On a fateful starry night, the king of koopas goes on a power-fueled rampage.

Whoo! I made it! It's still Bowser Day here so it still counts! I was firing on all cylinders to get this done and I'm happy I was able to get this done just in time.

Enjoy!

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Bowser’s Universe

Tonight was a special night in the Mushroom Kingdom that many of its residents had long awaited. It was a time of great celebration, for the legendary Star Festival had arrived. Once every hundred years, a special comet passes close to the planet, illuminating the sky and bringing with it with the brilliance of countless shooting stars. Glowing chunks of stardust rained down upon the earth, sprinkling the ground with a colorful spectrum of star bits. Toads, koopas, yoshis, and even all manner of baddies scrambled to collect a shiny trinket for themselves. It seemed that the entire kingdom was caught up in the festivities, all except for one evil king.

While the vast majority of his minions were out and about having fun during the festival, the koopa king Bowser stayed behind, scheming up his next big plot for kidnapping Princess Peach and taking care of that pesky plumber once and for all. Every great villain knew that times of celebration was when security was at it’s lowest after all, which made it as perfect a time as any to lay siege to his docile neighbors.

However, the problem that Bowser faced was that he didn’t have a plan. With most of his troops unaccounted for, All he had to rely on was his own brute strength. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but Mario was surly to be there as well. Without any kind of tricks up his sleeve, a head-on confrontation with the intrepid Italian was a one-way ticket to getting stomped. Literally.

Bowser was about to consider giving up and joining in the festival when a messenger goomba burst into the throne room, running as fast as his little feet could carry him. “*huff* L-Lord Bowser! I havf...*huff* urgent news!” The goomba was completely out of breath from how far he had traveled.

“News, huh? Well out with it then!” Bowser commanded. He was curious. What could possibly be so urgent to inform him of at a time like this? The implications got to him quicker than the goomba’s words. “Don’t tell me some two-bit villain got to the princess before me again!” He blurted out, already losing his temper.

“N-No, it’s not that, Your Evilness! The Koopa Troop have discovered what looks to be a power star!”

Bowser slumped into his throne. “A power star.” He scoffed. “That’s what so important? Just a single power star?” Taking control of the kingdom through power stars was something he had tried before, but like all his plans before it, he failed in the end. “Don’t waste my time with such small happenstance!” he snapped. “I need to know if something BIG is happening, not about random junk you pick up off the ground!”

The goomba cowered in fear, but continued. “B-B-But Your Angriness, this is big! This isn’t a normal power star, it’s different!”

“Different?” The koopa king raised an eyebrow, but his expression didn’t change.

“Yes! It’s bigger! It’s shinier! It’s....grander!” The goomba pleaded.

Bowser pondered the goomba’s request once more. If his words were true, maybe it could be the ace he had been looking for. It wasn’t like he had anything to lose from this, so he may as well humor them. Besides, this was no time for him to be blowing his top off. He took a deep breath and sighed, calming himself down. “Fine, bring it to me.”

The goomba bowed. “Thank you, Your Shrewdness!” he said before hustling back the way he came.

It took only a few minutes after that for the throne room doors to open again, and Bowser was first met with a bright flash of light that nearly blinded him. Shielding his eyes from the initial glare, his jaw proceeded to drop at the wondrous sight before him. Carried by a small team of koopa troopas (who now felt justified in their choice of eyewear), The throne room was set aglow by the radiance of the greatest star that Bowser had ever seen before. There was no doubt that this was a power star, but at the same time it was so much more than that. Like described, it was a good deal bigger than a normal star, at least three times as large. Such a powerful glow was also unlike that of any other. It seemed to exude power at a level never before seen. If that wasn’t convincing enough, even the star’s very appearance gave off an aura of power with royally defined tips. All told, “Grand” was all too fitting a description for a star of such caliber.

Bowser’s gaping mouth slowly turned into a devilish grin. This is it! This is exactly what he needed! “Excellent!” He shouted. “Go start up the airships immediately and round up as many troops as you can find. We’re attacking Peach’s castle tonight!” Most of the minions who were lingering in the room left at once to prepare, leaving him with the team of koopas.

“If I may ask, Lord Bowser,” The koopa leader inquired. “What do you plan on doing with this star?”

“Bring it here and I’ll show you.” Bowser replied.

Curious, they obeyed, hauling the grand star towards the throne. The moment it was within arm’s reach, Bowser snatched it from them with superior strength. Then, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed the star whole in one fell swoop. “Mmm, not bad.” He commented.

The koopas could only stare in surprise at their king’s sudden actions. Most would think to use it as a power source for a type of weapon, so for him to eat the grand star came as a considerable shock. What happened next, however, would put that to shame. Before long, a tingling rose up within Bowser’s gut. It spread through him quickly, enveloping his whole body in the strange feeling. It made him feel powerful, invincible even, and it was only getting stronger by the second. “This feels incredible!” Bowser shouted. “I fell like I could take on an entire army!”

The koopa king’s body was soon brimming with power, glowing faintly as he was filled head to toe with it. As the power continued to build, he felt a strange pressure all around him, and for a moment he worried that his body couldn’t contain it all. That worry turned to joy as he realized what was going on.

Bowser was growing bigger. The grand star’s energies coursed through him, causing his body to enlarge at a rapid pace. It took mere moments for the oversized koopa to double, then triple his previous size, towering higher and higher over his frightened minions by the second. The smaller koopas made a hasty exit while they still could, hightailing it out of the throne room as Bowser filled it with his expanding frame. The walls of his throne room cracked and crumbled as his bulk pressed against the ceiling and walls, bursting through them in a shower of rubble shortly after.

All of Bowser’s troops who were in eyeshot of the castle noticed as it rumbled and shook from within. They watched the destruction with worry, wondering if something had happened to their king inside. They got their answer almost immediately after when the now gigantic koopa king outgrew the castle exterior, emerging from it like a dragon from its egg. All eyes were then on Bowser, who was enjoying the feeling of becoming huge so much that he just couldn’t stay quiet about it. As he stood over the ruins of his castle, he let out a triumphant roar that echoed across the entire kingdom.

“Aww yeah! Now that’s how you make an entrance!” Bowser laughed “Now then, I believe I have a kingdom to conquer, and at this size it’ll be a cakewalk!”

And what a cakewalk it was. Even though they were able to easily see him coming, no one was prepared for when the kaiju-sized koopa came down upon them. Backed by a fleet of airships to cover what he couldn’t reach, what little security that was there for the festival was helpless to resist them. After all. there was not much that could be done when the castle you’re supposed to be guarding could be crushed under a single foot. The princess was surrendered without much of a fight, allowing Bowser to pluck her from the castle like a little doll while mocking his mortal enemy for his late appearance in theatrical fashion.

His attack had been a smashing success, but why stop there? With his might, no one, not even Mario, could take him down now! “It’s a beautiful night tonight.” He said. “A perfect night to go exploring among the stars!” With that, Bowser flexed his powerful legs and launched himself out into space in search of more territories to conquer.

Thus, Bowser’s universal conquest began. The titanic koopa king hopped from galaxy to galaxy along with his airship armada. Due to his massive size, it took little more than the threat of being squashed under his bulk for the foreign territories to fall under his control. In part, he was doing this to exercise his indomitable prowess to all who he came across. More than anything though, he was hungry for more power, and the only thing that would sate that desire was more grand stars. As luck would have it, Bowser’s troops did eventually find another grand star for him among the subjugated galaxies, and it was brought to him with all due haste, lest they incur the wrath of their enormous ruler.

The second grand star went down even easier than the first, but it still pleased him just as much as he felt a new burst of power rising up within him. Bowser rumbled with mirth as his body grew even bigger and powerful than before, rising up over the lofty clouds of the small planet he stood upon. His previously gigantic size had multiplied in scale once more, growing large enough to be comparable in size to a small planet. The growing koopa king reveled in his power. He was beyond huge. He was unstoppable! But it wasn’t enough. He needed more power!

The situation only seemed to snowball from there. Driven by a thirst for unlimited power, Bowser claimed galaxies left a right in his search for grand stars. A 3rd, a 4th, and then a 5th grand star came within his grasp (and down his gullet), in turn making his conquests that much easier as he grew in both size and power, going from being able to flatten cities to entire planets. His proportions grew to a truly cosmic scale and beyond, filling up entire solar systems with his ever-growing bulk. It wasn’t just his height that was taking part in the rampant growth either. His cosmically large frame swelled with both muscle and fat, stretching upwards and outwards until he was as round as the celestial bodies that he loomed over like a doomed sunrise. He didn’t need the princess anymore. He didn’t even need the assistance of his own minions anymore. All that mattered to him was the sheer power he acquired and the size that it brought. He needed to be bigger, stronger, more powerful. Always more.

Bowser hardly had to move to reach the next galactic cluster, expanding into their cosmic space with his growing mass alone. The fearful colonies were powerless to oppose him, surrendering before he even had a chance to state his demands. In almost no time at all, a 6th as well as a 7th grand star was brought before him, and with it, any chance that anyone had at stopping the monstrous turtle from taking over all worlds as they knew it. The next bout of growth pushed him to incredible heights, becoming a supersized galaxy of koopa visible from nearly any point in space if anyone dared to look.

Drunk on the power of 7 grand stars inside his apocalyptic mass, Bowser shouted his delight across the vacuum of space. There was nothing that could stand in his way now, though above all odds, there was a certain someone who still tried. An odd looking comet passed into his vision, whizzing around him like a persistent insect. Annoyed, Bowser reached out a hand to grab it, only to be stopped short by a barrier that formed around it. With the object stopped in its tracks, he took a closer look at the comet, noticing that it wasn’t a floating hunk of rock at all, but rather an artificial structure made to travel space. Unbeknownst to him, he had come in contact with the fabled Comet Observatory, the true identity of the comet that visits during the Star Festival. Bowser noticed a familiar red speck among the starry inhabitants and instantly caught on to what was going on.

“Well, well, If it isn’t Mario!” He bellowed. “Thought you could try to take me down with a desperate gambit like this? Ha! You only assisted in bringing me my dessert!” Bowser could sense it, that familiar pulse of power coming from the core of the observatory. There were grand stars powering it, and he wanted them all!

Flexing his power seriously for the first time, Bowser clamped his claws down against the Comet Observatory, once more coming in contact with the barrier. The force field wasn’t a weak one by any means, backed up by 6 grand stars from within the core. Against the titanic tyrant’s own 7 stars, the differences in power soon became apparent. Cracks snaked their way across the barrier, failing to keep up under the immense pressure of Bowser’s grip. With a flash of light, the barrier shattered like glass, leaving the Comet Observatory defenseless. In the ensuing panic, Bowser snatched his shiny prize and gulped it down like a piece of candy.

With the addition of the Observatory’s 6 grand stars compounding with Bowser’s 7, the very atmosphere rumbled from the rush of pure energy that lit the koopa up like a sun. Without a power source to keep it afloat, the Comet Observatory fell apart, only for it and its occupants to be picked up by Bowser’s gravitational field. Rather than falling towards his massive body though, it came to meet them as Bowser practically exploded in size from the sheer burst of power he received. The cosmic koopa king’s growth surged out of control, swelling to fill an entire cluster of galaxies, then outgrowing that and spilling into the neighboring cluster. He expanded like a supernova, his great bulk growing to encompass all space had to offer. From his vision, it looked like he was looking at a picture of space that was rapidly zooming out. Celestial bodies that once towered over him were reduced to miniscule specks within seconds, becoming lost within the endless sea of scales upon his growing mass.

Bowser’s swelling hide consumed everything, growing ever larger until he became everything itself. The entire universe had been swallowed up into his bulk, filling it with nothing but the incredible mass of power-hungry koopa. In his destructive quest for power, he had become his own universe in the process, claiming everything it had for himself and him alone. His conquest was at last finished, with him as the biggest winner of them all by leaps and bounds.

That is, until he finds another universe ripe for the taking. Such a place must surely have many more grand stars waiting for a new master.