The TARDIS drifted lazily through the Time Vortex as the Doctor and Amy were taking a well-deserved spa day. They were in a warm mud bath and sighing contentedly. “Does a TARDIS usually have a spa room?” asked Amy. “Not that I’m complaining, you understand.”
“Not really,” replied the Doctor. “A TARDIS is supposed to be used for temporal research. But, when a TARDIS lives long enough, it acquires rooms designed for creature comforts. The TARDIS is an old girl, mechanically speaking.”
“And still an awesome machine,” said Amy.
“She always has been,” agreed the Doctor. She then saw something near Amy. “What’s that stack of books there?”
“Oh, I found them in the library,” replied Amy. “A few romance novels. I’m a bit of a sucker for them still. I saw the library cards in them, so I’m guessing you borrowed them. I suppose the advantage of having a time machine is that, even if you forget them for a while, you’re never late with them.”
“That really depends on the library,” said the Doctor. “I once borrowed from the library of Kar-Charrat and, sadly, I couldn’t just arrive on the due date. …Pity the Daleks destroyed it.”
“Those monsters have something against books, huh?”
“Well, they have something against non-Daleks having any knowledge and given that the library of Kar-Charrat once housed the entire knowledge of the universe, the Daleks needed that knowledge for themselves to launch an assault on the universe. …Which library did you say the cards came from?”
“I’m not sure,” replied Amy. “It’s not any library card I recognize.”
“Well, I’ll just have a look, then,” said the Doctor. She washed the mud off her arms, then opened the cover of one of the books. Her eyes slowly widened, then she checked another one, then another, then the last. “…Oh no!” she groaned. “They’re from the Comet Observatory.” Amy goggled.
“The Comet Observatory? Rosalina’s home?” asked the hedgehog.
“You’ve been there?” quizzed the Doctor.
“I’ve made some friends there like I did on Hyrule,” explained Amy. “You borrowed from Rosalina’s library?”
“And, sadly, I can only land the TARDIS in the present day,” replied the Doctor. “These books are long overdue.”
“We better get there now, then,” said Amy.
Drifting in orbit around a blue and green planet, four ladies were having tea on a fantastic-looking observatory while two men were stargazing from the balcony. The ladies each wore dresses in different colors, one pink, one yellow, one sky-blue, and one red. The two men wore overalls and hats, one with red and an M on his hat, the other with green and an L on his. The men were the famous Super Mario Brothers, Mario and Luigi. The ladies were Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Princess Rosalina, and Mayor Pauline. “Boys!” called Peach. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”
“We’re good,” replied Mario. “Some of the stars formed new constellations and Luigi and I always liked tracing them.”
“You girls should try it,” offered Luigi.
“You know, I could make it a challenge, see if you can recognize the constellations from a new angle,” chuckled Rosalina. At that moment, a noise familiar to her filled the air inside the Observatory’s atmospheric shields. “…The TARDIS?” she muttered.
“Rosie, you know what that noise is?” asked Daisy.
“It heralds the arrival of a Time Lord,” replied Rosalina. “If it’s the same Time Lord I know…” She briefly looked around to see the TARDIS materializing at the launch pad off the Terrace. “Aha! The Doctor has arrived! I wonder if his ears shrank finally?” The doors opened and out stepped Amy and the Doctor. “Oh! Miss Rose!” greeted Rosalina.
“Amy!” called Peach.
“Hey, you look good!” observed Daisy. “Trying out being goth?”
“Just the clothes, Daisy,” replied Amy.
“It’s great to have you here, Amy!” called Mario.
“Nice to see you boys too, Mario and Luigi!” said Amy.
“What brings you here?” asked Luigi.
“Just a visit with old friends. The Doctor over there brought me here.”
“Hello!” called the Doctor.
“Ah, so you regenerated again,” observed Rosalina. “Pity. I rather like the leather.”
“I don’t know, I like the skirt I’ve got on,” replied the Doctor.
“Everyone, this is the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey,” introduced Rosalina. Everyone introduced themselves to the Doctor in short order. “Now, Doctor,” asked Rosalina, “what brings you back to the Comet Observatory? Social call?” The Doctor winced.
“Erm, I may have accidentally taken some of your books,” she explained. “Possibly for somewhat longer than I anticipated.”
“…Books? Missing from my library?” asked Rosalina, her eye twitching.
“Hoo boy,” gulped Mario.
“Let me see them!” hissed Rosalina. The Doctor surrendered the books.
“It must have been from when I was last here,” she explained. “A few reference books, just a bit of light reading.”
“Heavy reading, you mean,” remarked Amy. “Those novels got a bit…saucy at the end.”
“Thank you SO much for defending me, Amy,” muttered the Doctor, sarcasm heavy on her voice.
“So THAT’S where the Star-Crossed series went!” snapped Rosalina as she inspected the books. “Doctor, you have no idea how many times I turned the Observatory upside down! You’re lucky this is part of my private collection! …If you want to make it up to me, perhaps you can help us with something.”
“Miss Rosalina, are you sure?” asked Pauline.
“The Doctor is the expert on these matters,” replied Rosalina.
“…Oh, very well,” sighed the Doctor.
“I’m heading back to Sarasaland,” said Daisy.
“Mind if I come?” asked Amy.
“I-I want to come with!” stammered Luigi.
“Me too!” said Peach. “Mario? You want to come?”
“I think I’m gonna stay here and help brief the Doctor on our problem,” replied Mario.
“All right. Join us when you can!” called Peach. She and Daisy led Amy and Luigi to a Launch Star and they all spun inside it, then they were launched towards the planet below.
“…I still say your Launch Stars are inefficient,” muttered the Doctor. “Now, what seems to be the problem?”
“Well, several civilizations reported power loss at the same frequency,” explained Pauline. “We lose about 20 percent more moons than usual.”
“Moons?” asked the Doctor.
“Power Moons,” explained Rosalina. “Similar to the Power Stars that fuel the Observatory or Peach’s castle.”
“Ah. So, there’s a power loss crisis going across the globe?” the Doctor summarized.
“Yes,” replied Mario. “But I think I saw the culprit once.”
“Oh?” asked the Doctor.
“It was a robot talking to a Koopa. It said that it drained enough power from the Mushroom Kingdom for Bowser’s purposes. I already told Peach about it.”
“Ah, good,” said Rosalina.
“So it’s a Bowser scheme,” mused Pauline. “What would he want with Power Moons this time? That sham wedding went kaput.”
“And what did the robot look like?” asked Rosalina.
“Well, it looked like a salt-shaker for one thing,” replied Mario. “It had a plunger and a long whisk-.”
“What?!” asked the Doctor. “Did it have a camera eye on top of a dome?!”
“Y-Yeah!” gulped Mario. Rosalina dropped her wand in fear.
“…How did they get past my sensor net?!” she whispered.
“Why did I wear black here?!” complained Amy as she fanned herself as she and her team trekked through the Sarasaland Desert.
“Come on, guys!” called Daisy, wearing her new Oasis outfit. “The ziggurat’s over here!”
“You said it just rose out of the ground yesterday?” asked Peach as she wore her vacation outfit complete with floppy-brimmed sunhat.
“Yep! Over here!” The group approached what looked like a sandstone ziggurat. “If that’s breaking your brain, take a feel!” Peach approached it and felt the stonework…or what SHOULD be stonework.
“This…this is bizarre! It doesn’t feel like stone at all!” That was when she heard something!
“G-G-Girls!” stammered Luigi. “Th-Th-The door!” The door was opening from the inside!
“There’s something inside!” whispered Daisy. Amy looked deeper into the dark of the ziggurat’s entrance…then heard a noise, a rhythmic pulsing that she heard before. She thought for a few seconds, then her eyes widened with fear as her heart dropped to her stomach! She knew the sound! She heard it before!
“…Skaro!” she whispered.
“Amy?” asked Peach.
“Everyone, get out of here! That ziggurat’s not safe! MOVE!” called Amy. As she tried to herd everyone away at top speed, a crackling buzz filled the air! Amy collapsed in pain and grabbed her leg!
“AMY!” yelped Daisy as everyone ran to help her.
“M-My leg!” gasped Amy. “I can’t feel my leg!”
“Your condition is temporary!” came a familiar harsh, grating, metallic voice. Amy looked back to see who spoke. Exiting the ziggurat with the same ugly grace she saw on their homeworld was a silver Dalek! “Your leg will recover!” barked the Dalek. “Disobedience will result in permanent paralysis! Failure to obey past total paralysis will result in your extermination! Into the ziggurat!”
“If you think-!” argued Daisy.
“Move! Move! MOVE!” ordered the Dalek.
“Everyone, do as it says!” begged Amy. “Hopefully the Doctor will figure things out.”
“The Doctor will not save you, Amy Rose!” argued the Dalek as Daisy and Luigi helped Amy to her feet and carried her into the ziggurat with Peach behind them. “She will fail!”