Peach, dressed up in her tennis clothes, met up with all the new Toadstool trainees that would shortly be getting into what could become the most important part of their lives.

Despite the initial hesitancy, as far as Peach could tell, every single person from the original meeting yesterday had shown up here. There were actually a few more; there were a couple Spikes here now, and that Doogan badge salesman Rowf had even shown up.

This was going to be exciting.

Since she was no longer going to act as a regal King Peach like she was doing, she took her place among the crowd, as she was going to be participating in the training just as everyone else.

Bowsette, who had hardly been able to wake up in the morning thanks to staying up too late fretting about her children and about saving the planet again, was just now walking outside, carrying a Strong Coffee in her hand and gulping it down.

Peach smiled at her, but she hadn’t noticed her yet.

“Hi, Miss Princess? Or, King? Lady Peach?”

“Oh, ah, yes?” She turned around and saw the two Koopas she had noticed before, both in cute pigtails and dressed up like they were about to do yoga. Since the Lakitu one was no longer on a cloud, she stood a full head shorter than her partner, though they both still held hands.

“We just wanted to say, um...” the Koopa stammered.

“We just wanted to say we think you’re a badass and awesome!” the Lakitu shouted.

“Lulu...”

“Sorry. We always thought you were some royal pansy but then we heard your speeches about how you don’t care about what people think and how people need to stop being jerks to everyone else and, like... you’re too cool. Man... I can’t believe I’m talking to you...”

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“Well, you know what? It’s true. I am a royal pansy. I didn’t do enough to help stop the violence and dismay happening in the Mushroom Kingdom, and by the time I acted it was too late. The seeds sown had already grown into weeds, choking the lifeblood of the soil away.”

“See? She even says cool stuff in normal talking,” the Lakitu said. “Peach? You’re our hero. And to help the cause of Koopas getting treated fairly we’ve decided to help you out, even if it means risking our lives. Because a hero like you doesn’t deserve to go alone, okay?”

“I’m no hero,” Peach said.

“That’s what heroes say!”

“Lulu, let’s stop bugging her...”

“Oh, uh, okay. Sorry Princess King Peach!” the two, still holding hands, scampered away to another spot on the field.

Suddenly, Peach felt an arm around her shoulder. She could tell from the heat alone that it was her wife.

“Ah, young love,” Bowsette said. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“We got married one month ago,” Peach said. “Aren’t we young love too?”

“Are we not beautiful too?”

“Oh, stop it.”

“Hey, what’s that?!” a voice shouted.

People started pointing to an object floating in the sky.

“Wait, why is he coming now?” Peach asked. “I thought we said four thirty.”

“Maybe he thought it was four thirty AM and he’s actually a couple hours late?” Bowsette suggested sarcastically.

Peach ran in front of the trainees and waved her hands around. “Sorry, everyone! Nothing to see there!” she shouted. “That’s just Whomp King, one of our new Generals, coming to see us. He’ll be here shortly, but we do still need to start our training, okay?”

The Generals were coming today to being assembling their forces together and figuring out a real battle plan. But they still needed to start training their own small army, so they needed to kick this into overdrive.

“Bowsette, you better train us hard. Like, to death.”

“Whatever you say, my dear,” Bowsette said, smirking.

Peach should have been more careful with her words, however. Because the training this day was more grueling than anything she’d ever been through in her entire life.