I- Possible Threat

The next morning, Prince Mario had recently finished eating breakfast was on his way to the throne room.

He soon reached the throne room and walked through the large doors. There was Toadswarth, who was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Nintendo, and his younger brother, Luigi, who run the kingdom along with him.

Luigi smiled. "Good morning, dear brother." he greeted. "Ready to start our day?"

"You know it." Mario walked over to his throne to the left and plopped down on it, while Luigi sat on his throne next to his brother's.

Chancellor Toadswarth stood before the Princes of Nintendo. "Very good," he began. "So Your Highnesses, are we ready to begin our busy day?"

Luigi smiled and nodded. Mario just simply nodded.

Toadswarth cleared his throat and gave Luigi a scroll. "Prince Luigi," he said. "I believe it is your turn to fill out some paperwork." Luigi had unrolled the paper, and it was a long list of thins needed to be signed, for it had reach all the way to the floor.

The green prince sighed. "This will take me all day to finish." he rolled the paper back up and got out of his throne. "Off to my office with me." he smiled. "See you later bro." He turned and walked out through the door.

Toadswarth straightened his bowtie. "And now for Prince Mario." he handed Mario a scroll. "Here is your errand for today." Mario unrolled the paper, and that too was a long list, just not as long as Luigi's. He read what was written at the top.

"Preparations for Nintendo Kingdom ball…" he quickly went through the list. "Toadswarth, this will take me the rest of the week to get done."

"And you only have but three days to-"

"Three days?" Mario blurted before Toadswarth could finish his sentence. "You can't be serious!"

"Oh, but I always am, your Highness."

Mario shot up from his throne. "This is an outrage! Three days? That's only enough time for half of the list to be completed! Maybe not even!" Mario rolled the paper back up. "Is there any way the ball can be delayed?"

"Oh no, your Majesty. The ball must be this Friday. Besides, we have delayed long enough already."

"I don't care." Mario threw the scroll in his throne. "I demand that the ball is postponed to a later day!"

"But you can't do that." Toadswarth said.

Mario glared angrily at him. "Who are you to tell me no? And why not?"

"We have very important people coming to the ball, Prince. It wouldn't do any good to have their plans cancelled for nothing."

"And it wouldn't do any good to make me angry. Now would it, Toadswarth?"

"Prince, please-"

"I'm done arguing, Toadswarth." Mario picked up the scroll and sat down. "I want that party cancelled, and cancelled right now."

Toadswarth sighed. "Very well, prince. Let me see what I can do…"

"Oh no no no, It's what you will do."

Soon Toad, captain of the palace guards, bolted into the throne room with a rolled up sheet of paper. Wario, the sailor, followed behind him.

"Pardon me your Highness for interrupting your argument." Toad said. "But this is really urgent news, and you must simply hear this."

Mario's eyes darted at the Toad. "And I hope that's not impudence I'm hearing from my top guard."

"No impudence whatsoever, prince." Toad bowed. "But this is troublesome news I have for you."

"Very well, speak quickly." Mario folded his arms. "I have a lot of things to do today."

"Of course, sire." Toad held up the paper. "We found this on General Dry Bowser's ship last night." he looked at it. "I myself aren't sure what it is, but-"

"Let me see that." The Toad walked over to the prince and handed him the paper. Mario opened it, it was a map of the whole land. It was even written on, it revealed secret routes to…to the castle.

And there was more. Over to the other side of the land, the map, was supposed to be the Kingdom of Sega. None of them had ever set foot in that land, and no one from Sega had ever came to Nintendo. And supposedly Sega was different from Nintendo. Their prince was supposed to be a hedgehog they say, and it does seem a little strange that their ruler was not human, but an animal. Anyway, there were arrows drawn in that direction, and some pointing towards Nintendo as well. There were two other castles circled too. One of them was Bowser's, the evil Koopa King who for years tried to take over the kingdom. The other castle was unknown.

Mario's eyes widened as he studied the map. After a minute he closed it back up, he closed his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead. "This is bad…" he muttered. "Really bad…"

"What is it your royal Highness?" Toadswarth asked.

"Apparently, Bowser might be planning an invasion soon on the kingdom, with the help of a friend of his who is going after Sega."

"What?" Toad exclaimed. "Sega too?" Mario nodded.

Wario had taken off his hat at the time. "This is bad news. What should we do?"

"Shall we gather some troops and began an attack?" Toad asked. "If we defeat the Koopa King's army now…"

"I don't think we should go after the Koopa King yet." Mario said. "Let's at least wait a little while first and see what Bowser does first." he sighed. "I guess that party doesn't sound too bad now."

"Forgive me for speaking out, your Highness." Toad said. "But I really don't think this is the time for any kind of party."

"Well, not like that. I was thinking we could use this party as a cover-up to sneak over to the Sega lands and speak to their prince."

Toadswarth was as pale as a ghost. "Oh dear me…"

Wario's eyes grew wide. "How, sire? How are we supposed to reach the kingdom during that time?"

"Well, we can't let anyone know about this. Not yet." Mario said. "This is between the four of us, and the four of us only. Toad and I will sneak over while the party goes on here. And Wario, you should come with us too."

"But your highness," Wario said. "You are the prince of Nintendo. Wouldn't you think people would expect to see you here?"

"There's still Luigi." Mario shrugged.

"But you're still higher than Prince Luigi, prince." Toad said. "People will still wonder where you might be. Especially Lady Peach."

"We have to reach that kingdom somehow. It is important I speak to their prince right away." Mario paused. "Toadswarth, I want you to make that party tonight."

Toadswarth almost completely froze. "But your Highness! There's so many things that need to be done! We'd have to skip this, and skip that, and-"

"Just do it Toadswarth." Mario sighed. "Besides, this is for the good of the kingdom. And, we'd finally get it over with too. So you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore."

The chancellor sighed. "Very well, I suppose. But wouldn't you think the Prince of Sega would have retired to his chambers by then?"

"We'll leave early then!" the prince exploded. "We'll leave for the Kingdom of Sega before dusk. And hopefully, we'll be there by dusk." he stood up with the map rolled up in his right hand. "Toadswarth, have the whole castle take part of this so the preparations will be ready in time. As for myself, it is nice out so I will be taking a stroll out in the courtyard. I do need this time to think things through." with that, Mario marched out the throne room past everyone else.

They watched him for a while, then Toad said. "I guess we'll just have to watch Bowser for now until we know exactly when to strike. But of course," his gaze switched to Wario. "we need a few plans first. Let's just see how the Prince's idea goes. We do have plenty of time anyway." he started walking out the room with Wario following him. And as they walked out, Wario muttered something to the guard, who slowly shook his head.

Toadswarth watched. "Oh how slow I feel right now."