(A/N: Okay, an epilogue to the story about how Bowser Jr.'s plan to kidnap Peach failed. Let's see how our heroes are holding up.)

Mario was quietly humming to himself as he walked down the road to Luigi's Mansion, where his brother had taken Princess Peach when Bowser Jr. was demanding that Mario hand her over. The red-clad plumber had just finished checking out Peach's Castle, inside and out, and it was perfectly fine. This meant that Peach could go home now... if she felt safe enough to return, that is.

As Mario walked, he replayed the whole incident with Bowser in his mind. He had never seen the Koopa King so angry before. But then again, Bowser actually thought Mario had the gall to beat Jr. to a pulp, but it was nothing more than a big, fat lie that Jr. had to have told in order to make his father really mad at the plumber.

"Wait until Peach and Luigi hear about this one. They'll never believe what happened when Bowser showed up." Mario thought as his brother's mansion came into view.

When Mario got to the front door of the mansion, he was grateful to find that Luigi hadn't locked it. He thought for sure Luigi would have done so, after seeing Jr. demanding the princess. But even if Luigi had locked the door, Mario had his own key to the mansion. However, if he'd forgotten his key, he also knew where the spare key was hidden.

So Mario opened the door and stepped into the mansion, quietly closing the door behind him. He smelled food and followed his nose to the kitchen/dining area, where Luigi and Peach were sitting at the table, talking quietly and enjoying lunch, which was minestrone soup that Luigi had prepared. And to drink, they were having Gatorade.

"Ciao!" Mario called out in his cheerful voice, causing his brother and the princess to turn and see him standing at the entrace to the kitchen.

"Mario! You're back!" Peach said with a smile.

"Hey, bro! Did the professor show up and get rid of that nasty-looking cloud over Peach's Castle?" Luigi asked.

"Yes, Luigi, he did. He vacuumed it up with his Poltergust 3000, and it's-a gone. No more cloud, no more problems." Mario smiled.

"That's good." Luigi replied.

"Is my castle okay, Mario?" Peach asked, concerned about her home.

"Sì. It's-a fine on the outside, and on the inside. You'd never know it had been attacked by a bad ol' thundercloud. The Toads are all relieved, too. So you can go home whenever you're ready, Peach." Mario assured her.

"Thank goodness." Peach replied, letting out a small sigh of relief.

"But you aren't going to believe what happened while you guys were here." Mario told them as he went to fetch a bowl and a spoon so he could enjoy lunch with them.

"Quello che è successo? What happened?" Luigi asked.

"Well, after the professor got rid of the cloud and offered to help check out the inside of the castle, who should show up but... you guessed it! Bowser!" Mario said as he fixed himself a bowl of the hot minestrone soup.

"No surprise there. Of course Bowser would show up at my castle when Jr. couldn't have me. He came to get what his son failed to." Peach sighed.

"Well, I'm going to tell you both how it started: after I slugged Jr. in the kisser (because he was totally asking for it), he said he was going to tell his father on me, and that I'd be sorry." Mario said.

"But you weren't sorry; right, bro?" Luigi said as he got up to fix Mario a glass of Gatorade.

"I'm not sorry when a villain is asking to be punched, no matter how young and immature he is." Mario replied, sitting down between Luigi and Peach.

"So, what happened when Bowser showed up?" Peach asked.

"Well, Bowser was angrier than I expected him to be over something as trivial as me punching Jr. in the mouth. In fact, I'd never seen him so mad at me before, and it was actually pretty scary!" Mario began.

"Non ne dubito. I don't doubt it. Bowser's always been a pretty scary monster, but now that he's got a child of his own, he's even worse. I know he's still got the Koopalings, but they're not of his blood-line, unlike Jr." Luigi said, handing Mario his own glass of Gatorade.

"Well, it turns out that Jr. didn't tell his father that I'd punched him in the mouth. He did something far worse." Mario said.

"How worse?" Peach asked. She couldn't imagine what Jr. had done to make his father so furious at Mario.

"He fabricated some story about me beating him up really badly." Mario said, before swallowing a spoonful of the soup.

"Hey, this minestrone soup is really good! It's-a just like our mama-mia used to make!" Mario smiled.

"I'm glad you think so. I cooked it, but not alone. Peach helped out because she wants to learn how to prepare more of our favorite Italian cuisine, so I allowed her to help me fix it." Luigi replied.

"Thanks for letting me help you prepare the soup, Luigi." Peach said with a smile to the younger plumber.

"Prego. You're welcome, Princess." Luigi said.

"Now let's get back to the story at hand. I said that Jr. obviously told his father that I did more than just punch him in the mouth. Bowser was implying that he'd been told that I gave his child a really bad beating." Mario said.

"How bad a beating are we talking about?" Luigi asked.

"The kind of beating where you limp home with a black eye." Mario replied.

Luigi winced. He had been beaten up that badly once before at school, and when Mario found out what happened to his brother, who did it, and why, he set the culprit straight with a verbal bashing he'd never forget. That pretty much told any would-be bullies that if they wanted to hurt Luigi, then they'd have to mess with Mario, and trust me, you do not want to mess with an angry Mario.

"Whoa! That sounds more like the kind of beating you would give Bowser, or one of the Koopalings." Peach noted.

"Yes, it is, Peach. But I think Bowser deserves it more than his kids do because I had to explain to Bowser that I never did that to his son." Mario said.

"I hate to say it, Mario, but that's easier said than done. Since when is Bowser going to listen to you?" Luigi asked. Bowser never once listened to Peach, and since he hated Mario, the chances of him listening to Mario were pretty slim.

"Actually, Luigi, he did listen to me. But he didn't believe me at first. I know that he didn't want to believe me, but eventually, it seemed he had no other choice. Especially after he told me that Jr. claimed that I said something to him that I would only say to a villainess who thinks I'm going to be sorry for what I did to hurt her." Mario said.

"And that is?" Peach asked.

"That famous line Clark Gable's character says near the end of the movie "Gone With The Wind". I think you both know what line I'm talking about." Mario said.

Luigi and Peach were in shock when they heard that. They knew the line Mario was talking about, and they also knew that it had a bad word in it, and it was one of the 13 bad words that Jr. shouldn't say, even if he is a villain.

"What?! How in the-?! Where did Jr. even hear that line?!" Luigi asked, so stunned that he didn't know just what to say.

"I don't know, Luigi. And I'm not so sure that I really do want to know." Mario replied.

"Well, he had to have heard it somewhere, because you would never teach him that line. Unless Bowser showed him the movie." Peach said.

"No, he didn't do that because even he didn't know where Jr. heard that line, if he didn't hear it from me. I'd never say that line to a young boy villain! Not even to save my life." Mario said.

"So, did Bowser realize that there's a possibility his son could be lying to him?" Luigi asked.

"Non sono sicuro. I'm not sure. But he did agree to go back to his castle and find out the truth. So I think maybe he's finding out as we speak." Mario replied.

"I wonder if Jr. actually confessed that he was lying." Luigi said.

"I'm pretty sure Bowser got his son to be honest with him. But then again, Bowser himself wasn't exactly honest with Jr. about who his mommy is, because I'm not her. I was being honest, but they didn't seem to think so." Peach said.

"I'm hoping Bowser found out and that Jr. was adequately punished for lying to his father like he did. You do not want to lie to your parents, because they find it pretty hard to believe when they discover that they're raising children who can't be honest with them, or anyone else, for that matter." Mario said.

"Especially when your dad is Bowser... Yeah, I think Jr. may have learned a very important lesson for lying to his dad, even if his own father is a big, fat liar." Luigi replied.

"So, what happened after Bowser went back to his own castle to learn the truth?" Peach asked.

"That's when I joined the Toads and the Professor in the castle to make sure the lightning didn't make the inside of the castle look bad." Mario explained.

"But everything is okay?" Luigi asked.

"Yup. I even checked the outside, going to the roof of the castle, where the lightning had struck. Everything was okay up there." Mario assured.

The group finished their lunch, and then Mario and Luigi took Peach back to her castle, where the Toads were glad to see that the princess was okay, and they even showed her that all was well inside. Peach was pleased to learn that her castle was perfectly fine, inside and out.

From that day, there was a long spell of no trouble from the Koopas, so Mario and Peach figured that Bowser must have grounded Jr. and needed to stay at the castle to make sure his son didn't try to sneak out or something like that during his grounding. As long as the Koopas were out of the way, things were happy in the Mushroom Kingdom!

The End

Okay, now I have finished the story. I know the epilogue wasn't very long, but I hope the story was good enough, now that Bowser learned that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.