Bit of a gap there, no worries! Hate to have left you on a cliffie there. And as promised, here come the first of hopefully many Smash Brothers heroes! As always, if you've got a suggestion, hammer it into a review down there and I'll take it into consideration. And without further ado, onto the story!

All five of them had been under the impression that it was just them, and so to hear another pony scream was something terrifying indeed. How had they gotten here? Why had they come here? And, more importantly, were they OK? They split into two groups to cover the upper and lower sections of the castle, Luna and Pit going one way and the Harmony girls going the other.

"Why would someone come to Canterlot when it's overrun with ooze?" Pit said, mostly to himself, as he flew alongside the galloping Luna.

"If they're in the castle, it's to escape the ooze, most likely, since we have cleared the place almost entirely of ooze. Thankfully, if we do find any, it is easy to outrun and it cannot fly, unlike us," Luna twitched one of her huge wings mid-flight.

"What should we do if we find some then? Run away?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" she asked somewhat icily.

"I got my bow…though I think I might need a little bit of practise with hooves," he admitted sheepishly. Luna rolled her eyes, before stopping suddenly in the middle of a corridor.

"Silence," she commanded. Pit landed next to her, feeling dwarfed by her height, and did just that. He listened, straining his ears (and was delighted to find he could flick and swivel them too). Hoofsteps. Luna's ears went back aggressively, but she walked on. The foreign hoofsteps got louder, until they rounded a corner and –

"AAAAH! BE GONE, BEASTS!"

"Marth?" Pit's jaw fell. There was no doubt about it. The pony before them was him alright. Turquoise coat with a pristine navy mane and tail, gold headbrace set on the former. Falcion was in its scabbard around the unicorn's stomach, and Pit was surprised that Marth wasn't wielding it.

"Pit?" Marth looked equally as surprised. "What are you doing here, of all places? And why are you a creature too?"

"Creature?" said Luna, outraged. Marth's pupils shrunk and he took a step back.

"Erm…"

"Princess, this is an old friend of mine. His name is Marth, Prince of Altea. Marth, this is Princess Luna, she's in charge here," Pit explained. Marth stopped quivering and straightened up.

"Oh, forgive me, Princess, I was not aware!"

"You are forgiven, Prince Marth. Have you come from Altea to help us?"

"My father received your plea and sent me, yes. I was not aware it would have such…side-effects," Marth held up a hoof to demonstrate.

"Nor was I. I think I'll get used to it, though. Look! I can actually properly fly now!" Pit beat his wings and took off, doing a happy loop around Luna's head before landing again.

"Was it you that emitted the scream?" Luna asked Marth. His face coloured, going an odd shade.

"I may have been startled by my appearance in the mirror."

"So long as you are not injured it has no meaning. Come. We must locate the others and return to the Astronomy Room."

"Who else is here? I'm afraid I know shamefully little about Equestria and its citizens."

"The Bearers of the Elements of Magic, Loyalty and Honesty are all here. The other three Bearers are in Ponyville helping to develop a cure."

"A cure for what?" Marth asked. Luna sighed, probably because she had realised that everything would need to be explained again.

"A cure for -" she stopped as a whooom blast from further away, startling both Pit and Marth. "That was the portal. Someone else has arrived."

"Someone else?" said Pit hopefully. "Someone good, let's hope!"

"Yes, let's hope," Luna said, taking off at a gallop again, leaving Marth to try and keep up on the ground with his much shorter legs and Pit to keep up in the air with his much weaker wings.

The three of them charged to the portal room, where they saw not only the three girls but also…

"Link?" Marth gawped.

"Link!" Pit grinned. The brownish pony looked up from the crash position he'd seemingly landed in (so I'm not the only one, Pit thought, slightly relieved). He got to his hooves unsteadily. He was an inch or so taller than the other ponies and built slightly leaner, but apart from that he was just a normal pony. No wings, no horn.

"Ah, another hero," Luna said, pleased. "Which kingdom are you from, hero?"

"He's from Hyrule," said Pit. Luna gave him a slightly tetchy look.

"I was asking this pony."

"He doesn't speak."

"He doesn't?" This surprised her. She looked back to Link. "Is this true?" He nodded. "I hope that won't cause any problems…but now we have re-met we must return to the tower for safety and so we can re-introduce ourselves."

"And explain what the hay is goin' on round here to these guys," said Applejack. Luna nodded, and so they made their way back to the tower again.

When they got back they reassumed their seats on the floor, though Marth didn't look too happy about this arrangement.

"You OK, Marth?" Pit asked. Marth looked like he was thinking about whether to tell the truth or not, but after a moment he said:

"Not really, no. How am I supposed to fight if I cannot use Falcion? I can't wield a sword when I have hooves."

"You can just levitate it," Twilight said, as though this were obvious. "Like this, see?" Marth flinched as she floated his sword out of its scabbard and into the air in front of him. "You're a unicorn like me, which means you can do this sort of thing pretty easily."

"Prince?" Luna spoke up, a frown on her face.

"Princess?" he replied.

"You are royalty, are you not?"

"Absolutely. Blue blood through and through."

"Then surely you would be an alicorn. All royalty in Equestria are alicorns."

"Um."

"Perhaps you are not powerful enough in your home land to be considered worthy of the alicorn status."

"E-excuse me?!"

"Oh, forgive me. I didn't mean it like that. Perhaps it is only true rulers from other lands that receive the alicorn status…"

"Either way, it doesn't matter. You're a unicorn, so you can just use your horn to float things around," Twilight carefully put the sword back in its sheath. "And…Link, was it? You're a normal earth pony, like Applejack. Earth ponies are generally a lot more durable than other ponies."

"You bet we are," Applejack said smugly. Twilight gave her a 'not amused' look before continuing.

"Now, Link, you're at an advantage because you're an earth pony: earth ponies can't get infected by the ooze nearly as easily as any of the others can…erm, Link?"

The pony had just yanked the Master Sword from its scabbard with his teeth, trying to hold it in his hooves. He looked worried, and Pit had very rarely seen Link look worried. He couldn't use his sword.

"Is there any way an earth pony could wield a sword?" Marth asked on behalf of his friend. "Link's primary weapon of choice is his sword."

"Oh dear. Does he have no other weapons?" Luna asked, looking mildly worried. Marth rolled his eyes.

"Dozens, Princess. Surely you can use your other weapons, Link? In fact, why don't you show them to others so they know what you can do?"

"I want to know what you packed too, Link. It could be useful for my battle plan," Pit indicated to the map. "Does anyone have anything I could use to represent the ooze? I can't hold all of that stuff in my head."

"This will be sufficient, I hope," Luna pointed her horn at the map and a dozen shimmery, tiny purple oozes appeared on it. Pit was entranced almost instantly, pushing one to and fro.

"Wow. That's a neat trick, Princess. These will do fine. Geez Link, did you really need all that?" Pit, like all the other ponies in the room, stared at the arsenal of weapons and items that had tumbled from Link's hammerspace bag as he turned it upside down. Three different kinds of bombs, Gale Boomerang, bow (now useless to him), ocarina, fishing rod, a medley of bottles containing various liquids, the Hawkeye and a golden Triforce pendant to match the one on Link's flank. So his 'special talent' was being the bearer of the Triforce of Courage. Made sense.

While the other ponies gasped at the weapons and asked questions that Pit already knew the answer to, he looked at the other cutie marks around the room. His was a bow and arrow in front of a centurion helmet while Marth's was a crown around a sword.

In a way, both of their cutie marks showed their job (military and royalty) and their greatest talent (archery and swordplay), and so Pit was pleased with his. Twilight Sparkle had a diamond-esque shape for her cutie mark, surrounded by several other stars. Applejack had a simple 3 apples. Rainbow Dash had a cloud that was shooting rainbow lightning (and it did look pretty cool considering it had a rainbow in it) while Luna's was different, covering almost her whole flank – an inky dark splat with a silver moon embedded in it. Pit knew he'd probably find out what their special talents were sooner or later, but now didn't seem like the right time to ask.

The girls (plus Marth) had finished gawping at Link's huge array of weapons, so Pit interrupted with:

"I reckon you can still use your bombs, the boomerang and the Hawkeye," he said to Link, who nodded. "And all those potions. Right. Let's see. Canterlot and Ponyville: oozes," Pit pushed two of the translucent oozes over to each of these locations. "Trottingham's safe…"

"Allow me," Luna aimed her horn again, and one tiny flag made of the same purple magiterial appeared on the small island.

"Uh, thanks. Where else?"

"Fillydelphia is almost gone completely," Rainbow Dash said. An ooze went there.

"They're on the Unicorn Ranges but they've not reached Vanhoover yet," Applejack told him. "And Manehatten is OK too."

"OK, Manehatten and Vanhoover…" Pit said, looking at Luna. She correctly interpreted the look to mean 'more flags please', and so she conjured two more up.

They sat and did this for quite a while, using what they knew to be true – and only to be true, no rumours at this conference – to map the spread of the ooze.

"Would the gryphons help us?" Pit asked, noticing the arrow on the map. Luna looked unsure.

"I did send them a message along with all of the other kingdoms within a hundred dreights, but Equestria and Gargoran have never been on the best of terms. They may not respond to our plea."

"And no dragons?"

"Dragons are our enemies most of the time," said Twilight. "Oh! That reminds me! I still haven't sent that letter to Spike! Augh, now you two have arrived, I have to rewrite the whole thing."

"Make sure to ask them how it's going," Rainbow said. Twilight nodded, standing up.

"If you'll excuse me," she said, before levitating a quill and a piece of parchment that had been lying on the floor beforehand. She stepped out onto the balcony to get the privacy that she wanted to write the letter while the others began to discuss possible plans of action.

"So, that's why sapphires taste so much better when they – HURK!" Spike's explanation was cut short by a jet of dragonfire. He caught the scroll that came with it as it dropped. His current companion wasn't impressed.

"Oh, Spike, you've already shown me that one! And it smells bad, pee-yew!" Pinkie Pie pulled a face. Spike rolled his eyes, only opening up the letter. He skimmed over it with draconic green eyes, before turning around and marching into the Ponyville hospital that had become the base of operations. It was currently quieter than usual, and even as he walked through it Spike gave an involuntary shudder.

"Mayor Mare? I've got a letter from Twilight Sparkle," he said to the mayor-come-survivalist leader. She looked down at him.

"Well? What does it say?"

"Three foreign heroes have arrived: a pegasus, a unicorn and a pony."

"Excellent. What does she have to say on them?"

"The pegasus is called Pit, though she said that his full title is…" he looked back down at the scroll to read from it. "'Captain Pit Icari of Palutena's Guard'. He's a tactician and an archer. And then there's Prince Marth, the unicorn, who's good at sword-fighting and…uh…oh, and Link, the bearer of something called the 'Triforce of Courage'? I think that's what it says."

"Glad to hear that things are looking up for them," said the Mayor. "I wish I didn't have to send them what I must."

"Yeah…trust me, I don't want to have to tell them either. Nothing but bad news," his posture drooped as he thought about the contents of the scroll the Mayor would inevitably send back.

"Well, thank you, Spike. Would you mind if I read that?"

"Go ahead. I'll be in the courtyard if you want me to send anything back."

What's in the letter that Luna is to receive? Find out next chapter! Before you go though, sorry to anyone who has played Fire Emblem for my inevitably OOC Marth (eh, Awkward Zombie can get away with it, don't see why I can't). I'm not even sure I spelt 'Falcion' right, I've not played the game in a while. I HAVE, however, played Twilight Princess…though I may have remembered things wrong. Please, any errors, correct the hell out of me (I feel like such a noob).