Update as of 2024: Hello guys! You may be wondering what is going on. Well, let me explain. You see, I currently have this reader who has decided to read through the Super Koopalings series, and I realized that they were getting close to this story. I originally only went to Chapters 8 and 9 because I wanted to fix some continuity errors, but one thing led to another, and, well... I figured I would redo the whole story, kind of like how I did when it came to Soul Swap. All the chapters are going to be edited: none are safe in this bad writing purge!
I hope you guys enjoy this :)
Chapter 1 Nightmarish Landscape
The darkness crept into Ludwig's mind. A bitter chill spread through their air, cold enough to cause frostbite and daunting enough to make one tremble. Ludwig grabbed hold of his cloak, holding the fabric close to his reptilian skin in an attempt to keep the chill out. Even with that effort to keep warm, the chilliness still bit into him. It dug into his bones, spreading its influence into his blood and soul. Ludwig's teeth chattered, deciding that the best thing to do at this moment was to move. Not only would movement help keep him warm, but he also had the idea to look for shelter. Surely, there was someone who could provide him with protection! Surely there was one kind soul who would give him refugee! There had to be!
A little voice in Ludwig's mind told him otherwise though.
Ignoring the voice that he believed belonged to his inner pessimist, Ludwig began his trudge. The ground crunched underneath his feet, in ways that didn't normally happen in his home of the Koopa Kingdom. He looked down, surprise striking him when he saw snow. He looked up, thinking that if he was lucky, he would see snowflakes. Snowflakes would be the perfect thing to see in this barren, frozen wasteland. Unfortunately, the only sight that met his eyes was a dark, starless sky. This shook him to his core, in a way that he never expected nor hoped. There was an evilness to this darkness; a creepiness that filled Ludwig's stomach with anxious dread. No soul, koopa, alien, or otherwise, could ever survive in this darkness. Nothing could stop it from settling down on Ludwig, making him feel like he was drowning. His soul cried out, for it instinctually knew that nothing good could be found here.
In what the special would describe as a fit of desperation, he held his hand in front of him. He tried to channel his anger, tried to concentrate it into a rage hot enough to activate his pyrokinesis. That was the only thing that could light the way, the only thing that would prevent Ludwig from freaking out in this area, darker than a new moon. He knew he needed it. He prayed for its light. He prayed for its warmth.
It didn't come. His fear canceled out his anger.
"Ooookay," Ludwig said to himself, his voice trembling. He rose into the air, gliding through this freezing pit. "It's alright, Ludwig," he said to himself. He gripped his cloak tightly, trying not to let the breathy vapors coming out of his mouth concern him. "You'll find something." He swallowed a lump. "You will!"
Wanting to get out of this darkened hellscape as soon as possible, Ludwig began flying. He didn't know where he was going, nor exactly what he wanted to see. Really, anything that he could see would be a comfort to him. Any sight, any at all, would help him feel better. Help him feel like he wasn't alone here, in the darkness that seemed to stare into him the longer he stared into it. Any sign of life would be a relief right now.
"Mon...ster..."
Ludwig's blood froze in his tracks as he came to a stop. He strained his ears, hoping to hear that voice again. When he didn't, he looked behind him. "H...hello?" No sign of life rested before him. No sign of life rested in front of him either, nor around him or above him. Once again, Ludwig looked into the darkness. Doing so felt wrong, like he was committing the worst, most vile of sins as he did so. He didn't know for sure if he wanted to hear the source of the voice if they were somewhere within the void. Regardless, he still looked around.
"Is someone there?"
No sound met his ears, not even the wispy movement of a vapor. Ludwig swallowed another lump. His palms grew clammy, and he shivered for multiple reasons as he resumed with his trek forward. The void seemed to grow darker, which in turn upped the level of his anxiety. He hummed a low B note, knowing that there was only one way to calm down.
"I've been to many places around the world," he sang, "It's kind of an extensive list." The further along into his song he got, the more he was able to smile. "I've seen World 5, World 6, and Pipe Land too, but I've never seen a place like this."
Huh. The darkness didn't seem as threatening now that it was filled with song. Ludwig's heartbeat went along with the rhythm, which in turn prompted him to start tapping his finger against his leg. A small smile graced his lips, with each lyric and note that he sang out increasing in both volume and joy.
"To say it's logical!" Ludwig sang. Not even realizing that he was doing it, he landed on the ground and started walking. The snow underneath his feet didn't feel that bad; in fact, it felt kind of pleasant. "Would be a straight-up lie!" Now, absorbed into the world of the song, Ludwig hardly even noticed he was in Tartarus' North Pole. He just kept singing along, his soul dancing with each new lyric. "But if you want to see it, experience it, then come with me and tryyyyy..." he paused, letting the silence hang in the air as he prepared himself to sing the last note. "To take a walk on the wild..."
CRUNCH!
That sound carried throughout the void, echoing against imaginary walls. Ludwig's heart stopped. He couldn't move, afraid of looking to see what exactly had made such a horrendous sound. Sweat poured down as he lifted his foot to look. He screamed out loud when he saw it.
It was a skull.
Ludwig's breathing grew shallow and labored. He didn't want to look at it, but at the same time, he couldn't tear his eyes away. The skull sat right on the ground, multiple fracture lines present from when Ludwig's foot crushed it. The sight made him feel physically ill.
But that wasn't even the worst of it. He saw a ribcage too. A femur, a clavicle, a plastron, a shell. The reality of what he was seeing just made his nausea increase. He put his hand to his mouth, fighting a losing battle with the vomit. He wanted to turn away, but like a fiery train crash, he couldn't take his eyes off the corpse that had once been a koopa.
More on instinct than actual thought, Ludwig started to back up in fright. He took a series of steps backward before turning around and running back the way he came. He wanted to make the distance between him and the skeleton as large as possible. The snow crunching under his feet sounded eerily similar to his feet crushing the bone. These feelings of queasiness and fright only increased as he saw more corpses. Some of them were mere skeletons, almost completely eaten away by the sands of time. Others, however, were far more fresh. Hunks of rotting meat lay on the ground, staining the snow scarlet. That was enough to make Ludwig want to cry, but there was something else that he saw. Another component of these skeletons, another aspect that ignited emotions in him that he hadn't felt in years.
Some of the corpses were going up in blue flame.
Ludwig closed his eyes so as to not look at these sights. Boiling tears poured from his eyes the further he ran. The smoky scent of rotting meat threatened to fill him. Sounds of screams erupted from the darkness, ugly and ear-piercing. Ludwig really felt as though he was in hell. A dark type of hell that was much more horrifying than any kind of eternal flame.
Just as he was about to lose it, Ludwig bumped into someone. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was Kamek, the royal magikoopa advisor to King Bowser as well as one of the Koopa family's guardians. Relief filled him; finally, he had found someone here! Finally, he had an actual person to talk to, an actual person who could hopefully reorient him and get this out of this nightmare!
Those emotions all went away when he saw Kamek's face. The expression Kamek wore was searingly painful to look at. It made Ludwig feel small, made him feel as though everything that was happening was exactly what the special deserved.
"How could you?" he whispered fiercely.
Ludwig almost broke down crying. That furious voice, that judgmental expression. Ludwig instantly knew exactly what his guardian was talking about, and it made him feel like scum. Lower than scum, lower than trash, even lower than shit.
"I... I..."
Ludwig broke out into a run in the opposite direction, the tears coming in much greater force. Whispers broke out in the darkness as well. They were so numerous that they might as well have been screams.
"Monster. Murderer. Monster. Murderer"
This phrase was repeated on loop. Ludwig covered his ears in a desperate attempt to block out the sound, biting his lip to keep himself from having a breakdown. "Stop!" The whispers didn't stop. They just increased like some sort of cult chant. Ludwig felt as though his logical center was shutting down as he acted on nothing more than pure emotion.
"Please!" he said again, practically screaming the plea. "Please stop!" Please..."
The ground give out from under his feet, and he screamed a bloodcurdling scream as he plummeted. More thanks to sheer luck than anything else, he nabbed hold of a root in the ground. He dangled in the pit, trying to think about the best way to get out of there. He tried to fly, but his powers had been rendered useless.
"Monster! Murderer!"
Ludwig looked down into the pit. A wispy whiteness was at the bottom, and swirly vapors moved within it. Except... those weren't vapors. They were spirits, disembodied spirits. They screamed like banshees, wailing in the most miserable and haunting way possible. They reached their arms up to him, some of them even climbing up to him in order to grab him.
Ludwig gripped even harder onto the root, the only thing keeping him alive. "H...help!" he called out. "Please, help!" His voice caught in his throat, and the sound only got weaker when he felt a spirit's cold touch wrap around his leg. As they pulled on him, he could feel the root starting to give away. "SOMEONE! HELP!"
Someone came.
Ludwig could hardly believe it. He looked up at the lip of the pit, his heart dancing and calling out to the figure for help, for salvation. Surely, this person would help him while he was stuck in this position, right?
That's what he thought until he saw who the figure was. His eyes grew wide, his heart skipped several beats. A young girl stared down at him. Heat rested in her purple eyes. The light of the spirits trying to damn Ludwig was reflected on the strands of her curly, sky blue hair.
"You!" Ludwig exclaimed.
The girl cast him the glare to end all glares. "Rot in hell, Ludwig von Koopa."
With those last words, the root finally snapped. Ludwig screamed as he plummeted into the pit. The last thing he felt was the chilly touch of the ghosts. The last thing he saw was the girl, watching him fall with an immense look of satisfaction. The last thing he heard was a voice calling out to him.
"Ludwig! Ludwig!"
...
"Ludwig! Ludwig!"
Ludwig gasped as alertness was restored to him. He bolted upright, breathing loudly and with difficulty. Chilly sweat covered his arms, and for a minute, all he could do was hyperventilate.
"Ludwig, are you okay?"
Ludwig finally managed to get his breathing under control. He saw that he was back in his room. He was wrapped in his royal blue comforter, with silver moonlight filtering in through the window. The sight of the light was a relief to the special, but it was nothing in comparison to the sight of his brother. Lemmy stood next to the bed, his eyes wide and focused entirely on him.
"Lemmy," Ludwig breathed out. Without even thinking, he wrapped his brother in a hug. "I'm so glad to see you!"
Ludwig held onto his brother for a while, taking deep breaths while immensely appreciating his presence. He only realized after four minutes that Lemmy wasn't hugging him back. In fact, the smallest Koopaling felt pretty stiff in his arms, pretty cold. Ludwig let him go, looking into his wide eyes..
"Lemmy are you alright?"
"Are...are you alright?" Lemmy asked. His voice was shook, quivering in the worst way possible. "You...you were talking in your sleep."
Ludwig cringed. "I was?" He put his hand up to his head. He took in several breaths, mentally preparing himself to deal with the awful reality he now existed in. "What..." he had to summon extra strength in order to talk. "Wha... what was I saying?"
"You..." Lemmy had never been this hesitant before. "You... you kept saying, 'monster, murderer.' You kept repeating that over and over again."
Ludwig felt guilt and anxiety take over, crawling out from the back corners of his mind. The sights and sounds from his nightmare filled to his brim, each image crystal clear and frightening enough to make him whimper. However, they weren't what was making Ludwig the most frightened. That honor belonged to the memories that those images triggered, the very real memories and emotions that the imagery in the dream had been pointing to.
"I... I'm sorry." Ludwig wiped tears from his eyes, his mind racing with horrifying thoughts. "I'm sorry I woke you up again, Lemmy."
"It's alright," Lemmy replied, his voice almost as soft as the moonlight. Ludwig saw Lemmy's furrowed brow in the darkness. Lemmy wrapped his hand around Ludwig's and gave it a squeeze, which ironically made Ludwig feel even worse. He had told himself this wouldn't happen again. The nightmares had been going on for too long; two months, in fact. Every other night, he either woke himself up because of the dreams, or Lemmy would hear him talking in his sleep and would proceed to comfort him. The fact that Ludwig had to deal with this problem was bad enough, but seeing how it affected his little brother? Seeing the dark circles under Lemmy's eyes during the day, hearing how loudly he yawned when the midday sun was high in the sky? Words couldn't even encapsulate how difficult that was to see.
Ludwig took a deep breath. He used a breathing technique he learned when he was younger to calm himself down. Deep breath in, deep breath out. He rose about half a foot above his mattress when he exhaled, but that didn't hinder him. He continued to take long, deep breaths, hoping that the natural flow of oxygen would scare away the unpleasant emotions
"Ludwig." Lemmy's voice sounded hurt, as if the trials Ludwig had been going through had been just as much his as it was his brother's. "This can't continue!" He sniffled, drying tears out of his own eyes. "You can't keep doing this! You... you need help!"
Ludwig floated back down into his bed. He of course knew what that meant. He of course knew that it was the right thing to do. He also knew that he would happily do it, for Lemmy as much as himself. The awful pattern had drained enough already; it needed to be stopped before it drained too much.
"You're right." Ludwig pushed his blanket back, stood up, and telekinetically grabbed his cloak so he could put it on. All the while, he tried not to become too distraught over Lemmy crying. "I'm going to Iggy."