Slow and steady wins the race, no? No. Just trying to make myself feel better. Anyway, for those of you who like plot, this chapter has plot aplenty. I'll update again right on schedule...sometime before the next eclipse.
Daisy pinned back a lock of the princess's golden hair, trying to keep a smile pasted on her face.
"Thanks." Peach gave her friend a wan smile, reaching back to clasp her hand.
"You don't have to do this you know," Daisy said fiercely as she continued arranging Peach's up-do.
"Yes I do. Because I'm not willing to pay the price of not doing it." Daisy shook her head and Peach knew she was thinking of the diplomatic cost which she was more than happy to allow Daisy to go on thinking. But, in reality, she was thinking about the secret that she and the brothers shared with Bowser. While Daisy laced up the back of her elaborate silk gown, while she pinned Peach's veil to her hair and handed her her bouquet, that was what Peach was thinking about. It no longer mattered whether she was "legally" married to Bowser or not. All that mattered was that it was possible to make a convincing case that she was. It would only take a few words but Peach was sure she would never say them. She couldn't quite convince herself that Bowser was better than Peasley.
"Oh Peachy, you look beautiful," said Daisy sadly as she smoothed out the final wrinkles and her friend's train. Peach shrugged. Honestly, she had no idea what she looked like. She knew her gown was constructed to have an underlayer of pale pink that shone faintly through the white and that her bouquet was a combination of little blue flowers to match her eyes and, what else, peach blossoms. But, beyond that, she drew a blank. Although she had spent the past month or so almost constantly in front of mirrors she now realized that she had spent the whole time looking without seeing. Probably, that was how she would spend the rest of her life, trying not to see the reality of her disturbingly golden husband beside her.
While Peach was contemplating these melancholy prospects, there was a knock on the door: Mario, come to escort her to the ceremony. The bitter irony of this fact was almost more than Peach could stand. Holding her head high, she did not speak as she followed him and Daisy was equally imperious as she came behind holding the train.
"Are we there yet?" asked Bowser impatiently, drumming his fingers restlessly on the arm of his chair.
"Would you relax?" His son, Iggy, called back from the cockpit of the new flying koopa tank. "I am an engineering genius. Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I do," replied Bowser in a tone conveying absolutely no confidence at all. "It's just that...can you make this thing go any faster?"
"We're already the fastest thing in the sky right now. How much faster do you want to go?"
"All I'm saying is the wedding better not already be over by the time we land."
"Nut'n ta worry 'bout," said Ray smoothly from his seat beside his father. "They won't have the slightest clue we comin' and, once we land, we kin take 'em in no time at all."
"What if Mario's there?" squealed Wendy, not looking up from the hand-held mirror she was using to reapply her lipstick.
"My dear sibling, pray do not be dense," Ludwig called from his seat by the window. "Of course Mario will be present. Becoming agitated about it will solve nothing." Wendy glared at him. "And do you really think that's necessary? We are waging war. A beauty regime is hardly required."
"We're attending a wedding," Wendy snapped back. "Obviously, I have to look my best."
As his children continued to squabble, Bowser cringed. This flight was starting to seem very long indeed. "Are we there yet?" he yelled to Iggy.
"We're almost there," Mario called reassuringly from the front seat of the carriage in which Peach and Daisy were riding. Peach said nothing. She knew the Bean Bean Kingdom as well is he did so she was already aware of how close they were to the castle. Besides, since she would have been just as pleased if the trip never ended, arriving soon was not really a prospects that excited her. By now they were already pulling up to the grand doors of the castle with rows of joyous beanish people lining both sides of the street, cheering for their future queen and making it impossible for her to make a dash for freedom. Mario stopped the carriage directly in front of the steps, resplendent in a new red carpet. Descending from the carriage with slow dreamy movements as if she were in a trance, Peach stood on the carpet will Daisy arranged her train behind her like a white wave. Mario came to stand beside her and she was afraid he was going to offer her his arm so she made a great show of properly positioning her hands on her bouquet and he seemed to forget the idea. Instead, he stood with his hands folded in front of him. Peach looks at his white gloves, thinking bitterly about her conversation with the toad nurse and her shy delight at having held his hand.
Then, Toadsworth appeared at the top of the stairs, gesturing impatiently for them to come inside. "I declare, what took you so long?" he muttered, once they had paused outside the doors to the great hall and Daisy was frantically readjusting Peach's train again. Peach looked at him blankly. "Oh, never mind," he cried in frustration. "It's time to go." Peach slipped her arm through his, the doors were thrown open, and they swept through to rousing music by the Royal Bean Band. Band, all was bright lights and flowers, so much so that, for a moment, the princess's eyes were dazzled. Not that it mattered, her feet kept plodding steadily over the thick carpet without the aid of her eyes. Even after they came back into focus, nothing really registered. It was another way of looking without seeing.
Vague green shapes marched by on either side which must be the ranks of the nation's nobles, broken up here and there by the bright colors of those toads lucky enough to attend. At the far end of the long corridor down which she was to walk she could see a particularly large green blob, probably Queen Bean. And beyond her, alone in the center of the aisle, was a dazzling flash of gold. Suddenly, peach's vision came back into focus and, with horrible clarity, she beheld Prince Peasley waiting for her. Hair blindingly bright, he gave her a perfect model wave, grinning at his accomplishment. Peach began to feel positively ill, her fingers digging into her bouquet so that they threaten to crush it.
"We're almost there," Iggy called from the cockpit. "I'm starting the decent now."
"Good," snarled Bowser. "It's about time." Even as he spoke, he shuddered as the shrill screams pierced the air yet again. Ludwig had spent the flight trying to put the finishing details on the extremely in-depth battle plans he'd worked up and, whenever it became too difficult to concentrate, whether because of Wendy's primping or because of Roy loudly declaring that real koopas, like himself, didn't need battle plans, he would start blasting everything in sight with fireballs which only made the others more unruly. Compared to dealing with his children, the upcoming battle seemed almost like a vacation. Then the radio came on and Kamek, who was is in command of the second ship reported in with an update on his position at which point Iggy slamed shut the door of the cockpit so that he could actually hear the radio. Soon after, the ship took a sharp lurch to the side, twisting Bower's stomach into a knot and making him worry about the in-flight meal he had eaten a couple hours before. It wasn't that he was unused to air travel, the Klown Kar was frequently a much rougher ride than this, but he felt much safer when he was the one doing the driving. The cruiser lurched again and he could feel it sinking.
"To battle stations," cried Roy, leaping onto his chair and waving his hands around.
"You fool," hissed Ludwig. "Always remain seated until the aircraft has come to a complete stop." And then it did stop, not very hard but with enough of a bump that Roy fell out of his chair and landed on his back, where he lay kicking his feet and rocking on his shell until one of his siblings grudgingly helped him turn back over. In the meantime Bowser had already left the room and was overseeing the marshaling of the troops gathered in the hold of the cruiser. At last, they were ready to move. The doors of the ship slid open and Bowser found himself looking across the main square at the doors of Queen Bean's palace. Then, turning back to the forces gathered behind him, he gave the signal to attack.
"I can't do this," gasped Peach, her head spinning dizzily. She felt like she was going to faint and, while that would be embarrassing as she hadn't fainted in years, part of her welcomed it as a form of escape.
"Oh yes you can, my little Peach Blossom," Toadsworth whispered intensely, taking a firmer grip on her arm. "I have faith in you."
The ground seemed to drop from under Peach. Had she spoken out loud without realizing it? Then Peasley, apparently impatient with the delay, beckoned her foreword, and she knew she was now well over the brink of panic. "No, no I can't," she cried more loudly, pulling her arm free of Toadsworth's. The great hall was completely silent, the breathing of the crowds like the ebb and flow of the sea tide, and the eyes pinned her down like a captured butterfly. She had to say something. "I am already married," she cried.