Wendy looked in the mirror and saw her pink dress. "Hmm…I don't like it." She threw it behind her, along with several more dozen dresses. "I can't wear any of these dresses while shopping at the mall! Maybe there's more in the back of the closet that I missed…"

Wendy walked over to her closet door and opened it. Ludwig fell out of it and landed flat on his stomach.

"What the hell are you doing in my closet?"

Ludwig jumped onto his feet. "It's Mario! He's gone crazy! He tried to kill me!"

"He's always trying to kill us!"

"But it's different his time, he's eviler, brutal-er—he threw a grenade into my room! He's trying to kill us for good!"

"As if! Why would Mario act evil?" Someone knocked at the door. "Who is it?"

"It's-a me, Mario!" said a cheery Mario.

"See? He sounds fine."

"No! It's a trick! I swear, Wendy, if you open that door—"

"I'll open it, prove to you he's fine, and then we can bring him to Dad to see what he wants to do with him."

"DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" screamed Ludwig. He panicked and jumped into the pile of clothes Wendy had made after throwing them around.

Wendy opened the door to find Mario. His teeth were now sharp, and his eyes were glowing red. "Um…hi, Mario. Are you ok?"

"Fine." He grabbed Wendy by the neck and began to strangle her.

Ludwig peeked through a crack in the clothes and gulped as he watched Mario try to kill his sister. He took a deep breath, mustered up all the courage he had, and stood up from the pile of clothes. Quickly, he waved his wand and zapped Mario with it. There was an explosion of blue, and he disappeared.

Wendy fell onto the floor and gasped for breath. "You—you saved me?"

"…I guess so."

The two stood in the room for a few moments. Ludwig waited, as if she were going to say something. "What? I'm not going to say 'thank you' or something!"

Bowser and Larry ran into the room, while Morton pushed himself with his golf club, still in the mop cart. "I heard something! Was it Mario?" asked Bowser.

"Yeah! He tried to strangle me!" shouted Wendy.

"What—where is he? I didn't see him leave the room."

"I zapped him with my wand."

"…Did you kill him?"

"No. I used a teleportation spell."

Bowser was left speechless. "Teleportation spell?!" shouted Bowser. "As in he could be anywhere in the world?"

"Well, the first place I thought of was Peach's castle."

"…Oh no."

Peach sighed as she sunk into her throne. Toad looked at the princess with concern. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Mario is gone. He didn't come after I invited him over for cake, so I called Luigi, and he said that he hadn't seen Mario all day. I'm just worried."

"You want me to send out a search party?"

"That won't be necessary," said a voice. The doors to the throne room were thrown open, and Mario emerged.

Peach lightened up. "Mario!" But as Mario drew closer, she could see that he looked very different. A small koopa tail had now formed behind him. "Mario?"

Mario laughed. "It's me alright, princess." He raised up his club.