Princess Peach was running hand in hand with her dear friend Mario on the grassy green lawn of her castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. They had just had a grand day together and had eaten their picnic lunch and now they sat down and rested upon the soft bank of the Mushroom River and watched the fish swimming within it.

"Come here fishy," Mario looked into the water and spoke in his boyish Italian accented voice. "Here fishy!"

The princess giggled. She gazed into the deep blue sky with its puffy white clouds which glistened in the sunshine. "It's a really beautiful day today," she said contentedly.

"It is... although not as beautiful as you are," Mario said, looking upon the princess with loving eyes. He moved closer beside her and thus caught the scent of her freshly washed blonde hair. "Ahh... you smell like peaches with cream... I love peaches and cream."

"Thank you," she said with a smile, "and you smell like warm pasta and sauce... I like it, I really do."

"Thank you very much," Mario said, smiling sweetly.

He inched just a bit closer to her then and gazed deeply into her soft rosy-cheeked face and blue eyes which seemed to refine the color blue and her full red lips and he then felt the sudden wish to kiss her. He inched closer to her... slowly... slowly... and then...

He gasped and looked up suddenly as the sky above them had become completely dark without warning and now they saw dark gray clouds rolling billowing in the wind which had suddenly become cool and gusty and he also heard thunder and saw a bolt of lightning flash across the sky. For a moment he thought it was the sign of an oncoming storm, but then he saw something much worse, he saw the dark gray clouds start to swirl together and take on the form a ferocious looking dark gray beast which seemed like a cross between a rhinoceros and a horse as it stood solidly on the clouds while upon its large back was the specter of a terrifying person clothed in black robes with a long hood concealing his face.

The fearsome figure dismounted its steed and stood towering above them and appeared to concentrating its narrow and menacingly glowing red eyes on the princess and it reached out with long, greenish, bony hands coming out of the sleeves of its robes and as it seemed to be pointing them in their direction red sparks shot out of the fingertips and the wind became threateningly violent and a swirling vortex formed which began to pull at the princess who clung desperately onto Mario.

"Mario! Save me!" cried the princess as the wind caught her in a numbing cold grip and pulled her forward violently.

"Hold on!" exclaimed Mario as he clutched onto her wrists with all his strength.

The wind became worse and worse and pulled harder and harder on the poor princess. Mario remained firm in his grip but he suddenly lost his hold on her left hand and then a sudden blast of wind knocked him backwards and her hand was wrenched away from his.

"Mario! Mario! Help!" the princess screamed as she was being helplessly sucked in to the swirling vortex.

Mario watched in horror as the princess was consumed by the vortex and disappeared into the sky. The evil sorcerer in the clouds spread his arms out and cackled vilely. "Now the princess is gone, and this time you will never be able to rescue her, Mario!" he thundered maliciously and then vanished in a blast of light and smoke.

Mario looked around and found himself totally alone and surrounded in darkness with the dark sorcerer's words echoing through his mind and he suddenly felt something he had never really felt before. He felt afraid.

"NO!"

"Mario, wake up! You are dreaming, bro!"

Mario felt himself being shaken awake by his younger brother, Luigi. He gasped as he sat up panting rapidly with his eyes wide open. "Luigi! The princess is in danger!"

Luigi smiled sympathetically. "You were dreaming again," he said. "The princess is fine, you're just worried and anxious about when she'll be kidnapped again. Now clean yourself up and I'll be downstairs cooking breakfast."

As Luigi left Mario continued staring wide-eyed as he looked around his room. Everything was perfectly normal and all his familiar surroundings were in their places. He uncovered himself and got out of his bed and looked at the pictures on the left side of his nightstand. The first one was of he and his brother when they had been young children and the second one close beside it was of them together with the princess in front of her castle, this one was from a few years ago as Mario was round and plump in it and now he was just stocky.

He sighed as he shook his head and put a hand to his forehead. Right now it really did seem like it had been just a dream like Luigi said, and yet somehow he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that something really was wrong. The image of the evil sorcerer and how he had snatched the princess and pulled her out his grasp was very vivid in his mind's eye.

He hoped the terrifying images of the dream would wear off as the day wore on as he stepped the shower and washed himself and tried to soothe his troubled mind. He then went to his closet and saw his multiple choices of red or blue shirts and red or blue overalls and he soon chose the red shirt with blue overalls.

When he went downstairs he found Luigi setting the table with a glass of milk for each of them and plates of spaghetti and meatballs with extra garlic sauce. He sat down and began eating and tried to talk to his brother.

"Luigi, you're right. I did a have a bad dream... but it was so real!"

Luigi swallowed and said "Well, we know the princess is almost always getting kidnapped. We've got the Donkey Kong, we've got the Koopas, we've got the Bowsers. It happens so much it's crazy ridiculous! But it keeps us busy."

"This one was different," Mario went one, becoming serious. "It seemed I was actually with her and she was with me, I could see and hear her and I almost kissed her when everything went all dark like it was gonna storm and then... then this dark evil figure wears black robes and a hood appeared in the clouds riding a monstrous beast... he had red eyes which glowed in the dark and seemed to be looking right through me and... I was... afraid."

Mario looked at his brother's reaction. Luigi was staring at him with his eyes wide and unblinking. "Go on," he said, deeply interested.

"Then he made the wind grow strong and fierce and it pulled the princess right up to him. I tried to hold onto her but I couldn't, and then he told me she was gone and I couldn't do anything this time."

For a few moments there was silence as Luigi looked thoughtful and Mario looked reflective. Then Luigi reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder and spoke to him with sympathy, understanding, and concern. "We must remember that dreams are not real and cannot hurt us, and when the princess is in any trouble we will always be here to save her."

Mario nodded and tried to smile. Then they ate up their breakfast, brushed their teeth, and left to visit with the princess.

At the castle, Mario and Luigi had a picnic with Princess Peach and then they played games and had such a good time together Mario forgot about his nightmare, at least until the afternoon came and he and Peach sat down by the river bank watching the fish and enjoying each other's company.

Mario sat closer to her and caught the scent of her hair. "Ahh... you smell like peaches with cream," he said.

"Thank you," she smiled, "and you smell like warm pasta and sauce... and I like it, I really do."

He smiled warmly and felt somehow they had said these to each other before. He sat closer to her slowly, and closer... and closer... until their lips were an inch apart... and then he suddenly had a feeling of dread welling up inside him and he turned his gaze up and looked at the deep blue sky with its white baby clouds which were lit by the sun. He couldn't seem to find anything wrong with it and felt a tremendous sense of relief.

"Look at that cloud up there," said the princess looking up with him. "It looks like Yoshi."

"And the one up there looks like a horse," he said. "No, it looks more like a..."

Then he gasped in horror at the sight before him. The blue sky altered to dark gray and a rhinoceros like beast appeared from the clouds with a tall, dark robed, hooded figure with glowing red eyes riding upon it.

Mario's nightmare instantly returned to him completely and he held the princess tightly in his arms. "Hold onto me, Peach," he said.

"Mario, what is happening?" asked the princess fearfully.

The evil sorcerer reached out and conjured a swirling dark vortex out of the blustery wind and began pulling the princess towards it.

"Peach, hold onto me! I can't lose you!" he exclaimed above the howling wind as the princess's feet were lifted off of the ground and she was pulled forward against her will.

"Mario, save me!" Peach screamed as she clung desperately onto him.

Mario held onto her, and he heard a voice which seemed to come from nowhere, it said let go, Mario, you know it's no use! But he still held on tight. Then he suddenly felt himself being knocked backwards with a mysterious force and it caused him to release his hold on the princess.

He sat on the ground and watched in helpless horror as the princess was sucked into the vortex and vanished. Above him the evil sorcerer closed the vortex as he cackled with malicious pleasure and said "Now the princess is gone and you will never be able to save her this time, Mario!" before vanishing in a blast of light and dark smoke.

With the evil wizard's departure the wind calmed and the clouds dispersed and the sky became clear and blue again and Mario was left in a state of complete shock.

"Mario! Peach!" Luigi called out as he came running up to his petrified brother. "Mama mia, what just happened!"

"Well, you saw everything," Mario said as he stood up not quite recovered yet. "Now do you believe me?"

"I do, and I'm sorry," said Luigi, his voice filled with regret and sorrow.

Mario looked at Luigi and felt angry, not at him, but at what had just happened for he had no idea of who the evil sorcerer was or what he had done with Peach and where she was now and what he had to do to save her.

Just then Luigi pointed towards the sky and exclaimed "Mario look up there! What's coming at us?"

Mario looked up and saw what appeared to be two clouds floating out of the sky and zooming towards them, as they came closer he began to see there were about three fuzzy creatures riding in each one and when they came within reach he saw they looked a lot like teddy bears with symbols on their tummies.

The two cloudcars landed abruptly in front of them and the colorful bear like creatures all jumped out of them and reddish-brown one who seemed to be their leader approached Mario and said "Greetings, we are the Care Bears and you must be Mario and Luigi."

"Why, yes, we are. How did you know?" Mario asked in surprise.

"We've heard all about you," replied the Care Bear leader, "and Princess Peach and how you've always rescued her from danger, and now that No-Heart has kidnapped her things will be much more difficult."

"No-Heart? Is that the name of the evil wizard who kidnapped the princess?" asked Mario.

"You know him?" asked Luigi.

"We do. He is a heartless dark lord who wants to rid the world of caring and has been an enemy to us for many years, and now he has become an enemy to you two, too. You see, we knew about his kidnapping of the princess and what he intends to do to her, but you are the only ones who can save her and we cannot tell where she is exactly, all we can do is send you to where you need to go first on your journey of rescuing her from the darkest place of all."

"Then please do," said Mario, ready for adventure. "I've saved the princess many, many times and no dark lord is going to stand in my way! I can take on any challenge he gives me! I can jump across any obstacle he throws in my way!"

"It's all very well for you to say so," said the Care Bear with precaution. "But you see, No-Heart is not like any other enemy you've ever had to face before and he will be the baddest of all. His obstacles and challenges go beyond the physical realm, he preys on your thoughts and your feelings themselves and it will take much more than jumping, climbing, and dodging to escape him. You will need to use... yourself."

"What do you mean?" asked Mario. "How can I use myself against No-Heart?"

"Well, first you will need this," said the Care Bear, and the red heart on his tummy began to glow and it made a duplicate of itself and floated freely in the air towards Mario and it landed on his chest where it seemed to become one with him.

"This will be your symbol that represents you," the Care Bear continued. "You will use it just we do in times of great need and stare with it."

"Stare with it?" asked Mario wonderingly.

"You see, No-Heart has no heart at all but we do and so do you and when you face him your must be filled with light and you must not think any bad thoughts for those are what will make him stronger and harder to defeat. To make your heart glow you mustn't show fear or anger you must show love. Just think about the love you have for your brother and the love you have for the princess and turn it onto him."

"I see," said Mario. He tried it and at once it made his heart light up.

"There you see," said the Care Bear, "and if any darkness, doubts, or fears should enter you your heart's light will dim and weaken and can even go out completely."

"What about Luigi?" asked Mario. "I couldn't possibly take on this adventure without my best buddy and brother."

The Care Bear smiled. "Of course not. We'd never forget him," and the heart on his tummy glowed once again and duplicated and floated to Luigi and landed itself onto his chest where it turned green while Mario's had remained red.

"Now, remember," the Care Bear continued, "when you both put your hearts together your stares are twice as strong, and you can also easily light and dark energy between each other so be careful."

"We will be," promised Mario. "Let's go!"