Minor Defects

"Minor Defects" is a Nintendo Comics System story, published only in Nintendo Comics System featuring Super Mario Bros. #8.

Summary
One morning, Princess Toadstool is awakened by a commotion in the castle and asks Wooster what it is. He tells her that Mario is currently entertaining some guests, and she barges in to the room where the noise is coming from, only to find it crowded by about twelve thousand Shy Guys, Snifits, and Beezos. Mario explains to the Princess that the 8 bits have defected to their side for a reason he is not aware of. The Princess is not at all keen about Mario letting the 8 bits in, but he tells her that they want him to lead an attack against Bowser. With that, Mario and Luigi lead the 8 bits on an attack to Dark Land, dragging the Princess and Wooster with them.

Meanwhile, at Bowser's Castle, Bowser asks Mouser why the Shy Guys have gone missing and wonders if maybe he did something to drive them away. Mouser, however, cannot figure out why it is that the Shy Guys have disappeared.

A few days later, after a lot of marching, the good guys and the 8 bits arrive at the front door of Bowser's Castle, which is guarded by a lone Shy Guy named Clarence, who is very unpopular among the other Shy Guys because he supposedly has cooties. Unfortunately for Mario, none of the 8 bits want to go after Clarence, and they instead spend the next three days building a watch tower.

Bowser, in the meantime, gets sick of waiting for Mario and the 8 bits to storm his castle and goes down to talk to them. When he does, Mario tells Bowser that he's beaten because his men have turned against him, but Bowser says he doesn't know the reason why. The 8 bits then answer that the actual reason they ran out on Bowser was because they think he forgot to give them their fruit baskets for Be-Kind-to-Lackeys Day. Bowser tells the 8 bits that they haven't received the fruit baskets yet because the holiday is actually tomorrow, not last week as the 8 bits mistakenly thought. As the 8 bits beg Bowser to take them back, the Koopa King asks Mario and the Princess if they know what actually happened to the fruit baskets, because they were supposed to have arrived days ago. Clarence then speaks up, saying he knows where the fruit baskets went, but he refuses to tell Bowser because he never asked him. As Bowser furiously yells at Clarence for withholding the information, Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Wooster retreat back to the Mushroom Castle. When they arrive home, they find out that Bowser's fruit baskets mistakenly got delivered there, and that Toad and King Toadstool have been feasting on them.