Mario hit the ground hard, rolled, and ended on his feet. He fixed his hat and dusted more sand from his clothes. Mario looked up. A structure like a lighthouse sat on top a large, wobbling dish. It was pretty far away, but the size made it extremely visible no matter where you were on the island.

"That doesn't look very safe."

Luigi pulled his head out of the sand and spat some out. "I hate being fired from cannons. Why does it always have to be a cannon? Can't we do a hot air balloon for once?" He dusted sand from his hair.

Mario chuckled. "Last time we rode a hot air balloon, it was attacked in your nightmare."

"I still think it was more of a vision. I mean, we ended up seeing Antasma later, right?"

Mario helped Luigi to his feet. "True."

Snoutlet popped out of Luigi's hat. "Hey, that's the lighthouse! All the way up there, on that weirdly unstable sculpture. We have to get up there to link the islands. But you can leave the linking to me."

"We have to climb that?" Luigi gasped. "Oh boy."

"Let's get going then," Mario said.

Concordians stood around, some examining rocks and others waving to the bros. as they walked towards a large arc. The arc looked like two Concordians high-fiving each other.

"That's cute," Luigi said, smiling.

The journey ahead was riddled with monsters, who terrorized civilians and enjoyed destroying the artwork they made there. They came to a stop. A metal fence blocked their way!

Mario looked above him. There sat a red block. Mario jumped and hit it, and the metal bars marked with red slid open. However, there still stood the green-marked bars. Luigi examined through the small gap. He spotted a green block on the other side.

"Mario, I have an idea!" Luigi said happily.

"What is it?" Mario asked.

Luigi backed away from the fence, then charged towards it. Snoutlet let out a short yelp when Luigi threw himself between a small gap. He kicked his feet, wriggling himself free. He fell to the ground, got quickly to his feet, and hit the other block. The fence slid open and Luigi hurried back to Mario.

Mario and Luigi finally made their way up to the final area, just before the Lighthouse. There, a green Concordian woman was facing off with a group of Guardarms, the art-destroying villains. Her hair looked like a hammer.

"Alright, you no-good thugs. I've had enough of your vexatious behavior! You need to be punished for what you've done to this town!"

Mario, Luigi, and Snoutlet watched.

She prepared to battle, but a loud snap came in the silence. She fell to her knee, rubbing her back. "Ooh...My back."

"Think it's time we step in," Snoutlet said.

Mario ran in front of her. "Leave it to us!"

"Nya nya!" The Guardarm cried. Two others joined its side.

"Come on, Weegee! We've got this!"

With teamwork, the Guardarms quickly failed the battle. Mario went to check up on the Concordian while Luigi made sure they were gone.

"Are you okay?" Mario asked.

"I guess my old age is catching up to me," she moaned. "Just give me a moment and I can-WOAH!"

Mario picked her off the ground.

"Oh? You're going to carry me?"

"Yah! Just so you won't hurt your back more!"

Luigi picked up her little toolbox. "And I've got this!"

"Oh, thank you! Young people like you is just what the world needs." She smiled. "My house is just down this road. If you could take me there, I would really appreciate it."

Mario followed the direction she pointed, Luigi right behind him with the toolbox. Her house was small, but comfortable, with a smithing table outside. Mario placed her down in front of her house, and Luigi put the toolbox on a stone table.

"Thank you, you two," she said. "I should properly introduce myself now. My name is Willma, and I'm the chief of Rumbla Island! We're known for our Rumbla Dish, which is that wobbling monstrosity over yonder. It's pretty unsafe balance-wise, but it was the start of our little town!"

"Yeah..." Snoutlet said. "Anyway, we need to get to the Lighthouse on top of that...thing. Any idea how we can get up there?"

"Oh!" She pulled out a small remote from her apron's pocket. It had a single red button on it. "You'll need to get through that pesky gate first." She pressed the button. "That should do it. I had to close it to prevent those Guardarms from going further and destroying the dish. It's a sign from our ancestors, and we wouldn't be Rumbla Island without it."

"We'll be careful with it," Mario said. "Let's get going, Weegee."

"Thanks for the help," Luigi said.

"Of course!" Willma responded. "Anything for outsiders willing to help. And since you're going to connect the islands..."

"Somethin' wrong?" Snoutlet asked.

"Oh, it's just that my children went missing during the destruction of Concordia, and they haven't came back. I know where they are, but I get so worried for them. If you happen to pass them while on your travels, I would appreciate it if you told them I was okay. I'm sure they're worried for me too."

"We can do that for you," Mario offered.

Mario and Luigi had to solve a puzzle next. There were stone-carved statues and offerings for them, and returning the offerings to the statues revealed the path to the Lighthouse. Mario came with a plan to reach some hard-to-reach offerings, and Luigi followed suit. The path fully opened, the only way up the impossible cliff being some handles lining the walls. A Concordian thanked them for returning the offerings.

"Now we can finally go back up to the...uh..." He looked at the wall. "Hm. This might be harder than I'd thought."

"NYA!"

Mario and Luigi whipped around, three Guardarms blocking the entrance. "Looks like they want a taste of that pillar," Mario said.

"NYA NYA!"

More came from the other side, blocking the way to the Lighthouse. They prepared to fight, and so did the brothers. The Concordian fled the scene. Mario and Luigi dealt with the Guardarms after he'd safely fled. They looked at the handles on the wall.

"Mario, I've got an idea," Luigi said. "We could grab onto the wall and basically wall-jump to the next one; all the way up until we get to the top."

"I like your thinking, Weegee!"

Mario grabbed the handle, and held onto Luigi. They both pushed off the wall, Luigi grabbing the next one, and kept the momentum the entire way up. Mario looked up at the pillar holding up the unstable dish. A large lock sat on the front of it.

"A lock?" Luigi asked.

"There must be a key around here somewhere, right?" Mario wondered, looking around. "Oh, there!"

Mario pointed to a large key sitting on a platform. A few Seedles stood in the way. Mario and Luigi fought through the crowd to the key. They lifted it together and took it back to the dish. They slowly inserted the key and backed away.

The key turned on its own, glowing cracks forming across the pillar. Mario started to run, grabbing Luigi's wrist, as the dish began to fall. It splashed in the water beneath the dish, dirt and dust spreading everywhere. Snoutlet cheered.

"We can get to the Lighthouse now!"

Mario was focused on something else. Not only did they destroy a priceless town artifact, but he also noticed something distant in the sky. It fluttered off when Mario tried squinting at it.

"Mario, get off your rump and let's go!" Snoutlet said.

"Right!" Mario got off the ground.

He hopped up the steps to the top of the Lighthouse. Luigi was poking a plug with a stick, and Snoutlet fluttered in wait for Mario.

"This is the Connectar Plug," Snoutlet explained. "Connie told Luigi that the Uni-Tree connects through Connectar. We gotta pull this out to get it to the Uni-Tree. Come on, bros.! Let's connect this island!"

Mario and Luigi unplugged it together, and Snoutlet told them to hop onto it. They did, and the plug flew off at incredible speeds. It slammed into a large outlet in the back of Shipshape Island, and the three of them flew off it, landing in the dirt. Mario laughed at the dirt on Luigi's nose, so he responded back by blowing dirt at Mario.

"Great job," Snoutlet said. "Let's stop playin' in the dirt and report back to Connie."

They went back to the main area of the island, where Connie was standing. Snoutlet told her about the island.

"I see," she said. "Thank you, Mario and Luigi. And you did it so fast, too. We might be able to get you home soon, if you keep this rhythm throughout our adventure! I'm so sorry to drag you into our world's mess, you two-"

"Don't worry about it," Mario comforted her. "We're always helping people. You wouldn't imagine how many evil royals and nightmare bats we've stopped before."

"Wait, so you're saying that this could be caused by someone evil, with great power?"

Luigi nodded. "Most things are. Giant ghosts, origami paper, a dimension-flipping jester, a darkness-infected star, we've practically seen it all."

"That sounds intense," Connie said softly. "I've never heard of any of those things before."

"The Mushroom Kingdom is a crazy place," Mario said. "It attracts some weird enemies. Not to mention, is home to some already. Bowser's a bad guy, but I think we're on okay terms now, since he helped me stop Olly."

"Olly?"

Mario looked to Luigi, who nodded. "How about this, whenever we have free time, I can tell you about some stuff we've done. You seem a bit nervous, and some stories might help calm your nerves."

"I didn't realize I was nervous. But I guess I am, since I'm still a Wattanist in training. My mentor vanished after the Uni-Tree died. I'm worried something happened to her."

"Well, if they don't want the Uni-Tree 'round," Snoutlet suggested, "they probably captured her to prevent a new one from bein' grown. So when we find the villains, we'll find her. Probably. Maybe."

"Any hope of restoring Concordia and finding Cozette is good enough for me," Connie said. "And I also hope Mario and Luigi get back hope safely. But we're not done here. We need to find the Great Lighthouse and-"

There was a cry for help from the beach.

Connie gasped lightly. "Is somebody in trouble? We need to check it out!"

"Right," Mario said with a nod, and started down to the beach.