The "Tales" title ©Namco and Mario characters ©Nintendo. I own none of this, except the story itself, of course.

Once upon a time, there was a prosperous kingdom filled with peace and happiness. An alien invasion, however, destroyed the peace and happiness and the kingdom fell into chaos and despair. Then, four heroes of red and green traveled through time and space to stop and defeat the vicious invaders. Peace and order reigned throughout the land once again.

Until one day…


"Mario!"

"Hey, wake up, bro!"

"All right, you asked for it!"

SWOOSH!

THUD!

"Ow…"

Mario grimaced as he opened his eyes. He saw that he was on the floor and his bed covers were in disarray. Once again, Luigi had pulled out the covers, causing Mario to fall to the hard, cold floor.

"How do you sleep that deep?" asked Luigi.

"No idea, I just do." replied Mario as he looked at the Fungus Clock. "Why did you wake me up at 5:30 in the morning!"

"Uh, you told me yesterday that we needed to get up early, remember?"

"I did?" said Mario, confused.

"Uh, yeah," answered an annoyed Luigi. "Today's the Princess's birthday party, remember?"

It was then that Mario really woke up.

"WHAT? PEACH'S PARTY IS TODAY?" He got up, in and out of the bathroom faster than Shy Guys on sugar highs.

"How did you get dressed in the bathroom?" asked Luigi.

"The power of coffee." said Mario.

"But…never mind…"

Luigi went off to start cooking breakfast.


After a while, Luigi had breakfast ready.

"Mario! Come get your Goomnut pancakes!"

"Mario! Breakfast!"

"Arrgh…" grumbled Luigi as he took the plate of pancakes and went upstairs where Mario was running around, as if looking for something.

"Looking for something?"

"Yeah." said Mario. "Where's the birthday present?"

"You mean the one we got three months ago? Dunno."

"You didn't get it with me! You said you had to go somewhere. What have you been doing the last few months? You leave early, and you come back late at night. Is this about Daisy?" Mario asked.

Luigi ignored Mario and left the pancakes nearby then went back downstairs.


Mario resumed looking for the birthday gift. He looked under his bed, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, even in the plumber's toolbox, but there was no sight of the gift. Mario trudged back upstairs.

"Oh, man…I'll never find that gift…" he said as he started eating the pancakes and sat down on Luigi's bed when he heard something.

"Oh, yeah! Now I remember what I did with it! I put the gift under Luigi's bed because he's too afraid to look under there! No wonder he forgot where it was!"

He then looked under Luigi's bed to find the gift!

"Hey, Weege! I found it!"

Luigi came running upstairs.

"Where'd ya find it?" he asked.

"Under your bed."

"Whoa!" Luigi exclaimed. "You got it from that vicious beast down there?"

"…Weege, there are no monsters under your bed." Mario said.

"Yes, there are."

"Well…" said Mario. "…at any rate, we better head over to the castle."

"Yeah, you're right." agreed Luigi.

The Mario Bros. left the house and jumped down the Warp Pipe that led to Toad Town.

Fun Fact: Mycologia is a play on the word mycology, the study of mushrooms.