robot. The three exchanged a look, wondering if they were biting off more than they could chew.
The robot charged as Garnet ran at the robot at full speed. Mario dashed to the right and hurled a flurry fireballs at the robot's side. Twilight darted to the left and blasted away at the machine’s other side with her magic. Garnet and the robot stopped as they collided. The woman took advantage of the brief lull to get a preemptive strike and with a single punch smashed a big dent into the robot's chest. Big Ring-On used his wrecking ball arm to throw Garnet across the room into the wall, then used its drill arm and claw arm to toss Mario and Twilight at the same spot.
“This isn’t working!” Garnet groaned as they extracted themselves out of the wall.
“We need a plan!” Twilight said.
Mario took this chance to think as he huddled with Twilight and Garnet. All the while, Big Ring-On was slowly stalking up to them, eager to get a preemptive strike to match Garnet’s. Unfortunately, the three had noticed and had leapt out of the way as Big Rig-On charged again. Garnet darted back to it and had proceeded to hammer away at its metallic skin with her gauntlet-armored hands.
While Garnet had Big Ring-On distracted, Mario had built up a larger orb of fire from his hands and continued to charge it up. At Twilight’s signal, Mario called out to Garnet who flipped backwards allowing Mario to blast a powerful fireball at the weakened spot. The fireball melted the robot’s chest exposing its weak hardware. Moving to the next stage of their improvised strategy, Twilight moved in and fired a powerful blast of magic at the exposed spot, causing the robot to explode.
With the robot little more than shrapnel, the trio quickly fled the scene. Thauma, seeing the entire battle, pounded the screen in rage as she commanded her smaller robots to intercept them before they could escape.
With the three escaped prisoners, the trio had reached the room that would allow for their escape if what Garnet said was true.
“Ok Garnet, now what do we do?” Mario asked.
“I’m not sure,” Garnet frowned. “The way out is here but the magic of the structure is interfering with my Future Vision.”
Intrigued, Twilight looked around the room: a large magic powered energy generator was pointing to an empty space and a few tables with several foreign objects lay strewn about. The violet pony soon spotted a strange necklace on a nearby table.
Curious, she approached with a hoof outstretch to get a better look at the necklace. However, as soon as she touched it with her hoof, it jumped off the table and latched itself around her neck. In an instant, unbeknownst to Twilight, the necklace had downloaded some pertinent information into Twilight’s brain.
“This necklace is a portable Rift Portal generator! We can use it to escape!” Twilight exclaimed as she focused her magic into the necklace and created a Rift Portal which the trio dove into to escape the ship.
. . . .
Within the control room of the ship, Thauma replayed the fight those three pests put up against her robots. She was surprised at their power and skill as she had expected them to immediately fall against her power machines. Thauma smiled as a plan formed in her mind, one that would need be played with patience.
“A.I. I want you to upload the uncaptured Foundation Elements locations to that Rift Generator around that ponies neck.”
‘Affirmative...sending data to necklace.’
“Good, now we play the waiting game.”
. . . .
In a flash of blue light, the trio fell onto the desert floor. Twilight, Garnet, and Mario made it off Thauma’s ship but were now in an unknown realm. Twilight could feel the heat of the barren desert along with the large yellow sun upon her body. Mario was sweating in his clothing like a pig in a blanket with Garnet not faring much better.
“I see a cave over there.” Garnet pointed at the close by cave as she and the others quickly made their way into the welcoming respite.
Once Twilight and Mario entered the cave, the intrinsic chill of the rocks help beat back the heat. Garnet leaned against a stone wall of the cave as Mario stretched his arms and Twilight stretched her elegant wings. All the while, Twilight thought about this Rift Generator on her neck. It was strange how such as small device could hold so much knowledge and be so powerful to open doorways into other realms.
She would definitely be doing some extensive research on this once she managed to get back to her home back in Equestria.
Noticing Twilight studying the necklace around her neck, Mario moves over to her side.
“Hey Twilight, do you think you get to use that thing to get us all home?” He asked hopefully.
“I’m not sure Mario,” Twilight frowned, staring at the object. “It did show me the information on how to use it but I'd need some way of knowing where we would need to go or we’ll just end up hopelessly lost.”
Mario looked down at his shoes and appeared to be in a state of contemplation as Twilight looked to Garnet who seems unconcerned of this situation. Garnet looked back at Twilight before putting her hand on her head for a minute.
“We can’t go home. Not yet anyway.” Garnet broke the silence. Twilight and Mario exchanged alarmed looks.
“Why not?” Twilight asked incredulously.
“Before I explain I need tell you something…” Twilight and Mario traded bewildered looks but decided to humor her.
"My ability of Future Vision is limited but it allows me to see possible futures for myself although the fates shown is never set in stone. On rare occasions, it also allows me to see farther than I'd ever believe possible... so I need show you this vision.” Garnet walked over to Mario and kissed him on the forehead. He stood there as a vision entered his mind while Garnet then did the same to Twilight and she was shown the aforementioned vision.
In the vision, Twilight could see Equestria while Mario observed the Mushroom Kingdom. Both were barren wastelands with all the magic and life of the realms was gone leaving an empty husk of a world. The vision ended and the two were horrified at what they saw.
“Garnet, is there a way to stop this from happening?” Twilight asked frantically. That was a future she did NOT want to see come to pass.
“I don’t know… this is a possible future but we must stop this destruction for our friends and loved ones.” Both Mario and Twilight readily agreed with Garnet.
Suddenly, the necklace lit up, taking all three of them by surprise. Once they managed to get over to the shock factor, they noticed that the necklace was now showing a hologram of what looked like a map leading to an item. Twilight manipulated the hologram, showing that the item is a Foundation Element just like the sword, hat, and amulet.
“This necklace must have had the data on it, if I’m guessing right that women… Thauma wants these Foundation Elements,” Twilight surmised.
Twilight then explained to Garnet and Mario that they needed to stop Thauma before their worlds are doomed and asked for their help to which Mario and Garnet agree. Then Twilight opened a Rift Portal to the item and the trio jump in.