Mario woke up bright and early the following morning, before his alarm even went off. Outside his window, he saw it was still quite dark. The sky was a dark misty blue, and the sun was barely visible as the warm orange glow slivered over the horizon. Though the urge to stay in his warm bed was tempting, he knew he couldn't waste another second snoozing. Not when he had work to do.

Ever since he saved the Mushroom Kingdom...twice, with the latter being off-screen, Mario had become undeniably paranoid. Even with his successes, he knew it was only a matter of time before he would mess up. The kingdoms regarded him as their savior, when he was far from it. He won entirely by luck, not by his own raw talent.

He was a hero not because he wanted to be one, but because he had to be one. Even still, he was treated differently, like he was someone special. He pushed himself to be the best hero he could be, because he never knew what dangers would strike next.

Bowser was a big enough threat as is, and a new one at that. This was beyond fixing sinks and dealing with the harsh realities of living up to his father's impossible expectations. This was saving an entire world. And he wouldn't dare let anybody down.

Especially not his brother.

Luigi's kidnapping had haunted Mario ever since it happened. From the moment he stepped into this strange new world and greeted by the friendly, yet overeager Toad, Mario had been introduced to the horrors of the Darklands and their bloodthirsty and cruel ruler King Bowser. He had hid behind a confident grin and a hero's determination, but it had all been a facade.

He had been terrified. Who wouldn't be? His own brother was held captive by a dragon-turtle monster ten times his size. He heard all about him from Toad, and later the Princess. If he hadn't arrived in time...well, he didn't want to think about that.

Peach was the only one who knew of his true feelings. His stubborn plea for help had gone a long way, showing his loyalty to his brother. He would do anything for Luigi, even if that meant going through a painful obstacle course, fighting a gorilla wearing a tie and eating an ungodly amount of disgusting mushrooms. Either way, Peach saw his potential, and had consoled him during the time he and his brother were separated.

Even after the day had been saved, weeks had turned into months, and almost everything was normal, Mario still had frequent nightmares. He didn't dare tell Luigi for fear of burdening him, but they became more vivid as Mario's imagination took over. It didn't help that Luigi had adamantly refused to share any details of what had happened during his kidnapping, and as such Mario assumed the worst. Some nights he saw visions of Luigi being tortured in a dungeon, other times he saw him hanging over a sea of lava. The worst dreams he had were when he saw nothing, and could only hear his brother's distorted screams. Needless to say, it was rare that Mario had a good night's sleep.

He vowed he would protect Luigi no matter what, since they were tiny tots. And even with how menacing Bowser was, Mario would stay true to that promise.

Hence why he was preparing to train Luigi. He didn't love the idea of Luigi potentially hurting himself, but it was better he learn the world they were now living in-and how to defend himself in case of emergencies. Besides, Luigi had seemed so excited to use power ups, it would surely make up for Mario rescuing him so late. At least he hoped it would.

Mario threw off the covers and got ready to start the day. After a quick shower, he headed towards his closet to get dressed. The hat and overall closet was bursting with clothes, but Mario ultimately decided on his iconic red polo, cap and navy blue overalls. He was ready to start the day. Now it was time to check on Luigi.

Unlike Mario, Luigi loved sleeping in and would become unbearably irritable whenever he was woken up 'too early' for his taste. Still, Mario was feeling optimistic as he marched into his brother's room. He decided he needed to ease him into waking up.

"Buongiorno!" He hollered, his voice bouncing off the walls so loudly, it startled the birds outside . "Rise and shine! Let'sa go!"

Luigi shrieked at the noise, jumping so high in alarm that he hit the ceiling.

Mario chuckled. "Oops, ah…sorry."

Luigi shot him a murderous glare.

"It's time to wake up, Lu." He said, softer this time. "Remember how you said you wanted me to train you?"

Luigi looked over at his digital clock, which read 6:45AM. "No."

Mario sighed, heading towards the window. "I didn't want to have to do this. But you leave me no choice, bro." Very delicately, he slipped off the mint green curtains, and the sun's beams hit directly into Luigi's eyes. The plumber hissed like a cat, scrambling under a nest of blankets and pillows.

Mario nudged him with his glove. "Hey. Wake up, and I promise to buy you breakfast at Toadstool Café."

Luigi groaned and grumbled something unintelligible. "Give me five more minutes and it's a deal."

"You got it!"

True to his word, Luigi did begrudgingly climb out of bed with the promise of food and coffee at the café by their home. Except instead of five minutes, he took ten. He was definitely still a groggy mess, but Mario knew he would perk up soon. He just had to go through an hour or so of his green brother behaving like a zombie.

Mario breathed a comforting sigh, enjoying the sweet smell of morning dew. Even in the early hours of the morning, the Mushroom Kingdom was breathtaking. "It's such a beautiful day!"

"I don't know how you can stay so upbeat and chipper." Luigi said with a yawn. "I think we're the only ones awake."

Upon glancing around, his words seemed accurate. A few villagers were only now waking up and setting up their businesses. Most of the town was asleep, since the sun was only now rising.

"Don't worry," He said, fixing his brother's collar absentmindedly, and then swinging open the doors to Toadstool Café. "You'll thank me later once we get a head start on all that training!"

The café was mostly empty, with only one customer present. Mario cheerfully stepped to the counter, where the exhausted barista suddenly perked up.

"Omigosh!" She squealed. "You're Mario! The Mario!"

Mario pretended to turn around, before fixing his cap bashfully. "Heh, yeah?"

She turned her head and gasped at the sight of Luigi standing awkwardly behind him. "Both Mario Brothers are really here! During my shift! This is the best day ever! Wow, I can't believe this is actually happening."

"Thanks," he replied earnestly. "Can we have two coffees please? Cream and sugar for me, black for this one." He jabbed a thumb in Luigi's direction.

"Hey!" Luigi protested.

"I'm only kidding." he stuck his tongue out and turned back to the barista. "He wants a mocha."

"Sure thing!" She chirped.

They ended up at a booth in the back, Mario with a plate of waffles and Luigi with blueberry pancakes respectively. Mario had devoured his breakfast instantly, but Luigi seemed to be staring intently at his food instead of eating.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

Luigi nodded, still fixated on his plate, but he did make an effort to take a few bites.

"Is something wrong with the pancakes?"

"Oh no, it's fine. It's just...they're not as good as the ones I had with-" He stopped himself. "Nevermind."

Mario glanced around, noticing that more customers were coming in. Automatically he switched to Italian to prevent anyone from overhearing. "They're not as good as what?"

"As mama's, that's all." He changed the subject. "Thanks for teaching me about the power ups by the way."

"Hey, no problem. I figured it's about time you learned how to use them. Just to be on the safe side." He took a second to think. "It's still so strange that Bowser surrendered."

Luigi focused back on his pancakes, eating them quietly.

"Do you think there might be a reason?"

"Hm? Oh..." Luigi's cheeks reddened. "Maybe he didn't want to harm Peach?"

"He didn't seem to care about that when he fought us for the Power Stars. It's so weird. Regardless, he's still a threat."

"Maybe on the next adventure I can join you."

Mario paled, "Ehh...I dunno. I don't want you getting hurt. Learning about the power ups to defend yourself is one thing, but actually fighting with them..."

Luigi narrowed his eyes, "I can take care of myself."

"I know that!" He said. "It's just after all the hardships you went through, I'd rather you stay out of harm's way." Luigi's frown only deepened. "I'm not making this better, am I?"

"No, you're just doing the thing again."

"What thing?"

"The whole overprotective big brother thing." He grumbled. "Even though I perfectly handled Bowser all by myself."

"Yes, but you won't even tell me what happened while you were there!" Mario replied sharply, "Every time I ask, you look terrified! Clearly you needed me to save you." He instantly regretted his words once he saw how wounded Luigi looked.

"That's not-"

"I'm not blaming you, Lu. I would save you again and again, and you know it. I'm always going to be here for you."

"What I'm trying to say is, you don't need to save me again and again." Luigi switched back to English, determination in his eyes. "I want to help you."

"Alright...let's see how well you do with training, and we'll go from there."

Both brothers were much more eager to train once they were full of food and caffeine. Mario led the way to the castle gardens, where an obstacle course floated above them. It was as imposing as Luigi had expected, with platforms moving on their own, platforms that disappeared after taking a step, a swinging pendulum of spikes, piranha plants, thwomps and other dangerous creatures. At the end was a flagpole.

"No need to worry, it's not as bad as it looks." Mario said, jumping into the Warp Pipe to the top. Luigi reluctantly followed. Once they arrived at the imposing course, he added: "It's actually so much worse."

"Mamma Mia..." he uttered. "How did you get through this?"

"With power ups of course! I mean, it took me forever and I never actually completed it, but I would have done a lot worse without them."

"How many times did it take you to get through this?"

"That's not important." Mario dismissed, reaching into a blue pipe to reveal two mushrooms. "I figure we should start with the basics first. This is a Super Shroom."

"Ooh, mushrooms!"

Mario gagged. "Yup, we gotta eat this." With a grimace, he shoved the super mushroom in his mouth, chewing and swallowing it while fighting the urge in his gut to vomit it up. The transformation was brief, and since he was used to it, he accepted the elastic in his muscles extending as he grew into a taller, stronger version of himself. "Watch this." He smirked, running ahead and smashing a wooden block until it turned into nothing but dust.

Luigi's eyes widened, glancing back at his own mushroom. "So these are like steroids?"

He shrugged. "You could say that."

"Works for me." Luigi inhaled his mushroom without any hesitation. "Mm, okay that's actually delicious! Say, these don't have any weird side eff-'' He let out a scream.

"Ah shiitake, hang on!" Mario instantly was at his brother's side, guiding him through the pain. Luigi panted, biting back another scream as his arms grew. "It'll hurt for a second. Easy...breathe.'' Once it was complete, he patted his back. "Feel any better?"

"I feel...different. Stronger. But still weird." Luigi managed to find his balance with the assistance of a nearby railing. "Ugh..."

"Now I'm not gonna make you do the whole course yet. That's what Peach made me do." Mario pointed towards three individual levitating blocks, each one higher than the last. "I want you to jump to the lowest level, okay? The mushroom enhances your abilities, but it won't improve your jumping. Think of it as an extra boost."

Luigi took a leap of faith, fluttering in the air before Mario could finish his explanation and landed successfully on the top platform without wobbling.

Mario's jaw dropped in astonishment. "How did you do that?"

"I jumped."

"No, you did that whole fluttering thing! How in the ..." Mario blinked. "How come you can jump higher than me? You have bad knees!"

"What can I say? I'm just way more agile than you," Luigi boasted, taking another jump to a different platform. Unfortunately for him, that block disappeared instantaneously. He had time to look down in shock, before gravity took over and caused him to plummet straight to the ground and into the gardens. For a moment Mario was concerned, until he saw a very irritated Luigi pop his head out from the flowerbeds.

"Wow, you really are more agile than me!" Mario covered his mouth, to hide his laugh. "You even managed to stick the landing!"

Luigi silently sulked back into the Warp Pipe. When he returned, he crossed his arms and huffed. "How was I supposed to know that the floor was gonna disappear?"

"If it makes you feel better, I made the same mistake. Multiple times."

"It does." he replied with a smirk.

Mario chose to ignore that and presented another power up to his brother. "Check it out. Tanooki leaf!" The brown striped leaf wisped around the brothers, with Mario taking it. Now he was clad in a very familiar furry costume.

"You're a bear again!"

"It's a raccoon, ya goof!" Mario scoffed, running off the ledge and taking off into the sky with a joyous laugh. "Lu, I'm flying!" He spun his tail around and whooped, punching the next question block that appeared.

An identical leaf fell and landed on Luigi's hat. However, instead of turning him into a tanuki, triangular ears perked up on his brother's head, a bright orange color with peach inside. His fur color was a mix of golden and white, and his tail was extremely fluffy.

Luigi kept his eyes shut. "Am I still alive?"

"Yes! And you're a fox!" Mario exclaimed, still hovering in the air. "A ...kitsune? I have no idea."

"I'm not sure how I feel about this." He muttered, staring intently at his new tail. "Or the implications."

"Nah, don't think about it," Mario replied. "All you need to do now is fly!"

Luigi gulped. "Fly? Me?"

"Sure, it's not that hard. You just gotta jump off the ledge."

"That doesn't come naturally to me!"

"Come on, it'll be fine." He fluttered down to reach his hand-paw out. "I'll be with you. We'll make it to the flagpole together."

Luigi hesitantly glanced down at the ground. "Mario..."

"Do you trust me?"

"Please don't quote Aladdin now I'm incredibly stressed." But he accepted Mario's hand and took a few steps forward-all without opening his eyes. His stomach dropped at first, but after a few seconds, he relaxed-despite the wind hitting his face.

"You're doing it! Now open your eyes, keep flying straight!"

Luigi did as he was told, and instantly regretted it. Flying was one thing. But becoming fully aware that he was suspended in the air, several miles up was downright terrifying.

He only managed to duck out of the way of an angry thwomp due to a brief moment of pure panic, causing himself to fly below the scowling stone face instead of being crushed by jt's massive form. With another gasp, he leapt onto another platform just in time. All he had to do now was head straight for the flagpole. He could do it!

He picked up some speed thanks to his tail, grinning eagerly as he prepared to land. He was so close.

"Wahoo! You got this Weegee! Wait, watch out for the-"

Until a Cheep Cheep suddenly splashed out of the nearby pond, smacking him in the face. Luigi cried out, his power up disappearing and causing him to tumble clumsily towards the ground once more.

Mario flew down to pick up his brother in a surprisingly graceful manner, taking him back to the start of the course for fear of him falling again.

"I probably should have mentioned that if you get hit by something, you lose the power."

Luigi frowned. "That would have been nice to know." He dusted himself off. "I'm gonna try again, and I'll get it right this time!'

"Wait, no, just-" He glanced back at the obstacle course wearily. When he had trained with Peach, all day and all night, it had taken a toll on him. Not to mention it was painful in so many ways. Deciding it would be best to move on, he suggested something else.

"Let'sa try another power up without the obstacle course." Mario jumped and hit another question block. The round plant with a red and yellow face and blinking eyes landed in his hand. He closed his eyes, letting the flames glow around him and transform his clothes. His overalls and hat became snow white. With a calculated smile, he shot a burst of fire into a piranha plant's mouth.

"A fire flower!" Luigi said.

"Yeah! Wait...you already know what it is?" He tilted his head. "How?"

"Oh, uh," He looked away, embarrassed. "Bowser showed me."

"Bowser showed you?!" He repeated, believing he was being teased. "Bowser. As in, giant evil turtle dragon? Yeah right!" Mario lazily wrapped one arm around him, shaking his head. "Come on, at least pretend to sound believable."

"Heh..." Luigi flinched, laughing with his brother in an odd way. "Yeah, I was only kidding! Obviously. I mean, why would Bowser teach me about that?"

He took the provided fire flower as a means to distract the conversation, and like Mario, his overalls and hat turned white. A brilliant bright glow appeared in his cupped hands. Though he felt a burning sensation tingling, it didn't hurt.

"Tag, you're it!" He tossed a fireball in Mario's direction, who dove to the ground in time to miss it.

"Mamma mia!" He gasped, the tips of his cap slightly singed. "Why would you-" He stopped once he saw Luigi's smug expression. His expression darkened. "Oh, you're going down."

They went back and forth, occasionally having to consume more flowers in order to keep their power ups. At this point they forgot about training and instead were fooling around.

Mario whooped, jumping to avoid a fireball heading straight for his head. "That'sa spicy meat-a-ball!" Before tossing another one at Luigi.

Luigi spun around and scoffed. "You're just making yourself look more like a stereotype!"

"New flash Lu: we already are! Now get your head back in the game!"

"I am!" But in his distracted state, he miscalculated his next throw. The fireball sped rapidly towards the castle's glass doors, where a startled Princess Peach had only just stepped outside.

"Oh!" She yelped, colliding into the doors just to dodge it. It burned right through the door's windows.

"Princess Peach!" exclaimed Mario, horrified.

"Oh my goodness, Princess, I am so so sorry!" Luigi rushed to her side, babbling strings of jumbled apologies incoherently. "It was an accident, I never meant to-"

With a calm smile and a quick adjustment of her crown and a swift smooth of her skirt, she said, "Very impressive."

"Please don't execute me, I will never do anything so foolish again. I promise!" He had crumpled to her feet, ready to beg for mercy. "Wait, huh? Did you just say impressive?"

Peach helped him stand, an amused expression on her face. "I did. You could have killed me easily with that throw."

"It was an accident, I swear!"

"Lucky for you, the Mushroom Kingdom outlawed public execution many moons ago." She replied nonchalantly.

Luigi looked about ready to faint, until Mario nudged him. "She's messing with you."

"Oh...good." He chuckled, still very scared of her.

"So, what brings you to my obstacle course on such a lovely afternoon?" Peach quiered.

Mario rubbed the back of his neck. "I wanted to teach Lu how to defend himself with power ups. Like how you taught me."

"The student becomes the teacher, I see your thought process. I don't think he needs much help though, judging by his recent display."

"Yeah..." He paused. "Hey, wait...you never said my training was impressive!"

Peach giggled. "We were in a hurry to save our worlds, Mario, there was no time for compliments. But...for the record I think you were impressive too. Once you got the hang of it." She winked, causing him to blush.

"I wouldn't have done it without you."

Peach's eyes went wide and she brushed her bangs aside shyly.

Luigi, who had been standing around watching the exchange, put a hand to his face.

"Anyway, you're free to use the course whenever you like it. Just as you're always welcome to visit." She assured them. "I love having you both come by! But warn me before using the fire flowers."

"Of course! Er- we should probably get out of your way for today though." Mario replied. "I'm sure you're very busy-"

"Actually, it's good that you stopped by." She said, filled with excitement. "I'm not doing anything, so perhaps you two would be willing to join me for some tea?"

"Just so we're clear, you aren't actually mad at me for accidentally killing you?" Luigi asked.

"Nope."

"Then yes, we would be happy to join you for tea, Princess."

With that, the brothers, Peach and Toad were sitting at a table with tea and sandwiches in hand.

"Look at us, the gang's back together!" Toad piped. The young mushroom man had not technically been invited, but he saw cucumber sandwiches being set up and happily pulled up a chair.

"Thank you for joining us, Toad." Peach said. "It's nice to spend time together, especially on such a lovely day. "But I didn't invite you all just to have tea." She paused for dramatic effect. "I have news!"

Mario and Luigi exchanged a glance.

"Good news." She clarified.

"Ohhhhh!"

"I received word from the six other kingdoms that Bowser invaded." She explained. "I wanted to do a celebration of sorts to mark our victory against him. So, long story short...I'm hosting a ball!"

"Woah! A ball? Like...a fancy party? With music and dancing and all that?" Toad asked, growing more exhilarated by the moment. "That's amazing!"

"Exactly! And all the kingdoms-including a bonus kingdom RSVP'd!" She beamed. "The bonus kingdom being Sarasaland. Bowser never invaded them, but they insisted on visiting too!"

"It sounds wonderful, Princess." Mario said. He knew for a fact that he did not have any formal attire for a party at the castle, but he couldn't possibly disappoint the Princess. "We'll be happy to help you set it up!"

"And I hope you'll be in attendance too."

"We wouldn't miss it. Right, Weegee?"

Luigi nodded firmly in agreement. "You can count on us."

Peach looked positively elated, already starting to go into the details she had planned, from the food to the music. It looked as though it would be an event to remember.

Little did they know, they were being spied on by two of Bowser's minions.

"Ugh, I can't believe we always get stuck doing Kammy's dirty work..." Gary the Goomba grumbled.

His colleague, Kyle the Koopa looked equally as annoyed trampling through the fields of the Mushroom Kingdom, but was more level headed than Gary. "Ah, pipe down. You know we're the low ranks. This is what we signed up for."

"Yeah but picking mushrooms? It's so ...somehow offensive." Gary said, stuffing a few super shrooms into a basket despite having no arms.

"She said she needs this for her potion. Dunno what the potion is for though."

"Mushrooms grow everywhere! I'm pretty sure she just wanted to kick us out."

Kyle squinted, distracted by the sunlight in his eye. "Or...she wanted us to keep watch on the Mushroom Kingdom." He stopped picking the mushrooms to gasp, staring at the castle in awe. "Look over there Gary!"

Gary dropped the basket and ran towards the bushes to hide. They were only a few feet away from the castle's obstacle course. "Luigi?!" He whispered.

"And King Bowser's arch nemesis Mario." added Kyle. "What are they doing here?"

The question was rhetorical, as they were much too far away to tell. Their interest only grew once Princess Peach herself joined the brothers on the terrace.

Kyle reached in his bag for a pair of binoculars. He had to see what this was about.

"What are they saying?" Gary whispered, bouncing up and down with impatience.

"I'm tryin' to figure it out! My lip reading skills are a little rusty." Kyle squinted. "Something about a ball? Next week?"

"Ooh! A ball! That sounds like fun." Gary squealed. "We should go!"

"Shaddap you moron! If Princess Peach is hosting it, then this could be the ultimate chance to cause some trouble in her kingdom." He closed his binoculars. "It's genius. We'll have to tell Kammy. Come on!"

"But what about the mushrooms?"

"Bring them along, but don't slow me down! We got work to do, Gary."

Kammy calmly stirred the potion inside her bubbling cauldron, focusing intently with her added ingredients now placed. "A ball you say?"

"We were thinking about telling Lord Bowser first but-"

"No, this is actually a good thing you told us." She stopped stirring. "The King has been, for lack of a better word...distracted. Despite our push for him to do another invasion, he has only been thinking about one thing."

"Luigi." Kamek said, leaning against the wall.

"Then a ball would be the perfect time to stage an ambush!" Kyle declared. "Everyone will be having a good time, and they won't even notice him missing. We could bring him to Lord Bowser."

"Now you're on to something." Kamek smirked.

"Capture Luigi? Instead of the Princess?" Kammy asked, seeming intrigued.

"Luigi is the one he really wants, anyone with a brain can see that!" He snapped. "If we take him, then we'll finally get back on the king's good side. Then he will go back to normal. Well done, Kyle. Perhaps you'll actually get paid for this mission."

"You really think so?" His eyes were sparkling.

Kamek cackled in his face. "No. Because I will be the one infiltrating the castle and getting all the credit. But don't worry, I'll need all the help I can. Tell me everything you know about this ...party."