In this world of ours, we have many stories that get told again and again. Anyone who has listened to their uncle talk about "the one that got away" will make it sound like the fish grew with each story. It's in our natures to take a story that happened and make more from it. To make amazing stories and turn them into something we love.

And sometimes, they get away from us. They become something we lose control of. They become the fiction of the masses, and we lose the truth behind it.

It was for this reason I sought out the former Crown Princess Toadstool. It took a while to find her, given all anyone wanted to talk about was her twin Princess Peach and how she was probably being kidnapped again. I got my first solid lead from a Koopa who was drinking some very strong-smelling root beer.

"Yeah I come to this club for the jokes about the princess ya know? They're pretty good honestly."

I pushed another root beer towards him. "So where is the princess? What happened to her?"

The koopa eyed the root beer and drank it all, wiping the foam from his beak like mouth. He glanced down. "We got orders not to talk about her story. Gotta be in her words, not ours."

"From your king?"

"No, our queen."

It wasn't long after that I quietly stepped were few humans had been. I wasn't too nervous at first. I was from New Donk after all, and easily taller than many of the creatures that called this volcanoe home. We often made jokes back home that we could easily fit these guys in our pockets (not that we would!).

I pulled out a napkin and carefully wiped the sweat from my face. I was about to enter the famed bowsers castle- and now I wasn't certain if it was nerves or the lava's heat. Some goomba's walked up to me in a tall pile. The top one looked me in the eye.

"Yer the guy wantin' to talk to the queen huh? You kinda look like a punk."

"Heh… forgot the heat… not enough starch in the shirt to make up for it."

One in the middle started to giggle, shaking the pile. The top one quickly glared down and he (or was it a she?) stopped and stood at attention. The whole stack turned and started walking inside, the top one glancing at me to indicate to follow him. I slowly walked inside and looked at all the carved statues, along with the paintings of all the past Koopa Kings.

"If yer really that good of a writer, maybe you can help write our history books for our schools. They gotta have the old stories ya know!"

I nodded, not wanting to say I had no real interest in helping the Koopa King- just finding out what happened to the princess. Although it was exciting to meet the mysterious mother of Bowser Jr. Many had assumed it was Princess Peach- but I couldn't see her giving up custody like that. Which is why I froze at the last painting at the end of the hall.

Bowser holding his son Bowser Jr…

With Princess Peach?!

But wait something was off, I couldn't put my finger on it.

A voice came up behind me. "Don't tell me you're mistaking me for my sister too?"

As I turned and saw the flowing reddish-brown hair, blue eyes, and a distinct lack of crown in her hair. I saw the long missing Crown Princess Toadstood.

"Right, I believe you have some questions…"

I sat down excited. "Thank you for meeting with me. Everyone has wondered where you went- although it looks like you maybe dyed your hair…"

The Former Prin- no current Queen Toadstool gracefully sat down in an overly large red armchair. It looked as though it had been created for a large lizard- which it probably had. Behind her a large fire, that seemed only slightly cooler than the lava outside. These both stood out against the dark grey and black statues and decorations. The only other items of color were a slightly soot covered red and gold rug, and a larger version of the painting from before. My chair was a plain wooden chair with some basic cushions. This room was meant to intimidate, and it was working well.

She waved her hand and a red shell Koopa came forward with a tray of tea and cookies, while a dry bones came up behind with a small table. Together they quickly set the table and put a cup and saucer in my hands. The Queen picked up the teapot and smiled a bit as she poured some tea, gently placing a cookie upon the saucer.

"I dyed it because of the confusion it caused with my twin. Now let me guess, you have some game or movie idea and want to share it with me before pushing it through? More polite than the others I suppose." She looked annoyed, but unsurprised. More importantly she was about to push me out the door!

I gulped down some tea and quickly set the cup down, causing it to slosh over the edge. "No, no… I want the truth about what happened! There are so many things that seem to contradict each other and the fact is we have seen King Koopa pal around with Princess Peach and well… Stories from my mother just made it more confusing so-"

She held up her hand, slowly sipping her tea. Toadstool closed her eyes, as if pondering deep truths of the universe before taking a slow breath. "The truth… is complicated. We all see the truth a little differently. Our truths aren't necessarily wrong, but our judgments and actions are colored by the truths we know. And someone else writing them down changes those truths to something new…"

She pulled out a box. As I peered inside I saw copies of many of the games, media, movies, books and other things made about the Super Mario Brothers and their greatest enemy, King Koopa. "People took the tiny silvers of the story and changed it to entertain… they altered our truths to make new ones. They forgot the events of the past and rewrote history, even as the present requires the original past to exist now."

She looked at me, her eyes feeling like they were dark, blue whirlpools sucking me in. "I will tell you, but on one condition."