The octet jumped out of the painting of Tall Tall Mountain.
"Alright," said Mario "What now?"
"I did see another door," said Luigi, "There might be one more painting."
"Lead the way, bro."
Luigi leads them to another door where they found a picture of two goombas.
"What is the?" asked Wario "Land of Goombas?"
"Only one way to find out," said Mario.
But just before Mario could jump in the painting. Twilight stopped him.
"Mario wait!" she said, "Look to your left and right. I think this is some sort of optical illusion."
Sure enough, she was right. To the left was the same painting, but the hallway got smaller as you got closer. To the right was also the same painting, but the hallway got bigger as you got closer. (This is called forced perspective.)
"You're right," said Mulan, "But which one is the real one?"
"We should split up to find out," said Mario "Twilight and I will go to the small one and the rest of you go to the big one."
Mario and Twilight entered the small painting no problem. But the others had to walk a bit of a distance to get to the large one.
"Woah!" said Luigi as they landed, "Everything is huge- Wait, what happened to my voice?!"
"My voice feels like it's on helium!" cried Sweetie.
"We sound like chipmunks!" said Elsa.
Just then they heard loud footsteps from behind them. When they looked back, they saw goombas. But they were HUGE. About the size of the room, they were just in. Knowing they were shrunken, they screamed in terror, until an even bigger shoe and purple hoof crushed the goombas. They looked up and saw giants that looked like they came out of a fairytale. The giants looked down at them and one of them picked them up. Once at the giant's eye level, they were shocked to see it was MARIO and TWILIGHT SPARKLE.
"What happened to you guys?" asked Mario.
"How'd you get so tiny?" Twilight added.
"US?!" said Mulan shocked, "What happened to you TWO?!"
"You're huge!" said Yoshi.
"I knew that pasta would get to you eventually, Mario!" said Wario.
"Wait, if Mario and I are large, and you're tiny..." said Twilight, "I guess those paintings were more than just illusions."
"You're right," said Mario "In fact, this place reminds me of Land of the Giants."
"I'm sure this won't cause too many problems," said Twilight, "Let's just find those stars."
"But how?" said Sweetie, "You two are too big to get in the hole, let alone move around."
"I'll find another way," said Mario.
"And I can fly around," Twilight added, "I'll try to be careful not to blow you off."
As Twilight is about to spread her wings, Mario hears a faint glitter.
"And I think I found one the stars," he said, "But I feel like the star might be tiny for me, so you guys better handle this one. Meet us at the summit of the island later."
"Will do!" said Yoshi.
Mario put them down and they separated. The tiny hexad entered the hole that led them to a lake (that would be a pond to Mario and Twilight). After swimming across, they entered a cliffside and also saw Twilight flying. The alicorn tried her best to not cause too much wind but was relieved to see they made it and flew to the summit. They then enter a rolling ball area, after some climbing they found the star waiting for them.
Meanwhile, Mario swam over to another pond that would be a lake to the others and made a jump that would be impossible for the other six to pull off. He then met up with Twilight and the others were the first star was.
"I'm here!" he said.
"Wah!" said Mulan, "Don't scare us like that!"
"Sorry," said Mario, "How about Twilight and I carry you guys the rest of the way?"
"Sounds good!" said Luigi.
Mario and Twilight simply climbed up the rest of the steps that would be tiresome for the hexad. Then they reached the summit of the mountain. There was a shallow body of water that seemed like a puddle to Mario and Twilight. Twilight saw a light from the star through some small cracks so Mario punched into the pool causing the water to leak into the mountain, Mario and Co. could hear someone scream in there.
"Maybe you shouldn't have done that," Twilight commented.
"We'll go check," said Elsa.
The tiny hexad fell into the crack while Mario and Twilight waited outside. They landed on a ceiling gate with a large Wiggler now soaking wet.
"Whaa! You flooded my house!" he yelled, "Wh-Why?! Look at this mess! What am I going to do now?!"
"We're so sorry!" said Luigi, "It was an accident. My brother thought there was something we needed her and-"
"You think I can forgive you?!" Wiggler interrupted, "Look at what you've done! The ceiling is ruined, the floor is soaked... huff... huff... it makes me so.. so.. MAD!"
"Please!" said Yoshi, "Calm down! We can help you fi-"
"NO! Reckless people like you will just make it worse! Everything's been going wrong ever since I got this Star!"
He pulled out his Power Star which was big in comparison to the hexad, but small compared to Mario and Twilight.
"It's so shiny... but it makes me feel so... strange."
Why don't you give it to us so your problems will go away?" suggested Elsa.
"Yeah!" added Wario "Hand over the star and nobody gets hurt!"
"After what you did to my home?! NO! The only thing you're getting is a trampling!"
Wiggler trying to hold back his anger, ran to the hexad. Luigi and Elsa jumped on his head.
"OW!" he said in pain, "I can't take this anymore! First, you get me all wet, then you stomp on me! Now I'm really, really, REALLY, steamed! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Wiggler started running around the arena a little faster, but Yoshi and Mulan stomped his head a second time.
"Hey knock it off! That's the second time you've nailed me!"
Wiggler couldn't hold hid rage anymore at this point. The flower on his head disintegrated, his yellow skin turned red as Mario's clothes, and his cute little face turned into vicious anger. He was now in RAGE!
"NOW YOU'RE ASKING FOR IT LINGUINE BREATHS!"
Wiggler's nose breathed out so hard it sounded like a choo choo train, then started to charge at the heroes like a bull. Wario and Sweetie finished them off with a ground pound and a punch in the face, turning him back to normal.
"Oouuuch! Uncle! Uncle! Okay, I give in! Take the star!"
"Thank you!" said Mulan.
Wiggler inhaled and exhaled calmy and then smiled.
"Whew! I feel better now. I don't need that star anymore anyway. I can see the stars through my ceiling at night. They make me feel... peaceful."
"Alright," said Sweetie, "Again, sorry about the mess we made."
"It's alright. Accidents happen. Please, come back and visit anytime."
Wiggler shrunk down and climbed through a hole, leaving behind the star.
"He wasn't so bad after all!" said Yoshi, "He was just angry, I still feel bad for wrecking his home."
"Blah, blah, blah," said Wario "We got the star. That's what matters."
"Everything ok down there?" called Mario.
"We're fine bro!" Luigi answered, "We got the star!"
"Perfect!" said Twilight "Throw it up to us!"
The tiny hexad struggled at first but used their strength to hoist it up to Mario who caught it with just two fingers.
*************************************
End of chapter!
Just two more areas to go. And then the final battle!