Before Super Mario 10...before darkness stretched its foul claw over the Mushroom Kingdom...there was a rainbow—an eight-colored rainbow, with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and black. This rainbow was made up of seventeen mystical objects—eight Rainbow Discs, eight Rainbow Rings, one Rainbow Pendant. The Rings were sent to a secluded shrine in the sky, where they were guarded by the Rainbow Fairies. The Pendant was lost and was never found again. But the Discs were placed in the Rainbow Temple, in the care of the eight Rainbow Guardians—Ruby, Amber, Citrine, Emerald, Aquamarine, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Diamond.

The years of peacefully guarding the tremendous power of the rainbow were not to last. Diamond herself, the most powerful Guardian, grew corrupt with her power and turned against her sisters, sealing the temple with a curse. The Guardians and the power they held were trapped inside. The other seven strove to overcome her and break the curse, but to no avail. Diamond was too strong for them.

Then Mario came. He and his partners worked alongside the first seven Guardians and finally overthrew Diamond and broke the curse. With the Guardians helping him he managed to defeat the recently resurrected Shadows Royal—the dreaded Shadow King and Queen.

There was a woman, a mysterious woman, who held Peach and Mario captive between the breaking of the curse and the defeat of the Royals. She threatened both with agonizing death...but why, neither knew. She claimed Peach owed her the crown...of course Peach rejected her demands. But who she was, or what her purpose was, she never revealed.

Mario managed to get Peach to safety with help from his friends, both new and old. A well-placed explosion brought the Great One's fortress down on her own head. Once the entire escapade was through, Peach spent much time puzzling over her captor's identity. Why should she exact revenge on her, an innocent person? Why should she demand the crown, as if it belonged to her? Why should she hide her face behind that ever-present veil, as if afraid of being seen for her true self? Why?

Neither Mario nor Peach expected to have their questions answered in the way they soon would be...


Mario socked Bowser in the jaw. Roaring in pain, the Koopa King tried to crush his plumber nemesis by leaping forward onto him, but Mario dodged the body slam and seized Bowser by his spiky tail as the oversized Koopa skidded to the floor.

"RAWRRRR! I thought you knew by now, Mario—that old trick don't work on me any more!" With a tremendous heave the Koopa King flipped himself up and over Mario. The red-capped hero suddenly released his grip on Bowser's spiky tail and dove to one side, allowing Bowser to crash to his back on the stone floor of his throne room. Mario coolly approached his now-helpless enemy.

"And that trick doesn't work on me any more, either," he retorted with a grin. "I've learned a few things since you last tried that one on me."

Bowser waved his limbs helplessly in the air. "Grrr. I can guess who you're here for."

"Where's Professor Gadd?" demanded Mario.

"Yeah, figured it was him you were after. He's locked up in my dungeon for insulting me. That twerp doesn't know when to shut his trap." Bowser groaned. "But I ain't givin' you the key!"

"Say again?" Mario asked innocently as he prepared to slam his fist into Bowser's tender midsection.

"I ain't givin' it to you!

"Blurgh!" Bowser gagged as Mario pounded him in the belly, knocking the wind right out of him. The Koopa King finally succeeded in regaining his breath. "All right, all right! You can have it! Here!" Bowser produced an iron key, which Mario promptly snatched from his scaly hand and pocketed.

"I'd say it's been a pleasure, Bowser, but that wouldn't exactly be the truth. See ya!" Mario raced out of the throne room, leaving Bowser in his helpless state.

"KAMMY, YOU OLD HAG!" roared Bowser. "Get in here and help me up! NOW!!"


"So the seven Guardians still reside at the castle."

The messenger bowed low. "Yes, O Great One. They apparently have no intentions of leaving."

"Hmmm..." The woman referred to as the Great One stroked her veil gently. "I see. You may go." Her black eyes burned behind the translucent film shrouding her face.

As the courier left the room, the Great One brooded over the situation in silence. She preferred silence. None of this joyful squealing of children and the strains of music entering her ears at all hours. The quiet was much the better atmosphere, especially for thinking…and plotting.

The Rainbow Guardians must not be allowed to interfere with the plan this time, she said to herself. The power they wield—those Rainbow Discs—destroyed the Shadow Legion effortlessly. If they resist me, I will fail. And failure...failure is something I will not tolerate. Abruptly she rose, stepped down from the platform on which sat her silver throne, and began to pace up and down the throne room, thinking and talking to herself.

"Those seven girls who guard the Discs must be neutralized. They present too great a threat, a threat that must be eliminated before I can get my hands on ALL the rainbow objects...and that pathetic Peach." Mentally she reviewed the Rainbow Guardians, mentally checking them off one by one—Ruby, the mind reader; Amber, user of solar fire; Citrine, the calm and collected controller of electricity; Emerald, that childish Guardian who could teleport herself anywhere instantly; Aquamarine, wielder of ice; Sapphire, the one who could bend all energies to her will; and Amethyst, the transformation artist. The Great One shook with rage as she remembered what she had been told of the fate of the mighty Shadow Legion—how they had been wiped out so quickly and completely by those accursed Guardians and that chubby plumber Mario. In her mind's eyes she saw again the Shadow King and Queen trembling before her, attempting to explain their failure.

"The Shadows Royal will yet have their role to play," she muttered, "but I will need something stronger than they to eliminate the Guardians. Something more...subtle. Hmmm..." The Great One fell silent as she formulated her plan of attack. Her straight, jet-black hair, cascading down her back almost to her lavender miniskirt and longer, clingy black skirt, hung perfectly still, catching the gleam of the fluorescent lamps overhead. At last she raised her head from her reverie.

"Zaron! I summon you!"

Instantly there was a puff of thick black smoke in front of the Great One, and there stood before her the dark specter Zaron, dressed in his ragged black cloak, face shrouded in the shadows of his hood. His fiery red eyes glowed hotly from their sockets. He clutched a black staff tipped with a mystic purple gemstone—it was the Staff of Shadows, capable of controlling all darkness in accordance with Zaron's wishes. This evil creature bowed low to the Great One.

"Your wish, O Great One?" His voice rasped in his throat.

She regarded him coolly. "Get in touch with my contacts. Tell them...it is time for the seven. They'll know what you mean."

"Yes, Master," replied Zaron swiftly, and he vanished from the room.


Tentatively Princess Peach picked up the telephone receiver and dialed. She seated herself on her bed's pink comforter. A lump settled in her stomach as she counted the rings, wondering what she could possibly say for herself. One ring...two...three...

"Hello?"

"Hello, Shyga?" Peach took a deep breath. "This is Princess Peach."

There was an explosion of questions from the female Shy Guy on the other end of the line, and Peach held the receiver away from her ear until it died down. "You're wondering where she is, aren't you?"

Shyga answered in the affirmative.

Again Peach took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm just going to be straight out with you, Shyga. She's dead."

More frantic questions.

"No, no," Peach hastened to say, "she's here with me. In fact, that's why I'm calling. I need to know if I should send Aster home or what. Don't worry, she's just fine. Just...tell me what to do."

There was silence on the receiving end.

"Shyga?"

Finally the Shy Guy girl's voice came through the receiver. Peach listened, and her eyes widened. "No, I wouldn't even consider it—" She broke off as Shyga interrupted with an insistence in her tone. Peach sighed. "You seriously think that's best for her?"

Shyga affirmed her previous statement.

"All right," Peach sighed, "I'll do it for your sake—and Daisy's."

Shyga asked another question.

"Yes, I'll do that too. Mm-hm. Goodbye."

Peach hung up the phone and sat in silence on her bed, momentarily stunned. She'd been given a tremendous task. Could she handle it adequately...and do it as Daisy would have? After pondering for a moment, she rose to her feet, went to the door of her spare bedroom, and opened it.

The spare bedroom was themed in pink, as was her own. A soft blue carpet covered the floor. A queen-size bed, complete with pink silken bed curtains, sat in royal splendor against the far wall, next to the ornate nightstand and dresser set. Built into the left wall was a sliding-door closet.

"Aster?"

No one answered.

"Aster..."

A giggle issued from the closet.

Peach put her hands on her hips. "I know you're in there, Aster. Come on out..."

There was no response.

Stealthily Peach crept up to the closet and suddenly shoved the sliding door aside. There was a girlish scream, then laughter as a young girl in a green silk dress tumbled out of the closet on top of Peach. The Princess playfully pushed her little assailant off her and got to her feet laughing. The little girl named Aster sprang up and flopped herself on the bed, still giggling.

"All right, Aster," Peach said at last, finally getting herself under control, "enough fun and games. I need to tell you something important." She sat down on the edge of the bed and patted the spot next to her. Immediately Aster bounced across the bed and sat down, dangling her legs off the edge. In this position the red oval gem on her chest was finally visible—a sure indication that this little child was a princess in her own right.

Peach stroked Aster's auburn hair gently. "Do you remember what I told you earlier about your staying with me until I could send you home?"

The little seven-year-old nodded, listening with rapt attention.

"Well, I just called Shyga—you know her—and she told me that, instead of sending you back, I should keep you here with me until you're grown-up enough to handle running a kingdom." Peach watched closely to gauge Aster's reaction to this potentially upsetting news.

Aster's lower lip quivered. "You—You mean I can't go home?"

"Not yet," Peach answered gently.

The tears began to flow. "But I want to go home! I want to see Shyga and play with her in the castle garden! I want to climb the apple tree in the courtyard so the watchman will yell at me! And I want to—"

"Aster," Peach hastily interrupted, "not yet. You need to learn some things first. And since your sister is gone, I'm the only one who can teach you. Please, Aster—be patient."

Sobbing, Aster flung herself onto her pillow and wept into the cotton fabric. "I want to go home!" she cried. "Why did Daisy have to die?! I want her back! Daisy!!"

The question struck Peach with its logic. Why had Daisy died so cruelly at the hands of the Great One? Even though four days had passed since her ashes had been scattered to the wind, it felt like an eternity. Peach was at a loss for words. She simply sat where she was, pondering the question. But, try as she might, she could not come up with a satisfactory answer.


"You guys heard already?"

"Yeah, we're go on the original plan. When do we strike?"

The first speaker, a female Toad, glanced around the room at her five partners. "As soon as possible. Harry, you take the first. The knife. You know what that means."

Harry, dressed in his Toad-sized battle armor, nodded solemnly. "Tonight."

"Bill, get in touch with Goomther and Doopliss," ordered the original speaker.

"Will do," responded the Toad named Bill.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside. Instantly the little group disappeared through a side door. A minute later Russ T., captain of the Mushroom Kingdom Royal Guard, strode into the chamber on his routine patrol of the castle. Satisfied that all was as it should be, he left, never suspecting the fatal conference that had taken place under his very nose only minutes before.


Peach sat on the bed beside Aster's prone form for a few moments, softly stroking the little girl's head in an attempt to comfort her. After a little while she said gently, "It's time for dinner, Aster."

"I'm not hungry." Aster's choked voice was muffled by her pillow. The tears still streamed from her eyes, staining the pillowcase with moisture.

Quietly, like a charitable angel, Peach rose from the bed and glided to the door. "If you get hungry, just tell me, OK? I'll leave you alone for a while and check on you later."

The Princess left the spare bedroom and reentered her own chamber, shutting the separating door softly behind her. She paused for a moment before her full-length mirror to adjust her crown slightly.

"The poor girl..." murmured Peach sympathetically. "I hate to see her like this. Hopefully some time to herself will calm her down a bit. Aster..." Peach gave her blonde locks a tuck here and there and finally left her rooms entirely, heading for the dining hall.

As Peach entered the long, spacious hall, a smile spread across her face. She took her seat at the head of the polished walnut table as usual. Gazing down the long line of familiar faces, she again smiled as she picked out those faces that had not been there the first time she'd sat here in the dining hall as a small child.

To her right, a few chairs down, sat Russ T. and his lovely wife Rachel, Peach's personal servant and organizer. Between the two was their son Michael, an eight-year-old who was absolutely obsessed with his dad's profession of soldiering. The young boy was dressed in a mock-up of his father's battle armor.

Peach looked to her left and saw the seven Rainbow Guardians—Ruby, Amber, Citrine, Emerald, Aquamarine, Sapphire, and Amethyst—seated in a row, talking lightly amongst themselves. The seven girls were nearly identical, each of them wearing similar rainbow-colored robes, but one detail made it a simple matter to tell them apart—their hair. Each Guardian's hair was the hue of her respective rainbow color; Ruby's was deep red, Amber's carrot orange, and so forth.

Seated just past the Guardians, next to Amethyst, was a man dressed in the clothing of a forester. His brown cloak covered much of his green tunic and rough brown leggings. While wearing this peculiar garb, Athos was by no means a dirty hermit. He had once been one of the three Shadow Aides, a servant to the Shadows Royal, but now worked for the Princess as a courier. He and Amethyst kept smiling at each other despite repeated warning glares from the stoic Citrine.

On Athos's left sat a powerfully-built Koopa with a rifle strapped to his back. Athos turned to him and addressed him as "Hardshell." This calm, even-tempered Koopa commando was the former spy/assassin for Bowser himself, and with his black steel shell and matching black leather boots, he still looked the part. Obviously this Koopa was no one to play around with.

"Where's Yoshi?" Peach suddenly inquired. "He wouldn't miss a meal if you paid him."

"He returned to his home only an hour ago, Your Highness," offered Athos in his precise English. "He appeared to be homesick."

"Well, that makes three fewer people here since Wario and Waluigi left yesterday," Peach commented. "Are we all ready to start eating?"

"No," spoke up Luigi from the right side of the long dining table. "Mario's not here."

"Ah-ah, don't speak too soon, bro," came a familiar voice from the dining room door. Everyone looked over to the door to see Mario himself entering the room with Professor Elvin Gadd in tow.

"Professor!" exclaimed Peach. "How nice of you to join us! Please, sit down!"

"I reckon I could stay for a bit," the Professor said with a grin as he seated his small, elderly frame on Luigi's right-hand side. "Pleasure to see you again, Your Highness."

Peach smiled in response as Mario sat down between her and Luigi. As everyone was now present, the meal began, and a lively dinner conversation started bouncing from person to person like the puck in a game of air hockey.

"So, Ruby," began Peach after swallowing a mouthful of Shroom Steak, "did Leika tell you where she was going? I was expecting her for dinner as well..."

"Yes," replied the first Guardian. "She said she was returning to her homeland. I really can't blame her. If I had gone through what she did, I would want to return home myself."

"Of course. I should have known," said Peach almost apologetically. "That makes four missing people, then." She helped herself to some Koopasta. "That poor Rainbow Fairy..."

Mario spoke around a mouthful of dinner roll. "Profeshor, doesh Bowsher shtill have dat Cwoneificashunisher?"

"The what?" asked Rachel in puzzlement.

"The Cloneificationizer," answered the Professor. "Bowser sure wasn't too imaginative when he named the thing. Yep, he's still got it, far as I know. Why?"

Mario swallowed. "Then Luigi and I are gonna go take that thing out tomorrow morning. I just hope Bowser hasn't managed to clone anyone else by now," he finished with a serious look at the Princess.

That comment was all Peach needed to set her thoughts whirling with a torrent of memories. As the conversation continued in the background, her mind drifted back to that horrible night, a scant eight days ago...

"Let me go, you witch!"

Kammy Koopa responded by flying faster, myself trussed up and bound tightly to her broomstick. "I'm not going to keep His Angriness waiting!" she screeched in reply. "He'll have my head if I do!"

"I said let me GO!!" I screamed at my captor. I struggled fiercely against my ropes and nearly made Kammy crash into a tree as we zipped through the forest. The old Magikoopa angrily recovered her balance and sped up again, making the trees just a blur as we passed them...

"Har har har! Aw, poor Peach got a little dizzy going so fast?" clucked Bowser sarcastically as he looked at my woozy expression. Being treated so roughly so late at night was getting to me. Bowser lost no time in taking me, dead-tired, to his newly-constructed laboratory, built courtesy of his newly-conscripted "helper"—Professor Elvin Gadd. The old man had been laboring on a machine of mammoth proportions.

The Cloneificationizer. It stretched from tiled floor to ten-foot ceiling, and was easily twenty feet long and ten feet deep. Its main features were two huge upright plastic tubes anchored to either end of the monster—tubes large enough to accommodate a full-grown man each. Countless wires ran from the tops of these tubes to the central control panel, a dizzying array of knobs, switched, levers, meters, dials, and whatnot.

"Put her in there!" Bowser ordered, directing Kammy Koopa to the tube on the right. Immediately the old hag hustled me forward to the indicated spot. Bowser pushed a button on the console, causing the tube to open up like a clamshell. Kammy shoved me inside, sealing the tube shut after me.

Weakly I tried to break through the reinforced plastic. "Help!"

"No one's going to help you in there, Princess Peach!" cackled the old witch.

Bowser pushed the red "Activate" button on the control board, and my plastic prison began to fill with a horrible yellow chemical. The smell was overpowering. The liquid level rose at an alarming rate. Desperately I tried to keep breathing, to stay above the rising fluid, but soon I slipped under its surface...and then...I don't remember...but Bowser must have cloned me right then. I remember seeing her—the clone—later on that week. Ugh...

"Peach?"

"Hm?" Peach snapped out of her reverie. "What?"

"What are you thinking about?" asked Mario seriously.

Peach shook her head. "The time Bowser cloned me. That clone of me is still out there somewhere, you know—probably at Bowser's castle, still."

"Yeah, I thought of that. We'll take care of her too when Luigi and I smash that infernal machine to bits."

Peach nodded and took a bite of her pasta.

It was ten o'clock when the Princess finally headed for her rooms to retire for the night. The evening's festivities had all but exhausted her, and all she looked forward to was a long rest in her luxurious bed.

"Good night, Your Highness," called Ruby as she and her sister Guardians passed the Princess in the hall.

"Good night," returned Peach, watching as the seven girls entered their respective rooms; then she turned and entered her own room, shutting the intricately-engraved oaken door tightly behind her.

The Princess removed her crown and favorite blue earrings and placed them on top of her four-foot-tall jewelry cabinet. Slipping out of her pink dress, she folded it neatly and placed it near the door for the laundry crew to pick up the next morning. Next she removed her pink silken nightgown from the wall-length closet and slipped it over her head, sliding her arms through the puffy sleeves and adjusting the gown until it hung just right on her. The nightgown's light, airy material billowed around her in soft folds as she went to the window that faced the courtyard, pulled the shade up, and opened the window wide, admitting the evening breeze. The weather in early August was stiflingly hot, and despite the castle's natural coolness, the rooms around the courtyard received much sun and were always hotter than the rest of the castle. For this reason she had selected her light gown on that warm night. Peach leaned on the windowsill, breathing in the sweet fragrance of the vast flower beds that made the courtyard something of a botanical garden.

A light rap on the door broke the spell of the evening that had cast itself over the Princess. Slightly annoyed at this interruption of her enjoyment, Peach went to the door and opened it. Harry saluted smartly.

"Hello, Harry," she greeted the night-shift guard pleasantly.

"Good evening, Your Highness," Harry replied. "Is everything all right tonight?"

Obviously Harry was on his nightly rounds. "Everything's fine, Harry. Thanks. Good night."

"Good night," he returned as he moved off down the hall toward the Guardians' rooms.

Shutting the door once again, Peach went to her bed, pulled back the blanket, and lay down. The pink silk bed canopy billowed slowly in the light evening breeze, and she lay watching it for a few minutes in tired fascination. At last she rolled over, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.


"EEEEEEK! YAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Peach sat bolt upright in bed. "What was that?" she whispered, somewhat frightened. A door slammed in the hallway, and footsteps pounded down the hall, growing fainter and fainter until they could not be heard.

Quietly the Princess got out of bed, glancing at her wall clock—it was two o'clock. She slowly opened the door and stuck her head into the hall, looking and listening for anything that might betray the presence of an intruder. There was silence for a few moments; then a deathly moan came from the direction of the Guardians' rooms. That was enough for Peach. She rushed out into the hallway and stopped by the girls' rooms, listening. There it was again—definitely coming from Ruby's room. Peach seized the appropriate knob and tore Ruby's door open, calling out for her to answer.

"Ruby! Are you all right? Say something!!"

Another moan came from the floor by the Guardian's bed. "...Princess...unhh..."

"Ruby!!" Peach rushed to the nearly-unconscious Guardian and knelt beside her. Ruby's beautiful red hair gleamed in the moonlight from the window, matching the gleam from another substance soaking her chest and pooling on the carpet—blood. Peach's hands were quickly stained red, but she didn't care. She reached up to the nightstand and seized the telephone.

"Dr. Herb T., get to Ruby's room immediately! We've got an emergency on our hands!"

Peach slammed the phone back onto its cradle and knelt down by Ruby again, gently probing the young lady's body for injuries. Her fingers detected a profusion of blood near Ruby's heart. Feeling further, she discovered what felt like a deep cut very close to her heart—a knife wound? "Oh, Ruby..."

Dr. Herb T. raced into the room with his faithful nurse Lily and the other Rainbow Guardians. Immediately he began to put a stop to the bleeding. After the bleeding was under control, he swathed Ruby's chest in bandages, and the other six Guardians, carefully lifted her onto the stretcher the medical team had brought with them. Together doctor and nurse wheeled the stretcher away.


"You have to save her, Herb! You have to!" pleaded Peach as she and the doctor stood in Ruby's hospital room after breakfast the next morning.

Dr. Herb shook his head. "That's a tall order, Your Highness. That knife narrowly missed her heart. It's a miracle she's still alive." He looked over at Ruby's prone form lying on the spotless white sheets of her hospital bed, completely still except for the rhythmic breathing pattern that proved she was still living. "She's barely hanging on as it is. I'm surprised that she's actually conscious."

"Get Athos," instructed Peach. "His healing powers can—"

"I've already tried that, Your Highness," interjected Herb, "and he's apparently been given some sort of sleeping drug. He's still sound asleep, and no one who's tried has been able to wake him up. Whoever attempted this murder certainly knew what he was doing."

Peach sat down heavily on the chair by the bed, trying to take all this information in. "What's happening to my peaceful Mushroom Kingdom?" she lamented. "First Bowser cloned me and tried to steal the throne; then the Shadow Queen returned; then the Shadow Legion burned Toad Town to ashes; then the Great One burned Daisy to death; then that Great One tormented me, tried to take my crown from me; and now that the Great One's dead and the Shadows Royal have left, this happens. Oh, what's going on?"

"Shadows Royal?" queried the doctor.

"The name for the Shadow King and Queen." Peach's eyes welled with tears. "That day in the Sacrifice Chamber, the Queen was reawakened—and she possessed Princess Éclair. She took my friend..."

"You'll have to tell me the story sometime," said Dr. Herb, looking at his watch, "but right now I'm due at the lab for blood tests on the samples we took from Ruby." He rushed from the room, his white coat flapping behind him.

Peach gently stroked Ruby's feverish forehead. "Ruby..."

The Guardian's eyes fluttered open. "Princess Peach...I..."

"Shhh, you just lie still," instructed the Princess gently. "You're very fortunate to be alive after last night. Rest."