Chapter 1: Writing the Future

Dark.

It was dark all around Mario, so dark that he couldn't even see his own hands in the darkness.
„It's okay, boy, it's okay," Mario tried to reason to himself „You can handle this, boy, you will just get up and-"
The rest of Mario's thought was drowned in a shrill, frightful scream that sounded as though coming from every direction.
Despite that, Mario istantaneously knew were it came from and especially, whose voice it was, it was Peach.
The idea that his eternal love could be in danger made Mario completely forget that he was trapped in darkness, so he stood up, turned around and dashed off in the direction he thought the scream had come from.

Mario ran and ran, he didn't even knew if he was still running or if the ground was just taking him to his destination when he finally saw a light.
He dashed up ahead into it and found himself on a red wall of solid rocks in a dimly lit area which resembled a cave made out of pulsing red stone.

This was were the scream had come from, Mario had no doubt.

He looked around and spotted a red rock plateau, seemingly floating in the middle of the room where his fears were confirmed: His eternal love, Princess Peach was lying in the centre of the platform, her clothes torn, her golden hair dyed crimson from her own blood and her face covered in scars as she was trying her best to keep herself standing on at least one leg as the other had already given way to gravity.
„Princess!" Mario yelled, but she didn't seem to hear him „Princess, who's done this to you?!"
His question was rendered irrelevant as he spotted another person standing in fron of Peach, smiling down at her whilst pointing a machine gun at her face.
Mario tried to make out more of this person, but it was covered in a sort of mist which made them hard to see, however, for one moment, Mario thought he had seem himself before a bang errupted, Peach sank down to the ground with a sigh and Mario woke from his dream with a yelp.

„Oh, Mama-f***-Mia!" Mario panted, as he sat upright in the huge golden bed in Peach's personal dormitory, reality slowly fading back into his vision.
As soon as he had realized that it had only been a dream, he turned to his left to check if Peach was okay and for one second, his heart stopped as she wasn't lying next to him.
Mario broke out in silent panic, bolting upright out of the bed, hitting his head on the bed casing.
He hastily looked in all directions and noticed that the balcony door was standing ajar.
Mario hasted up to it to find, to his great relief, Peach standing out on the balcony in her white sleeping gown, leaned forwards, supporting herself on the banister with her arms crossed, holding a half-full glass of red wine in her right hand, staring up into the night sky.

The night was clear and quiet, the stars and half-moon shining brightly, filling the empty streets of Toad Town and the surrounding meadows in twilight.

„Hi Mario, can't sleep as well?" Peach sighed, an unnatural tone of darkness in her voice.
„Uh, no, I had a bad dream and I wanted to check if you are okay because I dreamt that you..."
„Died?" Peach interrupted him.
„Yes!" Mario answered, perplexed „How did you know?"
„I don't know," Peach sighed again „I just...felt it.
Say, how did I die in your dream?"
„Uh...you...fell of a cliff in the middle of nowhere." Mario thought it best to keep the truth quiet.
„I see..." Peach said in a monotone voice as she obviously knew that Mario was lying.
„But...I want you to know that I will always be there for you in reality." Mario cried „I will always save you!"
This, as though being obvious, cheered Peach up quite a bit, she turned around to Mario, handed him a glass of red wine as well and said
„I know, Mario, I know."

Both dropped their glasses with a crash and fell into a deep, loving hug.