Sprixie Princesses

The Sprixie Princesses are a group of seven characters from Super Mario 3D World. They act as the rulers of the Sprixies, a race of fairies who play a major role in the story. They act as the game's damsels in distress, replacing Princess Peach, who does not take her usual role due to being a playable character. The PAL release of Super Mario 3D World Original Soundtrack refers to the green Sprixie Princess as the sole Sprixie Princess, while the rest are called her followers. They are similar to the Subcons in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario Bros 2.

History
The green Sprixie Princess first appears when Mario and Luigi find and repair a Clear Pipe. The Pipe promptly ejects a large number of items before the princess emerges. The Green Sprixie Princess tells the group that the Sprixie Kingdom is in danger, as Bowser had managed to capture the other six princesses and that she had only narrowly escaped his grasp. Moments after she emerges, however, Bowser comes up through the same pipe, captures the green Sprixie Princess in a bottle, and retreats down the pipe. The group quickly follow in order to rescue the kingdom, and they soon find that each Sprixie princess is guarded in one of the first seven worlds' castles: defeating the boss of the castle will reveal a Warp Box that takes the group to a room containing both the Goal Pole and the imprisoned Sprixie.

Each time a Sprixie is saved, she will build a clear pipe to the next world with either a hammer or a wrench.(with the exception of the Red Sprixie Princess, since she was recaptured after she was saved, and she only helped building the rocket ship.) It is possible for the player to skip saving the first and fourth Sprixie Princesses if they take the secret exits found in World 1 and World 4, respectively.

The group eventually manages to rescue the last of the seven Sprixie Princesses after defeating Bowser in his car for the second time in World Castle, seemingly the last stage of the game; however, Bowser promptly reappears, stuffs all seven princesses into a larger bottle, and flees to World Bowser, a Bowser-themed carnival area that serves as the real final world of the main game. Here, Bowser confronts the heroes after transforming into Meowser and is defeated, dropping the Sprixie Princesses in the process. The princesses then use their powers to undo all the harm done to their land before waving goodbye to the heroes as they return to the Mushroom Kingdom via a clear pipe.

After the ending credits, the Sprixie Princesses build and provide a Rocket Ship in World 1 for the player to go to the secret bonus worlds in space.

Trivia

 * Bowser's method of capturing the Sprixie Princesses is similar to how Link catches the fairies in The Legend of Zelda series.
 * All Sprixie Princesses are captured in the world environment that is the same color as themselves.
 * The Sprixie Princesses were originally not going to be in the game; Peach was originally still going to be the damsel in distress until Yoshiaki Koizumi decided to make her a playable character.