Chapter 1: A Disturbing Dinner

It was a normal day in the Mushroom Kingdom. The morning sun shined over the well-cared gardens of the Mushroom Castle, giving it even a more beautiful look. Princess Peach was looking at them amazed from the window of her room.

"Mhmm… it looks like a beautiful morning" she said distractingly. She stood up from her bed and went to the big mirror in the wall. She grabbed a comb that was in her night table and started combing her magnificent golden hair in a careful manner. She then examined herself in the mirror; she smiled at the sight. A stunning beautiful young princess of about nineteen years returned her the smile. "Perfect" she said approving her now combed hair.

She went out of her room and went downstairs to one of the dinning rooms. As she entered the room she saw Toadsworth, Peach's steward, eating calmly in the big wooden table.

"Oh, good morning Your Highness! Did you sleep well?" Toadsworth said animatedly. He stood up and made a reverence before continuing eating his fried eggs.

"Yea, thanks Toadsworth" she said smiling. She sat down on a wooden chair opposite to Toadsworth to face him. "What about you?"

"Fine, as always" said the old steward.

In that, a Toad entered the room carrying a tray with food. He placed the tray slowly in front of Peach, and then he made a reverence for her just as Toadsworth did and left.

"You know," she said, pausing to drink some orange juice from her glass, "I was planning to invite Mario and Luigi over for dinner".

"Splendid idea Princess Peach," Toadsworth said in a mannered tone, "I will send them an invitation right away". And with that, he drank the juice left from his glass, and departed immediately through one of the doors.


Meanwhile, a few miles away, two brothers were having breakfast in a small wooden table.

"So, how is Princess Daisy, bro?" one of the brothers said. He was a young man with a thick mustache, wearing a set of red clothes and blue overalls.

"Fine, thanks for asking bro. She is having a relaxing vacation in the Pudding Country" the other brother said. Unlike his brother who was medium sized, he was very tall, but thinner. He wore the same set of clothes as his brother, but in a green version, with the same blue overalls and the same bushy mustache.

"Oh, sounds like she is having fun" The red-wearing brother said while picking some of his food with his fork.

"Yea," the green-wearing brother said. Suddenly he remembered something, "Oh, brother I forgot to tell you! I found this new recipe on the newspaper about a delicious Peachy Tart which you can obtain by mixing a Peachy Peach and a…"

The red-wearing brother rolled his eyes. His brother had excellent culinary talents, that was for sure, but he was quite obsessed with it that when he started talking about it he was unstoppable. He looked boringly through the window beside him. After a few minutes, his brother finally stopped.

"…and that is how you obtain the delicious Peachy Tart" he finished looking rather excited. "I can't wait to prepare some for dinner!"

"That's cool, bro" said the red-wearing brother, pretending to be half-excited that his brother was.

"Mail call!" a sudden voice called from outside.

"I'll go," the red-wearing brother said. He stood up and went outside the small house.

"Hi, Mario!" said the mail Paratroopa to the red-wearing brother while flapping his wings in midair. The reason why he, being a mailman, acted so cordially to Mario was because they had once gone together on an adventure to save the Mushroom Kingdom in the past.

"Hi there, Parakarry," Mario greeted the Paratroopa.

"Today there's three letters, one for you, two for Mr. Luigi" Parakarry said in a business tone.

"OK, thanks" Mario said. He approached Parakarry to receive the three letters from him.

"Until then!" Parakarry called waving a hand to Mario while flying away.

Mario returned back inside the house. Luigi had already finished his breakfast and was washing the dishes in a small sink.

"Luigi, there's two letters for you" Mario said to his brother.

Luigi stopped doing his work and approached Mario. He smiled as he recognized the letter from his subscribing magazine titled "Best Recipes". He couldn't help noticing that the other letter for him looked exactly as the one Mario received; the same soft pink color and the same decorations in the border.

"Mhmm…" said Mario thoughtfully, "I think these," he said grabbing the two identical letters, "are from Princess Peach". Mario started opening the one that was addressed to him and read:

Dear Mr. Mario,

Our Highness, Princess Peach, has invited you cordially to assist for dinner at the castle. We await for your arrival at 6:00 P.M. so please kindly come to our castle at the time said.

Sincerely yours,

Peach's steward,
Toadsworth

"Yep, I was right" said Mario triumphantly, "It's an invitation from Princess Peach to assist her castle for dinner. I think yours is the same. Mind if I check yours?"

"Not at all," said Luigi looking at his wet hands, "I can't read it right now even if I wanted to".

"OK" said Mario. He grabbed Luigi's letter and opened it. "Yep, it's the same".

"So, it looks like we have to assist" Luigi said.

"Yep," Mario said, "and it looks that you won't be able to prepare your delicious Peachy Tart for dinner" he smiled broadly and then chuckled. Luigi's face went a brightly red.


When a sunset was clearly visible in the horizon over the mountains, Mario and Luigi knocked the big doors of the entrance of the Mushroom Castle. They heard some steps approaching on the other side of the door, and after a few seconds, Toadsworth opened the doors for them.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," Toadsworth said in an elderly voice. "Please step inside".

As Luigi and Mario stepped inside, some servant Toads closed the big doors. Toadsworth led the pair of brothers through several doors until they finally reached the Guests Dinning Room. Peach was sitting calmly in one of the several chairs around the magnificent table. As she saw the pair led by Toadsworth she immediately walked to them to greet them.

"Mario! Luigi! I'm glad you came!" Peach said in an energetic voice. She approached Mario and gave him a kiss in each cheek and then did the same thing to Luigi. "Please take a seat".

She then turned to Toadsworth, "You may leave, Toadsworth. Thanks for bringing our guests".

"It was no problem Your Highness" he said bowing as he did that morning. "I'm going to take a bath if you don't mind". And with that, he left through the door closing it with a small cracking sound.

Mario, Luigi and Peach started chatting. After a few minutes, several chef Toads entered with all kinds of foods and dishes ever imaginable. At the end of the fest, Luigi couldn't keep talking about how delicious the food was.

"Really, completely amazing!" Luigi said for fifth time, "the food was astounding delicious!"

"C'mon bro, get over it" said Mario joking.

"If you liked it so badly, would you like to go to the kitchens and ask the chef Toads for the recipes?" Peach asked smiling.

Luigi's reaction was hard to explain. He looked as if Peach had just told him that he had won one million Mushroom Coins. "For real?" he asked looking excited. Mario, who was eating a piece of Stardust Cake, choked a bit while he was trying to laugh.

"For real" Peach said resisting herself not to chuckle too. "Toad!" she called.

Quickly a Toad had appeared at the door. "Yes, Your Highness?" he asked.

"Please do me a favor to take Mr. Luigi here to the kitchens and gave him all the recipes of today's fest" she ordered.

"As you wish, Your Majesty" the Toad approached Luigi, "Please follow me, sir".

Luigi instantly stood up and followed the Toad looking as if he were on heaven. Now only Mario and Peach were left in the room.

For some reason, Mario was looking very nervous. Peach noticed it and stared at him. When Mario noticed she was staring at him, his cheeks flushed red.

"Mario…? Are you okay?" Peach asked a bit worried.

"Mhmm? Oh, yes, yes, I'm fine…" he answered nervously. He drank a gulp of water before saying: "I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh," she said turning red too, "well, go ahead, what is it?"

"I…" Mario started saying but suddenly the door burst open. A scared-looking Toad stepped inside.

"Princess Peach! Something…something awful has happened!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" Peach said starting to worry," Speak up!"

"It's Toadsworth…he… he has been kidnapped!" he said very scared.

Without saying a word, Peach quickly went out of the room and started running up the big marble staircase that led to the second floor. Mario immediately followed her upstairs. He had no clue where she had gone. After a few moments, she found her; she was in the Jacuzzi Room.

As Mario entered, he was astonished of the look in front of him. The water flooded the bathtub completely, as all the pipe wrenches were open. Several pieces of shattered glass were floating in the water. Mario looked up; the window was completely broken. It seemed that the captor used it to escape. It was too much for Peach to see; she fainted making a dull sound when she hit the floor. Suddenly Luigi arrived from behind.

"What has happened?" he asked innocent-looking, "Did I missed something?"