One Mushroom Kingdom Day, Mario jumped out of his bed. He put on his special hearty underwear that he only wore on Valentines' Day. Then he took a shower to get clean and smelly. The good way. Then he went to a towel rack with seven identical overalls. He chose the sixth one in line and put it on. He also put on his shirt. After he got himself all prim and proper, he went out into the main room of the castle.A love song was pounding on a boom box sitting on the railing by his door. He went down the short staircase to the floor. Toads were everywhere, carrying boxes of pink things. Two Toads ran into each other and an explosion of pink streamers and tablecloths erupted.

"TOADS!" Luigi yelled. He was standing on top of a ladder trying to direct everything.

Two Toads were putting up pink streamers around the edges of the ceiling. Peach was busy setting up a super-big L-shaped table.

"Great table!" Luigi called.

Peach ignored him as she set up a load of cards and papers and writing utensils for people to make valentines. Then she set up a giant, long table, covered it with a red tablecloth made of something fancy like silk, and then ran to the kitchen.

Mario was suddenly excited. He ran over to the valentine-making table. He wanted to dream up something really good. He cut a paper so that it was a heart-shaped folding card. Then he put red glitter glue and glitter and a fancy ribbon-bow on top. Then he opened it up and put his best selfie of him and Peach on the top. On the bottom, he wrote "Happy Valentines' Day to the ___ princess ever!" He paused to think. What should fill in the blank? A million adjectives filled his mind. He couldn't decide.

Just then, Luigi yelled, "AWESOME!" at somebody. Mario decided he would take what he got. So he filled in the blank with "awesomest." Then he slipped the valentine in his pocket and ran to the supermarket.

He bought a box of chocolates that he thought looked good. Well, EVERYTHING looked good. Then he went to the cake section. "I need a three-layer cake with white frosting, red piping around the edges, this valentine on the second layer, this box of chocolates on the first layer, and 'Happy Valentines' Day' on top! You got that?" he asked, handing over the stuff.

The Toad chef was writing it down so fast that his notepad was smoking. "Alright, I got it, but it's gonna cost you a pretty penny."

"I have plenty of pretty pennies!" Mario exclaimed. He handed the Toad a pretty penny.

"NOT THAT KIND!" the Toad yelled.

"Oh." Mario said, looking at his penny.

The Toad left to bake the cake. Mario purchased a soda and a cup of glazed donuts while he waited. Finally, the Toad placed a cake there.

"It's great!" Mario exclaimed. He paid the Toad 100 dollars and took the cake.

He drove it home and hid it under his bed, where Luma was sitting. He cooed excitedly when he saw the cake. "It's not for you," Mario said. Luma shrunk back, disappointed. Mario groaned and gave him his last glazed donut. Luma gobbled it up with his invisible mouth. Mario got out from under his bed and went back into the main hall.

Peach was directing a procession of Toads carrying different dishes of food. They put down cream of chicken with mushroom. Then they set out a bunch of wine glasses and cokes and wines, and put up a chocolate fountain along with fresh berries.

Mario started drooling as he watched them. One Toad handed him a napkin. Mario wiped his mouth, but the drool kept coming.

Luigi climbed down his ladder and came over. "What's going on? Why are you drooling?" he asked Mario.

Mario looked at him. His drool stream passed over Luigi's feet.

"Eeeewww, gross!" Luigi said. He wiped off his feet. "Well, I'll be going," he said. He walked away after nabbing a chocolate-covered berry.

"Get that drool under control, dude," Blue Toad said as he placed a monster pizza on the table.

Instead of controlling it, Mario's drool stream widened. A big puddle was on the floor. Blue Toad sighed and held up a big plate of broccoli covered in brown sauce. Mario sniffed it once and then fainted. His mouth was sealed tight.

"Heh, thought that might work," Blue Toad said happily.

He put down the broccoli and then told a bunch of Toads to clean up the mess. They did. Then Blue Toad helped set up a big fire in the invisible fireplace. Once it was as big as Frollo's fire, he went over to Peach. "I think everything's about ready," he said.

"Good," she replied. Then she went over to the valentine table, where a bunch of Toads were at work.

Soon Mario woke up from his unconsciousness. He looked around and found that the lights had been dimmed and small tables with little decorations on them had been set up everywhere. Toads were gathering at them. Few people were at the valentine-making table.

Mario smelled all the food but decided to ignore it because he had something else on his mind. He wanted to check the mail. He went outside. The blinding sun hit him like a blow from Bowser. He opened the mailbox and ten pounds of valentines crashed onto him and knocked him to the ground. He sat up and spat a box out of his mouth. He checked a lot of them and most were for Peach. He found one for Luigi. None were for him. He was pretty shocked---UNTIL he found a valentine for him that said it was from Shigeru Miyamoto. He could barely read the handwriting but he knew who it was from.

So he took it inside and ripped it open to find a big card with a billion different pictures of himself. One picture was of somebody dressed as him posing with Shigeru Miyamoto. In the same fancy handwriting, it said, "To the greatest mascot ever! I have enjoyed seeing technology advance and you along with it. I know how much you love to eat, so another package from me should be arriving soon with something special inside! Love, Miyamoto."
Mario was crying by the time he finished the letter. "That is so sweet," he said, sniffling. Then he framed the card and hung it on the wall. Then he took all the valentines that weren't for him and went into the main hall. It was so dim that at first the room was pitch black to him. But soon, everyone emerged from the darkness, and he realized that Luigi was suddenly standing right in front of him. He screamed and dropped all the valentines.

"What are these?" Luigi asked. He miraculously picked out the only one for him. It was white and boo-shaped, and it said, "To the best ghost-wrangler I know!" in the worst handwriting Luigi had ever seen. He almost fainted because he automatically knew who it was from. He opened it and there was a picture of E. Gadd pressing a button on a remote. Luigi stared at it in utter horror. There were no words. None at all. "Uh, you can keep it," Luigi said, handing it to Mario.

"Okay," Mario replied. Luigi walked off to sit down. Mario read the valentine. At first he didn't know who it was from, but it was obvious when he opened it. "Huh," he said. Then he gathered up all of Peach's valentines and found her sitting at a table with Luigi, Blue Toad, and Yellow Toad.

"Hey, who are all those for?" Yellow Toad asked.

"Peach," Mario replied. He dumped them all on the table. Peach starting opening them.

"You're missing the show," Blue Toad said.

Mario realized that Toadbert and Toadsworth were dancing around on the sun carpet under a spotlight, singing. It was awful, but Mario didn't really care because it was time to eat. He grabbed five paper plates and loaded up. Then he went and sat down.

After he had gulped down his food and everyone else was finished, he went and got his secret valentine cake. Then he went over to his table and screamed, "HAPPY VALENTINES' DAY, PEACH!" He pulled the cake up into view.

Peach had no words. "WOW, THANKS!" she screamed finally.

"IT'S AWESOME RIGHT???" Mario asked.

"YES, DEFINITELY!!!" Peach yelled back. "I GOT YOU THIS!" she pulled up a giant cake, even bigger than Mario's, with sparkler-looking candles and Yoshi apples and swirls of whipped cream.

"IS THAT ICE CREAM!!!???" Mario asked, pointing at a huge, perfect scoop of vanilla ice cream sitting on top. Mario's face was painted on it with chocolate syrup, and two figures of Peach and Mario were standing on top. "THAT'S THE BEST CAKE EVER!" Mario screeched.

Yoshi ran over and butted into Mario.

"Hey!" Mario said, finally lowering his voice.Yoshi looked at him expectantly. "Alright, you can have some," Mario said.

Yoshi leaped for joy. Then he stuck out his tongue and an apple was instantly in his mouth. He chewed joyously. Mario could barely wait to taste it himself. Peach was taking the card off her cake from Mario. She read it and smiled. Then she pulled off the box of chocolates, ate some, and then starting cutting pieces of the cake. Mario could barely stop himself from drooling as he realized that each layer of Peach's cake was a different flavor, and each layer had ice cream inside, too. Mario cut himself a giant piece of strawberry cake, heaped some of the ice cream off the top and onto his plate, and then added a Yoshi apple.

Blue Toad and Yellow Toad were overjoyed as they stuffed their tiny Toad faces with the cake.

Luigi was having a blast. He gave Mario a red, M-shaped card.

"Thanks!" Mario said. He opened it and found that the inside was lined with chocolates. He ate some, and then added the rest to his piece of cake. Then he bit into it happily. It was so delicious that Mario almost fainted. It seemed that everyone else never had their mouth empty.

And so, for the rest of that cake-filled night, everyone ate cake.