Chapter 1: To Wish Upon a Star
Mario yawned as he stretched his arms out over his head.
He gazed upon a clear, gorgeous night sky. Mario finished stretching, walked over to the end of the balcony and leaned on the rail. He was quite tired, but he always enjoyed taking a few minutes to admire the majestic beauty that was The Mushroom Kingdom at night. The kingdom was vast, but from this vantage point on the balcony of Princess Peach's castle, he had a great view. The enormous star filled sky was breathtaking, and seemed to cover the entire kingdom like a giant blanket. It was the most gorgeous sight he had ever seen, and he was fortunate to be able to admire it almost every night.
He continued to marvel at the beautiful landscape. Great green, rolling hills spread out before him, and miles of lush land covered the entire kingdom in a layer of deep greenery. Luscious flowers of a variety of colors dotted the land, and he could see several large warp pipes protruding from the ground. He could spot huge trees all over the place, and saw a number of deep forests around the bases of the hills. He continued to look on towards the east, and saw a great valley at the foot of some very large mountains. The largest, Kongo Peek, towered over the valley. Deep in the valley laid a great jungle.
He looked southward towards the Great Ocean, and could just barely make out a tiny speck on the horizon. That was Yoshi's Island, and he figured that about now, the Yoshis would be doing their nightly dancing ritual. They would of course be singing songs as they danced around a bonfire, and eating their fill of fruits, fish, and other small creatures before going to sleep. Mario could almost hear the beautiful melodies in his ears and sighed, smiling.
Mario turned his gaze northward. Many miles to the north, far past his house, the land started to become a bit more barren. There were far less trees, and the farther north you traveled, the trees and the fine greenery dissipated. The land then started to become far rockier, small, pointed hills gradually formed into very large peaks, and finally a stretch of even larger mountains-most even taller than Kongo Peek-that seemed to rise up out of the ground, sharp pointed tops trying to prick holes in the sky. A few rivers of lava flowed around the base of the mountains, and Mario knew that hidden beyond those peeks was Bowser's Castle.
The castle was almost completely surrounded by those enormous mountains, like bait in the middle of a bear trap, and the valley was mostly filled with lava. One large stone bridge was the sole entrance to the castle, connected to the base of the southern mountain facing it.
Mario shivered at the thought of the huge structure. He knew it all too well.
Mario quickly shifted his gaze back to the night sky. He loved that sight, and thoughts of the castle quickly fled from his mind. He smiled as he looked upon the vast beauty before him, and felt total peace and serenity.
It's so… humbling. He thought. What are we really but dust on the wings of a fly, a speck of sand in the Great Ocean, or a single speck of garlic on all of the pasta in the world?
His stomach rumbled.
"Hahaha!" He heard a laugh from behind him.
Mario jumped and quickly spun around. He found Peach standing at the doorway to the balcony, giggling.
"You startled me." Mario said.
"He he, hungry again Mario?" Peach asked still giggling. "We just ate dinner an hour ago."
Mario's stomach rumbled again. Peach continued to giggle.
"Well, I guess so. I was just admiring the stars, and for some reason, pasta came to mind."
"That's my Mario!" Peach said again, still laughing. "Always having pasta on the brain."
"Yeah, yeah… you look lovely my princess." Mario said smiling.
She did too. She wore a beautiful pink silk gown with white lace trimmings on the cuffs, and the moonlight seemed to radiate off it. The color of the gown offset the rosy color of her cheeks perfectly. Her gorgeous, wavy golden hair flowed down past her shoulders, and she wore just one piece of jewelry, a small pearl necklace that also seemed to radiate in the moonlight. He looked into her deep blue eyes-he could get lost in those-and smiled again.
Peach smiled back as she approached him. He quickly embraced her and they stood there for a few minutes, holding each other.
"You do realize I'm the luckiest man alive, right?" Mario said. "I wouldn't trade this moment for anything in the world. I love you, Peach."
She gazed up into his eyes.
"I love you too, Mario." she said softly.
They shared a long kiss, and Mario took her hand and led her to the railing of the balcony.
"Come and watch the stars with me, they're so beautiful." Mario said.
Mario leaned against the railing again, and put his arm around Peach. The couple gazed up at the stars for a few moments, and admired the majesty of it all.
Peach rested her head against Mario's shoulder.
"How many of them do you think there are?" She asked. "Millions, Billions?"
"Even more, I'd say." Mario replied. "I was just thinking before you came out about how humbling it is. We really are small in the grand scheme of things."
"Small, yes. But from what I have experienced, it's the small things that sometimes matter the most." Peach said.
Mario smiled.
"You always know just what to say, my love." Mario said affectionately.
"Well, I figured one of us should." Peach said giggling again.
Mario laughed with her. Peach could at times have quite a sarcastic sense of humor, but he loved it. He loved everything about her, and he knew deep down that she felt the same. They had been through so much together and it was like they shared the same thoughts. She seemed to know what he was thinking, and although she was certainly harder to read than he was, he often knew what she was going to say even before she said it.
Mario remembered the first time he had ever met Peach. It was over ten years ago, when he had first come to the Mushroom Kingdom. He and his brother, Luigi had been plumbers in Brooklyn, New York. The city had commissioned them to work down in the sewers on some of the waterlines that had burst. It had been a terrible crisis, and nearly half of Brooklyn was without water for several days. He and Luigi and been on the job for a week, when they discovered a very large pipe deep in the sewer.
This large pipe that they had discovered had a huge clog. They had thought that perhaps this was the cause of some of the water not flowing properly. This pipe was large enough that they could walk into it, so Luigi had gone into the pipe trying to get the clog out. When he couldn't force it out with his tools, he had decided to try and throw himself against the weight of it. As he did, the clog broke free, and Luigi was sucked into the pipe. Mario instinctively ran into the pipe after his little brother, and was sucked in too.
When he came to, hours later, he and Luigi had found themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom. It was the most beautiful place he had ever seen, and he and Luigi had been awestruck, confused and a bit scared. They walked around the place for days, trying to find someone, anyone to tell them where they were and how to get back home. That's when they had first laid eyes on Peach's castle.
It was one of the biggest structures Mario had ever seen. A great castle made of stone, with large spires seeming to reach up into the heavens. A great drawbridge hung above a deep moat, and he remembered marveling over the intricate designs on the walls of the castle. A large stained glass portrait of a woman imbedded high up on the middle spire, looked down upon them. It was of course, Princess Peach's portrait.
The great doors to the castle had been open, and as Mario and Luigi had entered, they walked into chaos. Small creatures, maybe about four feet tall at the most ran around frantically yelling, "Princess! Princess! What do we do!". Mario remembered being completely flabbergasted at what he witnessed. Small mushroom people were running all around the castle, panicked. They had large heads, mushroom shaped, spotted in all different colors.
Mario and Luigi had not been noticed when they entered, as the mushrooms were running around frantically. One mushroom had huddled himself in the corner of the room, crying. They approached him, and Mario tapped his shoulder.
"Excuse me, could you tell us where we are?" Mario had said.
The little mushroom looked over his shoulder and jumped, having clearly been startled. He looked very similar to all of the other mushroom people they had seen. He had a large, mushroom shaped head, white with red spots. He wore large brown shoes, and a small blue vest.
"WOAH!" The mushroom had shouted as he jumped. "Who are you guys? You look kind of like…"
"I'm Mario," Mario said. "And this is my brother, Luigi"
"Nice to meet you." Luigi said.
"Oh…. Well, I'm Toad." Toad said.
"Toad, could you tell us where we are? And… what… are you?" Mario asked.
"Uh… you don't know? This is the castle of Princess Peach Toadstool." Toad said.
"Where are we though?" Luigi asked. "This land, I mean. We fell through a pipe, and we ended up here. We don't know where we are. We're from Brooklyn."
"Brooklyn? Hmm… never heard of it. Well, this is the Mushroom Kingdom." Toad said.
"What are you, Toad? I mean, your species." Mario asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing…" Toad said nervously. "We're all Toadstools, well, Toads for short. You look kind of like our Princess. Well, not exactly, but the same… species… I guess… yeah." Toad said.
Mario and Luigi looked at each other.
"Do you think your princess, this… Toadstool would know how to get to Brooklyn?" Luigi asked.
"I'm not too sure." Toad replied. "Possibly, but you won't find her here." Toad started to cry. "She's been kidnapped!"
"Kidnapped?" Mario said. "Who kidnapped her?"
Toad sniffled and wiped his eyes.
"This creep named Bowser. He's king of the Koopas. He charged in here with some of his underlings, and just took her! We don't know what to do! This is unprecedented. We need leadership, and…. I'm just worried about her safety!" Toad said, obviously shaken.
Mario remembered making that decision almost instantaneously.
"We'll go get her!" Mario said. "We'll save her from this King Bowser, and then maybe she can help us get home."
"You… you would do that for us?" Toad asked, a bit of a twinkle showing in his eyes.
"Yes, consider it done!" Mario exclaimed.
"W… Wait a second there, Mario." Luigi said "I don't think this is a very good idea. I mean… we're plumbers, not heroes! Besides, we don't even know this… Princess or these people. What about this Koopa guy? We don't know what we're getting ourselves into!"
"What's a plumber?" Toad asked.
"No worries, bro. What other choice do we have?" Mario said. "Toad here says that this Princess Toadstool is the same species as us. I assume that means she's human. My guess is, she's the woman painted on the window on the castle wall. Being she's the leader of this land, she must know how to get us back to Brooklyn. There wasn't a pipe anywhere near us when we woke up, so I don't see any other option. Besides, Toad here seems like a good fellow. Let's help him out."
Luigi sighed.
"Alright bro, it seems like we have no other choice. I'm with you… but, how do we know where to find this King Koopa?" Luigi asked.
"I'll take you to him." Toad said. "I have some items that will help us out along the way. I'll get them, and we can go."
Mario remembered that first journey to rescue Peach from Bowser. It was perilous, many of Bowser's minions trying to stop them dead in their tracks. They had fought their way tooth in nail through many of Bowser's numerous fortresses at the time. They had used many different power-ups to aid them in their quest, and discovered their own sort of secret weapon, jumping. The gravity in this land affected the brothers slightly different, and had given them the power to jump very high, causing real damage when they used it on a foe.
They rescued other Toads, kidnapped by Bowser, destroyed his fortresses, and eventually made it to his castle, where they had battled the Koopa King. After an intense battle, they had finally defeated him for the first time, and had rescued Peach. Mario remembered the first time he had looked into those beautiful blue eyes. The two spent a few moments just staring at one another, and he had realized, at that moment, that he would never be going back to Brooklyn ever again. Luigi had surprisingly taken very little convincing, as him and Toad became fast friends on their journey. Mario and his brother never looked back since.
"Look, Mario!" Peach said. "A shooting star!"
Mario could see a small star shooting across the sky. It seemed to burn with a hot intensity and shone brightly like the sun.
"Make a wish, my love." Mario said.
"Look, another one! They're… side by side." Peach exclaimed.
Mario watched the two little stars fly across the sky together.
"As are we…" He whispered.
Mario closed his eyes, and the two made a wish. When he opened them back up, he noticed a cluster of stars, slowly starting to fade out, one by one.
"Peach, look… those stars are fading out…" Mario whispered.
Peach looked toward where Mario was facing, her eyes opening wide.
"Mario! It's… the Star Road! The stars are fading out, one by one!"
The Star… Road? He thought. How do I know….?
"OH NO!" He shouted out loudly. "The Star Road? The one that grants wishes?!"
They both looked at each other, wide eyed, and turned back to watch the seven stars of the Star Road fade out.
"This is not good…" Mario said, shaken.
Peach started to cry, and Mario took her in a warm embrace.
"It's going to be okay, Peach." He said, comforting her. "It's going to be okay."