Rosalina, the Comet Observatory, Lumas, Bowser, and other characters and events belong to Nintendo.

Please R&R.

Space is many things.

Time was something that could not always be considered reliable. Sometimes, it passed in the blink of an eye, weeks having flown by before I realized it. Other times, it crawled at a snail's pace. I suppose, of course, that the same could be said of life no matter where someone was. I remembered days, long before now when I had been but a small girl, where time slowed to a crawl. Yet, the year had passed before I knew it. Time was, and always will be, a fickle thing.

In space, when shooting between stars and following the paths of comets, distance also became relative. The distance I could cover in a mere day among the stars is far beyond what any being restrained to a single planet could fathom.

Space was also free and unrestricted. There were only a few rules. They were only the rules of nature and those you created yourself.

There was a great deal to be admired in the cosmos. In a place where it seemed there was only bleak, cold darkness in a vast void, there was so much life. The universe burned with it. My observatory was a small, insignificant hub of life compared to all that the universe had to offer. That was saying something, considering the sheer amount of activity that occurred in the Observatory. This galaxy alone was bursting at the seams. Perhaps it was this life far beyond that had drawn me to it so long ago, even before the Luma had found me.

Despite all of this life, space could be monotonous.

Space was lonely.

For quite a while, I had embraced the solitude. I'd welcomed it. I had lived in a world that had always felt far too crowded, with far too many people. I later learned that it had only grown more crowded in my absence and I relished my solitude because of it. For a long time, I also had a goal to reach. I had the mother of a Luma to find. The goal changed to nurturing Lumas and exploring the galaxy, the universe. Slowly, I became the observer and the protector of this dark void. I had slowly, but effectively, cut myself off from all others.

The Lumas were always welcome company. I would never stop loving them with all my heart. Despite this, there was something so incredibly different about human company, or company that had at least been around humans. I hadn't realized how much I missed it until a figure had come shooting past my Observatory, so many years ago.

A job that had come with the role of the observer and protector of the cosmos was leading the lost and those that had gone astray, back to their homes.

I had approached that figure to find a being I had never seen before. With time, they would become familiar to me. The first day I saw them, however, they had seemed bizarre indeed.

They had been reptilian in nature, yellow scales covering most of the being's body. White claws protruded from their fingertips and toes and a massive, green spiked shell was attached to their back. They had a large, pale fleshy maw, sharp teeth visible in the being's open mouth. Green scales covered the upper half of the being's face and sharp ivory horns protruded on either side of the shock of red hair on top of the being's head.

They had been unconscious, adrift in space.

I could guess what had happened to them. It had happened to me a few times as well, mostly by accident. I had visited planets in search of supplies and allies, only to find the citizens were hostile or I'd gotten into a bad situation. I had been launched into the sky, into the space beyond, leaving only a faint twinkle of light in the sky for those to view on the planet below.

Based on the injuries and bruises that adorned the being's form, however, this wasn't a simple accident or trying to make a quick escape. There had been a battle of some sort that had sent them into space.

I hadn't thought too much about that at the time however. I was worried for their safety. I hadn't realized the harm they would later bring to not only me, but the universe as it was.

They had already been exposed to the cold, dark void of space for too long. I could've already been too late. I had known then that I had to try, however, to save the being adrift in space.

And so that was how it began. I had brought them onto the Comet Observatory, the Lumas staying to close to me with whatever help they could provide.

They'd awoken the next day.

I'd learned I was correct. There had been an epic battle between this being (Bowser was his name, he told me) and another man by the name of Mario. He'd been injured and eventually launched into the sky by his foe. He told me stories of how it had happened time and time again, no matter what he did. He told how Mario defeated him and took everything he'd worked for. I listened to the story of Bowser's latest project and how Mario had taken it from him.

With time, Bowser recovered. I had then pulled the Comet Observatory into his planet's orbit and bid him farewell before sending him back through a launch star with a spell that would ensure his safety until he had returned home.

I had thought it would be the last time I would see him.

There, of course, had been people after Bowser that had been sent into space and unable to return on their own. There had been people before him, after all. They'd had been part of the reason I had taken it upon myself to guide those that were lost in space back to their home planets. They rarely ever appeared again though, seeming to have learned their lesson.

Bowser had returned, once again drifting in space. He was conscious, however, and saw my Observatory. He remembered what I had done for him the first time I found him.

So I brought him onto the Observatory again. And again. And again. He found himself adrift in space many times, sometimes of his own volition, more often because of the Mario he talked about. He slowly became a welcome guest and occasional fixture of the Comet Observatory. He told me stories, not only of those battles with his enemy, but of the times he had worked with him. He told me stories about a woman he claimed to be close with, a Princess Peach, and of his people. I'd genuinely believed that we were friends, at least in some regard.

I never saw it coming.

He'd been adrift once again. It had been a few mere days before I met Mario myself. I'd thought nothing of his appearance that day; he'd been in my Observatory often enough.

He'd left that night, plunging my Observatory into darkness. I had rushed outside my bedroom after hearing the whirring of foreign ships. Airships and space ships had arrived in the night, the commotion shaking the Observatory and disturbing the Lumas. I had found Bowser, loading the last of the Power Stars onto the ships. He turned to me as I watched in shock, barely sparing me any words before he left. "Thank you for your kindness. But I can't have you in my way."

The ships left as quickly as they came, Bowser among them, and I had collapsed to my knees in the new darkness of my Observatory. I had been betrayed. The one friend I had made had turned out to not be a friend at all.

I'd drifted to the small planet that lingered outside Bowser's home planet, unable to go anywhere else.

Mario had found me. I'd met him, worked with him, helped him. I realized just how thoroughly I'd been lied to. Perhaps Mario had taken from Bowser all that he'd worked for and ruined his plans to make life better for his own people as well as himself. But he was not the man that had been described to me.

My Power Stars were at last returned to me and I flew Mario to the center of the Universe, where Bowser built his empire. The being that had not truly been my friend was defeated. It had come at such a high cost however. So many of my Lumas had sacrificed themselves and died so that the universe could be saved and remade.

So much had happened that could not be fixed.

Space became lonely again.

I was invited to visit their planet occasionally by Mario, his brother Luigi, and the Princess Peach both Mario and Bowser had mentioned so often. Games and races, friendly competitions between friends. I'd found, however, Bowser was often invited as well.

It was hard to forgive him, for what he'd done. He'd betrayed me, stolen from me, put so much in danger, and there had been an incredibly high price to right what had been wronged. On their planet, however, it wasn't my place to interfere. So I did my best to either ignore him or make only the basic civil conversation.

I know of course that he'll eventually end up in space again. I will tend to his wounds and send him home, just as I had before. I will, in time, forgive him. I will never forget what he did, however.

I will continue to drift between stars and follow the paths of comets. I will continue to guide home those that are lost and adrift in space. I will not let the actions of one determine my future. I will not change because of one instance, one mistake.

Space is still lonely. I do have my Lumas, however, to keep me company and they steadily grow in number. I have friends in several worlds, the best of them from the same world as Bowser. Space was lonely but there was at last a place and people that dulled that ache.

I will continue to be one with the stars. I will still be its watcher, its protector. Bowser will return one day.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the solitude as a guide and savior to the lost.