Super Mario Christmas

9. Candy Corn Pass

Speeding through the pipe, Luigi could make out the basic colours of creatures moving below through his semi-translucent casing.

When he had first descended into his favourite form of transport, the light had quickly faded to black and he had travelled downwards in darkness for a good 20 seconds before changing directions and emerging into a cocoon of white. It reminded him of extremely thick frosted glass. He couldn't make out anything with great clarity, but he could see blurry shapes of things flying directly underneath him.

Luigi assumed he was travelling through the bottom of the base of Cloudland. It made sense that all those pipes would easily be able to connect people to worlds all over through tunnels in the clouds, but what would he know? Things rarely made sense to Luigi without explanation, and those things that he thought did, were usually nonsensical to everyone else.

Luigi shot out of the pipe like ammunition out of a cannon, and flew through the air head first, his white gloved hands by his side and his brown booted toes pointed. He did a perfect somersault 6 feet off the ground and nailed the landing. Luigi raised his hands in triumph and smiled at his friends, none of whom were looking in his direction.

He looked around at what was holding their attention.

"Candy Corn Pass," Toad whispered. "If the hundreds of goombas, pokeys and kooper paratroopers don't get you, the falling candy corn will!"

"How do we get through?" Toadette queried.

Luigi thought this was the perfect opportunity to chime in with something intelligent, "With skill, luck and A LOT of fire-flowers." Luigi grinned trying to look a lot more confident than he felt.

"The Mario Bros have gotten through much worse," Mario added, looking a lot more confident than Luigi thought he had. Then their fearless leader strode off, not allowing the others the opportunity to contradict his words.

Luigi trotted along behind his brother. He wasn't worried, really. Mario was right, they had been in much worse scrapes and always gotten through them.

Toadette pointed out a question mark box floating not far in front of them. Luigi raced forward and leapt into the air, punching the box. He watched as fire-flowers burst out in all directions then fell to the ground. All companions rubbed them against their bodies, absorbing their power and transforming their outfits, except Yoshi who eagerly ate all remaining flowers he could find.

Feeling more thoroughly armed, the group continued towards the side of the cliff.

In front of the group, a narrow pathway was worn into the rock-face, creating a haphazard journey along the side of the escarpment. Coloured candy rocks protruded from the sides of the cliff and blocked elements of the path where they stood, half submerged in the ground.

Luigi leant against one of the candy corn rocks, inhaling its sweet aroma as he peered into the ravine beneath them. Far below, a barrage of crushed candy corn mixed together in a swirl of colour. He watched the kooper paratroopers flying in the empty space, carefully working together to move the candy corn. For what purpose; Luigi had no clue.

Yoshi's snout brushed against Luigi as he sniffed and licked at the peach coloured candy corn. His dinner plate eyes shone glassily as if the weight of the world were lifted more and more with every lick.

"Luigi, stop letting him lick that! You know what candy corn does to him..." Mario screeched in alarm.

Luigi had forgotten the substances in candy corn were especially addictive for yoshis. If Luigi let him, Yoshi would stay there, burying himself in candy corn until the sugar high killed him.