A/N- It's not often I decide I have the time or patience to take up a multichapter epic fic. But since I'm starting off in the Mario section (to a fantastic reception that means so much to me) I figure I wanna give them something to remember me by.

Thus, my second adventure fic, Down to Earth, was born.

This is gonna bear some semblance to my Super Smash Bros Fic, Strings, in the interpretation of the Mushroom Kingdom and with the appearance of my muse/interpretation of Yoshi, Melanthe. I'll get into that when the time calls for it.

But this hopefully will be a new spin on the Mario epic. I'm going for more of a cinematic view of the Mario games, like one would for Metal Gear Solid, a game I still haven't played yet.

Hope you enjoy this, my fans and new friends!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I regret nothing, I let them forget nothing.

Chapter 1- Rapid Descent

One could accredit Rosalina to having the best view from her home.

Atop her observatory, where she commonly found herself standing, she would take some time to gaze among the galaxies she lived in, a creation she had guided herself. One would often forget that Rosalina was not a deity, due to her infinite wisdom, control over the cycle of life itself, and her lifespan of several millenia. But she was not a god.

She was simply human, a human who had taken the time to learn what was around her and had been blessed by it tenfold, and one who had been blessed by the stars themselves. But in the end, she was still a human. It was the Lumas, the stars and galaxies in training, that were truly magnificent. Not a day went by where she did not feel thankful for everything she had, the thousands of children that she lived with every day. Even in her moments where she felt lonely without another human being near her and the days she counted down the three hundred sixty thousand nine hundred eighty five days until she went to earth again, she could not ever forget how blessed she was, and how much she meant to the world,whether they knew it or not.

Moments like that she just couldn't feel very alone anymore.

Rosalina wasn't much of a sleeper; she was very recreational about it since she didn't really need it. Sometimes, every twice in awhile, she'd let herself fall into the world of dreams, her only escape from the Comet Observatory should she ever need it. Tonight was not one of those nights. With every one of the Lumas asleep save for Polari, she was able to sit on the edge of the engine room deck and enjoy her surroundings. After a day of travel they were in somewhat unfamiliar territory, and that filled Rosalina with quiet excitement. With little fanfare, she leaned over the deck, hand under her chin as she gazed at the new sights through her left eye, her right one shielded by her fringe of crystal white hair.

Polari noticed heron the deck, his blue eyes looking as if they could smile. "Hello, Rosalina," he addressed her. "Awfully close to the edge of the deck, are you not?"

Rosalina chuckled quietly. "As if I need worry about injuring myself? I'm certain that I can keep myself steady, or recover if necessary, without a scratch."

"Ah, yes," he murmured lowly. "I should know to trust you by now."

"That you should, my dear friend."

Rosalina felt her mentor float over onto her shoulder and found it amusing how her father figure could take a perch upon her shoulder as if he was a pet, but she wasn't complaining. She rarely found use to complain.

"Have you taken in all the new surroundings yet?" Rosalina asked him.

"New? I don't think there's a new place in the galaxy that you haven't explored yet!" The elderly luma laughed at this.

Rosalina shook her head in disagreement. "One thing we must always remember is that the Galaxy is ever-changing. Fresh new life taking the place of the crumbling concluded."

Polari chuckled. "You know much more about the universe than those who are sculpted into it."

"I mean no self-glorification," her gaze on the stars became dreamy, "but I am the sculptor of the galaxies." She felt the need to move the fringe out of her eyes to wipe a tear, but remembered that the habit was no longer necessary. "It's a job I do with gratitude."

Polari felt pride at the wisdom of the woman he couldn't help but consider her child. Even within her aged wisdom was the youthful optimism that could easily be missed.

Rosalina's smile turned into a grin that Polari couldn't help but associate with a devious one, and he watched in surprise as she closed her eyes and took a leap from the balcony.

"Rosalina!" he shouted in horror, not processing that if she had taken the jump she must have had something in mind. Indeed she did, because as she cascaded down towards the terrace with an uncharacteristically entertained laugh, she held up her protection bubble, and used it to roll off of the side of the roof as if she was a hamster in a wheel. Polari looked on in a mixture of amusement and disapproval as she released her bubble ten feet above the ground, and descended to the terrace's grass with a masterful landing that resulted in no pain. She allowed herself to revel in the moment, pumping her fist and crying a jubilant "Whoo-hoo!"

Polari rapidly flew down to the Cosmic Sculptor, taking his place on her shoulder as she faced towards the night skies in the direction of the garage. "I haven't seen you trying anything like that, you old rascal," he cracked, teasingly pulling a strand of her hair.

"I had to find some sort of adrenaline around here," she said half-jokingly.

Polari's tone turned to concern as he asked her "You aren't feeling... you know..." Rosalina had a feeling that he didn't want to address this issue, but said "No, of course not," to let him know that it was not there at the moment. She found that she was back to her normal, composed self.

Polari's response was less-than-subtle; a sigh of absolute relief, which Rosalina deduced had more than its fair share towards being able to avoid the subject. She couldn't help but take that as a sign that such feelings were discourteous and selfish, and she made a note to change her paradigm on the subject.

"Polari," she sighed, "do you-"

Before she could go on, she felt herself being pulled away from the observatory at a speed faster than she could have ever expected, so fast that the observatory was out of sight before she could blink. She never heard Polari's shrieks of panic as he watched her disappear.

She found herself shrieking in terror as she was sucked by an unknown force through the stars at a speed faster than what was ever possible. She was surprised that her skin wasn't being torn off her body at the level of G-Force that she should have been experiencing- it was as if she was in a bubble or an invisible spacecraft protecting her from the force of flying through the sky unexposed, and even then she didn't even experience the slight bit that said form of travel would produce. She wondered if she had fallen into a dream and hadn't woken up. She couldn't even reach over and pinch herself, however, so she would have to wait and see.

Faster and faster she went, until she realized that she could see a blue planet, a sight she only saw for a split second, and in the next, she had seen the clouds, the oceans and then the forested ground she was careening towards, all in the same second.

Then, from the grace of God, she stopped. She just ended up on the ground, as if she had been laying there already. She stopped her screaming and tried to adjust herself to her surroundings. No use doing anything if you're too busy fighting a coronary.

She noticed that instead of a normal forest, the trees were burnt until they were charred candlesticks without leaves, and the sky was a misty gray with no sun in sight. It was far from reassuring.

She realized with contained horror that she didn't know where she was or what to do about it. She collapsed back to the grassless dirt to try and sort through this mess. Her sole goal was to find out how she could get back home before the Lumas went into total chaos. But first, she'd come to realize she had to figure out where she was and how to get out of where she was. As informal as it sounded, it gave her the creeps.

She noticed that she was in a corridor of dirt between an area lined with the charred trees. A twenty-five foot wide corridor, by her estimations; entirely packed dirt with treadmarks in it. Almost as if it was some sort of ancient highway.

Her face lit up as she realized that she could use this to her advantage.

She hid behind a wider tree, waiting for someone to pass so she could see if identifying the species was an option. It was five silent minutes before she could hear the sounds of marching and an engine revving, and she ever-so-slightly peered to the other side of the tree.

She noticed that a group of tall specimens of what she identified to be the Koopa species surrounding a jarring vehicle- an all-terrain vehicle with a cage towed onto the back of it. Two of the Koopas were wearing blue robes, causing her to identify them as Magikoopas among the more common Troopers.

She didn't make a move, just continued to peer out through her left eye, her ear poised to pick up on their conversation.

"Boss says we need to find the Cosmic Witch and bring her back to the castle. Says it's really important," one of the Magikoopas, small, thin and wiry, ordered to the other Magikoopa in a gravelly voice.

"Bah! So that's why we're out here?" the second Magikoopa crowed, an unfittingly squeaky voice coming out of his large, muscular body. "That old coot Kamek don't know what the hell he's doing anymore!"

"Shh!" urged the shorter Magikoopa. "He could be listening in on us!"

"What's he gonna do," the taller laughed defiantly, "switch our vocal chords again?"

It was then Rosalina put two and two together and realized that her presence in the Koopa Kingdom was more than mere coincidence and that she was in a lot of trouble. She jerked her head back and tried to plan out an escape route through the trees.

Out of the corner of her ear, she was motivated by a screeching voice cut off by static "You fools! She's getting away through the forests!" The screecher cried out in an anciently aged voice. She could hear the troopers getting organized to go after her, and she ran even faster.

Through the trees she weaved, the ominous presence of the dead too close for comfort, and she feared that she would join them if she wasn't careful. She ran non-stop for five minutes until she could have sworn she was towards the edge. She rocketed through to find that she was not away from the adversary yet; she was just about to run into them. She had gone in a loop.

"Damn!" she spared herself a rare oath as she noticed that the crew, swords in hand, had noticed her and were heading in her general direction. After a second, she stopped and put up her strongest defense shield she could muster and watched as the Koopas made their way over to her. She gave them a deadly glare, almost daring them to attack.

The lead Trooper, wearing a black hat slightly similar to a ship captain, leaned forward smugly and stuck his sword through the shield, to Rosalina's horror. He did not make a kill move but tantalizingly poked her in the chin with the blade's edge, a drop of blood leaking onto its blade. Rosalina was enraged and terrified all at once but managed to hold it in.

The captain leaned in towards her face, pure triumph and twisted glee written on his features. "Now, as much fun as it would be to cut you apart right in these here dead woods to roam with the evil spirits instead of your twinkle twinkles, the boss says that we have to take you back with us to the castle. Which is the shame, darling, because I would have had a lot of fun with you."

He leaned forward to take her arm, but in the next moment, he started to gurgle on something, kneeling onto the dirt and clutching at the air, and the next moment fell flat on his shell, blood trickling out of his mouth. Rosalina was frightened as ever, but wore a mask of slightly angry indifference, but a look of dark wonder made its way onto her features.

"Campbell?" a trooper gasped in horror, with a correct premonition that he would be next before he collapsed to his knees for the same fate to happen to him. The third and fourth troopers ran away in a notion of surrender to this mysterious deity, but they were shown no mercy. In the distance, Rosalina saw them collapse onto the ground.

Rosalina did a lightning-quick 360 around the scene, looking for whoever was responsible for this. To a 135 degree angle, she saw another Koopa, this one more adorned than the others with a multi-colored Mohawk, black jeans, possessing a red and green shell with multiple spikes and intricate detailing, and a large piercing through his eyebrow. He gave her a glance and she could see an object similar to a wand glowing red in his hand. "Avada Kedavra," he cracked dryly.

Before Rosalina could move, he put up a hand to stop her. "Don't act like I'm here," he hissed. "I'm going to get you out of here but Kamek can't see that I'm here because I'm counteracting his spell with invisibility. Don't motion towards me, and keep your mouth slightly open so when you talk it looks inconspicuous. But follow me and I promise I'll get you the hell out of this place."

Quietly, she whispered "I'm Rosalina. May I have the honor of the name of my companion?"

He raised a rainbow eyebrow and, words tense and rapid, demanded "I'm Lemmy Koopa, and if you truly appreciate this, you won't tell a damn soul who may have ever inhabited this side of the border what I'm doing. Now come on."

She recognized the young man as one of the descendents of King Bowser, but decided now was not the time to ask questions as Lemmy ran through the woods, glancing behind her to make sure she'd follow. He gestured towards her in frustration, and she started to follow him, making sure her mouth was slightly open as instructed.

She knew she would have been on Earth again one day. But she was three hundred sixty thousand nine hundred eighty five days earlier than scheduled.

A/N Wow, this is quite the beginning. And I'm surprised that this only takes up 2500 words, because it feels longer than several of my oneshots.

I hope you enjoyed! This is very exciting, the start of this adventure of writing. I can't wait to write more!

See you next installment, my friends!

MoD