In the distance, Wendy could see the Mushroom Kingdom. She had already been thinking of her payback strategy.
"Now to get inside..." she whispered to herself.
Two Toad guards were keeping watch outside the kingdom's gates. Wendy ran over the hills toward the entrance.
"This is your conscience speaking," she whispered into one guard's ear.
"Huh? Who's there?" The guard looked around nervously.
"I just said I'm your conscience, you mor- I mean, uh, your town is in grave danger..."
"It is?"
Wendy growled, "Darn it! Listen to me!"
"Okay! Okay, I'm sorry!"
"If you don't open that gate, you will get eternal annihilation."
"And if I don't?"
Wendy had apparently lost her patience, so she belted him in the stomach. Upon seeing his partner bent double in pain, the other guard unlocked the gate and swung it open.
"Thank you!" She chuckled and ran inside.
"You know, she sounded familiar." The first guard groaned.
Down in Pipe Land, Ludwig and Morton were navigating through the twists and turns to find a shortcut to the Mushroom Kingdom.
"I bet she's there already," Morton mumbled.
"Please, don't give me any ideas," Ludwig shivered. He tried hard not to picture Wendy conquering Princess Peach's castle and himself being forced to work as her slave.
"Oh, I think I've found it!" Morton said, pointing to a warp pipe.
"I hope you're right," Ludwig said. They journeyed down the pipe but their path was obstructed. In the distance they could hear the arguing Sledge Bros. Wendy terrorized earlier and the grumble of a Piranha Plant's stomach.
"She's been here already," Ludwig whispered while they retreated back to the pipe room.
They went into another pipe that led toward the edge of Grass Land. They saw the Mushroom Kingdom not too far from them.
"I'm surprised it hasn't gone up in flames, yet," Morton said.
"Come on!" Ludwig commanded and they both made their way towards the kingdom. They both hid behind a tree from the guards at the front entrance. The gate had already been locked.
"How do we get inside?" Morton whispered.
"You distract the guards and I'll find a way to open the gate."
"Fine," Morton huffed and walked over towards the gates, but both guards cornered him.
"You are under arrest!" they said in unison.
"Why?" Morton smiled. "I haven't done anything wrong. All I did was walk near the gates. I wasn't planning on going in or anything. What would I want with..."
"The only time when this is useful," Ludwig thought to himself, tiptoeing towards the kingdom's gates.
"…like this one time when I broke a window in my castle and blamed Iggy for it. I don't think I've heard King Dad yell louder in my life..."
At this time, Ludwig had picked up the keys off the ground and began to look for the right one.
"…so, anyway, I've gotten used to the dungeon in my castle, but we have to do something about all the Dry Bones that live down there. I mean, they're taking over the place. Well, I have to go, bye!" Morton had noticed that Ludwig had already opened the gate, and followed him inside.
"Hey, wait a minute!" One guard said, but Morton had already slammed the gate shut, taking the keys with him.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Kingdom, the Mario Bros. were struggling to perform magic in front of a group of Toad kids.
"Uh, for-a my next trick," Mario said nervously, "I will turn this-a candy wrapper into ashes."
Luigi got out a crumpled wrapper while Mario pulled out a fireball.
"And voila!" he said, setting the wrapper on fire. Their audience booed loudly.
"What should we do now?" Luigi asked anxiously.
Mario shrugged. "How about-a we make someone disappear?"
"Your call."
"Okay, I would like a volunteer," he said to his audience.
"Fine," a boy said, walking onstage. "I guess it can't be that bad."
Backstage, Wendy was listening to the act, and came up with a plan.
"Please, step in here." Mario opened the door to his magic closet, and the young Toad walked inside.
"And now, we will make this boy disappear!" Luigi exclaimed.
Some children in the audience yawned.
"Hocus focus, alaka-pocus!" Mario uttered and tapped his wand on the closet. He opened the door and the boy was gone.
The audience was so impressed, they began clapping and cheering.
"Whew!" Luigi thought. "It worked!"
As soon as Mario closed the door, it was time for Wendy's revenge to come into play. She opened the back of the closet and kidnapped the boy inside, covering his mouth in case he screamed for help. She grabbed two ropes, using the first to tie him to a chair. Then she took the other one and ran inside the closet, quietly closing the door behind her.
"And ta-dah!" Mario sang, opening the door. "He's ba- Huh?!"
Mario and Luigi looked inside with horror when they found nothing in the closet. The children in the audience gasped.
"Don't worry," Luigi giggled uneasily.
"Prepare to meet your doom!" Wendy yelled, stepping out from the closet.
"Wait, that sounds like W-" Mario began but was immediately cut short when Wendy kicked him in the shins.
"Ouch!" He jumped in the air, grabbing his leg in pain. While Luigi watched confusedly, Wendy ran back to get the rope and began tying up the Mario Bros.
"Kids! Help us!" Luigi shouted, but everyone else ran away.
"You pathetic plumbers can't stop me now!" Wendy cackled, throwing them backstage. She had them gagged before leaving them for good. Just moments later, Ludwig and Morton arrived at the same scene.
"We came in too late again," Morton sighed.
Upon seeing two of their greater foes, Mario and Luigi attempted to wriggle themselves free while mumbling furiously. Ludwig and Morton slowly stepped back towards the wall.
"We are so dead," Ludwig groaned.
They left the stage and stopped to rest behind a tree, making sure no one could find them.
"What do we do now?" Morton asked.
"Before we bring her back to our castle, we need to make sure she doesn't cause more mayhem. You wouldn't want to be stretched on a rack here for something you didn't do, right?"
"No!" He shuddered.
"Thought so."
"How can we find her?"
"Well, I did bring an invention that might help us…" Ludwig got out a pair of goggles.
"What are those?"
"They're Infra-Red Goggles," he explained. "They're like X-Ray glasses, only you can see invisible forces with them. Try them out."
Morton took the goggles and put them on. At first, he could not find anything unusual.
"I don't see too much happening," he spoke. Then he noticed a shadowy figure heading towards what looked like an abandoned house.
"There she is!" he shouted.
"Where?"
"She's headed towards that shack over there."
Ludwig gazed at the house. "Morton! That's a Boo House! We need to stop her!"
They made sure the coast was clear before sneaking over towards the house. They were next to the front door when Ludwig suddenly screamed in pain.
"OWW! My foot!"
"Ludwig?!" Wendy burst out. "What are you doing here?"
"Shh!" Ludwig tried to quiet themselves down while holding onto his foot. "We're not the ones who are invisible, you know!"
"Oops!" Wendy purposefully opened the door, then ran off. Ludwig and Morton ducked as hundreds of Boos escaped from their home. The two Koopa Kids ran behind the house so that none of the ghosts could see them.
"Great, now what do we do?" Morton asked.
"She's apparently caused too much trouble," Ludwig panted.
"Where's the soda?"
"It's right here." Ludwig got the can. "When she least expects it, we'll try to convince her to drink this. Then, we'll see if we can find a way out of here."
"I hope you know what you're doing…” Morton said.