Rewritten: 2019/11/04.

I'm going through a massive rewrite spree. Commentaries and extra details will be on AO3.

It was a day just like any other, when a certain, lovely princess in pink would wake up to the calm and peace she had always desired. Her eyes would, without fail, always register the beautifully painted ceilings of her chambers first, filling her with relief. Why might her ceiling fill her with relief, one could ask.

Of course, it simply meant she wasn't currently kidnapped.

Also, it simply told her how wonderful her subjects are, being able to paint such a beautiful canvas upon her room's ceiling.

Truly, she was proud of her kingdom.

Princess Peach Toadstool, ruler of Mushroom Kingdom, was someone who very much appreciated the current state of tranquility.

Anyways, that's enough narrating for now. Stretching her arms, the princess gently pushed her blanket aside and got on her tiptoes, her pink dress flowing elegantly.

This implies she slept with her dress on, and honestly? Who does that?

"I don't go around judging you, so zip it," she said, breaking the fourth wall without a care.

Wow, rude.

"I'm in the mood for a good morning, not an annoying one, thank you very much." With a final huff, the Mushroom Kingdom's princess got up and headed to her chamber's huge ass door. It was a huge, gigantic door, one that screamed 'safety' every second of its existence, one that sparkled so brightly with its gold surface that it might as well as be immovable- yet the princess gently pushes it open with ease.

She exits her bedroom and closes the door. Then, a cheerful tune appearing on her lips, she started humming as she skipped down the hallways of her own castle.

On the way, she passed by a red-haired doppelganger of herself. "Morning, princess!" the girl greeted.

Peach smiled. "Good morning to you too!" she said with a swift wave of her hand.

What nice subjects she had.

The royalty took few more steps happily, until suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Peach frowned.

She just saw something she wasn't sure she should be seeing.

The girl, her palms sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, slowly turns around to face her doppelganger once more.

Her doppelganger.

Her red-haired doppelganger, with a crown that had a bright pink mushroom embedded within, with the exact same hairstyle she had, the same innocent expression, the same dress style (with different colors), the same size, the same... almost everything.

Wh... what the hell. Peach blinked. Wait wait wait wait wait... No. What. The. Hell. She looks just like me. Unaware of the princess' sharp gaze, the (rather cute) doppelganger was dusting- well, dust- off a hanging picture frame, humming a different but equally cheerful tune to herself. Did I have a sister? Is she my sister? Is she a... long lost sister? The questions began piling up in her head.

But honestly? That sounded like a stupid plot detail that someone crammed into a story just for original character purposes.

And Peach really didn't have the time for that. No, no way. I don't have any sister, no sir. Peach narrowed her eyes. The hell is this girl? I'm not sharing my castle with some bitch ass bimbo showing up out of nowhere in my castle one day. Gee whiz, look at that. Our princess has a foul-mouthed mind. You're not helping. That's my duty as the narration, yes.

Staring for a short while longer, Peach focused on the doppelganger's duties. ...she's... cleaning? "...pardon me," she said, getting the clone's attention. "May I ask who you are? Or... uh, what you're doing? ...in my castle?"

"..." Said doppelganger stares back for a short while, before a huge grin forms. Then she laughs out loud. Uh, to you Internet junkies, that's what the online jargon LOL stands for. Laugh-out-loud. You got that? The doppelganger lol'ed. (I know, I know. What a lousy/helpful narrator I am. Merci beaucopu, bravo, encore. Stop throwing tomatoes.) "Oh, man!" she suddenly said. "This thing works wonders!"

"...?" Peach was confused as the girl reached up to her own crown, the crown with the weird pink mushroom embedded within. What?

Then, as the doppelganger removed her own crown, a cloud of smoke exploded from the girl's body. Clearly not expecting any magician gimmick happening, Peach jumped back and temporarily lost her throat power, coughing and wheezing as she began swatting the smoke away with her hands.

And when the smokes faded away completely... a Toad stood in front of her, with that same crown. "Hey, Princess! It's me! The Toad in charge of cleaning this area!"

Sometimes, the girl wondered whether it was possible for someone's eye sockets to widen so much that their eyeballs fall out.

Her answer came to her at this moment, when her eyes widened so much, but all she felt was pure confusion.

"What."

The Toad laughed more, and handed over the crown to the princess. "Yeah! You see, this is apparently called a Super Crown!" he... she... it (do Toads have gender? Toads and Toadette are a mystery, to me...) said. (Ah, whatever. I'll stick with 'him'.) "By putting these on, you can transform into a doppelganger of you!"

That only brought more questions to her. Firstly... "Why!?" she yelled exasperatedly. Secondly... "Why me!?" And thirdly... "What the hell is a Super Crown!?"

"Uh. It's... it's this thing, princess," the Toad said, gesturing to the crown in his hands. "Are your eyes and ears okay? I just told you..."

"I know that!" Peach hissed, grabbing the crown from her subject. What the hell? I've never even heard of this bullshit! she thought in her mind, examining the crown in her hands. How is this thing even related to me at all? Truly, it was baffling- how did this random, new power-up relate to her at all?

How come she has never heard of it? Was this some sort of conspiracy plot to produce clones of Peach?

Who the hell would come up with such a disgusting idea?

...Peach felt chills go down her spine. No, no. Even that asshole wouldn't go this far... she thought.

"...but okay, why me specifically?" she asked.

The Toad shrugged. "I dunno." Talk about useless. "It's a big hit with the world right now, though."

Peach sighed. This was not the best of mornings for her to wake up to. Rather, this was one of the stupidest mornings for her to wake up to. "Whatever. This is... this must be a bad dream. Yeah. I must be dreaming." She covered her face with her palms, wondering what to do. Maybe I should go back to sleep... she thought, not realizing that 'going back to sleep' was basically admitting it wasn't a bad dream.

Ignoring her pleas for reality denial, Toad laughed. "Seems like you didn't get your proper sleep, princess. That's not good."

...this guy's getting on my nerves, Peach thought and peeked from her hands to glare at him.

Then his words fully resonated in her head. Big hit... with... She frowned. "Wait. It's a big hit with the world?"

The Toad tilted his head. "Uh, yeah. Everyone's in love with the crown right now," he said.

No.

Oh, no.

Peach, eyes twitching, sprinted off towards the throne room of her castle. Forgetting to hold her dress like the stereotypical princess image everyone imagines, she raises her leg and kicks the door open. What greeted her eyes was the sight of her nightmares.

A plentiful of Peach doppelgangers, with their differing hair colors and dresses, all turned their heads to smile at their rightful ruler.

"Oh, princess! Good morning!"

"Hello, princess!"

"Good day, princess!"

At such a horrific sight, of several doppelgangers all looking at you, smiling, greeting you collectively almost as if they were chanting something, most people would faint. It was a sight of nightmares, one that would freak out anyone so badly that they'd be traumatized, probably. That was almost the case here, but instead, our lovely princess resolved it differently.

She shut the door violently.