AN: I don't know how much longer I have to go until Flickering Flames is finished. However, I didn't want to wait with this story any longer. You see, this is a very special story, as it is based on a request. I hope you enjoy it :)

Chapter 1 The Wand and the Magazine

"Oww!" Wendy exclaimed. The sole female member of the Koopalings was currently cleaning her room. Her feet were completely bare, as cleaning in heels was a lot more difficult than it sounded. She lifted her foot and grimaced in pain when she saw one of her earrings sticking out of the floor, pointy end up.

Wendy sighed and picked up the earring. In truth, she had no idea why she had it. True, it was beautiful. In fact, the garnet that shined on the front was dazzling. However, Wendy couldn't wear it; she didn't have outer ears. It was a shame really.

Wendy walked over and placed the earring in the jewelry box. Gems of all kinds sparkled inside. Wendy could probably bury the box in the ground and mark the spot with an x, and no one would complain. She placed the earring amidst the bracelets and necklaces. Its disappearance was almost instantaneous.

"Well, now that that's taken care of…" Wendy looked back at her room. The pink carpet was free of dust and debris, her bed was smooth as milk and as fuzzy as a cat. The room itself looked pretty nice, Wendy had to admit. However, she was not finished; not even close. She let out a long sigh.

"Time to tackle the closet," she said miserably.

The closet...oh man, the closet. Just looking at its closed door made Wendy recall a joke that Ludwig had told her:

"Wendy, you have so much stuff in your room that it makes the Koopa Kingdom National Treasury look tame."

And she did. Sure, you couldn't tell by looking at the room alone. But the closet...oh, help any poor soul who had to go into Wendy's closet. Wendy approached the closet and stopped in front of the doors.

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," she said out loud.

With that, she gripped the handle. She closed her eyes, preparing herself. She opened the door a tiny crack, and BOOM! The floodgates were open, an avalanche occurred. Wendy was buried in a torrent of golden coins, shoes, and toys that she stopped playing with when she became a teenager.

By some miracle, Wendy managed to come up for air. She coughed, and diamonds she had accidentally swallowed spilled out of her mouth. She directed her eyes to the closet, the big, looming cave of doom that dominated her sleeping chambers.

"Oh man, this is going to take a week at least," she said as she stood up. She trudged through her hoard, the treasure pile getting bigger the closer she got to the doorway. Maybe it would be best if she donated some of the stuff.

Wendy switched on the light. The whole closet lit up. Coins sparkled in every nook and cranny. Shoes that Wendy just never had the willpower to wear rested on the stone floor. Dress that she had outgrown years ago hung from hangers. Wendy gazed down at her footwear.

"Might as well start with the shoes."

Wendy made her way forward. As she gazed at the shoes, she wondered how any of them could have possibly fallen into her possession. I mean, they were ugly. She had probably worn each pair...what, once? She couldn't possibly see herself wearing them now.

The sole female Koopaling decided that she had better be sitting down for this. She got into a sitting position, and when she did she, she yelped in pain. What was she sitting on? It felt...long, stick-like. Wendy got up, and gasped when she saw what the object was.

"My wand!"

Oh man, Wendy had so many cool memories surrounding that object. She had taken it with her on her very first mission to kidnap Princess Peach, so long ago. She picked it up and examined it. The purple starbit that acted as a gemstone still twinkled as bright as ever. The silver metal that acted as the wand itself was as smooth as ever.

"Oh man, Kamek is going to wonder where this has been all these years," Wendy said with a laugh. She remembered how much she and the other Koopalings had begged Kamek and Bowse to get them magic wands. To be honest, she didn't even know if her brothers still had theirs.

"I wonder if this still works?"

It probably did. After all, magic wands weren't like phones; their power. didn't drain away. Wendy exited the closet and made her way toward the pink carpet in the middle of the room. She scratched her head before saying the first spell that came to her mind.

"Blastem markey!"

A purple arcane blast shot out of the wand. Wendy shrieked as the impact sent her flying backwards onto her bed. The blast itself hit her bookshelf, causing it to topple forward. Books flew everywhere around the room, causing Wendy to let out a frustrated groan.

"Oh great. More stuff for me to clean up."

Wendy got up off the bed and made her way over toward the fallen bookshelf. She was just about to try to lift it up when she noticed something odd. There was what appeared to be a magazine sitting against the wall where the shelf had stood. Wendy, curious, picked up the magazine.

"Oh my developer," she said as she stared at the magazine's front cover. "I remember this!"

The magazine was called "Koopa Craze." It was a fashion magazine that Wendy had read religiously when she was younger. She opened it up and flipped through the pages. She saw models wearing all sorts of beautiful outfits. While the outfits were absolutely gorgeous, it was the models that really caught Wendy's attention. They appeared so confident, so happy, so beautiful. These were the type of people that Wendy wished she could meet.

Heck, these were the type of people Wendy wished she could be. She remembered how amazed she had been with the Koopa Craze models when she was younger. She remembered how she had wished that she could be in the magazine herself.

Of course, that desire had waned as she got older. But now, looking at the magazine again, that old wish started to come back.

The only question Wendy had was: how would she be able to do it?