There was so much blood.

The Koopa and Goombas here were farmers and mostly starving, taking what little they could grow and distributing it to the masses left so little for themselves.

ShyGuy's little stomach turned as he examined the bloodied shells on the ground, torn from the bodies of Koopa that had simply gotten in the plumber's way.

He turned away to find reprieve from the horror only to set eyes on a crushed Goomba head at his feet, flies buzzing around exposed gray matter.

The stench was horrific. The entire scene was horrific.

ShyGuy barely lifted his mask out of the way before lurching and emptying his belly on the ground.

Gasping, he set his mask back in place and stalked back where he'd come from. His hands were shaking as he all but fled, the image burned into his mind.

"Gotta…warn B…" he gasped through his nausea.

…

Several days would pass with the Princess locked in her room of her own volition. Food would be set outside her door and the empty tray collected some time after.

No one would see her. Bowser didn't even try. After their last encounter, he himself wasn't even sure he wanted to see her.

He felt like a fool. She had been there, and she had been willing. Why hadn't he just accepted and gone along with it? It might've been the only chance he'd get!

On the other hand…he hadn't seen that look in her eye before. She had seemed so unbearably…lost. It wasn't a look that suited her well, and going forward had felt so terribly wrong.

He wondered for a moment if it might not be best if he did let her go now. The more time went on, the more he felt…strangely guilty about it all.

Then there were his people. His starving people and the kingdom beneath him that threatened to crumble. At one point he had hoped to sleep through it. As though…if he waited it out it would sort its own self out and he wouldn't have to try. Hell, he'd told himself he didn't even really care beyond trying to save his own scaley hide from mutiny.

Bowser howled and sent his fist into the floor again. The stone here and there had been distorted and cracked from the action, done every so often as his frustration built repeatedly.

What he found truly infuriating was that even if he gave her back now, she would likely still be forced to marry the plumber by her own people. He imagined that made her feel betrayed, and he knew very well the feeling of paternal betrayal.

Besides, she was his! His Princess! Not…

He stopped his fuming, feeling suddenly defeated. If she really were his, then he wouldn't have felt so wrong about taking her up on her offer, would he?

…

Several days turned into a week with the castle feeling eerily silent and hostile. Its inhabitants started to miss the incessant fighting that had taken place between the fiery pair. It had livened up a place that had begun to feel hopeless and it was that hopelessness that now settled back in.

Until ShyGuy returned.

"B!" he cried as he burst into the castle, visibly shaken. He ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, stopping only once when he tripped over his own robe. He desperately made his way back to the King's chambers, frantic as the locked handle. He banged on it urgently.

Bowser growled, annoyed at the fuss. There were enough problems without someone getting in a tizzy over something, and he wasn't in the mood for their petty problems.

"Go away," he practically snarled.

"The people! Thems dead! Bloodied and dead!" the little creature wailed, refusing to be deterred.

The Koopa King had never heard ShyGuy so frantic before, and it cut through his moody, broody depression enough to open the door.

"Fuck's sake, don't you always pick the lo…" he stopped when he saw the shivering mess outside his door. "ShyGuy?" he muttered, confused and apprehensive.

His small, masked subject threw himself into the room, all but sobbing at the Koopa King's feet. "Shells torn off…" he wailed, " and smashed heads! Parts left inna' sun fer th' maggots ta fester 'n' buzzards ta peck…"

Bowser was concerned now, his attention brought to focus now. "What?"

"Th' plumber he…so many villages. Theys gone! Theys all dead! Smushed 'n' broken an' more brutal than I even seen yer Da' ever strike a claw ta paint!"

Bowser grit his teeth. "How the shell is one plumber killing so many?"

ShyGuy peered up at him, trembling as he recalled what he'd seen. "Ain't like no plumber I ever seen! Stompin' heads, shootin' fiery hell at folks, an'…an'…an' I seen 'im beat a starvin' Koopa ta death with his own shell, pulled right off a back like he were a crab!"

This news was more than shocking. When the hell did anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom ever tear through anywhere with such merciless bloodlust?

Is this what Peach was afraid of?

Is this what Peach was supposed to marry now?