A/N: This is my first Mario fic so please be gentle in the reviews. I've got several stories being worked on right now so don't expect a fast update. This is a Yoshi/Birdo fic. Don't like the pairing, don't read the fic. It's also my sequel to Mario and Luigi: Partners in time. Also, translated shroob dialogue will be in italics.

WARNING! This first chapter contains major spoilers for Partners in time, especially the first paragraph!

Disclaimer: Yoshi, Birdo, Mario and all related characters are copyrighted by the masters known as Nintendo. This story is being written with no profit motive.

Prologue: They're back!

The planet Shroob, a desolate far away planet. The denizens of this planet had once set their sights on the mushroom kingdom. They sent an army to invade the kingdom and set about a /shroob civilisation. However, too many complications were thrown into the plan when princess peach from the future mushroom kingdom appeared in a time machine. The two shroob princesses immediately attacked peach. The larger and stronger of the two was sealed away in the mighty cobalt star, the source of the time machines power. The cobalt star was then shattered, but peach was still captured. This brought about the arrival of the Mario brothers from the future. The brothers teamed up with their younger selves and began to search for princess peach. The remaining princess shroob tried to use this to her advantage by disguising herself as peach and allowing herself to be taken back to the future, in an attempt to take over that kingdom. However, this was foiled when king bowser kidnapped her but fell into a time hole and back into the past by accident. As a result, princess shroob was left stuck in the past. The Mario brothers learned that they had been tricked and tracked peach to Shroob castle, assembling the cobalt star as they went. They didn't realise that by assembling the cobalt star, they were restoring the elder shroob princess' power. When the younger princess was defeated, the cobalt star was accidentally assembled and the elder shroob princess was freed, only to be defeated by the Mario brothers. The shroob's weakness was then discovered and they were either destroyed or forced to flee to their home planet. It was only here, several years later, when the new leader of the shroobs decided to try again. She had observed the mushroom kingdom for several years after the incident, waiting for the perfect time to attack again. After several years of watching and waiting, she decided on the perfect time to attack. She rallied her forces and directed her sword of vengeance towards the mushroom kingdom. This time, she was not going to take any chances. She also planned to take care of the Mario brothers to ensure that nobody could interfere with the shroobs this time.

Meanwhile, in the mushroom kingdom, princess peach and several others from both the mushroom kingdom and neighbouring kingdoms were all gathered in peach's castle. They were celebrating the birthday of peach's long time servant toadsworth. Among those present were Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Queen beanbean and Prince Peasley from the beanbean kingdom, Princess daisy from the Sarasa land, DK and Diddy Kong. Other people had been invited but they were either unable to come or didn't want to come for some reason. At the moment, everybody was in the main hall, all having a good time. Mario and Peach were dancing hand in hand, Daisy was dancing with Luigi, DK and Diddy Kong were eating some bananas from the food stands, Wario was arguing with Prince Peasley about who was stronger, Waluigi was busy eyeing Queen Beanbean, who didn't appear to take any notice. Toadsworth was just sitting by himself. He was too old to be doing anything strenuous now. The recent baseball tournament had worn him out to the bone. Sitting next to him was one of the many other toads that lived in the castle. This toad was just having a slice of cake. The cake had already been cut and everything else expected at a birthday part had been done. While Toadsworth was sitting down though, Princess peach and Mario came over to him.

"Toadsworth, are you ok?" Peach asked.

"My dear, I'm getting old. I wear out easily." Toadsworth replied.

"Would a refreshroom help?"

"That won't be necessary my princess. I've never danced in my life anyway."

"How come?" Mario asked.

"Two left feet my boy."

"I see."

"If I was a little younger, I would take dancing lessons."

"It's never too late." Peach stated.

"My dear, my bones are weak."

"Ok then. Have you had a good birthday?"

"I have indeed my princess. I had no idea that you were organising this behind my back. I am very grateful that you have done so."

"Peach, did you invite Yoshi? I can't see him anywhere." Mario asked.

"I did, but he sent a note saying something about other commitments that clashed." Peach replied.

"Ok. It's just a …"

Mario was interrupted when the roof of the building collapsed all of a sudden, interrupting everybody. They all looked up to see what was happening. They saw Bowser in the Koopa Clown car descending down to the party. The whole room went deadly silent. The Koopa clown car descended to the ground and Bowser jumped out, followed by Bowser Jr.

"Grr, you should know better than to hold a party and not to invite us!" Bowser growled.

"Whose idea was this party anyway? It looks fun!" Bowser Jr. asked. Nobody spoke, but Mario readied the hammer that he had received from his younger self, just in case a fight brewed up. Bowser gave his wicked laugh and looked at everybody.

"Scared to speak?" Finally, princess peach spoke out.

"You weren't invited Bowser. Why did you come?" She asked.

"I'll give you two guesses." This was all that Mario needed to know. He jumped at Bowser and swung his hammer at full strength, clanging Bowser on the head. Bowser held his head and glared at Mario.

"That's just typical. You're toast!" Bowser roared.

"I'm with you!" Bowser Jr. added.

"Luigi, you helping?" Mario called out. Luigi nodded and ran to his brother. Everyone backed away and waited to see what would happen. Prince Peasley drew his rapier ready to help out in case something went wrong. Before anybody could attack though, the whole castle suddenly shook and there was the sound of an explosion. Everybody jumped and began looking around.

"What was that?" Daisy asked.

"Whatever it is, it sounds nasty." Diddy added.

"Well it won't get through me." Peasley said, readying his rapier.

"Just when things were getting interesting." Wario moaned. Everyone was interrupted again when a toad came rushing into the room from upstairs. It was running so fast it tripped on the top step and fell to the bottom. DK went over to the toad and picked it up.

"You ok?" DK asked. The toad opened its eyes.

"Sh-sh-sh." The toad stuttered. Everybody but Bowser and Bowser Jr. gathered around to find out what was going on.

"The who?" Waluigi asked.

"What is it my boy?" Toadsworth asked.

"Sh-sh-shroobs!" The toad finally finished. Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toadsworth gasped.

"Shroobs!" Peach exclaimed.

"Shroob ships…attacking…the castle." The toad then passed out after finishing. There was another explosion and another hole was blasted in the side of the castle. Everybody looked out of the hole and saw hundreds of Shroob ships outside. Bowser and Bowser Jr. saw them too.

"The shroobs again!" Bowser growled.

"Who?" Bowser Jr. asked.

"Everybody, we need to get out of here!" Princess Peach shouted.

"But where to?" Queen Beanbean asked.

"We'll go to E.gadd's lab. He can produce the one thing that can defeat the shroobs."

"That might be a problem." Diddy Kong said.

"Why?"

Diddy Kong pointed to the main entrance. A huge army of shroobs had entered the castle. They were all armed with their alien handguns. They were aimed at the group. Prince Peasley had his rapier ready; Mario and Luigi had their hammers ready and Bowser was preparing his fire breath. The shroobs didn't even flinch when they saw the group ready; they just waited. They then suddenly heard a signal and stepped aside to allow another shroob to walk through. This shroob was dressed in a pink gown, similar to peach's gown. She looked very much like the younger princess shroob that Mario and Luigi had met before, only she was taller and thinner.

"Pr-princess shroob?" Peach exclaimed.

"You must be Princess Peach!" The shroob said. Nobody could understand what she had just said.

"What?" Waluigi asked.

"You must all die for the death of my sisters!"

"We can't understand them." Mario said.

"She could be saying anything then." Wario replied.

"Take them away!" The shroob shouted. All of the other shroobs fired their weapons at the group. The group scattered and those that could fight prepared to fight back. Nobody had noticed a shroob ship enter the room through the hole in the wall. It was busy powering up a powerful blast. Prince Peasley began lashing at the shroobs with his rapier, slaying quite a few. Mario and Luigi were using their hammers to hit as many as they could. DK and Diddy were running around the area and punching the living daylights out of as many as they could. Wario and Waluigi decided to join in. Wario was grabbing shroobs and throwing them into the others. Waluigi was running all over the shops and smashing them with his fists. Bowser was using his fire breath to flambé a large group. They had killed half of the shroobs excluding the princess before Daisy noticed the shroob craft in the room.

"Guys, we've got other trouble." Daisy exclaimed. Everyone looked up and saw the ship but it was too late. The ship fired a huge blast of energy into the floor, causing a huge flash. When the flash ended, everybody but the shroobs was unconscious. All of the remaining shroobs began laughing manically.

"Take them to our home planet and leave them there until this kingdom is ours! They won't be able to do any harm there!" The shroob princess instructed. A bunch more shroob ships swept into the room and used their suction beams to take everybody onboard. All the ships left the castle, only leaving the shroobs and the princess.

"Now there is nobody left to challenge us. This planet is ours!" With that shout, the princess started laughing hysterically. Other shroob warships were wreaking havoc among toad town while this had been going on, abducting almost everybody. The whole town had been devastated and everybody that could interfere had been taken away. Well, almost everybody that could interfere had been taken.