Author's Note: My first fic! I hope you like it even thought the first chapter is slightly slow. It mostly introduces the characters and their personalities. Bolded and underlined character's names mean that the next segment of the story is told from their P.O.V. A ~~~~~ line means a change of setting while keeping the same P.O.V. Often times I will say something such as, "5 minutes later…" or "the next day…" underneath the line in italics.

Please help me improve this story. No flames, please. This is only my first fic. If you think the first chapter focuses too much on my OC's (Melody, Pietro, & Lillian), wait until later chapters to add this comment to your review. The Mario, Luigi, Daisy, etc. that you know can change a whole lot in 18 years. I didn't want to focus too much on them for fear they might seem OOC to you (that would be very bad, in a nutshell).

By the way, I do not own Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Mushroom Kingdom, or any thing else Nintendo. I do however, own Melody, Pietro, Lillian, and the Yoshi language (I don't think there's a Mario Game out there that features an alternate Yoshi language, besides the Yoshis going "Yoshi!" for everything).

Enjoy the story! KitKat-Mint.

Melody

"Princess Melody, you are almost 13. 13 is a critical time for a princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. How are you feeling? Are you Nervous? Excited? Scared?" the reporter was practically in my face now, eager to get her questions in.

"You know what, I am stressed. So if you would kindly leave me alone that would be very pleasurable, thank you." I replied, pretending to be really annoyed, which wasn't hard at all. She must have been the sixty-thousandth reporter to pester me today. Geez, people, it's no big deal… But I knew in my heart that my birthday was a big deal for the people of my kingdom. 13 was the age where I would gain some (but not much) official political voice. I could veto anything Kingdom Congress wanted to pass with at least one of my parents' permission, attend royal gatherings, host royal gatherings, and much more. The kingdom was very excited to have another ruler, even a partial one. I'm not saying my parents are bad rulers. In fact, King Mario and Queen Peach are the best the kingdom has seen in years.

Oh, I forgot one not-so-minor detail. I'm getting married when I'm 24 to someone my parents have picked out. The name is revealed to me on my 13th birthday. This is why I'm half dreading the date. I am super jealous of Lillian. She gets to marry whoever she loves, prince or peasant.

Lillian is my cousin from Sarasaland, World Two who is very close in age to me. No matter how many times I say how lucky she is, she says that she hates her life as she knows it. I don't blame her for that either. Lillian is a tomboy who wants nothing more than to go sky diving and then be a lady-like princess.

Enough chatter! I'm going back to the castle and getting these reporters out of my hair… All I wanted was some peace and quiet at the park and this is what I have to go through!

Pietro

"Arrrgh! Those reporters just won't leave me alone!" Melody, my older sister, bursts in the door and slams it shut. I look out of the window and see two castle guards trying to reason with 2 or 3 reporters begging them to open the gates to the Mushroom Castle Gardens. I marveled at their persistence. I turned around to see Melody standing behind me.

"Ack! Melody, you scared me half to death!" I said.

"Well, it's your fault you never pay attention to what's going on around you. You're always staring out some stupid window or writing in that diary of yours." She replied.

"It's not a diary, it's a journal! There is all sorts of stuff outside of a window! Please Melody…" I tied to calm my sister down but she was seriously stressed today. She rolled her eyes and walked off to who-knows-where.

Melody and I have argued for as long as I can remember because my quiet personality clashes with her ambitious and talkative one. I kind of feel bad for Toad, who usually resolves these things. Toad took over as royal advisor after his grandfather, Toadsworth, retired. I can't believe Toad's not married yet. He's cool, handsome, and everything I'm not.

Ditto for Toadette, Toad's sister. She's pretty, but doesn't get out much, so not many people know her. However, as head maid of the castle, "getting out" is pretty much impossible, but Mother tries to give her a vacation whenever she can.

I started writing the day's events down in my journal. Writing always helps me sort through my feelings and relax. I wasn't about to tell Melody anytime soon, but I was having a reporter problem too. Since Melody was so unwilling to talk, reporters have been coming up to me, asking me questions, and following me around. I also asked Dad what my name meant in Italian.

"Pietro in Italian means 'rock'."

"A rock? Why would you and Mom name me after a rock?"

"A rock is something that can be counted on, trusted, and relied upon, Pietro."

I thought about that for awhile. I'm not entirely sure how you would trust a rock or rely upon a rock, and I don't know if I'm the kind of person who is like that. If my sister were to some how die, get kidnapped, or fall very ill, I would temporarily (or permanently, it depends on the circumstances) take over the kingdom. I don't know if I can do that.

Lillian

"Lillian get OUT of those clothes NOW!" shouted Cecilia.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting to it!" I replied. "Do I have to wear a dress? Couldn't I just wear a nice shirt and a long skirt...?" I trailed off. My maid was giving me a steely look of anger that I had seen countless times. "Okay, okay, a dress."

Dresses, pink, and anything girly is WAY overrated. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. You can't have fun in frilly dresses! Do you know what else is overrated? Maids, sports cars, palaces, anything gourmet and anything fancy. There are people in every kingdom that live on almost nothing and here us royalty is wearing frilly dresses as everyday attire. Is this kindness and charity to our kingdom? I don't think so.

Anyway, I was caught wearing blue jeans and my favorite tie-dyed T-shirt. My long, auburn hair was tied into a ponytail and I was bare-footed, which, according to everybody but me in this castle, is not "princess like" at all.

She has threatened me, bribed me, and even gone to Mom and Dad for help in throwing away this shirt. On the other hand, I have hidden, worn underneath dresses, and mailed to my cousins Melody and Pietro's castle this shirt for safe keeping. You may roll your eyeballs at me all you want and it will help you none! Some call me stubborn, but I say I'm strong-willed. Deal with it!

At least I'm going to my cousins' castle for the weekend. I could seriously use a break from all of this. Nobody ever lets me be myself. Really.

Melody

I am sitting in the royal car, the Silver Star on the long trip to the Mushroom City Airport. Why doesn't Toad Town have an airport? It's the capital city for Toadstool's sake!

The Silver Star is streamlined, silver, shooting-star shaped convertible that has a retractable glass roof. It truly is a nice vehicle, but sometimes I wonder. It has controls that have never been touched by our driver, controls that look like they would be used in a flying airship or a battle machine. My parents have had the Silver Star for as long as I can remember, but I think this car would look better in gold. It's not just my fashion sense, for some reason it doesn't look right in silver. I think that there is more to the Silver Star than meets the eye. Technically, it shouldn't even have a name. It would just be called "The royal car", but this car has a name. Why?

Whenever I share my suspicions about the car, though, people roll their eyes and call me superstitious or paranoid.

At least there are no reporters here. Ahh, peace and quiet… for now. Just you wait until we get Lillian from the airport, but for now it's quiet. Mom and Dad are sitting in the semi-front behind our driver and Pietro is staring out of the window. What does he see in (or out of) windows anyway? I see grass and wildflowers stretching for miles around to mountains in the distance but that's just about it. If this car were to break down and leave us stranded let's just say we would be out of luck until Mom calls the castle.

Wait a second, there's a warp pipe out there! What in the Eight-Worlds is a warp pipe doing in the middle of endless grass and flowers? Anybody who uses its counterpart will have to walk for miles before reaching civilization of any sort! A pointless warp pipe must be taken care of by the castle…

After what felt like hours, we finally reached Mushroom City, the biggest city in the kingdom. As we drove along the highway, I marveled at the sights and sounds that I knew were even better at night. We reached the airport and waited for Uncle Luigi (Father's brother), Aunt Daisy, and Lillian. There they are! Lillian was wearing her favorite shirt, much to the dismay of her parents and anger of her maid.

The Silver Star has many seats, enough to fit all of us even though the car itself looks quite small (and not by royal standards either, from a distance it looks like a 1-person vehicle). Lillian and I began to chat about recent news and various other things, while Pietro proceeded to open up his book. Sometimes he pushes me to the limit! He needs to get out more, even if it means being bombarded by reporters.

Pietro

I gazed out of the car window onto the wilderness of the Mushroom Kingdom. A warp pipe sprouted up between the tall grasses and wildflowers. I wonder where it leads…

"Pietro… Come back to World One, Pietro!" Melody shouted in my ear.

"Don't be so hard on him, Melody" said Lillian. At least Lillian stuck up for me while I was here. "Pietro, how's life? You haven't said a word since I got here," she added.

"Oh, good," I replied and once again retired to my Mushroom Kingdom scenery. Melody rolled her eyes and once again began to talk to Lillian.

Even I can't keep myself entertained by just passing scenery for long, so I started reading the various billboards that ran alongside the highway.

About half an hour later…

We returned to the Mushroom Castle and Melody was instantly pulled aside by reporters. I looked around for Mother or Father or even Aunt Daisy or Uncle Luigi, but they had already gone inside. Odd, Mother was worried about Melody and her reporters. I didn't think she would leave us out here.

I think Melody is seriously starting to get ticked by those reporters because she told them to bug off before they even got to pitch their questions, which is saying something for these reporters. At first Lillian was jealous, "You seriously get to be on live TV on a regular basis? Melody that's so cool!", but quickly took it back after she saw how the reporters simply would not leave her alone. Then they came to me!

"Your sister is very unwilling to talk to us, Prince Pietro. How is she coping with the stress of this coronation?" said a Toad reporter with green spots and a TTBC news cap (Toad Town Broadcasting Channel).

"Um, I'd rather not talk right now. Come back later, okay?" I replied. Melody looked angry. I didn't know why, but I was about to find out.

"Never tell them to come back later, Pietro. You have mistakenly granted them permission to come INSIDE the castle and they've caught it ON TAPE!" she said awfully loudly.

"It was an honest mistake. What's wrong with answering a few questions? Some people would give their right arm to be on TV for just a few moments! I'm sorry!" I replied and went inside the castle. Then something happened that I most definitely did not expect.

"…can't just leave it in the basement! The kids could find it and then what would we do?" It was my aunt Daisy; talking about us! What didn't she want us to find? Without thinking, I moved closer to the closed door of our sitting room.

Dad's voice then sounded, "I know it was irresponsible for him to drop it here without leaving us many options, but he does need our help as the officials are hot on his trail." Were Mom and Dad helping a criminal mastermind? Was a suitcase with a million coins in it in the basement as I speak?

Next, I heard Mom voice her opinion, "We will advise the kids to stay out of the basement until we can find a better place to put it. The professor is an old friend of ours and I think we should help in every way possible."

"I agree with Peach," added Uncle Luigi, "But I think we should cover the machine considering that it is in the basement." There were murmurs of agreement.

"Let's do that now, because I'm slightly paranoid that something will happen to it," said Mom. Oh, she most certainly had a reason to be nervous! I was getting more curious by the second. So Mom, Dad, Uncle Luigi, and Aunt Peach were helping an old professor friend hide a machine because officials were "after him" for some reason or the other. I heard the adults getting up to leave so I hurriedly walked away from the door and around the corner. I heard the adults' footsteps leading to the linens closet and then down to the basement where this mysterious machine was being held.

I had to tell Melody and Lillian! I ran back outside.

"Hey, Pietro, do you know where you keep the tennis…" Lillian started, but didn't finish.

"There is a mysterious machine hidden in the basement! Come on! We have to go check it out!" I tried not to shout but it was very difficult.

"What are you talking about? How would you know for sure of such nonsense, Pietro?" Melody retorted.

"I heard Father, Mother, Uncle Luigi, and Aunt Daisy talking about a professor who dropped off a machine at the castle on short notice! They're hiding it in…" I was interrupted.

"Pietro, be quiet!" said Melody.

"Why, Melody!"

"No, seriously, be quiet!" she hushed. I turned around to find Uncle Luigi and Aunt Daisy heading toward the Silver Star. They got in the car and drove off. We resumed talking.

"So, you've been eavesdropping on Mom and Dad, huh?" said Lillian, making me feel slightly embarrassed. "Look, even if there is something in the basement, it's probably something they don't want us to see. Let's just forget about it, okay?"

But I wasn't about to forget about this mystery machine, not a chance. I wrote down the mystery machine in my journal and went to bed, but I simply couldn't sleep.