Dear Mario,
I'll be waiting for you at the castle on the night of the Star Festival. There's something I'd like to give you.
From Peach

With invitation in hand, Mario headed off to the castle just as the Star Festival was getting into full swing. Surrounded by Toads gleefully trying to catch falling Star Bits, Mario was looking forward to the night's festivities.

But then, Bowser disrupts the festivities with his fleet of airships and launches a cannonball attack on the grounds below. Mario rushes to Peach's castle, but by the time he arrives, Bowser had already pulled the entire castle out of the earth and into the night sky. Kamek then arrives to knock a powerful spell on Mario.

When Mario reawakens, he finds himself on a small planetoid in outer space, accompanied by a Luma. The Luma, who served Princess Peach, promises to help Mario explore the universe, defeat Bowser, and restore peace to the land.

"What's your name? Are you lost?" the girl asked the star child. "I'm Luma, and I'm waiting for Mama. She's coming for me on a comet!" said the star child, who had been waiting day and night.

"Don't worry. I'll wait with you," the little girl promised Luma.

At nightfall, the little girl borrowed her father's telescope and peered into the sky. She looked and looked, but she saw nothing. Hours turned into days and they years, but still the sky revealed nothing. Finally, the little girl sighed and said to Luma, "If we stay here looking much longer, I'll be an old lady soon." But then she had an idea. "Why don't we go out there and find your mother ourselves?"

The girl and Luma fixed up the rusty spaceship, and then the two set sail into the starry sky. And this is how the search for the celestial mother began.

Before they left, she had packed all the essentials: telescope, butterfly net, stuffed bunny, bread, milk, jam, and apricot-flavored tea, but...

'I forgot to bring water!' At this, Luma burst into gales of laughter, and the girl began to pout. 'As long as I have Star Bits, I'll be fine," said Luma. "Want some?" The little girl couldn't stay mad after hearing this.

Luma continued to laugh, and the girl couldn't help but join in. 'All right, maybe just a nibble.'

Leaning far out of the ship, the pair began to collect Star Bits with the girl's net. They almost fell out a few times, but they kept on collecting. The Star Bits tasted like honey."

The pair descended on the comet and found that is was made of ice. They looked high and low, but Luma's mother was nowhere to be found. Exhausted, the little girl set down with a flop, utterly unable to take another step.

'Look!' Peering down at the icy ground where Luma was pointing, the girl suddenly noticed clusters of Star Bits encased in the ice. 'Pretty good, huh? Finding Star Bits is my speciality!' said Luma, beaming. 'There's ice here, but it's so warm, I'll bet there's water here too.' The two decided to stay on the comet for a while. Riding the turquoise comet, the pair continued their search for Luma's mother."

A wave of sadness washed over the girl. 'What about when it rains, and I can't see the sun or the moon?' Her mother thought for a moment before responding.

'I will turn into a star in the clouds and wait for your tears to dry.'

When she awoke, the girl's face was damp with tears. 'You have Star Bits in your eyes!' said Luma to the girl. Wiping her face, the girl replied, 'These are tears, not Star Bits. I'm crying because I'll never see my mother again!' At this, Luma began to cry too. 'Mama, oh, Mama... Waaaah!'

The pair traveled through the starry skies, and though they encountered many other comets, not one of them held Luma's mother. Luma was despondent. 'Now, now, Luma. The rain clouds won't go away if you keep crying.' the girl said, giving Luma a squeeze. 'I'll give you a present if you stop.' The girl closed her eyes and said gently, 'I'll take care of you.' With these words, she felt a small spark in her heart."

Looking at the complete house, Luma remarked, 'Don't you think it's awfully big for the two of us?' With a library, bedroom, kitchen, fountain, and gate, it was certainly spacious, but still, something seemed to be missing. 'If only my father, brother, and mother were here,' the girl said wistfully. Indeed, the house was too large for its two small residents.

That night, clutching her favorite stuffed bunny close to her heart, the girl fell asleep in the starship."

The two Lumas neither drew closer nor backed away from each other. Instead, they just stared. Then one Luma broke the silence. 'My Mama!' At once, the apricator Luma parroted back, 'My mama! My mama!' 'My mama!' 'My mama!' The two Lumas began to dance around the girl frantically, and neither showed any sign of stopping. The girl was so charmed by this adorable scene that she couldn't help but laugh. And that's when something very strange happened.

Suddenly, more Lumas began to pop out from the apricot planet. They were different colors, but they all shouted the same thing. 'My mama!' 'My mama!' The sight of all the shouting Lumas only made the girl laugh harder. 'What am I going to do with all these children?!' The Lumas just stared blankly as she doubled over laughing, 'I guess we'll have to name each and every one of you.' Tomorrow, once she had finished naming them all, she would begin moving all the Lumas into the new house."

Peeking into the telescope, a tiny blue dot floated into sight. It was smaller than a Star Bit. 'How strange... it's so far away, but it seems so close.'

She twisted the knob of the telescope, and the blue dot grew until she could make out a grassy hill dotted with flowers. It seemed very familiar to her. Zooming even closer, a terrace on the hill came into view. 'I used to go stargazing there when I lived on my home planet.'

She remembered rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as the followed her father up that hill to look at the stars...

She remembered how she and her brother would sled down that hill...

She remembered having picnics with her mother on that hill on bright and windy days... And...

'I want to go home! I want to go home right now!' The girl burst into tears, and the Lumas didn't know what to do. 'I want to go home! I want to go back to my house by the hill! I want to see my mother!' The girl was shouting now, her face wet with tears. 'But I know she's not there! I knew all along that she wasn't out there in the sky! Because... because...'

'She's sleeping under the tree on the hill!' The girl's cries echoed through the stars, and a hush fell over the area."

A lonely look flickered across Luma's face, but it was soon replaced by a wide grin. 'I have an idea!' 'I will transform into a comet, a soaring comet that can carry you all on this journey!'

With that, Luma, trailing bands of white, soared high into the sky and just as quickly started to plummet back down. KABOOM! KABLAM! The ground shook, and a bright light poured out of the crater that the Luma had created.

The bands of light twisted together to form a comet tail. And then Luma emerged, reborn as a comet.

The girl could scarcely believe her eyes. 'But... how?' she kept asking. 'Our destiny as Lumas is to transform into different things,' said a red Luma who had suddenly appeared. 'Stars, comets, planets... We can become all of these things!' 'When I grow up, I want to become a star that makes someone special smile', said a green Luma. A blue Luma chimed in, 'That Luma turned into a real cutie of a comet, didn't he!'

All of the Lumas together said, 'No more crying, Mama!' 'Thank you...' said the girl in a whisper, and she pulled the Lumas close and hugged them. From that day on, Star Bits no longer fell from the girl's eyes.

The comet set forth for the girl's home planet, its long tail blazing proudly behind it."

As she watched the Lumas scurry about, the girl smiled and thought to herself, 'This is my family now, and I will stay with them until they're ready to leave the nest. And when they do leave, I'll see them off with a smile.' 'Because that's what makes a mother happiest.'

That night, when the girl lay down to sleep, a soft light enveloped her and reminded her of the blue planet she once called home. 'But it would be nice to return home once every one hundred years to nap in my favorite sleeping nook.'

The comet carrying the Lumas and the girl continues on its journey to this very day. With more 'family members' in tow than can be counted, it's said that the comet visits the girl's home planet once every hundred years, its proud white tail glittering in the sky. - The End -"