Super Mario Universe

15 | The Ice Princess

Mario and the others fell into snow. Real life, white, cold snow! It was great!

"Wow!" Luigi said. "It's beautiful!"

"I've never seen snow before," Piantette smiled, putting her hand out to catch a flurry.

Mario smiled at Rosalina. Lately he had felt like the two of them had formed a special connection. I mean, sure--they were pretty good friends, and this wasn't the first time they'd seen each other--but something different. And he couldn't feel that way, because no matter how selfish she was, he still had Princess Peach.

"It's beautiful!" Starlow said, floating around with her mouth open to catch the snowflakes.

"Well," Rosalina smiled, "it may be gorgeous, but it can wait."

"She's right," Mario nodded at Rosalina. "We do have stuff to do here." Everyone listened. "We need to find the key to the Bowser Galaxy door," he continued. "Anyone, ideas?"

"This is Planet Frostbite," Piantette said, looking around. "I've read about this place. It's ruled by a princess who lives in a palace made of ice. But where is that?"

"Maybe she could freeze the lock off the door!" Luigi said, his face brightening up.

"Yes!" Mario said. "That isn't a far-fetched idea!"

"For once," Sprix laughed, "Luigi came up with something!"

"Hey?!" Luigi said, turning his head toward Sprix's direction. He couldn't tell if he had just complimented him, or insulted him. Oh well.

"Look!" Toad said, pointing to the horizon. "Way over there!" On the horizon line, there was a palace made of ice. The towers extended beyond the clouds.

"That's got to be it," Starlow said.

"Yes," Mario said, turning towards the group. "Everyone, let's get towards that ice palace!"

The group started walking off into the distance, like one big happy family. Except for the fact that they weren't. They consisted of four humans, a mushroom-looking thing, a floating yellow ball, and a fairy. And most of them had only met a little while ago. So there goes that family idea!

--🌎--

After a few hours of walking, Mario and co. arrived at the ice palace. It was visually stunning! As I said earlier, the towers stretched to the clouds, and the ice reflected the group a million times in every direction.

"Well," Mario said. "We've made it."

"I'm kind of getting sick of all this walking," Luigi exclaimed. "It's tiring."

"I know," Mario agreed. "But it'll only be a little more. We'll be at Bowser any . . . day now."

"Okay, sure," Luigi said, nodding his head nonchalantly.

Mario pushed the two big doors open, revealing a vast room with the ceiling nowhere in sight. It was beautiful. Almost too beautiful. A snowman walked over to Mario.

"Well, what have we here?!" the snowman asked in shock. "If it isn't Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom!" He looked at the rest of the people. "And some other people, too!"

"Hello," Mario said. "We must request to be in the Ice Princess's presence at once. Very imminent, sir."

"That's your highness to you," the snowman laughed. "But call me Snowden!"

Mario didn't understand, but followed Snowden upstairs to another high ice room. This time, the ice was pretty cold. Wind soared throughout the room, pulling Mario's arms over his chest.

"Elisa," Snowden asked, scurrying over to a giant pillar which housed a throne on top.

Rosalina mumbled to Mario, "What's happening?" She squeezed his hand.

"Welcome," a voice rang out. Mario and the others turned their heads towards Snowden's direction. There, next to him, stood a tall woman, with short blonde hair to her shoulders. She wore a purple dress, and a crown of a thousand icicles.

"Princess Elisa," Snowden introduced the princess. "Empress of the Icicles, Lady of the Seven Glaciers."

Elisa bowed modestly. "Hello!" she said. "What brings you...three? Five? Oh, seven! All the way here?"

"It's a long story," Starlow sighed.

"I have time," Elisa said. "I'm pretty lonely all the way here on this barren planet."

"Well, long story short, we need to freeze a lock off a door," Mario said. "As weird as that sounds. But it's really important. Like, EXTREMELY."

"Okay?" Elisa laughed. "I imagine you all must have a good cause behind this. So let's see..." she put a finger on her chin to show she was thinking. "Freeze? Why, that's what I'm all about!"

No one took that if it was supposed to be a joke or not, so nobody dared to laugh.

"Well," Elisa said, pacing back and forth. "The royal family have ice powers, so I imagine we could break that lock. But I myself mustn't leave. That means ---"

"Me?!" Snowden asked. Ah! That explains it! When Snowden had told Mario to call him your highness earlier, he was the prince of Planet Frostbite!

"Snowden is my younger brother," Elisa explained, as if reading Mario's thoughts. "His appearance may be different from mine, but it's not our fault."

Mario didn't understand what the princess was trying to say.

"Long ago, a wizard came to Planet Frostbite and cursed our palace. He killed our parents, and turned him into a snowman. He gave me my ice powers," Elisa looked down. Mario didn't need to guess that the wizard had a blue hat and thick glasses.

"So," Snowden said. "I'm going with Mario's group?"

"Correct, your majesty," Mario laughed.