He was absolutely giddy. His mouth was twisted upwards in a hopeless grin.
He looked away from the altar and into the gallery. Gathered at the foot of the long staircase were creatures as far as the eye could see: a wide array of green-shelled turtles. Some were holding hammers, some wore blue robes, some were flying, others were not. Mixed in among the audience were brown mushroom-looking creatures with wings. Everyone was in very high spirits, cheering for him. His grin got even wider as he pumped a muscular fist into the air. The crowd cheered even louder.
Satisfied with everyone's enthusiasm, he turned back towards the altar and looked towards the floor. On the other side of the pulpit was a young, blonde woman adorned in a pretty wedding dress and veil. She appeared to be unconscious and had a bouquet of white flowers in her hands. Gazing upon the woman sleeping on the floor made his heart skip a beat.
He then looked towards the pulpit, where a rather dapper-looking young man stood. The man wore a cream-coloured cape and top hat and held a jeweled sceptre in his gloved right hand. The man wore a monocle over one eye, and upon his dark blue face, he wore a creepy smile. Noticing his stare, the man turned towards him.
"Bleh heh heh! It's not long now, Evil Turtle King Bowser," the man replied. "Soon the princess will awaken, and the proceedings shall begin…thanks to Count Bleck!"
Wordlessly, Bowser gave the man a thumbs up and returned his gaze to the Princess, his smile never leaving his face.
Bowser could hardly contain his excitement at what was happening. After years of kidnapping, playful advances (depending on who you were to talk to) and hard work, he was finally going to marry the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, the woman of his dreams. His giant yellow claws were shaking as he adjusted his white bowtie, trying his best to look presentable. The great Koopa King was unaccustomed to wearing human clothing. It had taken him awhile to actually get into the white tuxedo shirt and jacket he was wearing (he remembered the small green-faced girl and strange yellow and purple jester had given up on the pants), but for an occasion this big, he knew it was all worth it, no matter how much his shirt was chafing him.
And unlike the last time this had happened, this time he knew he would succeed. He found himself briefly thinking back many years into the past, where he and his troops had invaded the region known as Dinosaur Land. It was a plan that seemed failproof: Two separate locations hidden away in different regions, his minions had captured the residents of the southern-most island, the Yoshies, and forced them to bake a huge cake and he had even brainwashed the Princess into falling in love with him (and had the videotape to prove it, as well!). The likelihood of failure was quite low, but of course, his life-long adversaries, the Mario Brothers, saw to that, just as they always did. No. This time, he knew things would finally go his way, for once.
As he continued to stare at the Princess' sleeping visage, he found himself thinking also of the increase in resources that this union would provide. The Mushroom Kingdom was a beautiful continent, home to all manner of different locales; warm plains, lush forests and jungles, hot deserts and cool mountains. Best of all, the sun was always shining! Bowser had owned most of the lands around him, but the Mushroom Kingdom was not one of them, and as much as he enjoyed his various castles in the mountainous, lava-filled Dark Land regions, every once in awhile, he found the heat to be a bit much, and would have appreciated a change in scenery. Marriage to the Princess meant he could do this at will, and he wouldn't even need to attack anybody, even though he enjoyed that immensely.
And yet, there was a very, very small part of him that felt something was off about this entire thing. There was no denying it, the circumstances that led he and the Princess to their present situation were very strange. The dapper man standing at the pulpit, who called himself Count Bleck, was the one that orchestrated all of this in the first place. He had showed up at the turtle king's castle just a few minutes after the Mario Bros. invaded (with no incentive this time!), the Princess held captive in that weird shiny cube-prison, spouted off some weird gibberish about a prophecy, and transported everyone in the castle to their current location. (At least his enemies were nowhere to be found at the moment, so that was a plus.)
There was also the matter of the pulpit itself. In all the time that Bowser had been standing at the altar, he noticed the pulpit give off some strange energy. It seemed otherworldly to him, and was definitely nothing like he had seen or felt before. It was almost as if something of great power was being contained within it, but there was no way to know exactly what it was. Indeed, the very, very small part of Bowser that actually noticed what was going on around him felt that something was very, very wrong.
…But the rest of him didn't care in the slightest, because Count Bleck had arranged for he and the Princess to get married! Bizarre situation? Great power? Whatever!
At that moment, both Bowser and the Count heard a soft murmur. Fixing their gazes downward, they noticed the Princess was finally beginning to stir from her unconscious state. The great Turtle King's eyes went wide as his mouth went from a big grin to an even bigger toothy smile. This was it! He was finally going to go through with his marriage to the Princess and no one was around to stop him this time! He was so happy!
"Ooh… Oooooh… What happened to me… What is this place?" she said, groggily.
The Count adjusted his top hat and cleared his throat, ready to begin the proceedings. "Bleh heh heh heh heh… Oh, you're awake, Princess!"