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Shards of Love: REDUX!
Shard I: Foundations
Chapter III
The Reception
Five in the afternoon approaches; hundreds of celebrities and other special guests pack the courtyard. The reception's lush, regal design compares to the inner and outer appearances of the Mushroom Kingdom's massive castle in its elegance.
The Mushroom Kingdom monarchs plan on officially kicking off the reception, but the two notice one problem: Everyone arrived except for the newly-wedded couple.
"Where's Peach? And Mario?" Queen Toadstool questioned her husband, who's once again stuck in a golf hallucination. Hearing the condensed concern in her voice, the King snaps out of his happy-land.
"W-what?" he stuttered, drifting back into reality bit by bit, "She's probably... Uhh... Talking to Daisy!"
Queen Toadstool focuses her attention to the crowd, trying to see if Daisy's even present. She spots several red-spotted white Toad hats as well as Luigi, dressed in his green-and-black tuxedo. The Queen turns back towards her husband and sighs.
"I would ask Luigi if he knows where they are but... I don't know."
She sighs once again as the only response she gets from her husband is a grunt.
"Well, they better be here soon. They have twenty minutes until it's simply too late to be acceptable!"
An hour and a half before the reception, Peach rises from her stool and plops down onto her bed. Exhaustion grips her body with a stiff, daunting hold like a stealthy shark; all she wants to do is to sleep it off, wedding dress and all.
Her wish granted without her knowledge, she jolts back into consciousness after hearing pounding on her door. Grogginess plaguing her body, the princess rolls towards the door, resulting in her falling off the bed. After a mental scolding about laziness and not opening the door, she jolts off the bed and answers the door.
"Took you long enough," Mario greeted, "Now let's go to the reception before your... *ahem*... perfectionist mother kills us both."
Though not saying a word, Peach blushes as she grabs Mario's hand. He's right, but despite inheriting that trait from her mother, Peach didn't feel any rush to arrive on time. After all, the reception's the more informal part of the entire wedding ceremony, and one must expel extra effort to mess up a gathering that has no plot-line of any sort.
They go down the nearest flight of stairs and meander through the hallways, initially holding hands before they begin playfully shoving each other. The empty hallways echo the shrieks and laughter emitted from the two, no doubt carrying the fading sound to every room between each far-reaching side of the majestic castle, including the kitchen.
Once the two lovebirds pass the kitchen, the resident chef, Tayce T., sights them as she dishes some teriyaki chicken from the pan onto a large food tray.
"Hey! You two! You're giving your mother a heart attack!"
Peach smiles and approaches the kitchen counter. Besides the chicken rests a large selection of desserts. She couldn't tell what half of them were, but after this stress-filled day, she can't help but bring up fantasies of her lounging on the bright, warm, white-sand beaches Water Land's famous for, a bottle of sunscreen in one hand and a jelly-pumped sweetened pastry in the other. However, her daydreams crash down after being swatted with an unused spatula.
"Shoo!" Tayce T. shooed in a secretive sort of way, "You'll see the desserts later! It's a surprise! Please, I insist, find your parents, Princess!"
"Okay! Okay!" Peach retreated. She knows Tayce T. means no harm and she desires to make her cooking a surprise for everyone, but Peach still feels like she deserves to sample one of those dessert items. What if they tasted weird—and there she goes again with the worrying.
After being kicked out of the kitchen, Mario and Peach round the corner to go out into the courtyard. As they open the door, Peach gasps at the decorations. A large wedding arch saturated with white balloons placed under the door greets them, multiple fancy tables litter most of the courtyard's floorspace, and a brigade of lights decorate each edge and corner of the castle's outside walls. A makeshift dance floor packed with other wedding guests take up the remaining floorspace across from the door, with two large speakers playing various music genres ranging from upbeat, get-crazy songs to soft, slow-dancing melodies.
Sighting the princess, the guests on the dance floor pause their dancing and the ones seated at their tables all stood up. The patrons kneel in respect for both Mario and Peach, while the Queen approaches her daughter in relief.
"Phew, Peach, you made it safely! Please don't be late again, I was having panic attacks!"
"Thanks mom, but I'm not sixteen anymore! I can take care of myself."
"Oh, of course you can, darling," the Queen agrees as she brushes her recently-manicured fingers in Peach's hair, "But it's best to be careful. You know you do hold a lot of power in the Kingdom. I don't want you getting hurt."
"Mom," Peach sighs, "It's a wedding reception. MY wedding reception. We have so many guards, I'm pretty much safe. No need to worry."
"Well, true," the Queen sighed, "Is Daisy somewhere? I thought she was with you."
"Nope, I haven't seen her in a few hours actually. But she's probably taking a little break, or talking to someone else in private. You know how she meets someone she likes then steps out with them."
"Well true," the Queen acknowledge before smiling, "And you're right. Time to stop worrying, and time to have a great reception!"
As the Queen walks away from the bride and groom, the guests all stand back up from their kneeling and continue to do their prior activities. When the music starts playing another slow song, Peach drags Mario onto the dance floor and slow-dances with him.
"This is our first night in forever. I can't believe this is happening," Peach whispered to Mario as she puts her head on his shoulder.
"Me neither. I love you."
"I love you too."
"Okay. Lemmy's keeping Father busy, so ve don't need to vorry about him coming," Ludwig told Iggy and Wendy the current status of the plan, "Vendy, stay here and when I say the command to you, scream. Got it?"
"Whatever," Wendy replied as she pulls out a megaphone to aid her.
"Good. Now c'mon, Ignatius, ve're still half a kilometer avay from ze castle."
Ludwig and Iggy begin making their way through the heavy forests covering the area south of the castle. Iggy, who formed his knockout invention in the form of multiple harmless gas bombs, pocketed the inventions into his shell before any guards become suspicious of the weapon arsenal.
Not long after, both Koopalings arrive at the other side of the forest. Before Iggy steps out, Ludwig holds him back.
"Stay here. It's safer in here zan in ze clearing. Let me see if Lawrence's out zere still," Ludwig commanded as he pulls out his walkie-talkie, "Lawrence! Come in!"
Ludwig receives no answer.
"I repeat. Lawrence, pick up!"
Still no answer.
"Ugh. Ve're on our own, Iggy," Ludwig sighed. He knew all along that there'd be a time Larry became unreliable, and unfortunately for the plan, the unreliability played during the wrong time. Even worse, he may now be nesting under the arms of Roy and Morton... "So, Iggy, ve're south of ze castle right now, and ze reception's on ze vest side. Vhat you should do is go around ze castle anticlockvise, zen vhen you get to ze north of ze reception, hurl ze bombs at zem."
Iggy nods. The genius reckons it's best to follow Ludwig's plan for now; he could use some well-deserved rep with Bowser.
"Okay, I'm off then."
"Okay," Ludwig responded before adding, "Tell us when you're at the northern section of the castle. We'll get Wendy to scream after."
Iggy nods once again before making his way out of the clearing and towards the pink-and-white castle's southern wing. Before he turns the corner to the eastern side, the genius peeks over, relieved that the coast is clear. Perhaps all the guards are with Peach on the other side?
Iggy continues his meandering across the eastern side of the castle and, once again peeking over the northeast corner, makes his way to the north side. Sighting no threats within his vicinity, Iggy pulls out his walkie-talkie and informs Ludwig.
"I'm on the north side! They're soon to get a surprise! Hahahaha!" Iggy informed, expecting a response from Ludwig.
Instead, another voice piped up over the line. Rather than the bold, commanding voice of his eldest brother, Iggy senses a worried, cautious voice. Knowing the source of the voice, he sighs before responding, "Larry. You finally came back."
"Yes I did! You guys gotta stop this!"
"Oh nonsense, Lawrence," Ludwig's voice breaks into the conversation, "Everyzing's going as planned. Are you enraged because you didn't have an active part of ze plan?"
"No! I'm serious! Stop this! I'll explain back at the castle! Come back!"
The line goes silent, as if Ludwig pondered over the words Larry uttered. The way he phrased the words, whatever the matter was appears to be serious, but alas, Ludwig couldn't detect any threats. This may be a Roy and Morton ploy to slow down the mission. As a result, Ludwig shuts out Larry and instead decides to continue with the plan. He rings in to Wendy's walkie-talkie.
"Vendy, do it now!"
A loud scream pierces the skies above Peach's Castle. From the sounds of gasps and chairs being pushed out, Iggy knows that the guests heard the sound. One even shouted something along the lines of "Wow! That came from the southern area!"
"They heard it, Ludwig! The guards may be coming your way!" Iggy alerted before pocketing his walkie-talkie and grabbing three gas bombs from his shell. Iggy creeps up to the northwestern corner and peeks out towards the reception. He was right; many people stand, seemingly aware and alert at the sudden screams, while others pick up their phones to maybe call more guards or the Toad Town Police. Iggy sighs; the police wouldn't be good to have during this plan, so his part must be done as soon as possible.
"Sorry clowns, but you guys are going down! Better call your chauffer, because the party's over! Hahahaha!" Iggy cackled as he lights the three gas bombs with a fireball. He then chucks the bombs at the reception; seconds later, thick clouds of pale-yellow gas consume the area. He hears coughing for several seconds before everything, save the soft music, went still.
Sensing possible partygoers and guards charging his way and figuring he'd be uncovered by them, Ludwig moves towards the northwest. He'd be closer to the reception, but he'll also have a higher chance of being out of the chargers' search zone. As Ludwig paces northwest, he cursed Iggy in his head. That darned koopa needs to hurry up and just use the stupid bombs already!
His negative thoughts subsided as he laid eyes upon the reception not far from him. As a strange, yellowish gas fizzles out, the eldest spots several reception members, including Peach, out cold.
"Bingo!" Ludwig cheered to himself. Looking first to the north, then the south and finally east, noticing no threats other than a demented Iggy running away from the castle grounds, Ludwig then dashes out from his covers and nabs the passed-out Peach.
No threat surfaced, but Ludwig runs off the castle grounds with Peach on his shoulder. He couldn't risk being caught out of nowhere, and he figured running away from nothing will always be better than walking away from sudden "heroes".
He makes his way through the half-kilometer of forest to the doomship. His overworked lungs plead him to rest, but his adrenaline and fears command otherwise. Not long after, he reaches his doomship, and any happy feelings he received from finding the doomship disappears when he notices Bowser scowling at him while holding Lemmy by the shell.
"Uhh..." Ludwig stared with a loss of words. What was his dad doing here, and how did he know? "Fancy meeting you here?"
"Get in the doomship," Bowser roared, "NOW! And drop Peach!"
Shocked, Ludwig drops Peach on the floor and cowers as he passes his father and enters the doomship. He knew better than to show any emotion other than submissiveness to Bowser whenever he got upset at him.
Bowser sighs; the strong emotion of anger he had dissipated into one of exhaustion. He puts Lemmy into the doomship before picking up the passed-out princess and also deposits her into the doomship. If she's passed out, she mind as well tag along with this "family outing".
He'll just have to deal with everything once they all get back to the castle.