After being captured by Bowser, and having Luigi and Goombara put into the dungeon, Mario and Peach were horrified to find out Bowser's true intentions. It turned out that nobody from the Mushroom Kingdom was capable of traveling between worlds, even with a Power Star. The only possible way was to have someone from that world nearby to open the portal… and that person was Mario. Unable to fight as a promise to Peach to save her people, Mario allowed Bowser to open the portal, but he was quickly thwarted as Peach knew how it would affect Mario's world in the process. After an enraged Bowser knocked Peach unconscious, Mario managed to free his brother and Goombara thanks to a mushroom she had packed away, which led to a series of events resulting in the accidental demise of Kammy Koopa at the hands of Bowser. With the group escaping in Bowser's airship, Bowser went through with his original plan of destroying the Mushroom Kingdom which came as a shock to everyone. Caught in the blast, the ship crash landed, leaving the former kingdom in ruins and landing the gang in the desert. Was it really all over?

Part 7: It's Not Over Yet!

It was the most grim scene the Mushroom Kingdom ever experienced. From atop the mountain where Bowser's castle stood, only a giant smoldering crater could be seen. Within a flash, a once proud kingdom was now completely devoid of all life. To make matters worse, the princess and her rescuers had crash-landed in the desert with no method of transportation left.

Mario awakened in a daze, still inside the cockpit of Bowser's destroyed airship. He looked around to see Luigi, Peach, and Goombara who were all still unconscious from the crash. He immediately ran over to Peach, but didn't touch her or try to wake her. He only sat there and listened for a sign of life. Luckily he heard her breathing and sighed with relief. He went to Luigi and Goombara, and thankfully they were alive as well. It was the only good thing to come of the situation.

As Mario waited a bit, they each began to slowly wake up, first Goombara, then Luigi. But Peach was still out cold. The three went over to her and wondered what they should do. "I can't believe he really did it…" Mario said quietly. Luigi was completely silent. Mario hopped up and kicked some of the rubble from the ship in anger. "Damn him! What was he hoping to get out of this?" Luigi responded, "he's just full of hate and resentment. He must be lonely up there too".

"Lonely?" Mario asked surprised. "You think loneliness is even on that monsters mind, Luigi?"

"Everyone gets lonely now and again."

"He's not lonely, Luigi, he's just a sadistic psychopath who kills everyone that doesn't give him his way! Lonely people find friends, they don't kill them!" Luigi jumped at his brothers rage toward him and quietly withdrew, "okay, Mario".

Peach began to awaken over the sound of Mario yelling. They all gathered around her to see how she was doing, but it wasn't exactly necessary to ask. She sat silently with her legs crossed and her arms folded. Her dress was torn as everyone else's clothing, and her crown was missing. She looked less like a princess and more like a common beggar. Nobody said a word, until Goombara waddles over to Peach and jumped into her lap. They stared into each other's eyes and Goombara said, "is everyone in the kingdom gone? Even mommy and daddy?" Peaches eyes began to well up again, "I'm sorry, sweetheart… I really don't know". Peach held Goombara closely as they both began to cry.

Night began to fall over the desert and they all started to get hungry. Unfortunately, Luigi's backpack full of food was lost along the way so they were out of luck. They knew they couldn't stay in the ship forever, so the only thing they could do was make their way back to the Mushroom Kingdom to try and find survivors. As they walked along the sands, Peach stared vacantly at the ground. Luigi walked next to her and said, "I know it's hard, but remember it's not your fault that this happened". She smiled a tiny bit, then continued to stare. He continued to try and cheer her up, making things up for the moment. "I'm sure everything is going to be okay. Just try to be positive!" Peach didn't respond at all.

As Peach walked behind the rest of the group, Luigi went up to Mario to question what they should do. "Mario, I know we can't just sit around and wait here, but where are we heading? Everything looks the same around here!" Mario replied while heavily panting, "call me crazy, but as we were falling I could have sworn I saw those funny blocks around here". Luigi looked puzzled, "what good are blocks gonna do us?"

"If we're lucky they'll have a mushroom or two we can share so we won't all starve to death."

Everyone journeyed on, but began to feel fatigue setting in from the lack of food. It was now to the point where they could only crawl to get any further. Then soon after they couldn't even move and they all collapsed from exhaustion. They could only just lay on the sand, panting and hoping for a miracle. With miracles seeming to be in short supply, it appeared as though they were finished. But with a stroke of luck, Goombara looked up and in the distance was a row of four blocks, just as Mario had thought! "You were right, Mister Mario!" Goombara jumped happily.

They all laughed as a second wind of relief flowed over them. They gathered their strength and made their way toward the blocks. "Oh, thank goodness!" Peach said, finally showing some of her old emotion. Luigi said, "let's just pray there's a mushroom in at least one of these blocks!" Mario punched the first one, but no luck. The second and third also had nothing. With their faint hope dying, Mario held his breath and hit the final block. This block had something, but it wasn't what they were expecting. Instead of a mushroom, a strange egg popped out with green spots all over it.

"Well," Mario began, "it ain't a mushroom." He picked it up and inspected it. "Maybe it's still edible!" Luigi shouted. Peach looked suspiciously at the egg and said to herself, "where have I seen that before?" Mario spared no time and insisted they eat it. "All I know is that in our world we eat eggs! Besides, it's big enough for us to share!" He got ready to crack it open over a rock, but was stopped by the sound of the princess yelling "wait, Mario!" She ran over and grabbed the egg from his hand. "We can't eat this egg!"

"Why not?" Mario asked. She held it up, "because this is a Yoshi egg!"

Mario and Luigi looked at each other. "So I guess Yoshi is the word for chicken in this place?" Luigi joked. Goombara tried to get a closer look. "That's a Yoshi egg, Princess Peach?" Peach nodded and said, "mm hmm!" Mario chimed in, "so if we can't eat that then what are we gonna do about food?" Peach looked calm for the first time since the crash. She explained, "if we found this egg in the middle of the desert there must be other Yoshi here!" She smiled. "Where Yoshi roam, you're sure to find plenty of fruit!" Everyone else jumped at the sound of the word. Peach said happily, "and the good news is it should be hatching any second now!" Her knowledge of Yoshi was spot on, and the egg began to shake right in her hand. She put it down in the sand and everyone circled around it. Within seconds the egg cracked and the top flew off, exposing a creature Mario and Luigi never expected. "A Yoshi is a dinosaur?" Mario shouted.

The Yoshi emerged from it's shell, and immediately grew twice as large as the egg was. It was green, as indicated by the spots on the egg, and had a strange shell-like hump on it's back that seemed almost like a saddle. The most off feature was the fact that it was born wearing shoes. Peach went over to it and petted it on it's somewhat large, bulbous nose. "I used to go on Yoshi rides all the time when I was a little girl," Peach said. "They are the most gentle creatures in our world. And this one should lead us right to his family."

The Yoshi looked around until he spotted Goombara and jumped wildly. It began to yell out, "Yoshi! Yoshi!" Then, as a surprise to everyone, a long tongue extended from his mouth and tried to latch onto her. She jumped out of the way quickly and Peach grabbed her. "I'm sorry Goombara," Peach said. "I forgot to mention that Yoshi eat other things than fruit. Never people, but sometimes Goombas and Koopas."

After a few seconds, the Yoshi gave up trying to eat Goombara and immediately ran off to be with his family. The rest of the group knew all they had to do now was follow him, so they all ran behind him. Surprisingly, not far away was a small spring surrounded by trees and had fresh water. There they saw a group of the playful dinosaurs as the green one joined them. There were a multitude of different colored Yoshi, like red, blue, and even yellow. In the trees was the fresh fruit the princess had promised, and they all spared no time in helping themselves.

"This is great!" Luigi said. "So many different kinds of fruit. I'm glad we came across that egg instead of a mushroom!" After filling up on the fruit, Mario, Luigi, Peach and Goombara decided to rest until the morning. The Yoshi all huddled up in a small group and slept alongside the others. It was nice for them to finally have a bit of peace after going through what they experienced. Though they all had trouble getting to sleep from the thought of it. But it was something they would have to deal with the next day.

The sun began to rise and the playful scampering of the Yoshi woke everyone up. They were definitely a spirited group. Mario immediately asked Peach, "so where do we go now?" She could see the determination in his eyes. "I need to return to my kingdom, Mario." Mario nodded, "I know, but which way is it?" She smiled and said, "you'll be happy to know your Yoshi discovery will be even more useful! These little guys have a great sense of direction. If there's any life left out there, they'll lead us to it!" Mario and Luigi both jumped up and Luigi said, "we better get going then!"

They got ready to leave the spring when Mario asked, "so how does this work?" Peach explained, "one of us will have to ride a Yoshi to let it know we need to find something. It should automatically know to take us to the next place with any signs of life… Hopefully the Mushroom Kingdom is one of those places". They each looked around, trying to pick a Yoshi to take, when suddenly, the green one Mario had found began to rub up against Peach's arm. "I guess we know who's coming with us!" Peach laughed.

Mario and Luigi agreed that the princess should ride the Yoshi, seeing as how she had experience and shouldn't be walking in the intense heat. Goombara took a seat in her lap. Peach held onto the "saddle" and said, "Yoshi, please try to find the Mushroom Kingdom". Luigi laughed, "you really think that thing is gonna understand you, Princess?" Luigi was quickly silenced by Yoshi taking off at lightning speed. Mario mocked him, "shut you up, didn't it?"

As the two brothers followed Yoshi, Peach prayed that her people were safe. She thought that with a small ray of hope that there would be survivors. She imagined how horrible it must have been for everyone, knowing it was all going to be over in just seconds. The thought of Bowser sitting smugly in his castle made her furious, but she kept her cool. The only question left on everyone's mind now was, once they returned… how were they going to resolve this?

Author's Note: I'm so damn-ass-frickin' sorry to everyone who waited patiently for this part of the story. Lately I've had a lot going on and you know how life throws you those curveballs. Besides that, I've had a mild case of writer's block and didn't feel like writing ANYTHING just to get this out quicker. That being said, I can't say I'm 100 satisfied with the way this part turned out. I can't say I gave myself a lot to work with, considering the whole "desert" thing I had going on. I will say this, though, I PROMISE IT'S ALL BUILDING UP TO SOMETHING YOU'RE ALL GONNA LOVE!! You have my word, I won't be disappointing anyone with this ending (which by the way is still a ways off). So I hope you still enjoyed what I have for you here, and look forward to part 8 VERY SOON!