Physics

There were many things that one got used to in the Mushroom World.

Never mind the warp pipes found everywhere, that transported whoever used them to rooms filled with gold coins. Never mind the gold coins themselves, how collecting one-hundred of them apparently granted you an extra life. Never mind that every single location was "something land," with "something" being replaced by everything from Hawaii to Jewelry. And if it wasn't "something land," it was always an island or kingdom.

You knew something was strange in the world when a planet had a kingdom of the Baseball.

Yet the inhabitants of the world got used to it. Or, at least one koopa troopa between two of warp pipes did. He accepted not so much out of understanding, but out of the knowledge that it wasn't his place to understand. He was a servant of Bowser, king of the koopas. And if it was his role in life to walk endlessly between two green pipes, so be it. It wasn't the most glamorous job in the world, but hey, at least he wasn't a goomba or something even further down the pecking order of Bowser's forces…whatever that something might be. All that mattered was-…

"Here we go!"

If not for the years of training, the koopa might have ceased his endless patrol of the ten yard space between his two warp pipes. He'd heard…something. It sounded like a man. A man who, given the shouts and exclamations of him and his enemies, was now shooting fireballs. And given the sound that all minions of Bowser dreaded, that wasn't all…a star.

Uh-oh…

The koopa weighed his options as he plodded back and forth. Quickly realizing that he didn't have any options, he determined that all he could do was hope that the invincibility would wear off, that the plumber wouldn't fry him, that he wouldn't jump on him and that he could somehow get two hits in before the plumber realized how many opportunities he'd missed. At least some of that hope was grounded in reality, namely that the music had stopped, but-…

Bonk!

Wincing in pain, the koopa at first what had happened. One moment he was plodding along between the pipes, the next he was ricocheting between the pipes. Somehow the plumber had jumped on him and initiated this pong game. He'd been reduced to imitating a game that came out thirteen years ago…oh, the humanity!

Or not…

In essence, this wasn't so bad. The plumber had moved on, the koopa was still alive. Sure, he was bouncing back and forth between the pipes, but he'd come to a stop eventually. Basic physics taught him that, how each impact would reduce some of his kinetic energy. Yes…all he had to do was wait…

This isn't so bad…the koopa reflected. I might actually enjoy this…

From the depths of his shell, the koopa let out a laugh.

Twenty-five years later, it didn't seem so funny…

A/N

Probably not a unique concept, though I will admit that the concept for this idea personally came from the videos College Humor has done for such Super Mario quirks.