Chapter 68: Chapter 69: Breakdown

Peach buried herself in her wife’s arms and tried to let her life disappear before her eyes. Just so that she wouldn’t have to think about any of this anymore.

“It’s... It’s so stupid! How did I not see any of this coming?” Peach cried. “They had been hiding this from me the whole time and I was so focused on.. on stupid things!”

“Mamma-mia,” Bowsette said. “Yeah, you might be screwed here.”

There was rioting going on in the streets of Toad Town, of Shroom City, of Koopa Village, even at this very moment. Down Under Land had finally seceded, and the kings of Mushroom World were currently convening on whether to take action. She trusted Toadsworth to give her reports on this and to help her rule while she was away. But... she never expected him to be in on this revolt from within!

“My parents would be... so disappointed in me.”

“Peach, don’t say that. It’s not your fault. Your advisors--”

“My advisors were strong because I let them be strong, because I didn’t want to be as direct a ruler as the people needed me to be. Now the kingdom is falling apart and it’s all my fault. Literally all of it. I-- wait.”

“Wait?”

“I just realized. I’m starting to sound exactly like you,” Peach said. She chortled. “Wow, I finally understand how you feel, Bowsette. When everything is collapsing and all you can think about was what you did or didn’t do that all led right up to this. Holy darn this feels awful.”

“Yeah. Well... I’m getting over it. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap. I don’t want to have to be the emotionally mature one here...”

“What am I going to do, Bowsette?” Peach asked.

“You must do what you feel is right, of course.”

“Well, that’s lousy advice.”

“Go out there and tell them how you feel. Don’t hold back. No civility allowed. I know you can do it, because you’ve done it before.”

“Yeah...” Peach let go of her wife and got up. she adjusted the crown on her head and made sure her outfit wasn’t wrinkled. “I’ll do it.”

“Just make sure you don’t cause uproar that’s TOO big,” Bowsette said. “We do need to go on one more adventure right after this.”

“Understood. Roger.”

Peach went down the stairs and entered the foyer, and then stepped outside, where there were tens of thousands-- no, maybe HUNDREDS of thousands, standing before the castle grounds. They were people of all races, all creeds, all genders, all walks of life. Many had been injured in the fighting. Many were about to start fighting at any moment; there were bandana-clad Koopas and pink-shirted Toads among the group, and the Toads were more than willing to start shouting at the Koopas even when Peach’s personal guard was there to keep the order.

She wasn’t willing to trust bodyguards, though. Too many of her own had willingly joined Toadsworth and the Chancellor. She couldn’t even bear to look them in the eyes, she hated them so much. And she hoped they rotted away in that prison cell, the same one that Bowsette had been placed in about one year ago.

So much had changed since then.

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“The people of the Mushroom Kingdom.” she began. The entire crowd went silent. Even the arguing political activists were hushed. “The kingdom has failed you. I have failed you. But most importantly, you have failed yourselves.

“I want to say that this is all my fault, that I should have been more proactive in keeping the peace and setting a good example. But I have been out trying to save the world all this time, and I do not regret my actions one bit. I could blame it all on Bowsette, whose short rule over this kingdom was marked with strife and aggression. But she was only a symptom of what was really wrong. She did not have unlimited power over you, or any of us. She only had fear on her side.

“By the way.” Peach held up her hand and flashed her wedding ring. “Bowsette and I were married recently. With that, I am officially changing my title. I am the King of the Mushroom Kingdom, like my father before me, no longer a mere princess to be puppeted around by advisors. And Bowsette will be my side as Queen. There is nothing more symbolic than a human and Koopa falling in love together, is there?”

The crowd went into a frenzy of gasps and shouts from all sides. Many pink-shirted Toads were pushing out of the crowd and walking away, presumably to begin plotting for some new acts of violence. The Koopas largely cheered, but several of them began throwing things onto the stage as well.

“However.”

The scene went quite again.

“That won’t matter much anymore,” Peach continued. “Because the Mushroom Kingdom has fallen into ruin. My father’s goal was to bring this into a place of unity and peace, a place for any species to roam free and cooperate with one another to help bring each other up. We lived happily for a while, but maybe it was all a charade, a sham. Maybe I was simply never looking closely enough to see the discord brewing underneath. Because in the past year, you people have shown yourselves to be more divided than ever.

“My advisors took advantage of you, using violence to gain further control and seize the government in a military coup. But they would not have been able to take advantage of you if you were not so craven, so bigoted toward one another that you would stoop to such low levels of hatred. You’re supposed to love each other. But you seem to have no capability to do so.

“So in that, I no longer want to rule people like you. I’m done with that. From now on, I am dedicating myself to one thing, and one thing only: saving the world from Morton Koopa, the new ruler of Dark Land. He is planning a great war that will plunge the world into another thousand years of death and destruction, and if we do not stop him now, we may never be able to. That is much more important than managing the masses here.

“In this, I am officially dissolving the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mushroom World kings have been deliberating about their own course of action, and to them I say that they can decide for themselves how to rule. Because it is there. The dissident territories who have requested autonomy or independence can have it. It is there. If the Toads truly want their own ethnically-cleansed insular country, then they can make one. But I will not be a part of it. I no longer care.

“From now on, I will be staying here at my castle, and anyone who wishes to assist my effort to defeat King Koopa can come here. But outside the castle grounds, everything else, is no longer my domain. It can be anyone else’s. I simply don’t care.

“That will be all. Guards, please escort the crowds off my property.”

Peach went back inside before the people could go into too much of an uproar, but a wave of noise still permeated the castle walls. It was almost deafening.

Bowsette, who had been listening from inside, was slack-jawed. “You...”

“I realized something during my speech,” Peach said. “We forgot Toadette in Shiver City. I wonder how she’s holding up with her ‘cousin?’”

“You...”

“Well, we’re finally ready to go. Let’s find that Axe. And you’d better tell me about Clawdia Koopa.”

“You.... Yeah... Yeah, let’s go.” Bowsette flapped her wings and hovered a few inches to meet her wife and kiss her on the cheek. “I’m proud of you.”

Peach and Bowsette left the castle grounds, and left the Mushroom Kingdom for the very last time.

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