I looked out over the vast horizon of sand and water. We weren't in the seaside kingdom though, we were in a place like the sand kingdom, but with palm trees and lots of water. I think it's called "The Oasis Kingdom".

The world was beautiful, but arguably, the best part about this whole day was the arm around my shoulders. I reached for her hand just so I could feel the shape of her fingers under mine. Princess Peach. Everything about her is gorgeous, from her fluffy blonde hair to her graceful poise, she radiates something calm, something cheerful. Something sugary-sweet.

I had both my arms on the railing of The Odyssey as it drifted through the sky, among the hundreds of other airships that were admiring the view. Sometimes, I would feel Cappy shift on my head, probably to look around easier without abandoning his comfortable perch, and Peach simply kept one arm around my shoulders, with the other gripping the railing so as not to fall over. Even Tiara, who was normally floating beside Peach, was nestled behind her bangs, resting after a long day of travel.

As the sun set over the sparkling water, Cappy sighed, "Isn't this amazing? A whole day without fighting...it's like a dream..."

I gave a nod in agreement.

"A day with no Bowser is a good day to me." Peach loosened her grip on the railing so she could lean back, looking at the stars appearing in the absence of the sun.

"I should have gone exploring ages ago!" Tiara squeezed her eyes shut in a bright smile, "The world is so cool!"

I've been in those stars before. Sometimes I forget just how far away they are. I watched Peach as she looked out over the sky, which was darkening steadily.

Nothing could have ruined this moment.

Crash!

"Waaah!" Cappy flew off my head, reverting to his ordinary top hat form. Something had struck the side of the Odyssey, and it was beginning to fall out of the sky.

"Oh no!" Tiara slid from Peach's head to grip her shoulder, "What's happening!?"

I ran to the back of the Odyssey, where a good chunk of the engine had been blown off. More chunks of metal and empty power moons were now breaking off as the ship broke down, and I realized that as more attacks hit the side of the ship, it was quickly catching fire.

Realizing the extent of the damage, I sprinted to the front of the ship, grabbed Peach around her waist, and jumped out of the ship. Her shriek echoed in my ears before the huge splash of the ship crashing into the water drowned it out. We landed in the water soon after.

"Mario!" Cappy grabbed the straps of my overalls, trying to get my head over the water in case the impact hurt me. Tiara did the same with Peach, tugging on the sleeves of her dress. I pulled her onto the beach, trying to be gentle after we hit the water so hard.

"What was that!?" Peach watched in horror as the Odyssey split in half, still on fire, as it began to sink below the waves.

"No!" Cappy tried to fly to the broken ship, but I grabbed his rim. Dying with the ship was not my plan.

"Cappy, stop!" Peach shook the water from her now messy hair, "It's gone for now, okay?"

Cappy drooped, but he stopped fighting against me, so I carefully let go.

"I know, but..."

I pat the top of his head. He was the most excited about The Odyssey when we first used power moons to fix it, so it was no surprise that he was the most hurt by its demise.

"But who did that?" Peach carefully stood up, weighed down by the water in her skirt.

I surveyed the sky with her. She was right, there was nobody there. Normally, Bowser is big and flashy, so if this was his doing, he would have announced himself by now. And besides, he is kind of crazy, but he wouldn't put Peach in such deliberate danger.

Cappy jumped backward, "Mario, look!"

I followed his pointing arm. What my eyes fell on was shocking.

I reached out to grab Peach's arm, but instead she was ripped from my grasp.

"Mario!"

I bolted after her. She was being carried by a monstrous black and gnarly woman who glided through the air, tightly gripping Peach's arm until she led her to the highest tower of a dark, black castle. It reminded me of the arena in the ruined kingdom where I fought Bowser's dragon.

The walls of the castle were too slippery to climb, and the door was blocked by a giant keyhole. Completely different from the brick of the rest of the castle, the door was covered in shifting rainbow colors. It was so odd.

I backed away from the door, looking up at Peach. Tiara had followed her up, which I had expected, but of course Peach couldn't jump from the tower, because the gnarled woman was right there, ready to simply pull her back up and prevent her from parachuting down.

My only option was to get to her, and get rid of the monster holding her hostage. But the door...

Cappy furrowed his eyebrows, "I'll go check on them! Wait here!" and then he flew up to the princess, and his sister. After a short conversation, Cappy flew back down to me.

"They aren't hurt, besides the arm where that monster grabbed Peach, but I can't fight that thing alone. We'll have to come back when we can go up there together."

I looked up at Peach and Tiara sadly.

"They'll be okay." Cappy followed my gaze with his own, "I hope..."

Peach smiled down at me, understanding.

I saluted her, then ran off.

We'd need to find that key.

"Are you sure you can't find it?"

I came back up to the surface for the twentieth time, resting along the sandy bank where the Odyssey was shot down.

"No?"

I shook my head.

"Are you really sure?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Fine fine, but...why would it just disappear?" Cappy waved his arms in frustration, "It should be down there! Why is it just gone!?"

I sighed. I didn't know, but we would need a new ship if we were going to look for that key.

"Where are we going to find a new ship?"

Well, there was no point in staying in the same place all night, so I figured we should at least get to the town in this kingdom (if there was one), so I motioned for Cappy to follow me.

"Where are we going? It's getting hard to see."

The bay was awash in soft blue colors, and it was getting very cold, especially with the water still clinging to my clothes. There was a cliff over the bay which sent a long shadow across the ground, opposite of the glowing moon. I pushed my wet hair out of my face, heading towards the cliff. The area behind it was filled with water, followed by sand that stretched into the horizon. Cappy just sighed, transforming back into my usual red cap and resting on my head.

I should have known our perfect vacation would be ruined by isomething./i Now we had no ship, no moons, our souvenirs burned and drowned, and all my outfits in the closet were gone too. In a sense, we were back at square one. And unlike all the times when our ship would crash during Bowser's marriage plot, no amount of moon power could save it, so we would need to get a new one.

"Mario?"

I hummed, slowing my pace so he knew I was listening.

"Are you cold?"

I hadn't realized how much I was shaking, but my pace was warming me up, and my clothes were almost completely dry by now. Why had he bothered to ask?

I had moved to the other side of the cliff, where I would have to swim over to the sand, and then continue walking across the desert.

Cappy flew into the air, back in his white top hat form, "I really don't think you should swim over. It's too far, and it's really cold. I don't want you to freeze."

But there were no creatures around to posses, and there were no checkpoints on the other side to zip to. What other choice was there?

"Look at the wall behind you." Cappy pulled my attention to the grooves and rough cracks, "This cliff face isn't too high. I can help you get up it, and then you can run along the top of it. No swimming required!"

I considered the idea. I knew the wall could be climbed, but it was higher than a normal string of jumps could get me. And this close to the water, if I fell high enough up, I would land in it, and possibly freeze.

"Here, I'll show you." Cappy pointed to a particularly rough edge; One I could potentially grasp, "Throw me up there, then jump to me."

He switched back to cap form, then plopped back onto my head.

I grabbed his brim, then threw him as he'd instructed to the crack. I jumped, diving towards him, and he propelled me upward, letting me grab the small ledge.

But I couldn't throw Cappy if I was holding a ledge, so where was he going with this?

"Okay!" he jumped back to my head, "Good! Now jump up from the ledge, there's a groove up there wide enough to get one foot on! Throw me again while you're up there!"

I braced myself. I'd never been able to do that before, but I guess I'd never really tried. Was that possible?

"Just try it!" Cappy gave me a nudge, "You don't have to jump high, just enough to free one of your hands!"

So I pulled upwards on the crack, wedging my foot into a rough dimple on the rocky wall. I jumped up, then threw Cappy and kicked off the groove, using him to propel myself up the rest of the wall.

"Wow!" Cappy caught up to me, rejoining me on my head, "I didn't actually know if that would work! Nice job!"

I wondered what other applications that trick had. Potentially, I'd be able to wall jump up a single straight wall, though I'm sure that would take lots of practice. I gave Cappy an approving thumbs-up before running along the wall.

"Whoa!"

I stopped. We came to the same realization at the same time. Where the wall curved towards the lake, buildings lit with scented candles were hidden on the other side, where we hadn't been able to see it. It was a little too close to the black castle for my tastes, but it was a town. We'd be able to rest there.

"Well, it's a good thing we didn't overlook that..." Cappy shifted closer to the right side of my head, "Why is it so hidden?"

I gestured towards the castle, which took up all the attention just because of how ominous it was compared to the surrounding grass, water, and sand.

"Oh..." Cappy shifted back to his usual position, "That thing doesn't iwant/i the town to be seen..."

I could see why. The deep valley town looked to be in poor condition, with peeling paint and lots of scary dark corners. A ladder down from the wall led to the main plaza, where few people were outside.

Climbing down, I quickly noticed that it was even colder here than it was higher up, which made my shivering come back tenfold. It wasn't as cold as it was in Shiveria, but that didn't mean it was pleasant. I headed towards the small bonfire in the middle of the plaza to warm up, and something caught my eye as it did.

Hundreds of drained power moons. Thousands, even. They were everywhere, in giant heaps. The fire chased the cold away, but I was still chilled by the sight. This town didn't look nearly big enough to use that many power moons. New Donk City was just big enough to churn through hundreds of power moons a day, so how did this tiny place use so much power?

Did it all go to the strange castle where Peach was being held? The thought didn't calm my nerves.

"This kingdom gives me the heebie-jeebies..." Cappy whispered, apparently not brave enough to speak up, "How did we completely overlook this place when we were up in The Odyssey?"

I could only imagine why, considering all the empty power moons.

It was then that creatures began to come out from their buildings. Some of them I recognized as the skeletons from the sand kingdom, but most of them looked more like the monster in the castle, resembling dead trees, their arms like spindly branches. They weren't talking, but they weren't trying to attack. They just seemed...curious.

Cappy pushed down on my head, seeming apprehensive, "Mario, don't attack. I want to see what they'll do."

They were quiet a little longer, until one of them spoke...

"Is your hat alive?"

I blinked. That wasn't the voice I'd expected at all. It sounded high-pitched and squeaky, like a voice you'd expect from a mouse. It was so ridiculous I thought I would laugh.

Cappy, on the other hand, did, falling off my head in his giggle-fit. He picked himself up, switching back to his top hat form and rubbing tears from his eyes, "Sorry! Hahaha! You aren't hostile?"

"Hostile? No, we're the people of this-!"

"Hehehehe!" Cappy tried to contain himself as his whole frame shook. Everything seemed more exaggerated when you were a tiny hat, "Sorry, continue."

"-town." the thing finished, it's white eyes seeming to give off an odd glow, "Are you seeking the princess in the high tower?"

"And her tiara, yes." Cappy shook the rest of his giggles off, heading towards the creature that had spoken, "Do you know how to get the key to the door?"

"Key?" he turned to one of the other creatures, "We know of a key. You can take the underwater subway to the next kingdom where it resides."

"Underwater subway?"

We'd passed a tiny submarine exploring the water kingdoms, but we hadn't realized it was a subway.

"Yes, it is this way."

We followed the creature around a corner, where it had to push entire piles of old power moons out of the way. I helped a little, collecting them for coins. By the time it was cleared out, I was all the way back to 9,999 coins (after using all of them to buy the skeleton outfit).

"Free of charge." the creature stepped aside for us, "We have too many coins anyway."

I could see that.

The submarine was about as wide as The Odyssey had been, with plenty of cushioned seats and an entirely glass ceiling that opened on a hinge. The canal of water it was in wasn't very big at all, but I could see the water went underground, towards the place Cappy made me avoid swimming in, even. It looked pretty dark, but the sub was covered in headlights to compensate.

"Thank you. Let's go, Mario." Cappy slid back onto my head as I boarded the sub. The hatch closed on top of me, and the sub sank below the water to bring us to the next kingdom over.