Mario knocked on the door to Peach's castle. There was no response, so he tried again, this time harder.
"Hello?" He asked as he opened the door and walked inside. "Peach?"
The doors slammed shut behind him and his brother, scaring both of them. Luigi grabbed the door handles and pulled, but the doors didn't budge.
"I'll go find the key!" Luigi said. And with that, he ran off.
"Peach?" Mario asked again as he came into the main hall.
"Hello...Mario..." Her voice responded from behind the door at the top of the stairs.
"Peach!" Mario called, sounding pleased she was unharmed. "You're okay! You didn't answer the door, so I worried that something happened to you!"
"Mario...do you want to join a higher power?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to refold yourself anew?"
"What?"
"Yes or no, right or wrong, you will suffer the same fate anyhow."
"Mamma mia, Peach! What are you talking about?" Mario asked. "You're not making any sense!"
The carpet under him opened and dropped him down into the ground below. Literally. His head was stuck in the floor for a good few seconds. After getting unstuck, he looked around to find he had been tossed into a prison cell!
"How long has her castle had a prision?" He stood up, dusted himself off and waited. Maybe whoever's footsteps he heard were coming to free him and the few other people in there? Nope! Just the Goomba, Koopa Troopa, and the Shy Guy! Mario thought he was going to rot in there when he heard a voice.
"Hey..."
Mario looked around.
"You...there...with the overalls..."
"Hello?"
"Oh good! You can hear me! Listen, I'm a little stuck."
"Stuck? Where?" Mario asked the disembodied voice.
"I don't know. It feels like I've been shoved between two dimensions! Can you help me, disembodied voice?"
Mario walked over to a wall where the stone-patterned wallpaper was falling off a little on the top left corner. "Okie dokie, let's-a go!" He jumped up, grabbed the tip, and RIPPED the whole section of the paper off.
A short little girl with rose skin, dark red hair, and a crimson dress with black edges and a hat to match. Her boots matched as well, crimson color with black soles.
"Thanks!" She looked at the bare wall. "Uh...let's just pretend that was a portal to a different dimension, okay?"
"I'm Mario Mario!" Mario introduced. "What's your name?"
"Olivia Olivia!"
"Wait, your last name is your first name too?"
"Nope! I just thought we were saying our names twice!" She tried to open the barred door, with no avail. "We need to find another way out of here."
Mario walked over to the farthest right corner of the room and picked up a tan hammer. "Wahoo!"
"Ooh, it looks all big and smashy! Still no closer to getting out of here, however."
Mario broke a box on the top corner of the room, and a small entryway popped out from behind it. "Wahoo!"
"Oh! That was really smart of you!" Olivia complimented. "Let's get out of here, this castle is giving me the creeps!"
Mario left and ended up in the dungeon halls. Mario peeked into a small hole in one of the walls and saw Bowser hung defencelessly by a clothespin! He was wriggling around, trying to get free. There was a silhouette of what looked like something big and a smaller thing that kind of looked like a Shy Guy. The Shy Guy picked up a Goomba and tossed it over to the big thing, it snapping its jaws shut and reopening them! The Goomba looked unharmed, but he seemed a little confused at first.
"Hey Olivia, check this ou-"
The door opened, so Mario ducked behind some boxes. The Shy Guy walked out with the Goomba, a Hammer Bro., and the Koopa Troopa from before following behind it. The Shy Guy stopped just before leaving the dungeon and looked back at where Mario was hiding. They left after realizing nothing was there.
"Woah..." Mario said, gasping. "Didn't realize I was holding my breath there."
"That was an odd Shy Guy, don't you think?" Olivia asked.
Mario nodded. "I need to help somebody in this room before we leave."
"Okay!"
Mario walked inside and Bowser stopped. He was misshapen.
"Help me out of here, Mario!" He demanded.
"Okie dokie!" Mario grabbed onto his feet and yanked Bowser free.
"He poofed me!"
"Mamma mia!"
"I rushed my stupid regeneration so I could get back at him, but he hung me up like a wet towel!"
"I can just re-poof you so you can fix it."
"NO!" Bowser shouted. "It'll take too long! He already took out my army and he's coming for you and that Origami girl next!"
Mario glanced at Olivia, who was standing where the giant thing was at before.
"Where'd the...thing go?"
"I think it's a gem too." Bowser said. "He turned all small and that weird Shy Guy picked him up and walked away with it!"
"Can I poof you now?" Mario asked. "So you'll be ready to fight that big thing when it comes to it?"
"Hrmph." Bowser huffed. "Fine. Do it with that dumb hammer of yours."
Mario wacked Bowser with it, and he poofed back into his gem. "Let's-a go, Bowser." He picked it up and put it in his pocket. "Come on, Olivia. Let's get out of here!"
"Alright!" She said and started following Mario around again. "Hey, where'd the tiny grumpy guy vanish off to?"
Mario held up Bowser's gem. "Right here." Mario tore off another badly-placed sheet of wallpaper and exited the prison...