Chapter Text
It was a fine day in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi were just waking up in their house. Outside, Parakarry arrived with the day’s mail.
“Mail call!” Parakarry called, placing the mail in the mailbox before flying away.
“Oh! That’s the mail, huh?” Luigi groaned, rolling out of bed, “I’d better go get it, then…”
Luigi went out to get the mail, before quickly returning with it.
“Mario!” Luigi said, “Something important just-a arrived!”
“Hm? What is it?”
Luigi read the letter aloud to Mario.
“To the honorable Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi,” Luigi read, “You have been invited to the Star Carnival’s return to the Mushroom Kingdom! After a long 15 years, the Star Carnival is finally returning to the Mushroom Kingdom! To keep the security of the event, the event will take place in an undisclosed location. Please meet your fellow competitors at Peach’s Castle where a transport will be waiting to take you to the venue!”
“Oh boy! Looks like it’s time for another Mario Party, huh?” Mario says, “Sounds like fun!”
“I wonder who’s-a gonna be there,” Luigi mused.
The two brothers packed their bags and entered the warp pipe to Toad Town. Upon leaving the pipe, Toad walked up to the two of them.
“Mario!” Toad said, “And uh… green guy’s here too. You’re going to the Star Carnival, right?”
“Hmgh…” Luigi muttered.
“That’s exactly it!” Mario said, “You were invited too, right?”
“Yep!” Toad replied, “I’m just waiting for Toadette!”
And just on cue, Toadette walked out of another nearby pipe.
“Ready to go, Toad?” Toadette asked.
“Yep! I’m all packed!” Toad replied, “Let’s go, Bros!”
The group walked to the castle, but just as Toad was about to open the door, a light blue object streaked through the sky, before hovering above Peach’s castle. Descending from it came a woman in a blue dress that was all too familiar to the brothers and Toad.
“Luigi, Mario. Well met,” Rosalina said, “I assume you’re here for the Star Carnival.”
“Yep!” Luigi replied, “You weren’t around for the first one, it should be fun!”
The group of five entered the castle, where they saw Princess Daisy, standing over Wario and Waluigi, a look of rage in her eyes.
“Hiya, Daisy!” Mario said, running up to them, “What seems to be the problem-a?”
“I just caught THESE TWO trying to sneak into the castle!” Daisy growled.
“Youse-a got it all wrong,” Wario said, “We’ve been invited to this Star Carnival thing too, see.”
Wario shoved Waluigi, and Waluigi pulled out two copies of the invitation to the Star Carnival.
“They seriously invited YOU?” Toadette groaned, “Don’t cause any trouble while you’re there.”
“Come on, we’re mainstays!” Waluigi laughed, “It ain’t a party without us!”
“Either way, the castle guard wouldn’t let us in, even when we showed them our invitations. So, we had to find our own way in,” Wario explained, “What a bunch of nincompoops.”
“And you weren’t making a quick stop by the castle vault first?” Daisy growled.
“Of course not, Princess!” Waluigi laughed, “You know us, straight-up honest guys, that’s the Wario Bros. for you!”
“Suuuuure…” Mario said, walking away, before he bumped into something round and yellow.
“Hello yellow!” Starlow said, looking up at them, “I was so surprised to get an invitation to the Star Carnivall! I’m not usually the first person that people think to invite, aha.”
“Oh boy…” Luigi said, “Can’t wait to be made fun of the whole party.”
“Oh come on, Luigi!” Starlow complained, “I’m not that bad!”
The group walked to another corner of the lobby, where Yoshi, Birdo, and Donkey Kong were all crowded around Professor E. Gadd.
“Greetings, Brothers Mario!” E. Gadd said, “I’ve just finished giving my newest invention to these three! I call it the Auto-Translationer 3000! It automatically takes any speech and converts it to your language, as soon as it’s said! That way, these three can speak to you, you see.”
“Mario!” Yoshi said, “It that really you?”
“....Looks like I still need to make some adjustments, ha ha!” E. Gadd laughed.
“It’s alright, mwah.” Birdo said, “There’s gonna be plenty of time to fix it on the bus to the Star Carnival.”
“You were invited too, E. Gadd?” Mario asked.
“Yes sir-ee!” E. Gadd said, “It’s my first Mario Party, so go easy on this old feller, okay?”
“Oh come on,” Donkey Kong laughed, “We know you have just as much of a chance as anyone else. Although I won’t be participating this time. They’ve relegated me to being a support space again. My invitation says to meet up here in a week, as they need all of you there a week early to get set up.”
“Aww, that’s too bad,” Mario said, patting Donkey Kong on the back, “I’m sure you’ll-a do your job well!”
Suddenly, a door in the back of the castle opened, and Peach walked out.
“Ah, Princess Peach!” Mario cheered.
“Mario, come with me, please,” Peach said. She seemed to be in some sort of hurry.
Mario followed Peach through the door she had just went through, into a long hallway with a window as the back wall. Peach closed the door behind them and turned around to face Mario.
“What’s-a up, Princess?” Mario asked.
“Mario, you have to listen to me. There are ears everywhere,” Peach whispered hurriedly, “You need to tell everyone. Don’t-”
Suddenly, Bowser in his Clown Car flew, crashing through the window, into the building before hopping out next to Mario. Kamek was following him on his broomstick.
“Mario!” Bowser roared, “You dare go to a party without me AGAIN? Well, too bad! I’m crashing it!”
“Awww, were you not invited,” Mario laughed.
“Mario, focus! This is more important than Bow-” Peach started.
“You be quiet!” Kamek said, “His Jealousness will be taking part in your Mario Party!”
“Don’t know where you learned your manners from, Bowser, but not being invited means-a not being invited.” Mario jeered, “Well, I was in for some fighting practice anyway! Let’s-a-go!”
Mario ran towards the Koopa King when suddenly, everything went dark.
When Mario awoke, he found himself inside what seemed to be an extremely large circus tent with no entrances or exits. This tent was as large as an entire city, and inside was several attractions that would normally be seen at a carnival, as well as several multi-colored spaces. Mario figured out where he was. This was a Mario Party board.
He looked around him. There, at the starting point, was himself, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Birdo, Professor E. Gadd, Starlow, Rosalina, and Kamek. Interestingly enough, Bowser and Donkey Kong were nowhere to be found.
“Oooooough, my head…” Wario groaned, “What happened?”
“W-w-where are we?” Luigi shuddered.
“I assume you all went to sleep and woke up here?” Rosalina asked the group.
“Yep, that’s it!” Toad exclaimed, “What in the world is going on?”
Mario walked over to Peach.
“You alright, Princess?” Mario asked.
“As alright as anyone in this situation can be, yes,” Peach said, “But I am curious about why Kamek is here.”
“Could him and Bowser be the ones behind this?” Starlow asked, floating over to them.
“No!” Kamek said, walking up to them, “I’m as in the dark as you are! You and His Missingness were about to fight, and the next thing I knew, I woke up here!”
“Hey, what are with these watches on our wrists? They’ve got like a screen and everything,” Toadette asked.
“I’ve tried tapping it, but nothing has happened,” Birdo replied.
“I can’t take it off…” Toadette complained.
“Hey, isn’t this a Mario Party board…?” Luigi noticed.
“Do-ya think that this has anything to do with that Star Carnival?” Daisy wondered.
As if on cue, a voice rang out throughout the entire tent.
“WELCOME TO THE STAR CARNIVAL!”
A small man with a bow tie, huge orange lips, and a blue hat with a face flew down towards the group.
“Hello, hello, hello!” The man cheered, “Most of you know me, but for those who don’t, I’m your host, MC Ballyhoo, and this is my partner, Big Top!”
“Yep yep,” the man’s hat spoke, “The Star Carnival is finally back here, and we’re shaking it up!”
“N-no!” Luigi exclaimed, “I didn’t pirate any video games!”
“What are you talking about, bro?” Mario asked.
“Ah… bro. It’s just a nightmare I had around a year ago…” Luigi said, “I was being forced to write a bunch of notes about how I pirated a video game or something, or they would kill me…”
“Don’t-a worry bro! It was just a bad dream…” Mario said, “Although, I do wonder what is happening here?”
“There’s no punishments for pirating games being involved here, don’t you worry you!” Big Top cheered, "We couldn't care less about that!"
“Now, allow me to explain what’s going on!” MC Ballyhoo explained, “For this year’s Star Carnival, we’re going to have a 14-person game! That’s right! All 14 of you will be playing in one massive 50-turn game of Mario Party on this here board!”
“Oh that’s all this is?” Professor E. Gadd sighed.
“Guess the weird way we were taken here was just for security reasons,” Yoshi said.
“I-is that really it?” Luigi worried.
“Cheer up, Luigi! Woohoo!” Daisy cheered, “Let’s play!”
“Ha ha ha! I like your enthusiasm!” MC Ballyhoo cheered, “So! WE’ve done away with those pesky Dice Blocks. You’ll notice on your wrists, or attached to Starlow’s foot, is a brand new PartyWatch! Right now, it’s deactivated but…”
“We’ll soon be updating it with your first PartyApp!” Big Top said, “Here we go, uploading the Dice PartyApp to all of your PartyWatches now.”
Suddenly, an icon appeared on everyone’s PartyWatches, showing a symbol of a dice. Mario pressed on it, and it opened a virtual Dice Block on it.
“Now, normally, these watches will let you roll a 1-10, but for the case of turn order, it’ll let you roll a 1-14. And I’ve set it up so nobody rolls the same number for this section,” Big Top explained.
“Ha ha ha! Let’s roll for turn order!” MC Ballyhoo cheered.
Everyone pressed their PartyWatches - Starlow had to press it with her other foot - and each player was given a number.
“Alright! We have our turn order!” Big Top said, “Daisy is first, E. Gadd is second, Luigi is third, Peach is fourth, Kamek is fifth, Starlow is sixth, Yoshi is seventh, Birdo is eighth, Wario is ninth, Toadette is tenth, Mario is eleventh, Toad is twelfth, Rosalina is thirteenth, and Waluigi is fourteenth!”
“All right then! First, make the most of these 10 coins, everyone!” MC Ballyhoo cheered.
“Uploading the Stats PartyApp to your PartyWatches now.” Big Top said.
The group got a new PartyApp on their PartyWatch. This one allowed them to view any player’s stats, showing each player’s Stars and coins. Oddly enough, there was also a square next to each player’s name that was green.
“Now then! Allow me to exp-” MC Ballyhoo started.
“Woohoo!” Daisy cheered, “I rolled a 6!”
“Did you seriously just roll the dice without listening to-” Toadette started.
Suddenly, in a flash of white light, Daisy disappeared and soon reappeared 6 spaces in front of the starting space, on a Happening Space.
“HA HA HA!” MC Ballyhoo cheered, “Really eager for the real fun to begin, huh?”
In a flash, a Lakitu appeared out of a window of a fake building, holding a massive Spiny in its hand.
“Oh! This is gonna be easy to dodge-” Daisy started, “Wait, huh? I can’t move?”
The Lakitu threw the Spiny directly at Daisy’s skull, and it soon collided with her skull, getting lodged in. Daisy fell to the ground, a pool of blood emanating from their head. She was motionless.
“Now then!” MC Ballyhoo laughed, “Allow me to explain the rules of the Mario Party Death Game!”