"Okay, Mario. You got this. Just take a deep breath and walk right through that door."
The red plumber stared deeply into the door of Master Hand's office, picturing the creator's menacing appearance.
The plan was to enroll Ponny into the Smash Academy to prevent being imprisoned by Crazy Hand, but at the same time, he was not all for it. The hallways to Master Hand's office was absolute hell to walk through, due to the fact that it got dark for each step he took.
Mario held his hopes high and knocked gently on the door, hoping to alert Master Hand. Waiting patiently for the God to respond, he sighed a breath of disappointment. "I knew it," he told himself.
Before he could turn around and accept the upcoming imprisonment, a small, deep huff in the air had alerted him.
"Enter," the red plumber heard a voice say, along with the door being unlocked. Turning around, Mario stalked closer to the door and opened it, revealing Master Hand resting comfortably on the desk with Crazy Hand at his side.
The office room was dead silent, with neither of them speaking a single word.
Mario stared at the spare chair that sit in front of the desk, gulping a vicious knot down his throat. He looked at the seat and exchanged his glance to the Gods.
"Well, take a seat," Master Hand finally said, motioning himself to the chair.
The red plumber sat down reluctantly, trembling slightly at the thought of speaking to the Hand God. Crazy Hand hovered over to the cabinet of wine on the other side of the room, casually unlocking its door and opening it.
He pulled out three glasses alongside a random bottle and proceeded to pour wine into three of them.
Crazy then placed a glass down in front of his brother, gave himself the second glass, and placed the third one in front of Mario. The red plumber proceeded to open his mouth, but was interrupted by Master Hand.
"I understand why you came here," he began, "you requested to see me for enrollment of Ponny, correct?"
"Yes, sir," Mario replied. "Granted I couldn't homeschool her anymore because of the new laws of Smash Kingdom, so I came to you for guidance."
The two Hands waved themselves in agreement, and continued to discuss more over the problem.
"I understand where you're coming from, but this won't be easy for you," Crazy Hand stepped in. "You told us Ponny has a condition that hinders her from functioning normally like anyone else."
"Yes," Mario once again replied, his hand shaking the untouched glass of wine. The bare thought of seeing the Primid hurt on the campus terrified the red hero, nearly to the point of breaking down mentally.
What would be the outcome of putting a small Primid into the school, where everyone is so rough and the administrators pay no attention?
Light tears escaped from Mario's eyes as he sat there, hoping for any sort of comfort. Master Hand became aware of the plumber's near breakdown and grabbed something out of a drawer.
"I can see you're not well," he spoke, placing a box of tissues in front of him.
Mario took a handful and dabbed at his eyes, removing any sign of depression from his face.
Crazy Hand opened one of the drawers and proceeded to take out a piece of paper. "Here is an application regarding Ponny's enrollment," he said, "your signature goes here, and then you will be set. Don't forget to return it to us on the designated day, alright?"
Mario reluctantly grabbed it off the desk and hobbled out of the office, tipping his cap towards the two Gods. The door was softly shut behind him, a releasing a small gust of air.
As he trotted down the halls to the 64 house, he tried to hold himself together.
These thoughts - most of them negative - clouded up Mario's mind as he made his way to his bedroom, hoping that this long, dreary walk washes it away.
After all, what good would come out of having these thoughts and feelings fog up to where they would be impossible to remove?