When Mario and Peach reached the top of the staircase, they were surprised to see that there was nothing at the top.
"What do we do?" Peach asked.
Mario looked all the way around him, then up at the ceiling. "Oh, a trapdoor!" A trapdoor was built into the ceiling. Mario tried to jump to reach it, but despite his incredible jumping abilities, he couldn't reach.
"Mario, let me climb up on your shoulders," Peach requested. Mario happily obliged. Peach climbed up on Mario's shoulders, and could reach the trapdoor to pull it down. She pulled herself up through the trapdoor into the ceiling, then reached back down to help pull Mario up. "Gee, Mario, you need to lay off the pasta!" She struggled, but they were both finally up.
This room was very dark. Mario fumbled around for a light switch. Peach found a thin cord dangling from the ceiling, and pulled it. The dim lights flickered on.
A small ghost-like monster, perhaps only two or three feet tall, stood in the corner. He looked like a tiny man with a sheet dangled over him, kind of like how kids dress up as ghosts for Halloween. Except this was no sheet. This was real. He had eyes and a mouth, he had on a blue party hat with red polka dots, and a blue bowtie. This was one incredibly bizarre creature. "Hey, go away! You're interrupting my 'me' time!"
"You..." Mario asked the monster, "are you the monster?"
"Yes, I most certainly am! I am Doopliss, master of magic and spells and stuff!"
"Oh, I bet he's the one who's turned the kind people of Twilight Town into pigs!" Peach accused.
Mario said forcefully, pointing a finger at Doopliss, "Why are you turning the people into pigs?"
"They're all so depressing and boring and dimwitted all the time," Doopliss said. "And so I thought, instead of wallowing in gloom, they might as well wallow in mud!" He started laughing. "And now they're pigs, get it?"
"That's mean!" Peach gasped.
Doopliss was shocked. "No, no, come on, it's fun!" He turned to Mario, and said, "Would you care to join me?"
Mario looked over at Peach, who was shaking her head. Mario said, "NO!"
"Turn those pigs back into people, you freak!" Peach demanded.
"What's this?" Doopliss asked, taken aback, "are you turning against me?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Mario said.
"Nobody turns against Doopliss! Fine! If you don't want me to have fun turning people into pigs, then I'll just have to find another way to have fun. Hmmm... I know the perfect way to have fun."
A purple ray of light shot from Doopliss' eyes, scanning Mario. Then, suddenly, Doopliss magically transformed into an exact duplicate of Mario. Then, Doopliss pulled the cord, and the lights went out.
Peach fumbled through the dark for the cord. Even though she couldn't see anyway, she closed her eyes so that the darkness didn't feel so uninviting.
When she found the cord, pulled it, and the lights came on, Doopliss and Mario were already out of the room. Peach was all by herself. She suspected that Doopliss had taken Mario out of the room. "Mario, where are you?" She was starting to get worried.
