"Your Highness! Princess Daisy! And Aster too!"
"Shyga!" Daisy bent down and enveloped her personal servant in her arms. "It's so good to be home!"
"And you don't know how much we've missed you both," the blue-suited female Shy Guy responded with a wide smile.
Daisy straightened up and looked around the empty castle foyer. "Where is everyone? It's so quiet!"
Shyga looked mysterious. "They're around."
"Where?" asked Aster, looking around the ornamented foyer.
Suddenly a multitude of Shy Guys flooded into the room and surrounded a happily-surprised Daisy and Aster, shouting, "Welcome home, Your Highness!"
Daisy looked around her with a surprised smile. She almost broke down and cried right there, but caught herself before she did. She put her arm around Aster. "Thank you, everyone! It's great to be back at home again, and to see you all still here waiting for me! That...that really means a lot to me."
Turning to the expectant Shyga, she said, "I'm taking Aster to our room. Please have everyone return to their tasks. I don't mean to be bossy, but you know how things are around here."
Shyga nodded. "They'll trail you for hours unless you order them not to!"
"At least I know I'm popular around here," Daisy added with a laugh. "But I'm no goddess and don't need to be adored like one." With that, Daisy picked up her seven-year-old sister and carted her off like so much baggage to the room they shared. Aster giggled and squirmed in her sibling's grip. Shyga watched them go.
"She's still a tomboy," she said aloud to herself. "Hasn't changed a bit. Looks like I'm still going to have to work on her to get her to behave like a lady!"
After settling back into her familiar orange-and-yellow room, Daisy plunked herself down on her flowered comforter, picked up the phone from its blossom-shaped cradle on her nightstand, and dialed 137-3224, the number for Peach's castle. There was a familiar click as the connection was made.
"Hello?" came Peach's familiar voice over the line.
"Hi, Peach, it's Daisy."
"Daisy! Oh, I've been waiting for your call! How is everything over there?"
"Fine, Peach, just fine. I feel like I've been gone for years. Aster's happy as can be. I believe she's out in the garden playing with Shyga right now." Daisy smiled. "So why did you want me to call you?"
Peach was silent for a moment, leaving Daisy with only whispering static in her ear.
"Daisy," she finally sighed, "I have so much on my mind that I simply have to tell it to someone. Please, could you just listen to me for a while? I need to just...let all this loose somewhere..." Peach faded out at the end of her sentence.
"Sure I can," Daisy replied quietly. "What's up?"
"Daisy, it's my mother. I can't get her out of my mind. You never did meet her, did you?"
"No."
"Oh, she was beautiful, Daisy. I looked up to her like a little girl, even when I was a teenager. I still wish I were more like her—sweet, king, generous, loving... She was...she was the best person in the world—my best friend, my confidante.
"Then, after the Great One...executed you, Daisy, I saw her. She was standing at the Great One's side, promising to kill Luigi and Hardshell as they tried to rescue me. Her black eyes were cold and hard. She moved like a ghost, slipping around the room like a shadowy vapor as she fought them to the death. She...she was..." Peach choked. "She was evil, Daisy."
Daisy was silent, listening intently.
"I—I couldn't believe it. Diamond...my own dear mother...she turned against me... Her heart became black—" Peach broke down and sobbed. "Mom...!!"
"Peach, I...I don't know what to say." Daisy's voice was subdued and quiet. "You don't seem yourself."
"I'm not." Peach's admittal was frank but sad. "I haven't been myself since I saw Mom there in the fortress. And I'm afraid I'll never get back to being myself again!" The Princess almost started crying again. "She's dead now, Daisy. Hardshell killed her to protect Luigi. I-I'm heartbroken!"
"Peach, there's no turning back now." Daisy knew there was small comfort in those words, but they had to be said. If your mother was evil, there was no alternative but to stop her. You said yourself she tried to kill Luigi and Hardshell—"
"I know!" Peach started to cry. "That's the thing I can't get over! Was...was my mother really the way she seemed? Or was she being controlled, manipulated somehow? I still can't believe that—" Peach broke off and gasped. "Rachel! Whatever is the matter with you?"
Listening closely, Daisy was able to make out the frantic voice of Rachel informing Peach of something, but Daisy couldn't quite catch the exact words.
"Oh!" Peach exclaimed fearfully. "Tell me you're not serious, Rachel!"
Rachel affirmed her previous statement.
"Peach, what's going on over there? Is something wrong?"
"Daisy, my castle's under attack by the Great One's Paroidian Guards! The royal guards have been driven back, and it's only a matter of time before—"
"Peach, get out of there NOW!" Daisy shouted into the phone.
"We'll take my plane. I hope we can make it out before we're all captured!" Peach sounded desperate. "I'm leaving the phone off the hook so you can hear what's going on. I want to know what happens to this place!"
"Peach, fly here. Stay with me!" Daisy urged.
"I-I will, Daisy. We're on our way!" There were sounds of running footsteps, and all was quiet on Daisy's end of the phone.
After an interminable wait, Daisy heard heavy footfalls entering Peach's chamber, and sounds of shattering glass filled her ears. Then a clunk clunk as someone picked up the receiver. Heavy breathing echoed through Daisy's phone.
"Who are you?" demanded Daisy. "And why are you in Peach's castle?"
"We have our orders," was the deep bass response. "And you, girl, will be keeping your mouth shut about this matter. We Paroidians have the castle, and no one else shall hear of our conquest!"
Suddenly a high-pitched shriek burst from Daisy's receiver and pierced her ears. Daisy's eyes widened. Her hand trembled, and the phone clattered to the floor. Then her face went white, and she slid off the bed and collapsed onto the floor.
"Your Highness, I have a very sweaty little princess here to see you—" Shyga broke off as she led Aster into the royal chamber. A startled expression flitted over the Shy Guy girl's face, and she dropped Aster's hand and rushed into the room.
"Your Highness! Princess Daisy, what's wrong? What happened to you?"
Aster gasped when she saw her older sister lying face-down on the royal blue carpet. "Daisy! Oh no, Daisy!" Her hands flew to her rosy cheeks.
Shyga knelt and rolled Daisy over, and Her Highness's arms sagged limply to the sides. Daisy's face was ashen white, and her eyes held a blank stare. Suddenly she started, trembled a little, and tried to speak.
"I-I-I-I...I...th...the...ph-phone...P-Peach..." Her face now held an alarmed fright.
Shyga spotted the phone lying on the floor and grabbed it. "Shh, Princess, keep calm. I'll get the doctor." She canceled the current call and dialed the castle medical officer, Medic Guy. Within minutes Daisy was in a hospital bed with legions of machinery monitoring her vital signs.
Medic Guy took one look at the monitor readings of Daisy's heartbeat and shook his head. "This is not good. Her heart rate is incredibly erratic. It races, then slows to a crawl, then picks up speed again. What on earth happened to her?"
"I don't know," replied Shyga anxiously. "She can't speak coherently at all."
The white-coated Shy Guy with the Red Cross headband frowned. "Something has to be done about that heart rate. Whatever happened to her made her systems go haywire. We'll run some diagnostic tests and see what we come up with."
Daisy shivered on her bed. She was seeing things that no one else could see, and what she was seeing was scaring her to death. Her eyes were wide as she stared into empty space, watching the vision play over and over before her eyes...
"Whew..." Russ had his face plastered to the window of Peach's private plane. "That was too close." He looked back at the squadron of Paroidian Guards standing on the runway, shaking their fists at the departing plane.
Peach sagged back in her plush velvet seat, eyed closed in tiredness; she wiped her forehead and let out a sigh as she said, "At least we're safe." She pushed the special cabin-to-cockpit intercom button on her chair arm. "Fly T., set a course for Sarasaland National Airport."
"Are you sure it's safe to go that far with the amount of fuel we carry?" asked Tess T., one of the two head cooks, with a critical look.
Peach looked tiredly at her questioner. "Since when were you an airplane expert, Tess?"
Tess kept her mouth shut and did not reply. She turned in her seat, looked at the Toad guard named Bill directly behind her, and ever so slightly nodded her head. Silently Bill rose from his seat and walked back into the tail cargo area. Nurse Lily looked secretively at Tess from her seat next to Dr. Herb T. and saw Tess wink at her. Lily winked back, then resumed looking out her window.
About ten minutes later, Bill emerged from the cargo compartment and handed Tess T. a brown paper-wrapped package. She looked up at him, smiled knowingly, and nodded. Bill acknowledged the gesture with a slight nod of his own and returned to his seat. Tess undid the wrapping slightly.
"We're out of range of the Mushroom Kingdom National Airport's radio signal," reported Fly T. a few minutes later. "Switching to Sarasaland radio comms channel in ten minutes, when we come within range."
"Just what I needed to hear," interjected Tess T. coldly as she rose from her seat, throwing the brown paper wrapping aside. In her hands was a deadly-looking submachine gun. She aimed the gun directly at Princess Peach.
Peach stared down the barrel of the weapon. "Tess, what do you think you're doing?!"
"Think about it; you might guess," Bill replied for Tess T. as he also rose from his seat, gripping two loaded pistols. He too aimed at the Princess. "Lily, cover Hardshell."
Nurse Lily stood and trained her rifle on Hardshell's head. "Don't move, Hardshell, or you and the Princess are both dead."
"What is this you are doing?" Athos demanded.
Tess and the others ignored him. "Bill, let Fly T. know about the change in course and give the autopilot that little adjustment as planned." Bill nodded and moved forward through the cabin door into the cockpit.
The traitorous cook glanced around. "No one try anything, or the Princess ends up with a bullet in her shoulder. From there I'll move to more sensitive areas." Her finger tightened around the trigger of her submachine gun.
"P-Princess!" Fly T. spluttered over the intercom. "We—We've been—AAAAAAH!" A groan issued from the speaker, then nothing.
"What did you do to him?!" Peach cried.
There was silence for a minute or two; then Bill emerged from the cockpit. "Just shut him up, that's all. Tess, the autopilot has been reprogrammed."
"You—!!" Peach buried her face in her hands. "You killed him!!"
Citrine stood, glowering at Tess T. "Put the gun down now, or—" A crackle of electricity in her right hand completed the sentence threateningly well.
"Sit down, Citrine," replied Tess coldly, "because if you do zap me—" She lifted the flap of her unzipped purple jacket to reveal packs of dynamite strapped around her body. "There's more than enough charge here to blow this plane and everyone in it to bits. So either sit down and save your life, or zap me and kill us all. Your choice." Tess kept her gun trained on Peach.
Citrine slowly resumed her seat, face black with rage.
"What do you think you're doing, Tess?!" Peach repeated desperately.
Tess T. regarded her coolly. "This, Princess Peach, is called a hijacking. We're taking over the plane."
"Of all the things to forget!" Mario berated himself as he dashed into Toad Town. "I am such a blockhead! For me not to remember Peach's birthday present is unthinkable! Especially this time," he added under his breath. Rushing into Toad Town Jewelers, he asked the clerk at the desk if his order was ready.
"Certainly, sir," replied the bespectacled Toad as he sat behind the counter. "I'll have it for you in just a moment." He rummaged through his filing cabinet and pulled out a receipt. Handing the paper to Mario, the clerk reached under the counter and pulled out a small red velvet box.
"That will be 100,000 Coins, please," the clerk droned.
Mario pulled a check from his pocket and gave it to the clerk. The clerk barely glanced at it before putting it into the cash register. Seizing his purchase, Mario raced out of the shop. He checked his watch.
"Only ten minutes 'til the party starts! It's 2:20 already!" Mario took off running for the Princess's castle.
Passing through Toad Town's gate, he ran until he reached the outskirts of the castle grounds—then stopped. His grip on Peach's present tightened a little, and his eyes widened in shock as he saw hundreds of silver-armored, red-tunicked Paroidian Guards slowly patrolling the castle property.
"What the—How in the world did they get here?! They should've all been killed when we destroyed the Great One's fortress!" Mario backed away from the castle and concealed himself in the trees at the edge of the property. "This is unbelievable!"
Luigi came puffing up behind him. "Am...am I too late for the party?" he wheezed, out of breath.
"No, Luigi," Mario said quietly. "There's not going to be a party today."
"What are you talking about—" Luigi broke off as he followed Mario's pointing finger and saw the hundreds of enemy guards patrolling the area. "Huh?! Those are the Great One's guards! What are they doing here?!"
"I don't know, but the situation doesn't look pretty." Mario looked worried. "Peach..."
"Mario!"
Mario turned to see a Toad running up to him. "Yes?"
"I followed you all the way from town but couldn't catch up," panted the Toad. "The Princess is OK. She and her staff escaped in her plane." He puffed out a few short gasps. "She...she wants you to follow her to Sarasaland. That's where she's headed."
"How do you know?" asked Mario, surprised.
"I...I work at the airport...and I heard the radio message from the royal plane," he managed between breaths.
"C'mon, Luigi! Let's get after that plane!" Mario and Luigi took off toward Toadwood Forest in the direction the plane would have taken to reach Sarasaland. The Toad watched them go—and a sneaky smile suddenly plastered itself over his face. There was a puff of purple smoke, and the Toad transformed into a creature dressed in a white sheet and a blue party hat. His eyes gleamed red.
"Heh, I'm slick, Slick—too slick for you! There was no radio message!" Doopliss grinned mischievously. "We've got you right where we want you now, 'Super' Mario! With you away from the castle, the Great One can finally smash this stupid kingdom into smithereens. Say bye-bye to the Mushroom Kingdom, Slick!"
"Where are you taking us?" demanded Russ T.
"That's for me to know and for you to find out," Tess replied steadily. "Bill, please stay in the cockpit. This thing can't land itself, you know."
"Yes, ma'am," Bill responded in mock salute and reentered the cockpit of Peach's plane.
"We should reach our destination any minute now," Tess said aloud, settling back into her seat next to her scared twin sister Tace T., the other head cook.
"Tess, why are you doing this?" whispered Tace, frightened. "You're betraying the Princess!"
Tess wedged the barrel of her submachine gun into her sister's abdomen, making Tace wince. "Quiet, Tace. I'm doing what must be done. If you knew what I know, you'd do the same." Tess's eyes narrowed. "Don't think I'll hesitate to shoot you just because you're my sister. You get in the way—you die."
Tace gasped as the barrel shoved itself farther into her gut before withdrawing.
"You might be interested, Princess, in knowing just who was behind all those attacks on the Rainbow Guardians," Tess remarked off-handedly. She looked over at the frightened Peach. "As you might guess, I was the coordinator. That bungler Harry handled Ruby, Lily shot Amber in the infirmary, and I was the one who slipped the poison into Citrine's breakfast. Bill was our go-between with our leader."
"What leader?" Peach asked, trembling.
"You'll see."
The plane began to slowly glide downward. Peach looked out the window at the ground, and her stomach knotted up with dread. She paled.
Far below was the Great One's fortress.
The plane circled in a gentle arc, slowly spiraling downward toward the runway behind the fortress. Within five minutes it was taxiing to a stop on the concrete.
"We've arrived," announced Bill over the intercom. "Opening the hatch." There was a hissing as the airlock was unsealed and the exit hatch popped open. Peach sat petrified in her velvet seat, staring at nothing.
"No... Please, no... This can't be happening to me!" she cried. "This is just a dream!"
Tess T. seized Peach's hand with an incredible strength and hauled her out into the aisle. A dozen Paroidian Guards boarded the plane, surrounded the terror-stricken Princess, and marched her out onto the airstrip. Other Paroidians removed the remaining passengers, including the seven Rainbow Guardians, Athos, Hardshell, Russ T. and family, Toad, Toadette, and even Professor Gadd. The captives were forced to enter the imposing stone fortress looming near the airstrip.
The throne room was themed in black and silver. Walls, ceiling, and floor were all dyed pitch black, and the silver banners emblazoned with the crescent moon hanging from the walls did not serve to lift the evil atmosphere created by the color scheme. The only strip of color was the red carpet running from silver double doors to silver throne. It gave the appearance of a river of blood flowing through the room. On this carpet stood Princess Peach, surrounded by a dozen armed Paroidians. The other captives were hemmed in by another, larger contingent of guards in the rear of the throne room.
"Well, well, Peach, so good to see you again," greeted the Great One pleasantly. A mysterious smile played behind her veil. "You're my guest once again. I assure you that your visit this time will be infinitely more enjoyable than your last."
Peach could only stare in terror at her enemy, the enemy she'd been so sure was dead and gone.
The Great One fingered her iron staff, studying its crystalline crescent top. "It seems you find it difficult to believe I'm still alive." She rose from her imposing silver throne.
"You can't be alive!" Peach blurted out. "No normal human could have survived a grenade going off in his face, let alone a building collapsing on his head! It's impossible!"
"And yet here I stand, Peach," replied the black-haired, black-eyed woman. Her veil stirred slightly as she slowly advanced toward Peach. "How can you refute reality?"
Peach had no answer. Somehow...somehow this evil woman had cheated death. It was a haunting reality, but reality nonetheless.
"Well, since today is your birthday, Peach, I've got a present for you," the Great One informed her helpless captive.
Stunned, Peach stared at the Great One. "How...?"
"How did she know it was Peach's birthday?" whispered Russ T. to Rachel. One of the Paroidian Guards silently smacked him in the mouth. Russ got the point and quickly shut up.
"I know more about you than you could ever dream of, Peach," the Great One said suavely. "Your birthday, your favorite food, your usual morning and evening routines—I know it all. And for good reason." She smiled. "Back to your present, Peach. I'm going to give you the thing you've wanted ever since you saw me first. I'll take off my veil for you."
"...You're serious?" Peach wasn't too sure about the offer.
"Why not?" the Great One counter-questioned. She touched the veil lightly. "This veil has served its purpose. There's no reason why you shouldn't see now what's behind it." She smiled again—smiled her crafty, cunning smile.
"Show me," Peach said with trembling voice. "Show me who you really are."
One of the Great One's black eyebrows wet up. "You're sure you want to see my true self?" She laughed softly. "Very well, then." With that, she reached up with her left hand, took hold of her veil, and smoothly swept it off her head, revealing her full face to Peach. The Princess was totally unprepared for what she saw.
Peach hit the floor in a near-faint. With wide, frightened eyes and a bewildered look she stared at the face of her enemy. She trembled violently, and her breathing quaked and shivered. She squeezed her eyes shut, then looked again, but nothing had changed. The face before her was stark reality.
"N-No... N-NO! It can't be you! You...!! Cyanara?!"
The Great One smiled again. "That's Empress Cyanara to you...little sister."
Peach let her head fall back to the black marble floor. Her eyes were glazed, and sweat dotted her pale face. Still her breathing was erratic. Her eyes were half-closed as if in delirium. The other captives watched her in shock, also stunned by the announcement made by the Great One—Empress Cyanara.
"Nooooo...no no no no NO!! This is not happening to me! I'm dreaming!" cried Peach.
"You're very much awake, Peach. This is no dream." Cyanara's smile vanished. "I'm no ghost come to haunt you. I'm very real."
"I'm imagining things! You're dead, Cyanara!" Peach was almost crying. "You're dead! You can't be real!"
"Well, I certainly fooled you, didn't I?" asked Cyanara haughtily.
"B-But you should have been killed when that grenade went off in your face!"
Cyanara smiled mysteriously. "I know more magic than you ever will, Peach. My pact with the darkness, the Seal of Fatalis, makes me as immortal as a god! Oh, I still feel pain. Yes, you may wound me severely, even fatally, and shed much blood. But no earthly weapon can kill me as long as the Seal remains in place!"
Peach shakily got to her feet and backed away from Cyanara. "I-I'm still not convinced."
"I thought as much." Cyanara nodded thoughtfully. "This should be proof enough." She reached up to her neck, took hold of a thin gold chain, and slowly pulled it out from beneath her dress. A rainbow charm dangled from the chain, one half of a complete circular rainbow. It glowed ever so faintly.
Peach gasped at the sight. Almost involuntarily her hands went to her dress collar, and tremblingly she withdrew an identical necklace with an identical charm from beneath her own dress. "So Mom gave the other half of the Pendant to you," she whispered. "You...you really are my sister..." Her eyes welled with tears. "Cyanara, you don't know how much it would mean to me to have you back."
"Back?" spat Cyanara in disgust. "Back as what? Just one of the royal relations, I suppose. No authority."
"No, Cyanara, please! I only want to—"
"It's too late for that!" shouted Cyanara. "The only way you can make things right is by handing over that crown of yours this instant!"
"NO!" Peach's eyes flashed. "I don't have anything to make up to you, Cyanara! Father banished you because of your evil! I had nothing to do with it, other than crying because you were gone! Why hate me for that?!"
Cyanara seethed with rage. "Listen, Peach," she spat through her teeth, "you and I both know that I was in line for the throne, not you! I was the firstborn! The crown belongs to me!" Her black eyes burned with anger. "I don't hate you because I was banished, Peach. I hate you for the crown you wear—a crown that is rightfully mine! I am the true ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom!!"
Without warning Cyanara reached out and wrenched Peach's necklace, snapping it in two. Peach's rainbow charm pinged to the floor, and Cyanara snatched it up with a wicked smile.
"No, DON'T! CYANARA!!" Peach screamed. "You KNOW what will happen if you—" Peach broke off and gasped as Cyanara brought the two rainbow halves together. There was a rushing sound and a flash of light, and the two halves fused together to make a complete circle that dangled from Cyanara's necklace.
"Caught off guard, hm, Peach?" Cyanara laughed. "The Rainbow Pendant is complete at last. With its power I'll wipe 'your' little kingdom from the face of the earth!" Cyanara removed the necklace and held the Pendant high. "Power of the rainbow! Rift through time and space and DESTROY this kingdom!"
"NOOOOO!!" screamed the Princess.
The Rainbow Pendant began to glow with blazing color. The seven Guardians stared at it in horror. Ruby's eyes widened.
"Sisters, this is the end!"
Suddenly the Pendant gave off a flash of red light. Ruby choked; she tried to breathe but could not, and she pitched to the floor, unconscious.
"One Guardian down, six to go," announced Cyanara cruelly. "Again!"
This time the Pendant flashed orange, and Amber was knocked out. Then the colors of the rainbow flashed in rapid succession—yellow felled Citrine, a burst of green knocked Emerald out, blue light sent Aquamarine into unconsciousness, and indigo and violet carried the effect to Sapphire and Amethyst.
As the powerful Pendant glowed brilliantly in her upraised hand, Cyanara said with relish, "One last flash, and the Mushroom Kingdom will be no more!" The central hole in the rainbow circle filled with a shadowy vapor, and a flash of darkness plunged the room into twilight for a fraction of a second. Then a tremendous rumbling shook Cyanara's fortress like a baby rattle as something happened across the entire Mushroom Kingdom.
If you could have looked down on the kingdom just after the Rainbow Pendant flashed black, you would have seen the entire kingdom separated into eight parts, each individual "piece" encased by an energy field, and each energy field one of the colors of the rainbow. The rumbling subsided.
"C'mon, Luigi! We can't stop now!" Mario called back to his younger sibling.
"Huff...huff..." Luigi puffed up to Mario. "I'm still not in shape for this kind of thing."
"Let's go! Can't keep Peach waiting!" Mario cried, taking off through the trees of Toadwood Forest again.
Suddenly a crash of thunder brought both brothers to a screeching halt. Another roar of thunder, and instantly a pouring rain rushed onto their heads, soaking them thoroughly and chilling them through. Then the earth began to reel crazily beneath their feet; they were barely able to keep their balance. "What on earth is going on?!" Luigi yelled over the rushing and rumbling of earth and weather.
Luigi had barely got the words out of his mouth before the sky flashed brilliant red for a split second. Two giant lightning bolts seared down from the sky and struck them dead-on. They collapsed instantly, too stunned to even scream. The last thing Mario saw before blacking out entirely was the black clouds hanging low in the sky, unleashing their torrents on the earth. A sigh escaped his lips, and he lay still.