Super Mario Bros: The Fan-Adapted Novelization

Prologue: The Terror Attack

She awoke with a sharp yelp as soon as she heard the first shell break through the window.

It was barely 2:00 in the morning, but Princess Peach knew, without a doubt, that the situation at hand was definitely an emergency. She hadn't counted on this happening while her parents were away, but thanks to Toadsworth, their ever-devoted steward and royal adviser, she knew what to do.

As soon as she got dressed, she hurried towards a section of the wall with a number 1 on it, hidden away by a curtain drape. Prying it open revealed a secret exit: a giant slide leading to a hidden passage out of the castle. As another barrage of shells shot through the room, she slipped away, letting the wall close behind her.

While tumbling down the secret slide, she wondered if anyone was waiting for her at the bottom. Hopefully whoever was attacking the castle hadn't captured any of the workers inside. Maybe, perhaps, they hid themselves away, too! But where else could she hide while the castle was under lockdown?

Out of the blue, an idea popped into Peach's head: the diSegale family! Why hadn't she thought of Mario and Luigi's parents before? Nobody would expect her to hide in an ordinary family's house, and surely, they would take her in without question. After all, she had known Giovanni and Francesca's sons since before she could remember.

Granted, their village in the foothills of the mountains was a fair trek away, but since the sky was still dark at this hour, she would have gladly walked the entire distance. If not, there was always the pipe that connected the village center to the castle outskirts. On the other hand, with no idea where the attacks were coming from, even attempting to reach the pipe was risky business in and of itself. What would Peach do now?

She hadn't even realized she reached the end of the secret slide a while ago. How stupid of her! The entire time, she was sitting at the bottom, pondering her next move, while at any given moment, the enemy would have attacked. Without a moment to lose, she rose to her feet and bolted to the exit, throwing the door open and hopefully sprinting her way outdoors to freedom.

Or so she thought.

Instead, the princess bumped into a very large posse of koopa troopas, armed with hammers, clad in clunky green helmets and matching armor. Stealing a quick glance at their captain, she could tell they meant business.

Without fail, she recognized the insignia on their hammers as the emblem of the Darklands, a volcanic region far in the eastern hemisphere of the world. From what Peach could remember, the Darklands housed various subspecies of koopas, but a few other creatures of non-reptilian variety resided there, as well. Their leader, Bowser Koopa, ruled as king among them, a fearsome beast who controlled the monarchy with an iron-clawed fist. The Darklands was primarily an isolationist nation, and because their leader was so fearsome, the country did not easily form alliances.

Their captain sneered as Peach tried to make sense of her situation. "We've been expecting you, Princess."

She felt her face go pale. "Who are you?" she asked, trying to control the growing fright in her voice. "How did you find me?"

His smirk curled beneath his bill. "We represent the Hammer Brotherhood, an elite military squadron of the Koopa Troop. A few members of your staff...well, FORMER staff..." he chuckled, stepping aside to reveal a group of goombas "provided some assistance that was quite valuable to us...specifically, about the secret escape from the castle grounds."

Her eyes widened. The goombas had worked within the castle for several years now; how could they have betrayed her? "I don't understand..."

One of them, sensing her confusion, merely snickered in amusement. "You think we like how your toads treat us on the daily?" he asked. "Day in and day out, they treat us like garbage, all because we don't look as human as they do. Sure, you SAY your congress is taking legislative measures against that, and you SAY things are getting better, but how many citizens actually follow through on these new laws? And how many politicians are gonna put on their big-boy pants and walk the walk as much as they talk the talk? How much more will my people be put through this before everyone else realizes they can't turn a blind eye anymore?"