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Epilogue
~Lzn64~
Ten glanced up at the castle, still awed by its
immense size and beauty. He had never seen anything of
its like. His heart was fluttering nervously, as he was
supposed to be meeting with the Mushroom Kingdom High
Council... which consisted of the Chancellor, Princess
Peach, and the Seven Mushroom Retainers, of which he knew
Toad was one.
He had no idea what it was for, but he had a feeling
that he would be nervous even if he did- perhaps even
moreso. There was a sudden sound of trumpets being blown
inside, and Ten's heart gave another crazy leap within
his chest.
"All right, go on in," Mario said from
behind him, his brother at his side.
"Don't worry, Ten," Luigi advised. "It's
nothing. The guys in there all adore you anyway."
"Thanks, guys," Ten said, smiling nervously.
He opened the doors of the Great Hall of the Mushroom
Palace, and was greeted by a dizzying volume of cheers.
The mushrooms were all standing in their seats, most of
them Ten knew by name, after travelling with them for so
long. He walked by the front row seats, and high-fived
Rinaz, the mushroom boy that had stood out a bit farther
than the rest, and nodded to his parents, Raz and Raini,
as he passed by.
He reached the throne faster than he would have
liked, his heart hammering in his chest. Princess Peach.
THE Princess Peach. She smiled at him as he approached,
and he felt as though he might faint.
"Ten," She said softly, and at the sound of
her voice, the crowd quieted down considerably. "It
is with great honor that I welcome you to our Kingdom. I
have heard many stories from my people of your brave
acts, deeds...."
The rest of the speech was lost on Ten. He caught
sight of Toad winking at him and felt his face turn
bright red. He then engaged himself in a face-making
match with him until he realized that Peach was waiting
for him to answer a question. He blinked, and noticed
that Toad was trying his hardest not to burst out into
laughter.
"Ten? Do you accept?" The princess asked,
her face questioning.
"Uh.. can you repeat the question?" Ten
asked sheepishly, and made a horrible face at Toad, who
was mocking his confused expression in an exaggerated
manner.
"Yes, certainly. We are inviting you to join the
Mushroom Council... as the Eighth Mushroom Retainer. Will
you accept our offer?" Ten blinked, awestruck.
"The... eighth... really?"
"Of course," Peach nodded, smiling.
"But...I..I can't believe..."
"Ten?"
"Yes! I do, of course!" Ten shouted
happily, and Peach laughed.
"All right, then. Welcome aboard."
"Get over here, dork," Toad called. "You
do realize you're the newbie around here, and you're
going to have to go through rites of passage..."
"Oh, boy..." Ten muttered.
------
Later
------
The festivities over, everybody had full bellies and
peaceful minds. The Great Star was back in its place,
wherever Peach kept it in the Mushroom Palace. Mario,
Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Jinx, Jagger, and Ten all lounged
around the inner chambers of the Mushroom Palace,
enjoying their own personal "after-party."
"So... what DID you wish for, Peach?" Mario
asked suddenly, voicing the thought on mostly everybody's
mind.
"I wished...." Peach hesitated. "I
just wished for everything to be okay again..."
"Really. Well, I sure didn't feel okay when I
dropped 10 feet from the air onto the grass of the
Mushroom Palace." Yoshi mentioned.
"I felt pretty disoriented when I realized there
WAS grass," Luigi commented. "That can't have
been all you wished for... this place was in perfect
condition..."
"It is, I swear!" Peach laughed, her shock
at having everything work again not quite over.
"So... what do you think happened to Bowser?"
Ten asked timidly, still not used to being in such high
company.
"No one knows. Kiero and Kadeja couldn't find
any sign of him when they got back to Dark Land... only
dazed, disbanded koopas and not a magikoopa in sight,"
Peach said thoughtfully.
"Speaking of Dark Land... we'll need a new name
for it," Jinx commented.
"That's right. It's not dark there anymore, so
how can it be called Dark Land?" Jagger agreed.
"Well... I think I'll leave that task to Kiero
and his sister, since they've taken on the task of
rebuilding it and all."
"Sounds good to me. Unless he decides to call it
"Kieroland" or something," Mario amended.
"When on earth is Toad going to get back?"
Ten muttered irritably.
"He's trying to get a girlfriend,"
Yoshi laughed, making kissy noises.
"I don't know what that girl sees in him,"
Ten muttered, much to the amusement of Yoshi, who
promptly threatened to tell Toad that he had said that.
"How's that Weather Star doing?" Mario
asked suddenly, and Peach laughed at him.
"Quit worrying about it!" She admonished
him playfully. "It's doing fine, really."
Mario raised a skeptical eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Well, it's been a long day today..." Luigi
yawned, stretching out on the couch he was already taking
up most of the space on.
"No kidding. I would have given you guys another
medal or something, but really," Peach laughed.
"S'ok," Mario yawned, following the example
of his brother.
"Did Mallow get home all right?" Yoshi
asked suddenly, addressing Peach.
"Oh, yes. He told me that his parents were
overwhelmed by the tales of his new adventure... "
"I bet."
"And they're still trying to figure out what to
do with Wario's Plane, too," Peach laughed.
"They'll be lucky if they can ever get rid of
it," Luigi muttered.
"There's no way he'll ever be able to take off
from the clouds... can't move in that squishy stuff,
especially on wheels."
"I wonder what happened to Wario and Waluigi,"
Jinx thought aloud.
"Who cares?" Mario and Luigi said at the
same time, then looked at each other and laughed.
"What about Daisy?" Jinx said suddenly.
"Did you ever get a message from her?"
"Oh, yes, earlier," Peach replied. "She
got home just fine and dandy."
"She's.... not coming to visit anytime soon, is
she?" Ten asked timidly, and everyone in the room
burst out into laughter.
"You'll get used to her, 'shroom," Mario
laughed.
"Yeah, don't worry. She grows on you,"
Luigi agreed.
"On you, you mean," Yoshi said
brightly. He then decided to make his kissy noises again,
much to the delight of Mario.
"You guys suck." Luigi muttered,
blushing.
"Nah. We do it 'cause we love ya," Yoshi
laughed, socking him on the arm.
"I feel the love," Luigi commented sourly.
"That's Yoshi's way of showing affection,"
Mario suggested.
"Yeah, be glad, he could've licked your face,"
Peach added.
"Don't mind if I do," Yoshi announced in a
playfully threatening manner, advancing upon Peach. This
resulted in various people running from Yoshi, Yoshi
being tackled by various other people, and then being
forced to promise to keep his tongue firmly inside his
mouth.
"I've already had enough experience there to
last a lifetime," Mario muttered, and Luigi nearly
collapsed laughing, remembering certain happenings in Sub-Con.
"Dare I ask?" Peach questioned.
"No."
Yoshi grinned.
"I ate him."
"You WHAT?" Peach gasped.
"I ate him."
"Oh....brother...." Peach said weakly,
giggling helplessly.
"So... do you think he'll be back?" Jagger
said suddenly.
"Bowser? Well.... of course. When has he NOT
come back?"
"Best not to think of it," Jinx advised.
And they all nodded their heads in agreement.
--------------------
Toad stood outside the room where his friends were
all gathered, his heart hammering nervously.
"So... how are you feeling?" Truffle asked
him quietly.
"I'm...great," Toad lied. Just ask,
stupid.
"Oh...that's good."
"Yeah." You have to ask, now.
"So... how's Ten doing?"
"Ten?" ASK!
"Yeah.....or not, whatever. I already asked how
YOU were doing," Truffle giggled nervously.
"I think he's fine... Hey, uh, Truffle..." Chicken
out and you'll hate yourself....
"Yes?"
"Uhh... you, you want to go out sometime?" ohnoohnoohnowhatifshesaysno?
WHY DID YOU ASK!!
"Sure! I'd love to!"
"You...would?" Yes!
"Of course!" Truffle laughed happily.
"All right then... I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
"Sure!" Truffle called, practically skipping
away down the hall.
Toad stood there for a few seconds blinking.
"I am SUCH a stud," He said to no one in particular, after
a few minutes of staring after her.
--------------------------------------------
Although Dark Land wasn't particularly dark any
longer, as the clouds had dissipated, the light shone in,
and the sun once again rose in the new Koopa Kingdom...
the shrine containing the Magikoopa source of power
always seemed a little darker than the rest. Even years
afterward, no one ever found out what happened to the
wands... except for the magikoopa oracle itself.
After the mushrooms had tossed the box into its
waters, the oracle had quickly transported them to a
place where they would be in no danger of ever being
found again... by anyone able to use them, or anyone able
to summon it from its rest again.....
--------------------
Wario and Waluigi wandered aimlessly around the
rugged forests of the former Dark Land... now that it was
light out, they at least knew where they were going.
"This is all your fault!" Wario yelled,
shoving his brother harshly to the side.
"YOU'RE the one that agreed to this dumb
adventure!" Waluigi exclaimed as he stumbled forward.
He would have caught himself, if he hadn't tripped over a
block in the middle of the road.
"What's that?" Wario asked, motioning to
the box that his brother had successfully managed to trip
over.
"What do I look like, a psychic?" Waluigi
retorted nastily, peering at the box with greedy eyes. It
was a golden-hued "?" block, that had seemingly
appeared out of nowhere. He picked it up, grunting at
it's weight, and shook it experimentally.
"Ahh... maybe we'll get something out of this,
after all?" Wario asked, his eyes beady with greed.
"Sounds like a bunch of sticks," Waluigi
muttered dubiously.
"They could be valuable sticks," Wario
suggested reasonably. "After all, people don't lock
things in a box like that if it's not valuable."
"Right," Waluigi agreed, convinced.
They lugged that box all the way back to the Poop
House, and of course, once they were there, they never
figured out the seal. So, after weeks of toying with it,
bashing it with hammers, dropping it off high precipices,
taking it to deadbeat "curse breakers" (on
which they wasted a goodly amount of coins), and a number
of other methods that all failed, Waluigi maintained that
it must just be a regular old worthless box of sticks
after all, and stuck it on a shelf along with all the
other junk they had accumulated over the years.
And the next day, the ? box was all but forgotten.
THE
END
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