(A/N: Ever wonder what would've happened if Mario had been left behind at Honeylune Ridge at the end of "Super Mario Odyssey", and what Peach would have done in that case? This alternate ending of the game shows us how that might have gone.)

It was the end of Mario's biggest adventure to date. He had gone through so much, and almost got killed multiple times, by Bowser, to save Princess Peach, with whom he was in love, from being married to their hated enemy. Not only that, but after saving her life, Mario was all set to ask his lady love to marry him, despite not having a ring on him. But he figured Peach would say yes. He knew she loved him more than she ever did Bowser.

Then Bowser just had to go and ruin everything because of his inability to give up. He pushed Mario down and offered Peach the Soirée Bouquet in a last-ditch attempt to propose marriage to her. For some odd reason, Peach looked really flattered when Bowser offered her the bouquet... and she hadn't even wanted it in the first place!

Mario had been very scared when he realized what was going on. He had to one-up Bowser, so he tried to offer Peach a Rocket Flower in an attempt to propose to her as well, but Bowser wasn't about to let Mario win! Not this time! He smacked the plumber upside the head, all the while shoving the bouquet in front of the Princess's face. That, unfortunately, prompted Mario to start doing the same thing with his Rocket Flower!

Peach was upset, for not only was Bowser still forcing her to marry him, which she was rather sick of by now, but Mario, of all people, seemed to be doing the same thing, only he wanted her to choose him! This was more than Peach could bear! She wasn't sure if and when they were going to stop, but it seemed that she was going to have to make them stop by saying so. And she did.

"Enough!" Peach demanded in an angry voice, with an equally angry look on her face. She stalked away from both suitors in a huff. The men watched her go with looks of disbelief on their faces. It didn't take long for them to realize what had just happened. Princess Peach was furious with them, and she wasn't going to marry either of them! Bowser and Mario both felt awful that they had been turned down by the princess.

Bowser couldn't believe this had happened. His plan was to marry Peach just so he could rule her kingdom. He didn't really love her. He just saw her as the vulnerable princess of a vulnerable kingdom, and he liked that. The best way to get that kingdom was to, of course, marry Peach, even though she had made it quite clear that she hated his guts and wanted nothing to do with him.

But Mario was different. He was very much in love with Peach, and he would've given anything to spend the rest of eternity with her. He didn't want her kingdom, or riches, or a title, just Princess Peach, as his wife. However, it looked like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Mario had pretty much screwed up his chances of that, as well as what he and Peach had, by behaving no better than their worst enemy. And that hurt.

After a few minutes of feeling sorry for himself next to a sad Bowser, Mario wiped the tears from his eyes, deciding to go back to the Odyssey to see if Peach was there, and if she was, then he could take her home. Perhaps she had calmed down by now, and maybe she would be willing to let him apologize for his bad behavior as they made the long journey home.

But when Mario looked at the place where the Odyssey had been, he was in for quite a shock! His ship wasn't where he had parked it! It was gone! Oh no! What could have happened to it?! Someone must have stolen it!

It didn't take long for Mario to figure out what might have happened to the Odyssey. He guessed that Peach must have been so angry with him that she decided to take it home, and that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was... that she didn't even bother to tell him she was leaving with it!

(A/N: Everybody claims that that was Peach's plan, to leave Mario and Bowser stranded at the Moon Kingdom. She was angry, yes, but she HAD calmed down by the time she reached the Odyssey, and called for both suitors to join her as it was leaving. But in this AU, she did leave them, but there's a reason for it.)

Mario never felt so awful in his whole life! Not only had Peach turned down his marriage proposal because Bowser was nothing more than a selfish jerk, she left for home without him, and had taken his ship, his only mode of transportation, to get there! NOW what was he going to do?! How was he going to get home?!

Unable to think of anything he could do to get back home, Mario curled up into a tight ball in the place where the Odyssey had been, and didn't even try to stop the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. He let himself cry again, hoping against hope that Bowser wouldn't notice.

At that moment, the wedding guests had decided that the wedding was officially over, and they were leaving the Wedding Hall. Guests who saw their kingdom's items in the Wedding Hall grabbed up the items that had been stolen from them and made ready to go home so they could put those things back where they belonged.

One of the people in attendance was Pauline, the mayor of New Donk City, and Mario's old flame, but now she was just a good friend to Mario, and nothing more.

As Pauline made her way to the mode of transportation that took her to Honeylune Ridge, she passed by Bowser, who looked like he was feeling very sorry for himself. Pauline shot him a look of disgust (that he never saw) before continuing on her way.

Suddenly, Pauline froze. She'd spotted a forlorn figure in white not far away from where she was standing. The figure seemed to be a man of short stature, and he was wearing an elegant white wedding tuxedo. It had to be Mario. She'd seen him wearing that outfit when he showed up at the Wedding Hall to crash the wedding.

"Mario?" Pauline asked in a soft voice, quickly walking over to the figure and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

At the touch of her hand, a startled Mario jumped up and spun around to face his friend, Mayor Pauline. He realized that she had been the one who touched his shoulder.

Pauline was more than surprised to see that Mario looked so sad. And his eyes were red and puffy. Had he been crying?

"Oh! P-Pauline... It's-a just y-you..." Mario replied, recognizing his friend.

"Yes, Mario, it's me. Now what happened? What's the matter? Where's your girlfriend?" Pauline asked in a concerned, gentle voice as she knelt before him. Mario had told her what he was up to when he got to the city, and so she knew why he had come here.

Mario didn't respond. He tried to, but his lower lip began quivering, and when that happened, he just buried his face in his hands and started to cry again, trying hard to keep his sobs inaudible.

Pauline figured that whatever had happened must have been pretty awful to have Mario feeling this way. She quickly wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close, anything to try and comfort the poor guy.

"Don't you have a way to get back home, Mario?" Pauline asked.

"N-no... She... sh-she took it!" Mario said between sobs.

"Who is she, and what did she take?" Pauline asked, confused.

"P-Peach! The b-bride! She... t-took my sh-ship! Non... p-posso tornare a... casa! I... I-I can't get home!" Mario wailed.

Pauline felt so bad for Mario as she embraced him. He was more upset than she'd ever seen him before, and she couldn't just leave him here, alone and scared and sad like he was. He was her friend, and he took time out of his busy schedule to help her out when he was in New Donk City. Because of that, she wanted to help him out in the worst way. She then had an idea.

"Well, Mario, you can't stay here at the Moon Kingdom, so I'll tell you what: how about I take you back to New Donk City with me tonight? And tomorrow morning, I'll arrange a ride home for you." Pauline suggested.

"Y-you'd... do that... for m-me?" Mario asked, his sobs subsiding a little as he took his face out of his hands.

"Of course I will. I'm your friend, and that's what friends are for. Plus, you helped me out, and it's my turn to help you. Come on." Pauline said as she stood up, putting her hand on his shoulder again.

"Grazie. Thank you, P-Pauline..." Mario replied, managing a small smile.

"You're welcome, Mario. Now come with me." said Pauline, leading Mario to the ship that took her to the Moon Kingdom.

Meanwhile, on the Odyssey...

Peach, Cappy, and Tiara were all on the airship, feeling glad to be getting further and further away from Bowser. They'd all had more than enough of that ugly, horrible creep for one lifetime.

"So, Peach, where are we going?" Tiara asked.

"The Mushroom Kingdom." Peach replied.

"Why are we going there?" Tiara asked.

"That's where I live, and I want to go home." Peach said.

"Cappy and I live in Bonneton." Tiara said.

"Oh! If you want to go home, I can set a course for there first." Peach said, about to do just that.

"No, it's okay, Peach. I wouldn't mind seeing your kingdom, because I like spending time with you." Tiara replied.

"You're such a sweet friend, Tiara. I'm so glad you were with me." Peach smiled, giving the little Bonneter a hug.

"I'm glad you were there with me, Peach. I know I couldn't have lived through what happened without a friend like you." Tiara said, returning Peach's hug.

Cappy, on the other hand, was really quiet as he looked out the window. He had a feeling that something wasn't right, and it didn't take long for him to figure out what it was. He didn't think Peach and Tiara knew what had happened, and he wasn't quite sure how to explain it to them if that was the case.

"Cappy, are you okay? You've been awfully quiet for some time now." Peach noted, seeing that Cappy was looking outside and hadn't spoken for a while.

"Peach, don't you have the feeling that maybe we've forgotten something?" Cappy slowly asked as he turned around to face Peach.

It was Peach's turn to be silent. She hadn't thought that they'd forgotten anything when they left Honeylune Ridge. But now that Cappy had mentioned it, she did get the feeling that something was missing. However, she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"I'm under the impression that you may be right, Cappy. But what could we be forgetting?" Peach asked, frowning as she tried to figure out what they could have forgotten. The answer wasn't coming to the surface...

"Yeah, Cappy, what could we have forgotten?" Tiara asked, also trying to figure it out.

"It's not really a what; it's more of a who." Cappy responded.

Peach and Tiara were both curious. Both of them were here, and so was Cappy. Who could be missing?

"Who is it?" Tiara asked.

"Think about this, Tiara. You were acting as head-gear for Peach, while I was head-gear for..." Cappy started.

Now Peach figured it out. When they were in the Cloud Kingdom, Tiara had recognized her brother as a hat being worn by none other than...

"Oh my goodness! I LEFT MARIO STRANDED AT THE MOON KINGDOM!" Peach screamed, horrified at this realization.

"Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!" Cappy announced.

"Oh no! Did we really leave Mario behind?! Peach, why didn't you bother to tell him that we were leaving?!" Tiara cried.

"A better question is, why didn't either of us give him the memo as the Odyssey was taking flight?!" Cappy asked.

"I... I-I didn't mean to leave Mario! I j-just... I wanted to get away from... B-Bowser so badly that I... I guess I w-wasn't thinking! Oh, Mario! P-please forgive me!" Peach wailed as Tiara quickly brought her a box of tissues that she found sitting on a high shelf in the Odyssey.

"Ohhh... I hope Mario's not going to be angry with Peach for this if and when we get him back..." Tiara moaned to her brother as Peach took some tissues out of the box and wept into them.

"I hope he's not. Peach probably feels that after what she just did, she's not worthy of Mario's love anymore. And I think he's feeling the same way. Poor guy. He must be ripped." Cappy said.

"Wait a minute! I've got an idea! Why don't we just go back to the Moon Kingdom right now and get Mario?" Tiara asked. That sounded easy enough to her.

"Oh, T-Tiara... I... I-I want to... b-but I... I c-can't!" Peach bawled.

"Why not?" Tiara asked.

"Bowser... m-might still be there! And f-for... all I know... h-he decided to... to k-kill M-M-Mario... so if I c-come back to... l-look for him... I won't f-find him... and th-then he'll... c-claim me! But I don't... l-love him!" Peach exclaimed. She was getting really upset.

"Oh, right. He was still there when we left." Tiara recalled. She didn't want to see Bowser again, and she knew that he was one of the last people Peach wanted to see right now.

"And besides, we're nearing the Mushroom Kingdom now. It would take forever for us to get back to the Moon Kingdom. Even if we did get there, we'd have to comb over the whole place in order to find him." Cappy replied.

Peach brightened a little when she realized that they were close to the place she called home. That was it! When they got to her castle, she could go for her smartphone and dial Mario's cell number... and pray that if he was okay, he would be willing to listen to her...

Will Mario answer Peach if she calls him? I'm not going to tell you what will happen! You want to find out what happens, then I suggest you stay tuned!