Long ago, out from the stars, dragons arrived on Earth. They made it their temporary home, charting its lands, observing its people, and become familiar with one species in particular-- the Koopa. A union of love, or of passion, or even of mere curiosity, it resulted in the most powerful race the Earth had ever seen-- the Royal Koopa. Even after the celestial dragons had left the planet, off to explore the next uncharted world on their endless path through infinite space, their descendants remained, conquering the lands and serving to advance the world in its growth in technology, science, magic, and culture.

That was the story Bowsette had been told all her life. That was the story she was sure most of her ancestors had been told all their lives.

But no, they were sorely mistaken about their origins.

In reality, long ago, from eggs burrowed deep in the core of the Earth burst forth massive, hulking monstrosities known as the Dread Lords. They had no destination, no motivation, no goal except consumption and destruction. Like a deadly virus they rampaged across the Earth, obliterating what they could and terrorizing what they couldn’t. The species that had made their home here tried to fight back, but their technology, their magic too primitive, their wills too weak. Caught up in this madness, a Dread Lord must have mated with a Koopa and somehow this unholy union formed a disgusting half-breed offspring. The Dread Lords themselves were killed and sealed away by forces unknown to this day in some fateful battle whose name and details have been lost to time, but this half-breed and its descendants lived on, escaping the turmoil of destruction for long enough that their progenitors had faded into memory. And then when the time was right, they became monsters in their own rights.

Bowsette was just the second-weakest generation of these Dread Lord half-breeds. Every time a Royal Koopa mated with a Koopa, it cut the amount of remaining ‘celestial blood’ for any offspring in half. and with no Dread Lords left, that meant that it was inevitable that they would eventually phase out of existence, their powers and abilities fizzling into nothing.

Until now.

She felt a massive rush of energy deep within her, touching every fiber of her being and stretching herself out. She felt herself growing even though she could see nothing. Her wings, before retractable and within her shell, were bursting forth into massive structures. They hit some sort of barrier, probably the remaining walls of the Throne Room, but the barriers crumbled against them.

Her claws stretched out many feet, and her snout grew forward with a hundred teeth sprouting to join it.

She was becoming a Dread Lord, losing the Koopa part of her identity and embracing the monster within.

This... this was the end for her, then. Bowsette as a person, as a wife, as a mother, was now gone. Bowsette was now a nameless beast destined to destroy the planet. She decided to accept this transformation with equanimity, her consciousness fading as the dragon took over and discarded that being. There was nothing she could do about it.

After all this work she had done to redeem herself, everything she had done to stop her past from destroying the present, it turned out that she was going to be the one who destroyed the present anyway. It was almost funny, or it would be if she had the capacity to laugh anymore. Instead she felt like she had sunken deep into the nothingness around her, losing any ability to sense or feel the body she was in control of just moments ago.

This was the end.

...

...

...No. Not it wasn’t. Bowsette wasn’t the same person she used to be. Giving up, letting herself be defeated and blaming it on the inevitability of failure was not what she did anymore. She had too much to live for, too much to protect to allow this to happen.

She wasn’t letting some shitty magic spell take over her entire body.

It WAS hers, after all. Nobody else was allowed to control it.

Even if her body became that of a dragon’s, she wasn’t just going to take this like some chump who gave up at the slightest inconvenience. She was stronger than that! She had hardly unlocked her true potential already, and she wasn’t letting that true potential just unlock inside of her without being able to control it for herself!

Even though she could see nothing around her, even though she was seemingly lost within her own mind, she reached out. She summoned forth all the rage, all the determination she could muster, and roared out.

“My name is Bowsette, and this is my life you’re dealing with, you dipshit dragon! Give me back myself!”

Suddenly, she could see again. She towered over the Throne Room she was previously in, standing about forty feet tall and currently breathing fire out into the sky. It hit one of the remaining airships and sent it crashing to the ground.

No, this was stupid.

She took one look at herself and knew this was a body she would hate to be in. So... she was going back.

That was that.