Disclaimer: "Super Mario" and all related characters, objects and settings are copyright to Nintendo. I do not own any rights.

Mario

Princess Peach's Castle was a nice place normally. It wasn't such a nice place after it had fallen back to the Mushroom Planet from the centre of the universe, as the entire place was a mess. The glass windows were smashed. The carpet was burned. The doors were unhinged, some on the floor in front of the doorways. The walls and ceilings were covered in holes. The paintings were crooked. In other words, complete mess. Don't even get me started on the bedrooms.

Either way, there was lots of work to do, and in every direction you looked, Toads were remodeling. There were ladders everywhere, most with Toads on them, painting the walls, replacing the glass in the windows, and much, much more – and while these Toads worked, the princess, Peach, the chancellor, Toadsworth and a few Toads were talking in the middle of the main hall.

This was the sight that greeted Mario when he walked into the castle after saving Princess Peach – and the castle, for that matter – from Bowser in the centre of the universe. Princess Peach turned to see him.

"Mario," she said, "come over here, we're just discussing some matters concerning Bowser and the extreme damage he's done this time."

Toadsworth was saying something about sending a squadron of Toads from the army to capture Bowser and take him prisoner. "Perhaps he would stop pestering us after some time in the castle's basement?"

A blue Toad wearing glasses to his left said, "No, that is too much a Bowser move, by boogity! Get me? I'm saying no to capturing of any sort, by boogity! I'm sure Your Highness would agree...?"

Toadbert looked at the princess. Peach sighed.

"Yes, Toadbert is very right." she said. "Either way, even if it serves him right, it's much too cruel for us to do something like that."

Toadsworth was aghast. "But my dear princess, it's been done to you several times! Surely we must take action before it happens again?"

Another Toad yelled out, "But wait! What happened to the security system we set up? Didn't that keep Bowser away?"

"In case you aren't aware, the entire castle was taken into space this last time! How can we possible set up such a security system to stop him doing that?" replied Peach.

Mario opened his mouth to say something, but just at that moment, a spaceship appeared in the sky above the castle. It was much smaller than the one that took the castle away – it wouldn't be able to lift the castle. But it soon flew in through a window that was just being replaced, sending the Toad who was replacing it flying, simultaneously breaking the new window pane – Mario wasn't interested in the window. He was more interested in what broke it.

A purple alien appeared inside a small glass dome, like one you'd find on the top of a spaceship in a cartoon, and surveyed his surroundings.

"At last," it said, "I'm back. Finally!"

Mario recognised that voice, there's no mistaking it. But where could he have seen this odd creature?

Toadsworth stared up at it. "Whoever could possibly arrive at a time like this? Begone, stranger!"

The alien ignored him. "Ah, this place... It looks so different! I guess it was time to do some remodeling in Sarasaland..."

I knew it, thought Mario.

As Mario had suspected, it was Tatanga the Mysterious Spaceman. In fact, Mario had only encountered Tatanga in Sarasaland, and only once – but contrary to Mario's hopes, Tatanga didn't stay gone. Actually, Tatanga did stay gone, only he meant to come back and accidentally ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Peach was fed up with this little purple spaceman. She walked a little closer to the alien, obviously rather angry. "This isn't Sarasaland! Now, leave us! Can't you see we've got enough trouble already?"

"You can't fool me!" shouted Tatanga gleefully. "My spaceship never gets a destination wrong! And why else would Mario –" he looked at Mario at this point – "be here? Answer me!"

"How dare you speak to the princess in such a manner!" Toadsworth shouted back, and this made Tatanga angry. Very angry.

"You asked for it."

Suddenly, dark clouds filled the sky above the castle. Toads all over the place had gone into hiding inside different rooms, and before Mario knew what was going on, Toadsworth tried to jab at him with his cane, almost killing him – but Mario's experience saved him. His instincts told him to jump to the side, missing Toadsworth's attack by a few centimetres. But why did Toadsworth, of all people, attack him? Mario tried to remember if Tatanga tried something like this before...

"Mario, from above!" cried Peach as she swatted an attacking Toad with purple spots and a yellow vest aside.

A yellow spotted Toad in a red vest tried to jump on Mario, but he threw his hands up in the air to block it. Thank goodness the princess wasn't acting strange as well. Another Toad with blue spots and a green vest tried a punch attack. Mario hopped up into the air and countered it by landing on the Toad's head. The Toads were advancing, and Mario was backing away as he tried to remember the last time Tatanga was on the planet, when it hit him. Hypnotism.

Mario backed into the princess. They were back-to-back and completely surrounded by hypnotised Toads. Tatanga flew down a little lower so that Mario saw him up-close for the first time since last time.

"I don't remember any mushrooms since my last visit," he said angrily, "and I don't like them one bit, with their stupidly strong minds."

Mario spotted a Toad with red spots and a blue vest that appeared to be trying to jump on him. He put his hands up to block the attack, but this was what the Toad had been hoping for. The Toad landed in front of Mario, and punched him in his now-vulnerable face, causing him to collapse backwards onto the floor behind him.

Mario opened his eyes one last time to see Toads swarming around him and the princess. He gave the Toads a pleading look, although he knew it was of no use, as consciousness was swept away from his grasp.

Peach

Princess Peach watched in horror as Mario went down at the wrath of the hypnotised Toads. The Toads, apparently quite pleased with their work, decided to stop attacking for a little while. Peach looked up to Tatanga, who was slowly flying in her direction.

"Well, well, well," bellowed Tatanga, levelling his spaceship with the princess. "If it isn't Princess Daisy!"

"It isn't Princess Daisy," Peach snapped.

Tatanga was quite taken aback by the remark. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me! I am not Princess Daisy, and this is not Sarasaland!"

Tatanga clicked his fingers, and Toadsworth swung his cane, hitting Peach and knocking her over backwards, onto the unconscious Mario. She tried to get up, but two Toads rushed over and held her down.

"You mean," said Tatanga, slowly and carefully, as if to make sure that Peach could understand him, "that after all this, you weren't lying about your identity?"

"Yes! You're in the Mushroom Kingdom, so why don't you just return to your home planet?"

A flash of annoyance crossed Tatanga's face, and Peach grew worried. Then, he laughed, and Peach grew more worried still. It was a horrible sound. If Cackletta's soul in Bowser's body was a Shroob, this is what she would sound like.

"The Mushroom Kingdom?" asked Tatanga incredulously, half to himself. "Well, what do you know? Tatanga assumed it would be difficult to attack this place. In fact, judging by the way the castle was trashed when I got here, I think I caught you off guard and got lucky."

By now, Peach was really, really worried, truly hoping this was so.

"Well, either way, I didn't recognise the place – or anyone here. I really thought you had given yourself a makeover because you were scared of me. Apparently, you're not Daisy." Tatanga stopped, as if to think. "That makes you Princess Peach, doesn't it? I've heard of you."

Peach struggled to free herself from the Toads' grip, but Tatanga suddenly clicked his fingers again, and the Toads tied her hands and legs together.

"Not thinking of going anywhere other than the destination, are you?" chuckled Tatanga. He turned to the Toads momentarily. "Mushrooms, you're dismissed!"

The Toads instantly passed out, every one of them. Tatanga flew closer to the princess. He opened the dome on the top of his ship, and held out a little cotton sack.

"I'm not getting in there," said Peach stubbornly, wearily glaring at the alien's eyes.

"Tatanga's afraid you don't have a choice," smiled Tatanga with fake sympathy.

He didn't hesitate to heft the princess into the sack and tie a band around the top. He then put the sack in one of the spaceship's compartments, closed the dome and flew away, out the window he came in.