Second Chances By Linkman443

Chapter 5

Pauline's mind was completely blank for a brief few seconds. The man whom was a very big positive influence on her life. Had recently come back into the city she governed and literally fought off an entire army from an invading kingdom. He now resides in a so-called 'Magical' place called the Mushroom Kingdom. Now he's telling her that he repeatedly rescues royalty.

"Uhh.....Miss Pauline?" Cappy said trying to get her attention. Pauline was just staring into space.

"Pauline?" Mario asked

Pauline snapped back into reality as she said "Princess who-now!?"

"Oh, uhh......Princess-a Peach. The one and only ruler of the Mushroom-a Kingdom and...-" Mario paused for a moment. He had recently come to terms with this, but it was still a little emberassing to say out loud. "The apple of-a my eye." He said with a somewhat emberassed look.

Pauline.....didn't really know what to feel at this moment. She was feeling large amounts anger, sadness, frustration, and the most surprising emotion of all was...heartache.

"O-oh really?" She said hiding the small crack in her voice.

"Really. I, sometimes with-a Luigi go off on-a massive adventures. From the Paper Dimension to whole different-a Galaxys above." He said as he pointed out the window to the now setting sun. The stars were just about to show themselves.

"So, How did-a you manage to become Mayor?" Mario asked.

"O-Oh!" Pauline was quick to change the subject. "After the whole thing with...Donkey Kong... and about a year after you left for Manhattan or in your case the Mushroom Kingdom. I realized that I needed to better myself in some aspects, I didn't wanna be just that 'Damsel in distress' from 1981. So I went back to business school and spent countless, sleepless hours studying to get ahead. It was a hard two years, but in the end it was all worth it. I graduated with the Highest Honors and became owner of my very own Toy Company. A good portion of the prophets went to the development of local schools and playgrounds. Eventually the Former Mayor Forman Spike tried to have me shut down because I wasn't a 'Legitimate Business'. It was right then and there that I decided to run against him next election. The election was tough, he used every dirty trick in his literal playbook. Until my Campaign manager turned assistant Ella found incriminating evidence that Forman Spike embezzled almost all of New Donk City's Money. He was arrested on the spot and I ended up running unopposed. Even now, my approval rate is Ninety-two percent."

"Wow. It-a seems that we both had-a major hoops to get where we are-a today." Mario said with great interest.

Pauline was happy that he was as interested to her life story as she was to his. But the question she wanted to ask still bothered her "So...what made you get involved with...all of this?"

"What-a do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean...You and Luigi shipwrecked and made it to this Mushroom Kingdom, I get that. But how did the responsibility to be this Kingdom's hero fall on you and Luigi?"

Mario and Cappy looked at one another. It seems that Cappy wanted to know the answer to that too.

"Well....that might-a be a little bit-a harder to explain." He said as he rubbed the back of his head. 

"Mario, Out of all the crazy things I seen today from evil turtle dragons to you flying straight through the air. I think I can handle whatever you have next."

Mario took a deep breath and said "Well....you see I'm-a man whom was born from the Stars above-a." He stopped to looked at Pauline's reaction. She had a simple raised eyebrow, waiting for him to expand on that. "I....and-a Luigi, we're both-a Star Children. Born to one-a day fight the forces of-a evil."