(A/N: At the end of that last chapter, the Broodals were on their way back to Rabbit Ridge, where Madame Broode is waiting for them. What are they going to tell her? How will she react? If I start this chapter, we shall get the answers we seek!)
It took a few hours, but the Broodals finally arrived back in Rabbit Ridge, which was found on the Dark Side of the Moon. They parked their airship near Rabbit Ridge Tower, which looked like a giant, colorless, carrot-shaped statue. This was where the Broodals lived with their manager, Madame Broode.
"Do we really have to do this?" Rango asked his siblings, highly nervous about going in there and telling Madame Broode what they did.
The Broodals all exchanged nervous glances with each other, but Topper said in a firm voice, "She might already know what we did. We'll have to tell her whether or not she already knows."
That was it. There was no turning back now.
So Topper, Hariet, Rango, and Spewart cautiously walked into Rabbit Ridge Tower, where they found Madame Broode spending time with her precious widdle Chain Chompikins. She seemed pretty suprised to see that her darling Broodals were home already.
"Well, look here! You've returned! It's so good to have the four of you back home again. How was the wedding, my darlings?" Madame Broode asked pleasantly as she got up and waddled over to the Broodals.
"Uh... we... didn't... attend... the wedding..." Spewart replied in a nervous voice.
"You didn't attend? Why not? Did the person who hired you bar you from attending, or did you just not want to attend?" Madame Broode asked.
"Neither, because... we... never... finished helping him... plan it..." Hariet replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You ditched him... and shirked your duties?" Madame Broode asked, looking faintly surprised.
The Broodals looked at each other and squirmed uncomfortably before turning back to Madame Broode and nodding their heads yes. It wasn't easy to look at her as they nodded, but at least they were telling her the truth.
For a moment, Rabbit Ridge Tower was quiet. Dangerously quiet.
"HOW DARE..." Madame Broode prepared to swat the Broodals into next year!
"WHEN YOU HEAR WHY WE DID IT, YOU WON'T BLAME US!" Topper shouted, which got Madame Broode to stop. She put her arm down and looked at the Broodals sharply.
"Explain." Madame Broode said, in a voice as sharp as the big shot needle Dr. Mario wanted to use to give flu shots to Bowser, Jr., and the Koopalings.
"It's like this. The groom, who hired us to help him plan the wedding, was marrying a princess." Rango explained.
"I do NOT believe this! The four of you ditched a royal wedding! That was going to earn you some BIG coins!" Madame Broode scolded.
"But Ma, you don't understand! We had to shirk our duties when we found out that the groom wasn't really in love with the bride! He loved the thought of taking control of her kingdom more than he did her!" Hariet exclaimed.
Madame Broode didn't look as angry when she heard that.
"He didn't love his bride?" Madame Broode asked.
"The bride told us that if she got married, the groom was going to kill her right after the ceremony so she never got the chance to annul the marriage, and because she was still married to the groom when she died, he still got control of her kingdom!" Spewart said.
Madame Broode went from being furious to feeling horrified as she listened to what the Broodals were telling her about Bowser and the princess he tried to marry.
"Oh my goodness! Is it true? Is this awful story true?!" Madame Broode asked, bringing her hand to her mouth.
"Da princess was looking into our eyes when she told us everything. We had no choice but to believe her!" Topper explained.
"You spoke with the bride?" Madame Broode asked.
"We needed to, mostly because this guy that she liked (who the groom told us to kill) said that the cake we stole for the wedding was second-best. He said the bride can bake better cakes than that one." Rango said.
"We had to ask her, and she confirmed it for us. His story checked out. But we had to take her home because the groom flat-out refused to let her bake a cake for the wedding, even though she really wanted to. And if we waited until after the wedding... we'd never find out..." Hariet said.
The Broodals all looked at the floor, feeling bad that they'd been all for helping Bowser to hurt Mario and the Princess.
"You know what? I can't really blame you for ditching the groom and shirking your duties anymore. If he was going to kill the bride, then you did the right thing by getting her away from him." Madame Broode said.
"So we took her back to her home, and she fixed us carrot cake in return." Spewart said.
"Best carrot cake we've ever had in our lives." Topper said.
"The best, you say? I think I would like to try some of that carrot cake sometime." said Madame Broode.
"You're in luck. We didn't eat all of it, and she let us take the rest of it home!" said Rango, and they showed it to her.
"Well, what are we waiting for, Easter? Let's have some carrot cake right now!" said Madame Broode.
"YAY!" cheered the Broodals.
So the Broodals and Madame Broode cut some slices of carrot cake and poured glasses of carrot juice while talking about how, after this, they were going to have to find out the intentions of the bride and groom before they went ahead and helped out with the wedding planning.
"There's an idea. Now I know you can lose a lot of coins that way, but I'd rather you don't help plan any more weddings that end with either the bride or groom being killed by their unloving spouse." Madame Broode said to the Broodals, before enjoying another forkful of carrot cake. They weren't kidding about it being the best.
At that moment, they all heard something. They could hear what sounded like heavy footsteps coming up the tower, but none of them knew anyone who could walk like that.
One minute later, they got the answer to their question. However, the answer was something they didn't like.
Bowser was in a rage as he came stomping into the room where the Broodals sat at the table, eating carrot cake and drinking carrot juice with their manager.
"ALL RIGHT! YOU FOUR LITTLE IDIOTS OWE ME AN EXPLANATION! AND I HOPE FOR YOUR SAKES IT'S GOOD ENOUGH TO SPARE YOUR LIVES!" Bowser screamed at the top of his voice while glaring daggers at the Broodals.
Topper, Hariet, Rango, and Spewart ducked down in their seats, looking up at Bowser with wide, frightened eyes. He was madder than they'd ever seen him before! In fact, he made Madame Broode when she was angry look tame!
"Now hold everything! Who gave you permission to come stomping in here to yell at my darling Broodals like that?!" Madame Broode yelled, turning to look at Bowser.
"I DID! YOUR 'DARLING BROODALS' SKIPPED OUT ON HELPING ME PLAN THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" Bowser screamed, and he expelled an extremely large plume of flame as he did so.
Madame Broode immediately pulled a giant fire extinguisher out of seemingly nowhere and aimed it at Bowser's open mouth, snuffing out his fire for the time being. Only steam came out of his mouth now.
"What did you have to go and do that for, lady?" Bowser asked, his voice a lot softer now, thanks to Madame Broode's fire extinguisher.
"You were getting loud and dangerous. Now if you have something you need to tell us, you can do so at a quieter volume." Madame Broode said, putting her fire extinguisher away.
Before Bowser could explain, Madame Broode felt something tug on her dress. She looked and saw that Topper had done it, and he was looking at her meaningfully.
"Hold on a second." Madame Broode said to Bowser before asking Topper in a whisper, "What is it, darling?"
"Ma... he's da boss. You know, da guy we told you about; he was going to kill da princess!" Topper said to her in a loud whisper.
Madame Broode's eyes widened at that, but she narrowed them to slits as she turned to look at Bowser again.
"Okay. Tell me what they did." Madame Broode replied, but she didn't sound too happy.
"Gladly! Well, your 'darling Broodals' started out just fine, stealing that tiara girl, the Binding Band, the Lochlady Dress, the Soirée Bouquet, and the Frost-Frosted Cake for my wedding with no problems. I also told them to try and take out that meddlesome Mario, because he was trying to take my bride away from me!" Bowser began.
"After what we found out, we can't really blame Mario for trying to rescue her, can we?" Hariet whispered to her brothers. Topper, Rango, and Spewart agreed by shaking their heads.
"What are you whispering about?" Bowser asked, having seen that they were discussing something amongst themselves and thinking it was something bad about him.
"Nothing dat concerns grooms like you. Just us Broodals." Topper replied.
"Continue." Madame Broode said to Bowser.
"The plans were coming along quite well, except we were having trouble getting rid of Mario. Not that it mattered, because the insufferable little pipsqueak was not invited." Bowser added.
Hariet recalled how angry Mario got at her when she told him those words. She hated to imagine what he would've done to her if she had to take him on again. But if he did it to Bowser instead, she wouldn't mind.
"When I arrived at the Seaside Kingdom, I didn't see the Broodals there, and I needed them to steal Sparkle Water for the toast to the wedding! I called them up to find out what was keeping them, and they said that they'd already been there and stole plenty of the Sparkle Water." Bowser went on.
Madame Broode looked at the Broodals as if to say "Did you?", and they slightly shook their heads no, indicating that after they got the princess, they took her back to her home.
"They claimed to be on their way to the Luncheon Kingdom to steal a lot of Stupendous Stew for the wedding by that time, and that they were going to drop it off at the Wedding Hall before reporting back to me, but it turned out to be nothing more than a big, fat lie!" Bowser continued.
"How did you find out that they were lying to you?" Madame Broode asked.
"Well, that's simple. First of all, they never did rejoin me like they said. Then, when I finally got to the Wedding Hall and took the Frost-Frosted Cake in, I almost dropped it on the floor and wrecked it, because I didn't see any Sparkle Water there, nor did I see any Stupendous Stew! That's when I realized that they had lied to me!" Bowser said.
"Anything else?" Madame Broode asked.
"Oh yeah! There is one other thing, and I want the answer to this question from them!" Bowser declared, leaning in really close to the rabbits, who gulped nervously.
"C-can we... h-h-help... y-you...?" Spewart asked, highly nervous.
"Yes. Upon arriving at the Wedding Hall, I realized that my bride had been awfully quiet. In fact, I hadn't heard a peep out of her since she went back to her chamber in the Snow Kingdom." Bowser began.
"R-really?" Topper asked.
"Yes. When I went to her room, I knocked on the door and told her it was time for us to get married. I didn't get a response. By the 3rd time I spoke to her and got no response, I started to think that maybe she was giving me the silent treatment. So I threatened to break the door down, figuring that would get her to start talking. When she still didn't say a word, I stayed true to my word and broke the door down." Bowser said.
"Maybe she was in another room? Did you stop to think about that?" Hariet asked.
"No, I knew she was in the bride's chamber. She couldn't fool me. Anyway, when I entered the room, I found Peach standing there, and I told her it was time to go. She didn't say anything, much less move. I knew something wasn't right, and I found out how wrong things were when I grabbed her by the arm. Now I have a question for you, and you're going to answer me straight." Bowser said.
"Here comes the hurricane..." thought the Broodals.
"DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT KIDNAP MY BRIDE AND HER TIARA, AND REPLACE THEM WITH A WORTHLESS MANNEQUIN?!" Bowser screamed at the Broodals, scaring them so badly that they fell out of their chairs and under the table. There they hugged each other for comfort while cowering in fear.
"As a matter of fact, they did! And they told me why they had to take your bride away from you!" Madame Broode announced.
"Why did they do it?! If they had the guts to tell you, then they should be able to tell me!" Bowser yelled at Madame Broode.
"Because... she said you don't love her!" Rango's voice was heard saying.
Bowser looked and saw Rango's head peeking out from under the table.
"What did you just say?" Bowser asked, glaring at Rango.
"Da bride said dat you don't love her. You loved da fact dat she rules a kingdom, and dat's why you wanted to marry her! Marrying her would allow you to take over her kingdom!" Topper declared.
"What?! She said that I was marrying her for control of her kingdom?! That's a load of bull! I do so love her! She's an amazing woman!" Bowser said, but it didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that he was lying. He wasn't looking at them when he said it, so that tipped them off.
"What do you love about her?" Hariet asked.
"Well, I love that she's a beautiful princess, and that she'll be a good mom to my kids, especially Jr., because he firmly believes that she is. She doesn't think so, but I think she's just being shy." Bowser said, still not looking at the Broodals as he spoke.
"Or maybe she hates you because you really don't love her?" the Broodals thought as they bravely climbed back into their chairs.
"If you loved her, you'd know what her interests are. Like baking. Did you know that she's a wizard when it comes to baking cakes?" Spewart asked.
"That I knew about." Bowser said.
"If you know that she's good at baking, then how come you refused to let her bake a cake for the wedding?" Rango asked.
"Simple. I didn't want her to wear herself out by baking a wedding cake." Bowser said.
"That's kind of funny, because she told us that when she told you she'd be glad to bake the wedding cake, you screamed at her and told her that she wasn't going to do any baking of any kind!" Hariet said.
"Don't you little idiots get it?! She lied to you!" Bowser yelled.
"No, she didn't..." the Broodals thought, because he still wasn't looking at them.
"Either way, we're glad we helped her. She made us a carrot cake, and it's really yummy." said Topper.
"Yeah. Would you like to try some? There's still plenty left." Rango offered.
"NO!" Bowser thundered, sweeping his arm across the table, causing everything on it to fall on the floor, including the cake!
The Broodals looked wide-eyed at the mess they were going to have to clean up. The plates, silverware, glasses, and the cake... all over the floor! And the cake had landed upside-down, which made the whole thing worse.
However, they were going to have some help cleaning it up, for Madame Broode's Chain Chomp went over and decided to eat the mess off of the floor. It didn't help, though, because Peach baked that cake just for them, and Bowser went and wrecked it! He really didn't care!
Madame Broode looked at the mess on the floor in shock, and when she turned her gaze back to Bowser, she looked MAD!
"Oh, what's your problem? I did you a favor, you cow!" Bowser said.
That did it for Madame Broode.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Madame Broode yelled, sounding like Gladys the Hippo Lady from "Rocko's Modern Life". She slugged Bowser all the way to the Lost Kingdom!
"Ohhhh, where the heck am I?" Bowser asked as he sat up and looked around. He had no idea where he was at present. Then again, he hadn't expected the beached whale to belt him out of Rabbit Ridge.
At that moment, Klepto swooped down out of nowhere out and grabbed Bowser's wedding hat right off of his ugly head!
"What the-?! Hey! My hat! You give me that back right now, you bird-brained pinhead!" Bowser yelled, running after Klepto, who was still flying away with the hat in his talons, deaf to his shouts.
Eventually, Bowser breathed fire at Klepto, and the bird got so scared that he dropped the hat and flew away in a panic!
"Ha! That'll learn him!" Bowser said to himself as he watched Klepto drop the hat and leave.
But then Bowser suddenly panicked as he realized that his hat was about to fall into the poison swamp below!
"NOOOOO!" Bowser screamed, leaping into the air to successfully catch his hat and land away from the swamp.
"Oh, thank goodness. You're safe!" Bowser said to himself as he gave his wedding hat a big hug.
Unfortunately for Bowser, he spoke too soon. One of the boxing gloves in the hat came out and socked him right in the gut, causing him to let go of the hat, and he was sent flying out of the Lost Kingdom and all the way to... the Wooded Kingdom.
"Perhaps adding boxing gloves to my wedding hat was a really bad idea from the get-go..." Bowser said to himself as he looked around in a dizzy manner, unfamiliar with his surroundings.
But the fact that he was in the Wooded Kingdom wasn't the worst part. Oh no, Bowser would've wished that was the worst part. You see, when I said that he landed in the Wooded Kingdom, I neglected to mention the fact that he wound up landing in the Deep Woods... at the feet of THE TYRANNOSAURUS REX THAT PATROLLED THE AREA!
When Bowser looked up and realized what he had landed in front of, his eyes were as big as dinner plates. He hoped to Grambi that the dinosaur hadn't seen him move, because he knew if the T-Rex wouldn't see him if he kept still. He stayed very still as he waited for the dizziness to wear off.
But then he heard the dinosaur roar, and Bowser got really nervous. However, it took seconds for him to come up with an idea. Maybe the dinosaur was afraid of fire. He leaped to his feet, which the dinosaur saw, and that made the beast lean down with its mouth open, ready to eat him up in a trice. But that's when Bowser expelled a large plume of flame from his mouth. He breathed it right into the dinosaur's face. That didn't help him; it only made the beast mad.
With no other options, Bowser did the only thing he could think of doing: he ran around the Deep Woods, screaming like a little girl while frantically searching for a hiding place! This would normally be considered a really stupid move, but he was actually running faster than the T-Rex. And it helped, for the beast eventually lost sight of its quarry and gave up the search.
Bowser peeked out of the hollow tree he was hiding in, watching as the dinosaur walked away. With his life intact, Bowser found a seed-dispensing Steam Gardener and planted the seed. A beanstalk quickly grew from the seed, and Bowser climbed it as fast as he could because he didn't want to spend another minute in THAT area with THAT monster!
But what are the Broodals going to do, now that Bowser ruined their fun? There shall be one more chapter. Stay tuned!