Chapter Text
Prologue
The commotion in the dining hall was intense. Everybody in attendance was shouting different things at one another. Suddenly, a voice cut through the atmosphere.
“Everyone! Please be silent!”
The command made the hall fall to silence in a matter of seconds.
At the front of the table, Toadsworth shook his cane in the air.
“The princess and I didn’t call the representatives for the kingdom here to the Island of Terrao just so you can complain about the water making you sick, or the taxes!”
“Uh sir, not to sound rude, but you haven’t told us at all why we were summoned.”
A Toad said, perking up from the table.
“What? Nonsense! I explained in perfect detail why you were all summoned.” Toadsworth responded.
“Uh actually grandpa, you didn’t.” Toadette responded. She stood right next to Toadsworth and was an ambassador for the island of Terrao.
Toadsworth’s face dropped in horror.
“Ack! Impossible! How could I have forgotten?!” Toadsworth began searching for something in his pocket.
“W-well what I summoned you all for was…..uhhh…..hang on let me grab it…...it was this!!”
Toadsworth brought up his palm, balled into a fist, and opened it. The glow of the object blinded many of the toads nearby. It was a small blue object, looking almost like a piece to a toy.
“The horror! The insanity! The shocking nature of it all!....what is it?”
A Blue Toad in the front quizzically asked.
“The locals around the Island of Terrao call it ‘A Sky Crystal’. Once a year, Terrao holds a huge, island-wide party called ‘The Sky Festival’, to celebrate the birth of the land. The Terraons already own one Sky Crystal that is underneath the island. It’s a powerful object that responds to the mini stars currently on the island that power Terrao’s infrastructure. Mario found this particular one while he was visiting the island a month ago, and the reason we are investigating is because Peach and Princess Daisy are expected to attend the festival, and reports have said that the island has been experiencing strange events happening, and people going missing”.
Toadette scanned the room to see if the representatives were all paying attention. Everyone was, and so she continued.
“They say every year the Sky Crystals fall from the sky all at once. The prophecies of Terrao however, say that if the Sky Crystals were to fall one at a time, they would bring catastrophe and bad luck. A part of the festival includes the Sky Crystals choosing someone to put them back together, which brings good fortune and luck to Terrao and the world, which is why the citizens are getting antsy about the festival going well. It’s all to ward off this “catastrophe” from happening.”
The Toads stared at the piece, which continued to glow a bright blue light.
“You serious? If you ask me, this is all a bunch of bupkis!”
Everyone in the room gasped at the profanity that the Toad in the middle of the table had used.
“Hey, show some respect, Toad Levit!” Toadette shouted.
The new representative from Sand Land was Toad Levit, sitting in the middle of the table.
“Pardon my language Mr. Toadsworth, but all of this seems like silly nonsense to me.”
The Toad continued, ignoring Toadette.
“Young man, you’re blind from the bigger picture! Need I remind you of the power, magic, and occurrences we’ve seen in the past? It’s not strange to say that the power of these sky crystals may actually be affecting the island. ”
Toadsworth responded.
“No sir. But may *I* remind you, who was behind all of these ‘strange events’? These acts of terror of the past? The destruction of Peach Castle, The Blorbs Disease, The Invading Forces, The Piranha Plant Infestations in The Mushroom Kingdom and here on Terrao, The Collapse of The Housing Sector in The Snow Plains, and of course, the near TOTAL destruction of the Universe? Nearly all of these acts were committed by, or were a result of that vile fiend and dictator, King Bowser!”
The room fell silent as everyone remembered. A feeling of fear surged through the Toads as they remembered everything. The images of those days played like in a movie in their minds.
Toadsworth tried to say something, but he was cut off by another Toad at the table.
“Yeah...you know, when you think about it like that, it makes sense.”
“Yeah, now that you mention it, this has Bowser written all over it!”
Another Toad responded.
“That’s what I’m saying. I mean, is it really such a coincidence that Bowser built his own castle on the far opposite side of the island, with his reasons being that it was a ‘vacation’ home. ‘Vacation’. Where have I heard that? The Isle Delfino Incident anyone?”
With Toad Levit’s words lingering in the air. The room erupted into debate and shouting. The Isle Delfino Incident occurred just over a year ago. Princess Peach went on summer vacation to the Isle with Mario, only for the trip to go south, when Mario was framed for destruction of property, and the Princess was kidnapped. The scheme turned out to be Bowser himself, with his son Bowser Jr, and Isle Delfino still hasn’t fully healed from the darkness and near destruction of the Shine Sprites.
The Toads are rambling.
“Rabble Rabble”
“Rabble Rabble”
“Rabble Rabble”
Nevermind. They are Rabbling.
Toadsworth swung his cane onto the table, making all the Toads jump.
“Enough everyone! We can’t swing straight into theories like blind monkeys!”
Toadsworth shouted.
“But sir! What do we do about Bowser?! He’s gonna enslave us all and eat us for dinner!” A Toad rep shouted.
“Calm yourself Toad Johnson! There isn’t any proof of that!”
All of the Toads nodded in approval, their resistance disappearing quite quickly.
“What should we do then, Sir?”
Toad Levit asked quizzically.
“My opinion is that we strengthen forces on Terrao. Increase the count and have patrols travel Terrao.”
“Actually we had another idea. Me and grandpa-ah I mean, Toadsworth-”
Toadette corrected herself to be professional before continuing, “-have decided that instead, we will be recalling every soldier from Terrao.”
If the silence before was strong, the silence that followed that statement was deafening. Nobody spoke a word. Toadsworth began to speak when, like the drop of a hat, every Toad in the room began shouting again, utterly shocked at the proposal, with Toad Levit leading the shouting. This continued for a solid half-minute before a Toad spoke up, which silenced everyone else.
“Are you insane man?! The Princesses will be totally defenseless and vulnerable!”
This was spoken from Toad Kerry, a freshman in the representation.
“Ah, but you’re forgetting something young man.”
Toadsworth responded.
“Toadette, chart these fools”
“You don’t need to say it like that Toadsworth” Toadette responded back.
“Bah! I know how you kids can’t focus unless your language is spoken. I was young once too, you know? Now, chart these fools Toadette!”
Toadette sighed, but complied. She brought a marker to a whiteboard, and took some pictures from her bag that she wore on shoulder.
“The island of Terrao acts as a bulwark against the expansion of Bowser’s Kingdom”
An Orange Toad raised his hand.
“Yes? Toad Leno?” Toadsworth asked, acknowledging him.
“What does bulwark mean?”
“It’s like one of them fancy stop signs, or caution tape”
The Toads nodded in understanding, and Toadette continued.
“It’s one of our last ones as well. The Islanders of Isle Delfino made our forces go home after we saved the Shine Sprites, and the whole business with Cackletta and Fawful made the Beanbean Kingdom call off our Mutual Alliance Pact. Terrao is 200 miles or around 321Km off the coast of the border of Bowser’s Kingdom. It’s a great way to keep an eye on any future invasions, however a recent poll of the citizens' approval shows that things aren’t looking too hot".
“They despise us. Relations between Toad soldiers and Terraoans are dropping, and fast” Toadsworth said, bluntly.
“How can that be?” A Toad rep in the front asked.
“The population here is diverse. It is one of the few places on the planet where many citizens of different kingdoms live in harmony. As such, a sense of strong local community rather than a want for big government has been formed. The only thing that they have here for a government is a representation body. The population is about 35% Toads, 61% category of citizens from the Lava Lands and Bowser’s Kingdoms, 4% of people from other places.” Toadsworth responded.
“It’s bad enough that we are being seen like we’re occupying the island, but problems some of the soldiers are causing continue to drop our rep.”
“How bad is it?” Toad Johnson asked.
“I can answer that!” Toadette responded excitedly. She ran up to the whiteboard and jumped up to reach the top to flip it.
“I know you all have problems reading graphs and stuff, so I used smiley and frowning stickers, and neutral face stickers ”
Sure enough, the other side of the whiteboard contained the words “TOADS, BOWSER KINGDOM, OTHER, and TOTAL” written in black marker. Under each word, save for TOTAL, were 7 smiley face stickers and 3 frowny face stickers.
“2 years ago, we were at 70% approval, vs 30% disapproval, aka, 7 smiley faces and 3 frowny faces. As time has gone on however, as we radically increased the amount of soldiers on the island, the percentages have changed.”
Toadette began shifting the stickers around.
“And now...we are here.”
Toadette revealed the final result.
The Toad category had 6 smiles, and 3 frowns.
The Bowser Kingdom Citizens category had 3 smiles, and 7 frowns.
The Other category had 4 smiles, and 6 frowns.
And the Total category had 3 smiles, 6 frowns, and 1 lone neutral face sticker.
The Toad reps stared in shock at the board.
“Hoo boy that is uh...that is a lot of unhappy faces.”
A Toad rep commented, breaking the silence.
“Darn right it is. It’s a huge change and it has been a mess for all of us. It’s like getting spoiled about a surprise, or putting pineapple on Pizza. The only group that has our backs right now is the Toad population.”
Toadsworth responded.
“And it only gets worse. Two days ago, the Terrao representative body held a vote on whether or not to keep our troops on the island. 51 voted to keep them here….and…...49 voted to kick them out.” Toadette said with concern
Just like clockwork, the shouts of debate up around.
“You’re telling us that a possible future invasion of The Mushroom Kingdom is only being ushered back by two votes!?”
A Toad shouted in panic.
“Sorry to say sonny, but it’s true. This isn’t the time to lose our underwear however.”
Toadsworth responded.
“I didn't wear my underwear!”
A Toad gleefully shouted.
“Horrifying, but true! It seems that if we play our cards right, we can turn public opinion around, and stop Bowser’s expansion.”
Toadsworth said with enthusiasm.
“That’s right! We’re planning to have the princess attend the festival as said before, and we plan to pull a lot of troops from the island, leaving only a core guard. Mario and Luigi are also said to be attending too, and their popularity is higher than all of us too.”
Toadette added.
The Toads got excited. Mario and Luigi were hero-celebrities in the Mushroom Kingdom, and an inspiration to nearly everyone, even people who were on the bad side of the Mushroom Kingdom. Having them be on the island would get the populace cheery for the festival, not to mention those sweet poll increases.
“Is this gonna work?”
A Toad rep asked.
“It had better. I had to put up with a lot from these stubborn Terraoan whippersnappers!”
Toadsworth responded.
“As long as we play our cards right, this will work! What’s the worst that could happen? Now, if any of you need me, I’ll be at my music shop on Steel Ave. I have a meeting with some players.”
Toadette said.
“Very well done granddaughter. All that’s left is to find one of the Toad Guards to accompany the Princess, and this whole thing will set sail. As for everyone else, this meeting is adjourned!”
Toadsworth exclaimed.
“Wait wait wait! Sir!”
Before anyone could begin packing up, a voice rang out from the table. It was the voice of a Toad. A rookie. A plain old red Toad who had not just three minutes ago been the drink server.
“Wha? Excuse me young man, but you need not worry. All the refreshments are not in need of refills.”
Toadsworth responded.
“Not that sir! I want to help take care of the Princess!”
The proposal from such a modest Toad attracted the attention of all the representatives.
“You? Why you?”
Toadsworth questioned, baffled by this outburst.
Unflinching, the Toad responded.
“Sir! I’ve practiced in the guard for a solid month, I know everything about the Princess and such, and I know I can be the best bodyguard ever!”
Toadsworth stood a little confused on how to proceed. Luckily, Toadette spoke up.
“That’s quite impressive Toad, but we feel that we might need someone a lot more experienced to guard the Princess.”
Toadsworth chimed in.
“Just what I was about to say! Sad to say my boy, but a rookie without even a last name of his own, has no business being guard of the Princess”
Toadette looked a little annoyed at her grandfather’s words, but didn’t respond.
Toad looked down, feeling small tears starting to form in its eyes. Even though he walked away silently, he wasn’t giving up.
——————————————————
“Mario! Are you ready?” Princess Peach asked.
The plumber nodded, holding suitcases in both of his hands. The princess was in front of the Castle, preparing for the flight. Luigi was parking the car inside the Castle Walls, and he and Mario were gonna help with the luggage as they flew alongside the Princess. Yoshi was snacking on an apple on the passenger seat of the Princess’s kart. He was coming along for the sole reason that Mario couldn’t find a pet sitter. Luigi was a lot more fortunate, leaving Polterpup with Professor E. Gadd.
Toad was helping with the luggage too. He had tried a few more times to get Toadsworth to promote him to Princess Guard, but unfortunately he ended up becoming a Porter.
“Look at him, he can’t even lift a spear.”
“He always gets distracted by something. He’ll be knocked down by a Goomba.”
“He’s weird. I heard he drew a picture of a Toad Guard on his exam.”
“He’ll never be anything.”
The voices were poking at Toad like a sharp needle. He hated those voices; always telling him he wasn’t worth the effort. He won’t give up, no matter what! He’ll become a guard for the Princess even if it meant-
“Oh no we’re so done for!”
“Calm down man! We’ll figure this out.”
Toad heard a conversation. He walked over near one side of the castle walls where two other toads were.
One of the Toads shouted again.
“The guy is sick! How can I stay calm?! He was the only guard they were gonna send out!”
“We just need to find another guard right? I’m sure anyone would be happy protecting the Princess.” The other Toad calmly said.
Toad’s face lit up. He fixed his vest and laced his shoes. He then walked over to the two Toads.
“Good afternoon friends. I couldn’t help but overhear that you need a guard to substitute for one of your boys that’s down with a cold. Luckily, I’m your guy.”
Toad tried to sound cool. The other two were slightly skeptical.
“What’s your name, soldier?”
One of them asked.
“Uh my name is Toad! Toad…uh…” Toad looked around and saw the grassy fields and the castle doors, which were locked by a special mechanical keyhole.
“Toad ah…..ah…A-Key-O. Yeah! Toad Akio!”
Toad responded.
Both the other Toads looked at each other, and then turned around and engaged in a whispering conversation.
“What’s the chance that he’s lying?”
“50%”
“How desperate are we?”
“VERY.”
“How much trouble will we get into if it turns out he’s lying?”
“Above Average amount of trouble, but we could just say he was a mastermind of lying.”
“Alright I can live with that.”
The two Toads turned back around.
“Great that you showed up Toad Akio! Here’s your ticket. Never leave the Princess’s sight, and if the Guards ask you anything, say you don’t know anything. Adiós!”
Before Toad “Akio” could respond with anything, the two Toads got in their kart and sped away.
The new Toad Akio walked back with the biggest smile on his face.
Princess Daisy came out of the castle wearing a large duffel bag on her back. She was pretty excited herself. Peach was able to bring a plus-one with her to Terrao, and invited Daisy along for the ride.
“Do you need help with that Daisy?”
Peach asked.
“Nah.”
Daisy responded.
“Everything I need is packed in here, so I wanna keep track of it. Do we have everything we need?”
Mario looked up.
“Hm?”
Peach noticed Mario’s look and turned to face him.
Yoshi was gone.
“Daisy, you wouldn’t happen to know where Yoshi went, do you?”
Peach asked.
“Huh? No, I thought he was in the car.”
Daisy responded.
“Wahahahaha!”
Everyone turned their heads in dread, already aware of the voice’s origin.
“No no no please don’t tell me.”
Daisy whined.
“It’s a me Wario!”
“And Waluigi!”
Wario and Waluigi popped out of seemingly nowhere, an endearing character trait of theirs. They were always up to no good, trying to swindle people, and chasing the almighty dollar. Waluigi was holding Yoshi up from his collar, yet Yoshi didn’t seem too fazed by this as he was still snacking on his Apple.
“We heard about your little vacation, and we want in!”
Wario proudly said.
Peach looked confused.
“Vacation? You two should know that I’m going to Terrao for diplomatic business. I won’t be attending their festival.”
“Wah, who cares? Business, schmusiness. Anywhere out of the house is a vacation for me.”
Waluigi said.
“Look, there aren't any open spaces. So why don’t you two beat it before I knock both of you out for the vultures?”
Daisy said, waving her fist.
Wario placed the back of his hand to his forehead.
“Wahhhh! You’re so cruel! After all we’ve done for you guys!”
Crocodile tears began to stream down from his eyes. Waluigi followed suit.
“Wehhhhh we never have any money to go anywhere. You guys are so lucky. You’re royalty so everyone wants to treat you, and they all want you to be happy, while us middle class working men get kicked off our feet.”
Waluigi began to fake cry too.
Nobody was impressed.
Mario and Luigi both had skeptical looks on their faces, and Daisy crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh really?”
Daisy asked.
“Wario, you own your own company. You tried to sell me a video game yesterday.”
Wario looked up.
“Well that’s….uh”
Peach spoke up.
“Hey that’s right. Waluigi, you're an expert class dancer with your own program.”
Waluigi looked up.
“Ahem. MASTER class.”
He corrected.
Peach smiled.
“That’s right. I own all 9 of your dvds, and I’m subscribed to your channel! Your dance routines helped me lose weight!”
Waluigi had a grin on his face, one filled with smug.
“Wahaha! Glad to see you’re another person who appreciates the art of dance. Say, you wouldn’t mind saying that for a promotional ad would y-“
Before Waluigi could finish, Wario smacked his head.
“Ow!”
“You dolt!”
Wario snapped at him.
“Whaaaaat?”
Waluigi whined back.
“Forget it you two. You’re not coming with.”
Daisy sternly said.
Wario and Waluigi stayed silent for a while, and as they let go of Yoshi, it seemed they would be on their way.
They were not.
Wario and Waluigi both dove to the ground near Peach’s feet. They then grabbed onto her legs- Wario on her left and Waluigi on her right -and they held on tight like their lives depended on it, groveling on their knees.
“Wahhh please let us come! We wanna go really bad!”
“Pleaseeeee? Pretty Please? Pretty Please?”
Wario and Waluigi looked up at the Princess with puppy eyes and quivering lips.
Peach looked up at Mario and Luigi, who both shrugged. She then looked at Daisy. She was massaging her temples with one hand, unable to believe that they would really stoop this low and pathetically.
Peach sighed.
“If you promise to stay on your best behavior and not cause any trouble.”
She looked down at them and continued.
“Then you can come with us.”
“Woohoo!”
“Waaaaaahahaha!”
Wario and Waluigi sprang up from the floor and began whooping it up and cheering, their crocodile tears evaporating within a nanosecond.
Daisy walked over and began whispering to Peach.
“Are you sure about this?”
She asked.
“It’ll be fine. If anything happens, I’ll just pretend I don’t know them.”
Peach and Daisy shared a laugh while Wario and Waluigi continued cheering, totally oblivious.
“Well, with that out of the way, I think we are all ready to go. Mario, Luigi, are you two ready?”
Peach asked.
In unison, Mario and Luigi both lifted up their suitcases: One red and One green. They both looked at each other however and realized they both had each other's suitcases! They quickly switched with each other, and flashed thumbs up to the Peach.
“Excellent. I’ll go lock the castle doors.”
As Peach walked away and Mario went to attend to Yoshi, Daisy walked up to Wario and Waluigi who were grabbing their suitcases that they conveniently already had with them.
Daisy walked up to both of them and tugged on their earlobes.
“Owie!”
Wario and Waluigi said in unison.
“Alright you two listen up.”
Daisy said before continuing.
“Peach is under a lot of stress and pressure right now and the last thing we need is for you two to mess something up. So let me be clear: you do anything to ruin Peach’s mission and you won’t return alive. Got it?”
“Waaah we got it. You don’t have to worry about us.”
Wario whined.
Daisy sighed before letting both of them go.
Toad Akio looked over at Princess Peach locking the doors. He had been practicing what he was gonna say for a while now. He felt confident. He walked up to her.
“Are you ready to go, your highness?”
Toad said.
“Oh yes, I’m glad you were able to show up.”
Peach said. She turned around to see the Toad that, not too long ago had been handling the group’s suitcases before disappearing.
“Oh hello! We have all our suitcases packed so we don’t need any more help.”
Toad felt his stomach drop a little. He struggled for a second on what to say next. A lightbulb lit over his head and he regained his confidence.
“That’s what you thought, your highness! That’s my power you see. One minute I’m holding your suitcase, the next minute I’m taking down bad guys!”
Toad exclaimed, making a chopping motion and kicking up a foot.
“I see! I didn't even realize. What’s your name, Guard?”
Peach asked.
“A-key-0, Toad at your service!”
Toad A-key-o bowed.
“A-key-0?”
Peach asked.
“No no no. Akio! You got to say it fast.”
Toad responded.
“Akio.”
Peach attempted.
Toad Akio nodded and the two began walking back to the car.
“Let’s get going everyone, we don’t wanna miss our flight.”
Peach announced.
“Yeah yeah! Let’s get going, I want to get the window seat!”
Waluigi impatiently said.
Daisy frowned.
“Why should you get the window seat?”
Waluigi smiled back at her.
“Wah, with these looks no other seat is more deserved.”
“And I’ll take the corridor seat.”
Wario added.
Daisy looked at Wario, just in time to hear Wario’s stomach grumble.
“Trust me on this.”
Wario said back to her.
Daisy was already dreading this flight.
As everybody got into their cars, Mario heard something from the sky. Kamek was flying overhead, but suddenly disappeared into thin air. What came floating down however, were slips of paper.
Everyone stared at the paper, and Toad was the first to pick it up.
He began sniffing the paper.
“Well it isn’t laced with poison.”
Toad said, breaking the silence.
“You picked a piece of paper that might have been poisoned?”
Daisy asked.
“All for the princess of course!”
Toad shouted proudly.
Daisy raised an eyebrow, and chuckled.
“Haha. I like this guy a lot better than your other guards, Peach.”
Toad stared at the paper a bit longer. He was gonna give it to Mario right then and there, but he got a little star-struck. He managed to snap out of it however.
“Ahem. Mr. Mario, you might wanna read this.”
Mario nodded and grabbed the slip of paper from Toad. As he read it, Mario raised an eyebrow.
Hey, Chumps! I’m throwing a Big Bowser Bash to apologize for being such a big jerk. So I’ve got a buffet of free grub laid out for all of you.
Come ‘n’ get it!
-Bowser
“Wahaha! This is tacky, even for Bowser!”
Wario laughed.
“Wah, this isn’t tacky. It’s tasteless! That old turtle knows nothing about elegance.”
Waluigi added.
“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Peach said, holding one of the papers in her hand.
“You said it.” Daisy replied.
Luigi turned the paper around, revealing to everyone in the car an address.
120 Volcano Dr, Terrao.
“What is he up to?”
Peach wondered aloud.
————————————————
“Zzzzzzzzzzz”
“Ooo ooo!”
Diddy Kong woke up Donkey Kong, waving a slip of paper in his face.
Donkey Kong woke up groggily and read the piece of paper. Suddenly, DK felt awake and alive as he read the paper. He wasn’t very good at reading but he could make out a few words.
“Terrao……….Buffet……..Grub……..Free”
Free.
Free.
Free?
FREE!
Donkey Kong jumped in excitement and sprinted out of the forest.
“Ooo ooo!”
Diddy Kong ran behind him.
Where were they going?