Mushroom rebellion
1: A glimmer of hope in the darkness.

I walked through the gloomy streets of Koopa City with light pink parasol above me, sheltering me from the neverending rain. I looked up to the stark grey sky. There were days when I wanted to see a fresh, clear and admiral colour of blue in the sky,instead of an infernal nightmare, but those days were gone. The days were now filled with nightmares, fears of the sky being threatened by a airship armada, and pollution leaking from out of the sewer pipes. We tried. We tried to stop the chaos from happening but in the end it was never enough. And now my beloved kingdom was nothing but ruins in the ashes.

I guess I should start from the beginning

Before all this madness started, we were once kingdom filled with happy and satisfied citizens. I was known as Princess Toadstool but my friends, my cousin and my enemy called me Peach. My Father was the King of this Kingdom. I never knew my Mother, she died of an unknown disease when I was growing up, but during the time when I did know her she was kind and gentle. My Father told me I was a younger version of her with blonde hair and blue eyes. However, once I turned sixteen, I was kidnapped one day. King Bowser Koopa ,a giant yellow turtle with red hair and a green spiky shield, wanted to marry me and force me to hand over my Father's Kingdom.

Then, they arrived. My rescuers. They managed to save me and put an end to Bowser's plans, taking me back to my Father's kingdom and received an award. But, Bowser was never defeated. He came back and his actions quite recently let to the destruction, tierney and chaos of the kingdom. My Father tried to stop him but… he couldn't.

And in the end, he was dead. I never got to say good bye.

I managed to remove the floating tears that were scattering from my bright blue eyes and I carried on walking. It was always raining in this so called curtain of the night.. The sky above me turned even darker just as lightning danced across the sky and the wind howled in pain. Life in koopa city was beyond terrible. Bowser made himself the president of Koopa city,when he destroyed the Mushroom Kingdom, but he made the place into a wasteland. The streets were filled with poisonous pollution and they smelled of rotten bodies. Everytime I passed through the streets, I could feel the wildfire of pollution washing over my face and I could taste acid crawling at the back of my mouth.

"Princess…"

I knew whose voice that was. I turned around and saw my favourite, dashing and youthful heroes, Mario and Luigi. They were the only two people who I could trust. They are twin brothers but because of the high difference it looked like Luigi was the older brother. Much life myself, their clothes were simple with either a red or green shirt, blue overalls, brown shoes and white gloves. On their heads was a cap in their shirt colour with the first letter of their name engraved on it. As for myself I was wearing a short pink dress with a darker shade of pink of the boots, white trousers and gloves. My attendant , Toadsworth, would have had a heart attack if he saw me like this.

I frowned slightly. I hated it when Mario referred to me by my royal title.

"Mario, what have I told you?." I questioned. "Don't call me that in public"

"But…"

"No buts, those days are over. Please call me Peach." I interjected.

"Alright." Mario conceded. "Come, we must get out of here."

Normally,I would have said no but sometimes times it was better to have bodyguards then no protection at all. They were like angels to me. Mario was the more adventurous out of the two brothers and Luigi was quiet but deadly. You never wanted to make him mad. There was this one time when we were all on a picnic and these two troublemakers came along. They tried to ruin our picnic but the skies flash with emerald green lightning and immediately crashed into the ground near them. They ran away after that. I knew it was Luigi but back then I wasn't so sure.

We passed through a narrow street, the brown bricked walls were all filled with propaganda posters. Messy ones with scratches of blue, red and white. There were even a few wanted posters of myself and the brothers. Mario stood in front of one that had his face on it.

"Huh, they didn't even capture my good side."

"Mario, there's no time to joke around. We must get the Princess to safety." Luigi scolded.

"Ah,sorry bro. The old days of humour and laughter are getting to me again." Mario apologized. "We should be at the meeting place soon, Princess."

We carried on walking for about another two minutes. Luigi stopped and turned towards the narrow street on our left side. With cat like eyes, Luigi saw two Koopa Troopas beating up a member of my people. My people were little children but they were more smaller and almost mushroomy. They were called Toads and they were kind, free wielded and loyal. The one we saw had a white hat with green polka dots, a green vest with a golden trim, brown shoes and white shorts.

I saw Luigi make his way up one of the closest buildings with neon lights. He was a coward but he hated it when the Koopa Troopas started picking on someone smaller. The sky flash emerald green and a single bolt of sparkling lightning came dazzling down from the sky. The whip of lightning didn't hurt them but it did land near them. Cowardly as a sailor abandoning ship, the Koopa Troopas dashed away just as Luigi landed near the Toad. He told him to go before walking towards me and Mario.

Luigi said nothing as he passed by us but I could tell, deep down, that he was hurt, depressed and remorseful. I could tell that he didn't want to hurt anyone, least of all his friends. He wanted change. He wanted things to go back to the way they should be. I reached out for the green garbed brother and managed to stop him.

"Everything will be fine." I promised.

"Thanks. I know they will be." Luigi replied, smiling for the first time.

We carried on walking until we reached the only remaining house. Parts of the roof were caved in and the brown paint was chipping off. The door was loose and made a creaking sound every now and then. The windows were shattered and bits of glass were scattered on the overgrowing grass. Nobody was living in this house but there was a staircase that lead to underground sanctuary.

Mario made a gesture and said "Here we are. Princess first."

I gave him a playful smile and a little nudge on his left shoulder. I walked inside and made my way down the steps into temporary darkness. Mario and Luigi were behind me and I soon heard the sound of running water. The darkness washed away and was replaced with a scenic landscape with a beautiful garden and a lake with shrine on a small island. The air was cool and there was a pleasant breeze coming from the opening above. This was the last place of beauty. The only remains of my Kingdom.