Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over Nintendo and it's characters

Note: If you've all ready read the Ludwig bio on Maxazillion2000's deviantart (I have the link on my profile) then you've already got the important details of this chapter. However if you're bored or just don't feel like looking up a link, read on if you wish.

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when I arrived to my publishers office. Nervous and sweaty, I was late and this meeting was not going to be good. With perfectly good knowledge of how my first book went down, I couldn't help but pray to the stars that I made it out of that small office unscathed.

I pushed the door open ever so slowly, there she was, Stacey Parkins, her blonde hair in that little bun she's had since high school. She was fiddling with a small rubicks cube on her desk. I took one gulp and sat down.

"So finally you decided to show up. I was hoping to start ten minutes ago, but let me guess, traffic?" She muttered, still intensely focused on that rubicks cube.

"Um...well." To tell you people the truth, I slept in.

"Never mind that, I think I should just lay it down on you, hard and fast. I'm canceling our publishing contract."

"W-what! But why?" I barely eked out those few words.

"Sorry Greg, nothing personal, but my publishing company cannot withstand another failure in the market." Now that burned, another failure.

"You can't just cancel this agreement! You specifically said in the contract that I had a year with Gram's House publishing!"

"Well I had no idea that your book would cost me thousands of coins." Stacey snapped.

"Give me another shot! I'm on my knees begging here."

"I don't think there's anymore chances I can give."

"Please! I-I'll do anything for this, come on Stace, help a guy out." I pleaded.

"Ugh, I told you not to call me that." Stacey sighed at the pet name. "Okay, okay. Since we've known each other since we were Freshmen way back in high school, I'll give one last shot. I'll renew our contract for three days, by then I want you to have a rough draft of the first chapter and if I don't like it I'll tear it up and you'll never be published. Got it?"

"Y-yes ma'am." I wheezed weakly.

My legs barely carried me over to the elevator outside of Stacey's office. How was I going make it out of this alive? I needed a new idea. Something that everyone wanted to hear about. I'd try again with a non-fiction event.

Of course the subject matter would have to be something interesting. What though, what? It had to be nothing like that stupid Goomba revolution I covered before. What was I thinking? The war that lasted a week before being crushed, and yeah that sold well as you can see.

Depressed, I went to my new favorite hang out and lunch spot, the Village Green. I ordered my usual meal and sat at a small two person table by the window. There I overheard something of a fairytale quality beside me. An old Koopa Troopa veteran, both legs missing, was preaching to a bunch of little kids about a war story. Intrigued myself, I ate my Alfredo while silently eavesdropping.

"I tells ya, we were outnumbad ten ta one. We fought it out as best we could, but dose mushroomers are tuffa den dey look." The Soldier shouted in his thick East Pipeland accent.

"How'd you survive!" One little kid asked exasperated.

"If it hadna been fo' General Ludwig and his airlift, I'd been a green stain on da cobble stones in Petalboig. He fought wit us, blowin shi-I mean, stuff, up with his magic wand o' power and his cannons."

General Ludwig, hero, explosions? Instantly I had a good idea on what I was to write. Then there was that one question, where do I find him?

"Excuse me good sir, but could you tell me where I could find this 'General Ludwig' lives now?" I asked politely.

"Who needs ta know?" He replied, obviously annoyed by having his story interrupted.

"Well, I'm writing a book. In honor of the war and it's veterans of course. And I'm looking for a key figure in the war to interview." I lied. My situation needed to look good after all.

"I dunno if he'd like it if I told some stranga 'bout where he lives." He shuffled around nervously.

"How about I buy a bottle of Brandy Flower Wine and you can tell me over a quick drink."

Now that sparked his interest. He eagerly rolled his wheel chair over to my table as I signaled over to a waitress. Fortunately I had enough money to pay for this bartering chip, barely though.

"You din't hear dis from me, but da general lives just down da road from here." The soldier whispered.

"Really?" I felt really stupid, how could I've not know I had a war hero living down the road from my favorite restaurant.

"Yeah, be sure to go right now. Odawise he ain't gonna be home. Here's da address." He replied after taking a swig of wine. I took the small sheet of paper from him and neatly put it in my pocket.

"Thanks for the help." I smiled.

"Danks for da drink, good booze's hard to come 'round nowadays."

I finished my meal and stepped out of the resturant feeling renewed. I found my self almost skipping down the road. Eyes locked on that small slip of paper. I was giddy, excited, ready to jump out of my shell. Finally I found the address, a long gravel path led to a thicket of trees. It was a dead end. My heart and cheers stopped, I cursed out loud and kicked a rock. That old fool tricked me for a free drink, and I felt like an idiot.

Then again, maybe there was something to this. Ludwig doesn't want people over at his house according to that soldier, so maybe it was cleverly hidden behind the trees. Determined to find this General Ludwig. I dashed over to the thicket of trees, much to my surprise, I passed right through them as if through thin air.

I looked over my shoulder, the thicket looked like an out of focus image for a few seconds before resettling. It was hologram! I'd heard about this kind of thing before, but only in science fiction movies.

An air of unease fluttered around me the farther I followed the gravel path. It wasn't long before the house came into view. It was a modest sized house, about ten years old by the looks of it. A couple of kids were there tossing around a star speckled ball back and forth in the front yard. One turned around and spotted me. I froze in place startled. The kids ran inside, probably to go get their dad. There wasn't much else I could do from that point, I could run away, but for what? If I left now, my life as a writer would end. A few minutes later the door opened again.

Out stepped a huge koopa type person with wild blue hair. My feet turned to cement when he looked in my direction. I swore that I heard a growl. The monster of a koopa walked over to me, his chin was three feet above my head. His body so wide that a shadow was cast over me.

"Vhat are you doing on my property?" He asked quietly.

"Uh-umm..."

"Spit it out or I'll have to get out of here myself."

"I'm here to in-interview a 'General Ludwig', is he around." I stumbled over my words.

The big koopa began stroking his goatee in thought. He looked down at me again with an eyebrow raised.

"Vhat do you vant an interview for?"

"I'm writing a book, about the war you see, and I wanted to include I key figure from the war. And you see I found out that he lived close by so-"

"Silence. You say you are a viter, vhat books have you vitten?" He asked.

"Um...I'm new, and this is my first book." I lied. I'm pretty sure he read up on my little Goomba Revolution book.

"New in za field huh? Vell I'm vone for a neophyte, I guess I could spare some time. I've nozing to do tonight. Za name's Ludwig von Koopa"

"Greg-I mean Sam Gregory" I reached and shook his hand. Too close, way too close.

"Nice to meet you, come in, and ve'll talk." He cracked a small grin.

I couldn't believe my ears. I was actually going to get kicked off on my story!

I sat in his living room on a nice plushy couch. Four little boys and a little girl stared at me with wide eyes. It made me feel like an animal in a zoo! I couldn't blame them though, they were most likely confused at such a strange presence in their household. Finally Ludwig walked into the room, the kids came to life and ran over to their father.

"Daddy, who's that weird man over there. I've never see'd him before!" The little girl asked.

"Zat's 'seen' Paige darling." Ludwig corrected.

"Sorry daddy."

"And zat weird man is mister Sampson, he's a special guest zat vants to talk to me." Ludwig smiled as he picked up the little girl.

"Vhat does he vant to talk to you about father?" One of the boys pointed at me. He had really picked up on his father's accent.

"Nozing you haven't heard before John. Now go and play children, like I said I have important business to attend." He set Paige down. The children turned around and left.

"Cute kids." I said randomly. "Pretty good too, I've never seen a little kid behave so nicely."

"I try, I don't vant zem to grow up like I did. I vas...a bad teen to say za least. I blame zat on my father zough." Ludwig sighed.

"I see...now let's begin."

"Vhere do you vant to start?" Ludwig asked.

"I guess I'd like to start on a little about you. You know, to get a good foundation about why you were in the war." I replied.

"Alright zen, here it goes." Ludwig nodded, I pulled out my trusty tape recorder and eagerly pressed the record button.

I used to live a life of luxury, a life of fortune. I was born into royalty as the heir of the throne, but I've been cast aside. I used to be loved, but now I am a simple after thought. I live the life of a middle class man now, my job? To teach at the local high school. The money I make goes straight to my youngest brother, the new king of the land.

In turn, me and my family get a place to live and food to eat. I've been living this way for more than six months now, I must tell you it took quite a bit of adjusting. But you're not here for my life as it stands now are you? No, you want to know just exactly how I fell from grace.

I guess the best place to start is way back at the beginning, a recap of events if you will. I was born the year 2200 M.K. (that's the 2200th year of the Mushroom Kingdom's reign for those who are unfamiliar with the nation's time measurements) .My father was the proud and boisterous king Bowser Koopa. My mother, the refined and quiet Clawdia Koopa.

There's not much I can tell you for the first few years of my life in the castle. I guess something of interest might be that my brothers and sister, Lemuel(better know to you as Lemmy), Roy, Ignatius(better known to you as Iggy) and Wendy O were born. But that's all I can really say.

Things didn't start getting interesting until my fifth birthday. Being inexperienced in the parenting field, my parents looked to alternative child care methods. They decided that the best thing for me was to go to boarding school, and get me out of their hair in order for them to take care of my siblings. I was sent to St. Bernard Boarding school way out in the Subcon archipelago.

There I learned that people are cruel, I was subject to ridicule for my hair and my weight (it was baby fat I swear!). I was told I became arrogant jerk (or so I've been told) within a matter of days to get used to the taunting. If it hadn't been for a man by the name of Ente Rainier, I would never have broken the metaphorical shell of my anger and isolation. He taught me how to be my musical, charismatic self you see today.

So after seven years of enduring the taunts and teasing from my school mates, I was finally pulled out of school. Though I had to say good bye to my friend and mentor Mr. Rainier, I felt that this was the best choice. That was until I found out why I went home.

My first experience as a general and soldier was the year of the Third Mushroom Kingdom wars. My father fought the first one on our own land, then uncle Wart fought the second, then father felt that he had a potential force to be reckoned with now. That potential force was me and my six other siblings. And unfortunately we were not quite what he expected.

Sure we built powerful machines, but public enemy number one Mario bested us at every turn. He always managed to find out how to beat us. I blame the invention of the super scope, modern warfare would never be the same again because of that blasted thing! That whole year we fought, and fought, and fought.

It wasn't until we failed to take out the Jewel kingdom that we threw in the towel. To make matters worse, mother began to get really tired lately. Her face was pale and then one morning she woke up and couldn't move. At the time we had no idea that she was stricken with the Ivory Plague, the disease was relatively new to our kingdom and similar cases popped up all over the place.

I watched her waste away, her last breaths spent protecting that egg that encased Bowser Jr. It seemed like an obsession, she never let the egg out of her sight, not even to house it in the hatchery.

Finally, the egg hatched. Father told me that she took one look at my brother, smiled one last time, then she passed on. Her funeral brought out our horrid emotional sides, even Roy delivered, or attempted to deliver, a heartfelt speech in her honor. He said he didn't cry, but you could easily see it behind those thick sunglasses.

Grappling with depression, my father turned to Princess Toadstool as a way to get over his loss. Post traumatic stress disorder drove him to teaching Jr. that Princess Toadstool was his mom, and unfortunately Jr. believed it for the longest time. In fact I think father wanted to believe it himself.

Two years passed before I ever saw the Mushroom Kingdom again. I was fifteen when Jr. and father planned the kidnapping of Peach, and for some reason, he needed our help. Too bad Mario had tons of help himself this time around and fought their way to our stronghold.

Be it that life just hated us at the time, a castle fell on us, just shortly after Mario punished us with another humiliating defeat. I ended up getting a concussion as well as a thick crack down my shell. The scar of which I still bear to this day.

Alright, now that you've got a peek into my life, now we can proceed into the most important part. A conflict and turmoil that lasted four long years. I consider this the greatest turning point my life ever took-

"Ludwig Hon, it's dinner."

But unfortunately, time grows short for today. I still have a wife and five kids to attend to you know! Come back tomorrow, and then perhaps we'll continue.

Ludwig's little girl, Paige, waved goodbye as I walked out the door. I couldn't help but wave back and smile. I sighed and walked back down that gravel path. I stared down at my wrist watch, it was eight o'clock in the evening. I had been there for two hours at least! Still, I had the information I needed for a chapter. Now all I needed to do was to type it up and I'd have it ready to go.

I think Stacey'll be pleasantly surprised when I give her that first chapter in a couple of days, heck I might even have two! Like I said before though, that manuscript needs typing, so I'm off.

A/N: How's the story so far? Go ahead and tell me with that little review button down there. Have a good night(in my case) I'm heading to bed!!