"The docks are this way!" Daisy said. "C'mon!"

The fighter fly guards stood to attention as she passed through the halls of Sarasaland palace with her minions Waluigi and Wanda in tow. She dodged around guests and servants and was struck by how crowded the court was that day. Gao lion delegates from the Birabuto kingdom were lounging and grooming themselves while batadons, stone faces with wings from Easton Kingdom, fluttered around wearing official looking hats. There were even fishbowls containing yurarin seahorses from Muda being hauled around by gunion octopi. An entire graveyard's worth of Chai Kingdom pionpi zombies were milling around and blocking the way forward.

"What's the hold up!?" Daisy said, elbowing her way through the crowd. "Who said you lot could loiter in here?! Beat it!"

The smarter zombies shuffled out of the way, thinning the crowd enough to reveal Daisy's father chatting with the riffraff.

"Oh! Daisy!" he said, approaching her. "What a relief. I was starting to worry you would not show up!"

She stared at him, before turning to look back at the roomful of ambassadors from the four kingdoms. A sinking feeling welled as she realized what was going on.

"Wait, what?! The council meeting is supposed to be next week!"

Father wrung his hands. "Hiyohoi called an emergency early meeting not long after you left this morning."

"And he didn't see fit to send me notification?!"

"Here it is." Father withdrew a sealed envelope from the sleeve of his robe and handed it to her. "I tried looking for you at Marina Stadium, but they said you left."

Daisy threw her head back and face palmed. "Why didn't you call me on my cell phone?!"

"I, uh…" He looked away, sheepish. "I still don't know how to work that thing." His eye drifted toward Waluigi and Wanda, perhaps wanting to talk about anything else. "Who are these fine guests you've brought with you? I don't believe I've been acquainted."

"What? Oh, well…" Daisy froze. The last thing she wanted to do right now was introduce Waluigi to her father, or anyone else for that matter. Before she had a chance to come up with an excuse, Waluigi marched up to her father and performed a deep and elegant bow.

"Your Highness," he said. "I am Waluigi, firstborn son of Commander Reverie of Subcon. It is an honor."

"Oh my," father looked impressed. "You're a long way from home, aren't you? How did you come to associate with my daughter?"

"The princess has elected to take me on as counsel on a trial basis." Waluigi was speaking with such uncharacteristic dignity Daisy could hardly believe it. "It is my aim to ensure she is best prepared for today's proceedings. Wah."

"And what about you, young sprixie?" Cypress said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Wanda!" she said. "I don't know what's going on!"

Father let out a warm laugh. "Politics are like that. I know how you feel."

"Okay everyone shut up!" Daisy said, tearing up her emergency meeting notice. "Where's Hiyohoi?!"

"Hm? He's talking to the other kings in the throne room I think."

Daisy spun on her heel and charged that way. The others did their best to keep up. Mario was probably out there collecting dream gems left and right while she was stuck here cleaning up this mess. She crashed through the double doors of the throne room and spotted Hiyohoi lining up his trophies to show off to the three other kings.

"Buh?!" He dropped his skeeball trophy onto the floor. "Ah, Princess. …so good of you to join us."

"Drop the niceties, Hiyohoi. If you're gonna steal my crown, at least have the decency to do it when I'm home!"

"Tradition knows what's best for Sarasaland," Hiyohoi said, placing his trophy back on the table. "The greatest champion should rule. I think it should be clear to everyone here that your time is past."

The servants seated Daisy at a round table with Waluigi and Wanda on either side of her. Across the table were the four kings: Totomesu, an overgrown cat in a headdress, Biokinton, a big puffy cloud with button eyes, Dragonzamasu, a massive spiky seahorse, and that punk Hiyohoi.

"Unless you're holding out on us, I still only see twenty trophies," Daisy said. "Did you really bully everyone into showing up early just so you could stage a coup?"

"Yeah! What gives?!" shrieked Dragonzamasu, sloshing water over the rim of his massive fishbowl onto the floor. "Do you even know how much of a hassle it is to get here from the Sea of Muda?!"

Hiyohoi shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I got a good reason for calling you out like this." He pulled out a stack of papers and slapped them onto the table. "Here it is."

Everyone leaned over the table to look. It appeared to be a top 10 list printed off the Koopa Kronicle news website, complete with sidebar ads and misaligned text.

"This here is list of the top 10 of the best Kingdoms on the whole planet."

King Totomesu squinted at the print-off. He was a giant fire-breathing lion with no hands, so he did not browse the Internet often. "And this… listicle… is a problem?"

"You bet your sarcophagus it is!" Hiyohoi said. "If you look, we ain't even on the blasted thing!"

Daisy grit her teeth as she leafed through the pages. He was right. Sarasaland did not get so much as a foot note but the Mushroom Kingdom sat comfortably at the top. It made her skin itch thinking about it.

"Do I have to be here for this?" Wanda said.

"There's crayons in the drawer if you're bored," Daisy said.

"AS YOU CAN SEE," Hiyohoi said, "Our current princess here is leading us down a path of ruin. It is time for a change. Vote for me to be the new princess, and I promise you Sarsaland will get the respect it deserves!"

"Um." Biokinton bobbed in the air, trying to work up the nerve to say something. "If I vote for you, do you promise not to yell at me?"

Daisy slammed her hands on the table, startling him. "If you vote for Hiyohoi, I will MAKE A POINT to yell at you."

"Eep!"

King Totomesu swished his tail and growled. "The rank of Princess is assigned by merit. It does not sit well with me that you would rush a vote like this."

"Oh." Hiyohoi drummed his stony fingers on the table. "Well, my bad. Sorry you feel that way. But hey, y'know, since we're all already here anyway, maybe we should just go ahead and vote."

"No!" Daisy stopped herself from jumping onto the table. "You did this on purpose! I've got a whole tournament lined up to prove how much of a princess I am! Just wait until next week like normal!"

"You want me to come back out here again?!" Dragonzamasu screamed, splashing everyone with saltwater. "Absolutely not! Just get this over with!"

"Alright!" Hiyohoi said, seizing on the opportunity, "Everyone in favor of me as princess say aye!"

"Aye!" Dragonzamasu said.

"Aye!" Hiyohoi said.

"Nay!" Daisy said on reflex, panicked.

"Nay," Totomesu said, which came as a huge relief.

All eyes turned toward Biokinton, who balled up and began to sweat in response to the attention.

"Hoo boy," the cloud said. "I, um. That is… I don't like being under all this pressure."

Hiyohoi leaned across the table, putting on the fakest smile Daisy had ever seen. "Listen puffball. Put me in charge and I promise to be nice to you."

"Oh, that sounds pleasant."

"Wait, hold on!" Daisy said. "I can promise to be EVEN NICER!"

"Hm. That could be even better."

"You don't believe that do you?" Hiyohoi said. "She threatened to yell at you earlier."

"That's true," Biokinton said. "Daisy is a very loud princess and that's pretty scary. Hum! I just don't know what to do!"

Daisy wracked her brain. If she did not think of something quick, that whiff of air was about to hand her kingdom over to that stone-eye bozo. She looked around, desperate for help or some sort of idea, but only saw Wanda who was not even paying attention. She was coloring in a nice flower she had drawn.

Waluigi's chair scraped against the floor as he stood up.

"Your attention, please," he said. "I motion that this vote be postponed until the prior appointed council meeting."

"And just who are you anyway?" Hiyohoi said.

Waluigi sneered. "The current royal advisor." He turned his attention to Totomesu. "Your grace, I sense you are an honorable gao. I trust you agree that it would be better that the ruling princess earn her title rather than win by some clandestine vote."

Totomesu grunted in agreement.

"And you." Waluigi addressed Biokinton. "It is an unimaginable burden to decide the fate of a whole kingdom. Put off this vote until later and it may not be your choice to make."

"That's a good idea!" Biokinton said.

"Very well. All in favor of postponing the vote?"

"Aye!" said Daisy, Totomesu, and Biokinton.

"Nay!" said Hiyohoi and Dragonzamasu.

"Motion carries by majority," Waluigi said. "We will reconvene this time next week. If Daisy can return with a new trophy, the matter will be considered closed."

The meeting was adjourned. Dragonzamasu was wheeled away, grumbling, and Hiyohoi would no doubt do everything in his power to butter up Biokinton for next week. But Daisy could exhale now. There was time.

Waluigi relaxed as they left the throne room. He slid back into a crooked hunch and the strange air of respectability washed away. He was the dangerous weirdo she was familiar with again.

"That was…" Daisy said to him. "Wow. I didn't know you had that in you."

He smirked. "I am full of surprises."

"This is the part of the job I hate," she confessed. "Dealing with all the infighting and squabbling."

Waluigi shrugged as they stepped out onto the salty air of the docks. "It's just politics," he said. "It's just another kind of game. Once you figure out the rules, you play to win."

"Huh," she said. Daisy never thought of it that way. It was a much more fun way to look at it.

"The boat's this way, right? I want to see it!" Wanda said, fluttering ahead. "Whoa!"

The Daisy Cruiser towered over the palace docks, floating on the bay connecting out to the open ocean. It had three stories, but most of that was taken up by the go-kart course and the baseball stadium. She called in the order to set sail and tokotoko stone men, pionpi zombies, and gao lions all swarmed the deck in little naval uniforms to make ready. The three of them made their way to the bridge of the ship.

"Which way are we heading, Princess?" the Captain Pako asked, who happened to be a gunion octopus in a fancy hat.

"Just a sec," she said.

Waluigi plucked the face of the Sundream Stone out from his overalls. It gasped for air in distress.

"Ohh!" Sunny said. "Thank the Stars. It was horrible in there!"

"Hey plate face," Waluigi held Sunny up over the bow of the ship. "Which way is your dream gem?"

"What a lovely view! Hm! Okay. Turn me a little to the right. No, too much. There! That way!"

"South by southwest then?" The captain said.

"Perfect!" Daisy said. "Head that way until we hit something!"

Waluigi stuffed Sunny back down into his overalls, muffling him before he could scream.

"Yay!" Wanda said, flying up to pull the ship's horn. "Let's go!"

The ship let out a low rumbling tone as the ship parted from the harbor and ambled its way up full speed. Daisy and her companions went out onto the bow of the ship to watch the ship roll through the open water.

"I was going to betray you, you know," Waluigi said.

"Come again?" Daisy said.

"My plan was to run off with the dream gems and steal the credit first chance I got," he said. "I've changed my mind."

"Is that so?" she said. "And why is that?"

He leaned against the ship's railing; arms folded. "I figured you were just another spoiled royal brat. I got an idea now of what you do to hold onto your position. It takes a lot of drive and ambition. I respect that."

Daisy chuckled. "Well, I hate losing."

"Good," he said. "That's why I've decided to help you."

"Yeah?" Daisy was skeptical. "And now I'm supposed to believe this isn't a different sort of trick?"

Waluigi offered only a grin in response. That ought to have annoyed her, but she found herself smiling back. If there was anything she liked about this creep, it was how he kept her on her toes. There was something fun about that.

They turned toward the horizon as the ship picked up steam. They were well on their way to becoming heroes.