HUGE NOTE: I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE FOR THE WAIT. SCHOOL HAS BEEN KICKING MY ASS RECENTLY, I HAVE NO TIME TO WORK ON THIS AT ALL. LUCKILY, IT'S DONE, AND FOR YOU TO ENJOY! :)
Mario's Pizza Shop
The Aftermath
It was a total of ten months since the evil Dark Dragon Toad terrorized the Mushroom Kingdom. The construction workers and toads were working on the last building that was destroyed—Mario's Pizzeria. The happy sun shone high in the gorgeous blue sky. The clouds displayed their brightest white ever. A lot of people chilled outside of the pizzeria which was under construction.
"Good thing we kept those blueprints." A construction toad held a blueprint and squinted his eyes at it.
"Oh yeah!" Mario leaped in the air and watched the workers build the restaurant. "When the restaurant opens, make sure you all stop by for free pizza, and a family game night!" he shouted to everyone.
"Yay!" An entire crowd started to cheer in the background.
"How's everything going, Peach?" Mario flew over to the princess.
"I have to say, the economy is holding up pretty good. We lost so much cash, we thought we wouldn't have been able to fund the reconstruction of most buildings. But, the problem was immediately solved, and I'm very grateful," replied Princess Peach.
"Awesome!" Mario flew over to Luigi.
"Hey, Mario!" Luigi waved. "I'm so glad they kept the design of the old pizzeria! We can finally check out the apartments!"
"Luigi," Mario called. "I want to tell you something."
"Eh?"
"I know we had our ups and downs in life, and during this pizzeria journey, our ups were lower, and our downs were higher, if that makes sense to you."
Luigi made a confused face at Mario.
"The point is, you're my brother, and I feel like you deserve better." Mario put his hand on his brother's shoulder.
"W-what do you mean, Mario?"
"I'm changing the name of the pizzeria to 'Mario Brothers Pizza'," said Mario. "Now we both own it, for your recognition."
Luigi stared into his brother's eyes. Tears slowly fell down his eyes. He threw himself into his brother's arms.
"Thank you, Mario!" Luigi cried as they hugged. They stopped hugging after a while.
Mario flew over to Yoshi.
"Yo, Mario!" he called. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, everything's going as planned," replied Mario. "Make sure you tune in for that free pizza!"
"You know I will!" Yoshi made a gun sign at Mario. They both had a good laugh. "Yo, Mario?"
"Yeah?" Mario turned around.
"I just want to say thanks, yo. This pizza journey was the best experience I've ever been in," said Yoshi. "Everything was just lame and boring; every day in my life is the exact same, yo. This journey was just fantastic."
Mario smiled. "Thanks, Yoshi."
"And your pizza is mad good, yo!" Yoshi rubbed his stomach. "Not even joking."
Mario giggled and flew back over to the pizzeria. "Wow, everything's going back to normal," he said to himself. "And everyone is very happy!"
Just then, Mario heard crying in the distance. "Huh?"
"My pizzeria!" cried the person. It was a male toad, and he sat on a bench that was front of a building. A large white sign next to the building read: "available for rent" in red text.
"Hey, what's wrong little toadie?" Mario came over to the toad and kneeled next to hin. The toad looked at Mario in the eye. It was none other than the FOOD CRITIC.
"Oh." Mario got off the ground, putting his hands in his pockets. "What's up with you?"
"My pizzeria! It's a-a-a gone!" He slapped his hands on his eyes and cried some more.
Mario looked into the distance, trying to keep his focus off of him. But then, Mario's eyes widened. "pizzeria?"
"Yes! Zince I lost my job as zhe food critic, I lost me restaurant as well!" He cried some more.
"You had a restaurant?" Mario turned to him.
"YES!" The food critic shouted quite rudely. "Is it not obvious? My pizzeria was the best pizzeria in the mushroom kingdom. Me and me crew were known for holding up zhe longest against zour competitors. Zour competitors kept trying to be like us, so zhey wasted zheir money to try and replicate our pizza, and even tried to make their pizzeria look like-a zours. Our competitors kept going bankrupt. But then, YOUR PIZZERIA ZHOPENED UP." The food critic jumped up and pointed in Mario's face.
Mario pushed his hand away. "And that's why you tried to shut down my pizzeria. First of all, how was my pizzeria a problem in only a day? You literally came the day after I opened it!"
The food critic was silent. Mario raised an eyebrow. "This doesn't even make any-"
"Alright, I-I-I lied!" The food critic burst into tears, cutting off Mario. "My rival pizzerias never tried to copy me, I did the same zhing to them as I did to you! I-I made false claims and I shut zhem down!"
"Why?" Mario shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing wrong with competitors. In life, things aren't supposed to go your own way. If multiple people want to have a dream of owning a successful pizzeria, and only one of them can, there's going to be conflicts. And I learned that the hard way." Mario glanced over to the people infront of his pizzeria.
"It doesn't matter. I got fired from zhe Mushroom Kingdown Restaurant Bureau, and I no longer have the authorization to zhopen another business." He scratched his mustache.
Mario didn't know what to do. "Why does this matter so much to you anyway? You gotta move on. Maybe become a painter or something! Painting is cool!"
The food critic sighed and wiped his eyes. "My family was poor back in the day. I had to be homeschooled in me younger years. Me mom had to pick up shoes from telephone poles for me to wear. For years, we had to constantly move from shelter to shelter. I had an interest in business and I promised my family that I would make things better for them one day, And I opened zhe pizzeria. Things were going great, but the money that I was making wasn't enough to take care of all of my family's problems. I wanted to go bigger, so I joined the Mushroom Kingdom Restaurant Bureau as a food critic, and me made tons of cash. But then, zhe new policy went into account, and managers had to be linked to every business. My manager was a good man, but the business rules had transformed him into a money-thirsty man, taking eighty percent of funds every day. He told me I had to 'make use of all my resources' in order to receive maximum funds. And since I was a food critic, he began to force me to shut down competing pizzerias. I opposed his idea, but of course, he started threatening to fire me if I did not comply."
Mario looked down at the ground. Mario couldn't handle all of the sad stories everyone had to tell. He could feel the exact pain they were feeling, and had the dedication to make things better for other people. "I'm sorry for you, man."
"No, I deserve all of this," the food critic kicked a rock. "I'm the bad guy."
"Hey, Mario!" Donkey Kong called. "You're going to miss the re-opening of Mario Bros. Pizzeria! Come on!"
Mario and the Food Critic followed DK. The sign for the pizzeria was on a crane, and it was going to be drilled on the top of the pizzeria. It as a picture of Mario and Luigi in a cartoon art style, holding pizzas. The background was orange and the name of the pizzeria was in large text above them.
"I'm gonna cry, yo!" Yoshi burst into tears and jumped into Birdo's arms.
"Once again, he's more emotional than me," Birdo said, looking at the viewers. Wait, viewers?
"I can't believe this, son!" Bowser said to Junior. "We're finally going to be able to eat here!"
"Daddy!" Bowser Junior jumped into his father's arms.
Toad and Toadette stood with the construction crew. "Our work here is complete," Toad said. "Right, Toade-"
Toadette ran into Toad and gave him a kiss. They kissed for about five seconds.
"Wow, Toadette!" Toad said. "Does this mean we're dating again?"
"Duh, idiot. Now let's keep kissing!" They proceeded to kiss.
"I can't believe it." Luigi took off his hat and cried with joy. He glanced over to Mario, who had a sad look on his face. "What's wrong, Mario?"
The crane was slowly being lifted towards the top of the pizzeria, and it was almost there. Mario's facial expression revealed that he wanted to say something. "STOP!" Mario shouted.
Everyone attention was in Mario's hands. The Toad that was operating the crane stopped moving it. "Great. Now what?" He shouted in sarcasm.
Mario let out a large exhale. "Throughout this journey, there have been ups and downs. And lefts and rights, and uplefts and downrights..."
"Get to the point!" Daisy called, folding her arms in impatientness.
"What I mean is, some people here made sacrifices, some people had to suffer, and some others went in and out of this just fine. And deep down, I have gratitude for the people that have been negatively impacted by this, and I want to repay them," Mario flew on over to the food critic. "And one of those people is this young food critic right here."
"BOOOOOOOOO!" Everyone shouted.
"Why do you feel bad for him!" Bowser shouted.
"Yeah, he's a monster," Peach screamed.
"You buggin, Mario!"
Everyone revealed tomatoes, that were in their hands.
"Wait!" Mario said. "He's the one that suffered the most! He and his family were in debt for years and his education was limited in his childhood years. And when he opened his business, it got taken over by management and he began to earn less money! He was forced to try to shut down his competitors!"
Everyone put their tomatoes down.
"Whatever," Daisy said. "Anyways, what's your plan? You gonna make us give him money or something?"
"No," Mario said. "I'm going to hire you to work at Mario Brothers Pizzeria." Mario put his hand on his shoulder.
The food critic's eyes widened and his heart rapidly started to beat. "You're-a not serious."
"Boys, put up the sign if I'm not joking!" called Mario.
"Roger that!" The toad in the crane put up the sign for Mario Bros. Pizzeria.
*THUD!*
The sign was locked into place. Mario handed the key to the food critic. "Why don't you unlock the door, ASSOCIATE?"
The food critic's energy spiked up. His entire life was just saved by Mario. He couldn't believe any of this was happening. He proceeded to unlock the door. The glass door opened up, and all of the customers walked in.
*LATER*
All of the customers ate free pizza in the brand-new pizzeria.
"I thought I would never see this pizzeria again!" Luigi kissed the ground of the pizzeria behind the counter.
Mario flew out of the kitchen holding two slices of pizza on paper plates. "Having fun, kissing Luigi?"
"Oh yeah!" Luigi bent down and kissed the floor again. "Gee, I hope a fanfiction of this doesn't exist."
Mario flew over to a table and handed them the pizza he was holding.
"How's the pizza, Yosh?" Mario turned to the table, where Yoshi and Birdo sat.
"I love it, Mario!" Birdo said. "Thanks for the free pizza!"
"It's freaking good, yo. The bread is so warm and soft, yo. Dang, it's good!"
"Glad you like it!" Mario flew to the table with Bowser and his son. "Bow-wow! How's it going?"
"I'm just glad I finally get to eat here." Bowser wiped his eyes. "This is a dream come true!"
"Bowser, listen, we've all learned a lesson in this journey, but I've learned the most important one. It's to not be selfish, rude, or m-"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Junior cut him off.
"Okay, I guess."
Mario flew over another table, this one having Peach, Daisy, Goombella, and Mallow.
"This pizza is so good!" Mallow bit into his slice.
"It's very tasty!" shouted Goombella.
"Extravagant!" replied Peach.
"Tastes just like home!" Daisy giggled as she chewed her slice.
"Excellent!" Mario flew towards the middle of the dining area, next to the food critic, who was bringing water to tables.
"I'm so sorry." Mario tapped his shoulder.
"Yes, boss?"
"I never caught your name!"
"Oh, right! Zhe name's Chréstien." Chréstien nodded his head.
"Excellent!" Mario flew into the kitchen and came back.
"Here's your water, young sir," Chréstien said, handing the glass to a table.
"Thank you!" said Toad, as he took the water.
Mario came back with something in his hand. "Close your eyes!"
Chréstien closed his eyes. He felt something on his chest.
"Open them now!" Mario announced.
Chréstien looked down. it was his very own name tag, attached to his shirt. A tear ran down his eye. "I-I-I"
"Shh." Mario put his index finger on Chréstien's mouth. I know."
1 HOUR LATER...
Everyone played board games at the pizzeria. Everyone laughed and smiled. There wasn't a single being sad or angry. Mario and Chréstien went into the middle of the dining area.
"Psst, Luigi!" Mario called his brother, who was still kissing the floor.
"Oh!" Luigi went in the middle and joined them.
"Attention everyone," called Mario.
Everyone still proceeded to talk.
"Attention!" he shouted louder. Everyone's attention went to the three in the middle.
"I just want to thank everyone for coming here and showing support. Nothing here would've been possible without your guys' help."
"Aww, Mario!" everyone sitting in the tables said.
"And I just want everything that I said in the past to be taken into account by every single one here. We're all humans, and..."
"Me and my bae are dinosaurs, yo!" Interrupted Yoshi.
"And we're dragons!" shouted Bowser, holding his son the air.
"I'm a gorilla!" Donkey Kong scratched his buttocks.
"And I'm a goomba!" Goombella rolled her eyes.
"ALRIGHT I GET IT!" screamed Mario. "The point is, we all have a dream here. A reality. A goal. And we all must work together to accomplish it. Things are never going to go our own way, and we need to take time to fully understand the premise."
"I'd like to add on too." Chréstien cleared his throat. "I just want to say that I appreciate all the love you all have given me. I thought you guys were for sure going to hate me forever. And just like what Mario said, I'm a changed man. We're both changed men. We're all changed people.
Everyone's attention was on Luigi, as they expected him to add something on.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Luigi. "Let's keep rolling some dice!"
"Whahoo!" Mario, Luigi, and Chréstien jumped in the air.