I do not own anything from Nintendo.
"Alright, gang!" Mario exclaimed as they wandered around the Free Play Arena. "What minigame do you wanna play?"
"Hmmm…How about Skipping Class?" piped up Peach. "I love jumping rope! We could play that one."
"And have you smoke the rest of us?" Luigi groaned. "I won't even be able to get a single point. The moves are too tricky for me."
Mario sighed. "Well, we could go for a luck-based minigame – "
"NO!"
"Okay, okay…say, where's Daisy? I haven't seen her lately." The three looked around until they spotted the flower princess, who was eyeing a particular minigame.
"Daisy!" Peach said, making her way over. "Found a minigame yet?"
"Yeah," said Mario, wandering over as well. "We can't seem to come to a consensus."
"Anything good?" asked Luigi, catching up to the group mere moments later.
Daisy didn't say anything; her face broke out into a wide, mischievous smile as she pointed to the minigame behind her. The other three glanced at it for a second before registering their thoughts aloud.
"AW SHROOM NO!" Mario backed away immediately.
"AHHHHHHH!" Luigi began to shake and cower in fear.
"DAISY, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" yelled Peach.
Daisy grinned. "Well, they do rhyme…" When no one responded, Daisy sighed. "Oh, come on! It's not THAT bad. Besides, it only hurts for a little bit."
"A LITTLE BIT?!" Peach retorted, still appalled at the other princess. "Daisy, we get FLATTENED in a trash compactor and every time that happens, that stupid music plays! I don't like being in my paper form, thank you very much…"
"But that's the fun of it!" whined Daisy. "You don't HAVE to be in your paper form as long as you come in first! Besides, you all got to pick the minigames the last time we were here!"
"Yeah, but we didn't pick LETHAL ones, did we?"
"But this isn't lethal!" When no one else was convinced in the slightest, Daisy gave up. "Fine. We'll play another minigame."
"Phew," sighed Mario. "And for a moment there I thought you were irrational!"
"…Well, you're not wrong!" And with that, Daisy turned on her heel and jumped into the minigame ("DAISY, NO!"), forcing the other three to jump after her.
The four landed on a cold, dark, dank metal floor. Daisy was grinning – she LOVED this minigame, partly because she had never lost at it. The other three weren't as pleased.
"Daisy, Daisy, Daisy…" Peach buried her face in her hands. "Why…?"
"Mama mia," sighed Mario, glancing around the room. He knew this wasn't going to end well for at least three of them.
"Oh man," said Luigi nervously. "I thought there wasn't anything I hated more in the world than ghosts, but…this minigame…oh man…"
"Look alive, people!" Daisy cheered. "What's the point of playing a minigame if there's no RISK involved? All those luck-based minigames can shove it!"
"Alright, Daisy," Peach said, straightening her crown. "One round. JUST. ONE."
Mario looked at the pink princess in astonishment. "Are you insane?!"
"Let her have her fun. We can take it."
"WAHOO!" Daisy cheered enthusiastically.
"But, Peach…"
"It's okay, Luigi." She walked over to the green-clad plumber and whispered something in his ear. Immediately Luigi perked up, his nervousness gone.
"Hey!" Daisy demanded. "What are you two whispering about?"
"Oh, nothing," Peach said airily. "I was just – uh oh." The machine they were trapped in started to wind its gears – the minigame was about to start. "Well," Peach said slowly, now wishing she had pulled her yellow counterpart away from the lethal minigame when she had the chance, "best of luck to everyone. Except you, Daisy."
"Ah, come on!" The four faced each other – nobody wanted to lose this one. A whistle sounded, and the minigame was officially underway.
Daisy, being the expert, knew Mario was a tough opponent, so she went for Luigi instead, shoving him away from the grates.
"OW!" Luigi cried. "Peach, you're supposed to get her!"
"WHAT?!" Daisy soon realized that Peach and Luigi had teamed up against her. She changed direction immediately and headed towards Peach, narrowly missing Mario's jump attack, when the grate below her glowed blue. "HAHAHA! See ya later!" The grate opened, allowing Daisy to retreat for the time being.
Mario frowned, but decided to go after Daisy later and headed for the second grate, which Peach was standing above. "Sorry, princess!" he yelled, shoving her aside and stepping on the grate as the floor opened, leading him to safety.
"MARIO! You meanie!" With one grate left, Peach and Luigi looked at each other.
"Wanna call a truce, Luigi?"
"I…I guess…" Luigi hadn't moved since the start of the match, deciding it best to accept his fate early. "You should go to safety though – WHOA!" Luigi hadn't realized that he had been standing on a grate, which glowed blue and opened, spiraling him down out of harm's way.
Peach sighed. She knew what was coming next. "DAISY! YOU LITTLE – "
SMASH.
She didn't complete her sentence as the ceiling came crashing down, reducing her to a piece of paper. The sad music played as she floated up and away from the scene, finally landing in a safe area away from the trash compactor. She returned to her normal form, wincing painfully. "I swear this is the LAST time I ever play Mario Party with Daisy."
The minigame continued as the three emerged from their grates, the second round starting. Ostensibly, Mario and Daisy went after each other for the first grate, both shoving each other hard out of the way.
"Dang it, Mario! That hurt!" Daisy yelled, rubbing her arm.
"Well, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't chosen this minigame!" he retorted.
The grate between them opened – Daisy ran after it but Mario dealt her one particularly hard elbow jab in her stomach, stunning her and allowing him temporary safety.
Now it was between Daisy and Luigi for the second grate. Luigi again hadn't moved from his spot. Daisy felt a little guilty – after all, he'd invited her to party and she'd promised to not choose any difficult minigames. It was made harder with the fact that Luigi was staring at her with big puppy-dog eyes.
"Oh, go on, Luigi," Daisy said, admitting defeat. "Take the grate."
"No, it's okay, I – "
"TAKE IT!" The grate closest to Daisy glowed blue.
"A-are you sure?"
"Yeah," Daisy said, deciding not to backstab Luigi again. "I can take it."
"Okay!" With that, Luigi ran towards the grate…until he tripped over his long overalls and fell flat on his face. "OW!" The grate suddenly opened; Luigi wasn't getting up. "DARN IT!"
Man, I HATE going back on my word. But I'm too competitive to keep promises! Daisy immediately rolled into the free grate and barely made it in the nick of time.
Luigi groaned, his face still in the metal floor. Why am I SUCH a klutz?!
SMASH.
As the ceiling receded, the pitiful music played again and Luigi floated away to be next to Peach.
"Well, that backfired, didn't it?" noted Peach airily, pulling out a nail file to trim her fingernails.
"I don't want to talk about it."
The final round started as Mario and Daisy emerged from their grates, both refusing to give up. Daisy had worked out a new strategy. Rather than fighting her way through, she stood in the middle, waiting for the grate to open up. Mario noticed this strategy right away.
"Scared, are we?" he taunted.
"SCARED?! Are you kidding me?! I'm not scared of anything!"
"Then why not fight me?"
"Because I'm smarter than that!"
"Oh, are you now? I was under the impression that you made rash decisions – OW!" Temper flared, Daisy tackled him head-on.
"FINE! I'll show you! I'll show – oh man," Daisy sighed, as the grate underneath Mario glowed blue. "I'm not giving up easily!" With that, she roughly pushed Mario out of the way and stood on the grate, but unfortunately left enough time for Mario to counter.
"I feel really bad about doing this, but…oh well." Shrugging, he picked up the flower princess.
"HEY! That's not fair, that's against the rules! Put me down!" Daisy yelled.
Mario grinned. "If you insist." He threw her across the room – not far, but enough for her not to make a desperation attack. He sank into the final grate as Daisy landed on her back, staring at the ceiling.
"Aw man! I HATE LOSING!"
SMASH.
Mario escaped the trash pit, a little injured but having saved himself from the wrath of the smash compactor. "That was fun, wasn't it? I've never won that minigame!"
Peach glared at him, remembering that he had shoved her away from a grate. "Yeah, well, you pushed me away, remember?!"
"I said I was sorry..." Mario's voice trailed off sheepishly as he looked at his younger brother, who was carrying something in his hands. "How are you holding up, Luigi?"
"I guess I'm fine," he replied. "If I hadn't tripped I might've had a chance."
"Aw don't worry, bro! Next time, maybe you'll – "
"There will NEVER be a next time," hissed Peach. "We are NEVER playing that minigame AGAIN."
"Alright, alright…I wonder how Daisy's holding up?"
Luigi stared down at his arms. There lay the paper-thin form of Princess Daisy, who hadn't returned to normal yet after the smash compactor had gotten her. Mario grinned, Luigi frowned, and Peach stared at Daisy, who remained oddly silent.
"You don't mean to tell me you didn't have a SMASHING good time, Daisy?" Peach asked innocently, while Mario and Luigi snickered silently.
Daisy gave Peach a long death stare.
"Shut up."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please rate and review. There's a sequel to this story, A Shticky Situation. If you would like me to write fanfics about specific minigames, please PM me or post it in the Reviews section. =)