Queen Sunstar: Sorry for the delay. My cat, Licorice, had a tumor removed from behind his ear, and I have had very little time to squeeze out on the computer. Last week was Spring Break, which means I lost my three hour break at the Daycare where I work. I had to take the school aged kids down to the basement playroom for the duration of naptime. My break was from three to five.

Twila: I am not going to say the usual disclaimer. You should know by now that Queen Sunstar owns only the story, and her own characters, like Solance.

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"The votes are in. It was unanimous. We don't give Luigi the ability to become Firegod." Spectra announced.

"Dose anyone have any comments to add to this?" Misstar asked.

"I don't think Luigi would have been able to control Firegod. Brighton lost control, and look at what happened." Skolar said.

"Firegod is very powerful. If Luigi were much stronger, and less afraid of everything, he might stand a chance of controlling Firegod." Mamar said, "I voted no for those reasons."

TWOOM!

The ground shook as an explosion ripped through the protective barrier surrounding the sanctuary. It dissolved, and another explosion took out a section of the left wall. The Daybreaker entered the building, and each step brought him closer to the remaining Star Spirits.

"Twink! Orb out to Brighton!" Skolar screamed, "Spectra, go! We stars will fight!"

"No! I'll stay and fight! I can handle the Daybreaker!" Spectra screamed.

"No you can't!" Klevar yelled.

The Daybreaker arrived into the room. Spectra's ruby glowed as he began charging power for an attack, but he never got to use it. Waluigi raised his left hand, and silvery light shot out of it. It slammed into Spectra, who screamed. His body cracked badly, and as the second hit landed, he warped out.

"Spectra is no push over! He defeated Spectra!" Misstar screamed.

"Star Storm!" Skolar screamed, causing it to rain stars on Waluigi.

The Daybreaker glowed, and Skolar screamed as his own attack was turned on him. He went down, and Klevar and Muskular tag team attacked the Daybreaker themselves. The same thing happened to them. Mamar glowed, charging power.

"Strike of the gold star!" Misstar cried, finally nailing an attack on Waluigi. He struck out with a water based attack, and she went down, giving Mamar the opening she needed.

"Heavens Light! Smash!" Mamar screamed.

White light formed at each of her points, and merged mid-flight. The powerful attack flew toward Waluigi, who merely raised his hand, and bent it back at her. The attack broke apart, hit her, and the downed Star Spirits. They all screamed in agony, and fell silent.

"Finally… they were harder to bring down then I thought." Waluigi muttered, taking them aboard the Blade, and locking them up. He stepped out onto the deck, and looked down at Earth.

"Now, time to catch the last three Celestial Guardians, and bring my plan to fruition! I can't believe they bought the story about me brining back Dark Utopia! I have even better fish to fry!" Waluigi growled to himself, staring down at Earth scornfully.

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"How are you feeling, Brighton?" Twila walked into the bedroom. Brighton had been discharged from the hospital two days ago.

"I'm doing great, no pain, yet, anyway." Brighton said, looking up from a pile of bills, "I had Shalom bring me my paperwork. Who says I can't make a dent in the paperwork while I'm bedridden?" He was wearing his reading glasses, which for Twila, was a turn on.

"I see." Twila picked up a bill and read through it, "You actually understand the legislative talk?" She arched an eyebrow. Brighton only smiled.

"I have to be able to make sense of the legislative language in order to be a good ruler to Skyland, dear." Brighton said.

"Can you sense where Luigi is?" Twila asked a few minutes later. She was now lounging on her side of the bed, watching Brighton work. He was used to this, and he looked up at her again.

"Luigi has left Crescent Outpost, and is now about to arrive at the ravine." Brighton answered, his eyes closed in concentration, "Why? You are not feeling the arrival of an earthquake, are you?"

Twila nodded, "It will be centered around the ravine. I can't tell how strong it is."

"Luigi has Solance, and Wario, with him. He'll be fine." Brighton said, reassuringly. Twila still worried.

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"Good to see you up and walking, Mario." Roy said, walking out on to the balcony overlooking the Koopalin fields of lava, one of the seven wonders of the world. Another of the seven wonders, the Fire Root, a popular Koopalin delicacy, grew only in the lava fields. Mario turned to Roy.

"I'm fine, just dandy, thanks to good ole Vicodin!" Mario slurred.

"Two things, how many of those pills did you take, and with what?" Roy asked, realizing that somebody had done something to Mario's usual pill cocktail, and he had a suspicion of who the who was, too.

"I took the usual amount!" Mario sang out.

"Here, let me take you inside, and have Kamick deal with you, while I go and have a word with Paratroopa to confirm my suspicion over who did this to you." Roy said, leading Mario back inside the castle.

"What did Ludwig do to you?" Kamick asked, taking Mario off of Roy's hands, "Roy, you have my permission to go find and bring me Ludwig, and you can use what ever force necessary. I'll be with Mario, slowly counterbalancing the effects of the Vicodin in Mario's body."

"I'm on it. I just need to find Paratroopa." Roy stalked off.

He went out into the hallway, making sure to respond to the bows and greetings from the servants cleaning the castle. He found his younger step brother down in Kamicks Lab. Kamick loved botany, and had created Petey Piranha, and had succeeded in creating Piranha Plants that breathed balls of ice instead of fire. He was in the process of creating the ultimate Piranha Plant. Paratroopa had been given the duty of feeding Kamicks creations. He was coxing a shy female to eat the fuzzy he was holding out to it when Roy pounced him. The Piranha Plant squeaked and tucked back into its pipe.

"Roy! I had almost got her to eat! Kamick is worried about her!" Paratroopa squawked, his voice being drown out by Petey, lowing for his dinner.

"Tell me!" Roy screamed, lifting his step brother up by his neck, and holding him up against the wall, "Who slipped the alcohol to Mario?"

"I…Do…nt…know…ca…nt…bre…athe!" Paratroopa wheezed, struggling to get out of Roy's iron grip, "Did…you…ha…ve…to…in…her…rit…King…Step … Dad's…iron…grip?"

Roy dropped Paratroopa, and rose to his full height. He looked down at Paratroopa, burning a fireball in his throat to make steam pour out of his nostrils for a creepier, more intimidating effect. This would also cause flames to shoot out of his mouth when he talked.

"I will give you five minutes to tell me who did it, or you can kiss those big, beautiful, glossy, adult wings of yours good bye!" Roy ordered, he began to count down minutes, "Four! Three! Two! One!"

Paratroopa told Roy everything. Roy left him to finish feeding the rest of Kamicks creations minutes later. He stopped by Morton JR's room and talked him into lending a hand. The two brothers walked toward Ludwig's room, next. Along the way, they met up with Iggy, Larry, and Lemmy, who all agreed to help, once they heard what Roy had to say about what Kamick told him. The brothers reached Ludwig's room, and went inside.

"Yes?" Ludwig asked.

"You are toast, brother!" Iggy spat out, "Lets get him!"

"Wait, Iggy! Not yet!" Larry cried, "Let Roy explain why we are here!"

"Ludwig, I found a slobbering, very drunk Mario, who King Dad promised Lady Twila that he would care for, out on the balcony. Did you, or didn't you slip Mario some alcohol to take his pills with?" Roy asked, burning a fireball to make steam come out of his nostrils.

"Would I ever do something that evil?" Ludwig smiled nervously.

"LUDWIG!" Morton screamed.

"Remember the bomb-omb in King Dads toilet gag you did years ago? How about rigging the Clown Copter to dump King Dad out back when he first met Step Momma? What about the day you rigged all of the castles Thwimps, Thwomps, Mega Thwomps, and Womps to attack everything in sight, and that one Thwimp wouldn't stop loving King Dads statue of himself out in the front hall? Should I go on?" Iggy asked, realizing that his brothers, minus Ludwig, who was beat red, were rolling on the floor in fits of laughter.

"Everybody thought the Thwimp was gay, remember?" Lemmy cracked up all over again.

"When I do practical jokes, I do a lot worse then make Mario go drunk." Ludwig chuckled nervously. He was still blushing beat red.

"How about the time He turned Petey pink!" Iggy roared, laughing.

"Or the time he shrunk Kamicks robe, and it barely covered everything!" Roy called out between bouts of laughter.

"How about the invisible stair gag on King Dad, at his first romantic dinner with Step Momma!" Larry screeched.

Ludwig screamed, and ran out of his own bedroom, right into the waiting arms of Kamick, who was wearing the shrunken robe. He screamed again, but before he could try to escape, he was sitting on Kamicks broomstick, unable to move, due to an immobility spell cast by Kamick. Unfortunately, he was facing Kamick.

"We are off to the Throne room, to face the wrath of Bowser, mister! You could have harmed Mario!" Kamick kicked his broom into gear, and took Ludwig for a ride through the castle. The minute they heard Kamicks broom speed off, the other Koopalings met up with a still laughing Paratroopa in the secret passage to the throne room.

"So far so good!" Roy cackled, "Mario is one good actor! He nearly had me fooled!"

"Lets get moving, before Kamick beat us to the throne room!" Morton still had tears of laughter running down his face. The Koopalings scampered down the passage into the throne room, where Wendy, Bowser JR, and Eleanor had spent the morning, decorating for the surprise. Bowser and Mario were already there, waiting, as was Kammy, and some of the more important members of the Koopa Troop. They waited, and a few minutes later, Kamick came through the doors with Ludwig in tow.

"APRIL FOOLS, LUDWIG!" Everyone called out.

Ludwig's jaw dropped open, and he blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"That was an April Fools joke on me?" Ludwig asked, "I'm the one who usually pulls the prank on you guys!"

Bowser smiled, "We know, so this year, We planned this all out to finally get one over you. Enjoy the party, Ludwig."

"I gotta ask one thing. Who came up with the idea? I didn't suspect a thing." Ludwig said, climbing off of Kamicks broomstick once he could move.

"It started out as one of Koopas ideas." Morton said, a hint of sadness in his voice. He had found a friend in Koopa, and had grieved with Eleanor and Bowser, when Koopa died in the accident.

"Then Lemmy and Larry worked on it." Iggy added.

"Larry brought us all in on it, except you, and I'm surprised that Bowser JR managed to keep his mouth shut about it." Kamick finished, "Mario was the last one. The acting hopelessly drunk thing was his own addition."

"You mean Mario faked being drunk?" Ludwig asked.

"Yep, I watched you switch drinks this morning, when I was due to take my next pills. I dumped out your solution, and used water, instead." Mario said, chuckling, "Even I didn't know I was that good of an actor."

As they enjoyed the party, Luigi, in Skyland, was about to run into a major problem.

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Luigi checked to make sure his bags were packed, and loaded into the back of the wagon. It was morning, and he was anxious to mount Sunfire, and get moving, again. He felt the reassuring weight of the Sunstone around his neck. At that moment, Dr. McKonic ran outside of the clinic.

"Hold on, fellers! You will need someone who speaks Dragonese with you, so I'm coming along!" the doctor called.

"Sure, come along!" Luigi called.

They stopped, so McKonic could catch up. He dropped his bags off in the wagon, and chose to fly overhead. The party moved out. They left Crescent Outpost behind. Luigi found himself relaxing, enjoying the warm sunlight, cast by Solarton, on his face. His arm felt great. Mallow was giving Mel a rest, and was riding in the wagon, which Wario was driving. Geno and Solance were still Yoshiback ridding, as was Luigi. Just then, there was a squawk, as McKonic fought off a Parakoopa Troopa. The battle was pretty much one sided, as McKonic vanquished the enemy, with a one hit. They moved on, vanquishing the enemies as they came. It was near dark when they reached the Ragged Ravine.

The Ragged Ravine nearly cut Skyland in half. As Luigi looked down into the ravine, he noticed large metal poles running through it. He saw blue, and it took him a few minutes to realize he was seeing blue sky.

"What's with the pipes down there?" Luigi asked.

"This ravine is the result of an explosion of a nuclear bob-omb. Those pipes are what's keeping both halves of Skyland together. The Remina Fault is the same way." Solance answered, "I was the one who pushed for them to be installed. They are maintained by a colony of aerial Monty Moles."

"How do we get across?" Wario asked.

"There was supposed to be a bridge here, but I don't see it. Luigi, Mallow, and the doctor can fly across, I'll warp the rest across." Solance said.

"What are we waiting for?" Geno asked, "Lets get moving."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, when the ground heaved violently. Sunfire half reared in panic, and Wario let out a blood curling shriek. Both of the Chain Chomps had bolted, and were racing in a blind panic, toward the edge of the Ravine. Solance screamed something, and urged his yoshi into a gallop after the runaway wagon. Luigi worked on calming Sunfire down. Geno raced after Solance, and Wario bellowed out the Italian command for stop, and every Italian swear word he knew at the Chain Chomps. Suddenly, Sunfire rocketed forward, nearly unseating Luigi, who grabbed a handful of spikes to stay on. Overhead, McKonic dove down in front of the Chain Chomps, causing them to rear, and bolt away from him. That bought enough time for Solance and Geno to catch up, and ride in front of the Chain Chomps, forcing them to slow down. They finally stopped, panting, their eyes wild with fear. The ground stopped moving, and Luigi caught up to them. He pulled Sunfire into a full stop.

"Everybody okay?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah." Solance, Geno, and McKonic chorused.

"I'm fine," Came Mallows voice from behind Wario.

"I'm okay. I never want to go through that again." Wario said.

There was a low groan, and they all turned to face the Ravine. Dust rose from its maw, and Solance levitated himself to look inside the Ravine.

"Bad news! Some of the metal pipes have ruptured in the quake, and the pressure is forcing the Ravine to open wider. We need someone to go wield the pipes back together." Solance turned to Luigi, "And you are a plumber, Luigi. Its up to you!"

"But I'm scared of heights! And I don't levitate!" Luigi cried.

"Who said anything about levitating, Luigi? You ride a winged Yoshi. Use her, and if the ravine opens wider, the land on the other side of the ravine will break away from Skyland, and fall down to the Earth below! We are currently in Mushroom Kingdom airspace!" Solance reasoned.

"I… uh… Okay. I'm going." Luigi said, "Let me go Brightsun first."

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Queen Sunstar: It is now official. Critical is my longest story yet.

Twila: Remember to review, now!