THE EPILOGUE

Everything was at peace, and this time, there were no assholes to ruin it.

The giant squid lingered in the pool of Smash Castle for a few days, screaming at the Smashers before eventually giving up. Soon, the squid realized that it felt nice to be left alone and not beaten up. Peace was what he truly desired; he was just too much of a crazy revenge-seeker. So, at the request of the Ancient Minister (and several people who wanted to go swimming), the Smashers worked together to carry the squid back to his precious ocean, where he currently resides.

With a lot of their numbers slaughtered and their king slain, the Puppits fled back to the forest, hissing aggressively at everyone that dare come near Thankfully though, they realized that trying to fight the Smashers would be a dumb move, so they dropped the, "We'Ll KiLl YoU aLl!" thing. So, as far as we know, these creepy jerks never bothered the Smashers again.

Wario decided to be good for once and accepted the punishment. In the days following his defeat, he rode around the castle on his motorcycle, cleaning it up and begrudgingly paying for repairs. The Age of the Garlic King/Lord Asshole/Super King Garlicman/That One Guy ended, but the legacy of Wario the Smasher continued. He promised revenge against the Smashers... by beating them all in the tournament. Since there was no chance in hell of that ever happening, they decided to just accept it.

Lucas was applied for consoling - a lot of consoling. However, nobody could do a thing to help him. As long as nothing horribly traumatic and emotion-breaking doesn't happen to him though, everyone around the boy was safe. Yep. Everything will be okay.

Bowser was still an angry turtle dragon thing, but at least he's not as asshole-ish as Wario, so there's that to consider.

The rest of the Smashers pretty much stayed the same because no one learns anything.

Until a certain Halloween incident, the Ancient Minister continued to be a lousy leader.

Dialga, Palkia, and Cresselia briefly went mad, having become self-aware of their existence as game characters used in fanfics after finishing a story some idiot started in 2011. Then they decided to just live with it. After all, as long as they weren't the main focus of the idiot's story, they won't be in much danger.

As for the main focus of this story...

The Normals have become somewhat distant from each other in the two weeks following the Garlic King's defeat. They were more reluctant to meet with each other; even the honorable Meta Knight and Lucario blew off eating with the others during lunchtime. They often made excuses, making up reasons to avoid hanging out with each other. It was obvious: this friendship was starting to fall apart.

On this faithful morning, the Normals met during breakfast. It was really early in the morning, so there were only a few people around to start shenanigans and ruin everything. The four Smashers sat at their usual table anxiously, not looking at each other.

Then, they said at exactly the same time, "We need to break up The Normals."

They were shocked that they each had the same thing on mind. The few non-Normal Smashers looked alarmed at this statement before returning to their food.

"...So, I wasn't the only one thinking of it..." Meta Knight said with a sigh.

Falco rested his head in his hand. "Well, it's just as you said: this crap will never be over as long as we're in this story."

"Yeah." Lucario confirmed, nodding. "This story is called 'The Normals', after all. As long as we're the main characters, we'll always be stuck dealing with some situation or another."

Dedede looked really reluctant about this. "If we stop being The Normals, that Hyper guy can't write about us."

H-hey! You guys can't do this! This is one of my most popular stories!

"Dude, we've looked at your author notes. You want to end this story too." the Arwing pilot countered.

Yeah, but... hold on, how do you know about the author notes? There was no fourth wall to begin with, but goddamn, this is starting to get ridiculous.

"Oh, Cresselia sent me the link to the story in its entirety." the Pokémon answered plainly. "Look, you've had a good run too, but it's about time to end this story."

...Yeah... you're probably right... so, yeah. Get on with it. Go.

The four Smashers went back to their conversation. "I guess this is the end of the Normals." the knight said.

"We're.. really not going to be friends anymore, huh?" the penguin king said, looking a bit distraught.

"Hey, we're still friends; we just have to hang out with each other less, and not in groups, and..." Lucario stopped himself when he noticed that Dedede looked like he was going to cry.

"But... you guys are the only ones that hang out with me..."

The other three Smashers stared at him, feeling sorry for their thieving member. "Hey, it'll be okay." Falco said, which shocked everyone. "You can hang out with Kirby. That pink shrimp puff likes you."

"I hate him though..."

"Well, now's as good time as any to make amends and become friends with him." Meta Knight said, encouraging this. "How about you talk with him later?"

"Next week."

"...Tomorrow."

"Next week."

"Oh fine. Just become pals with him."

"I'll try." King Dedede got up and groaned, trying to hide out how melancholic he feels. "Well, I think I'll go eat lunch in my room..." The large fighter slumped toward the food line to get his food; the fact that he was getting his own food really says a lot.

It was quickly becoming awkward at the table, which was supposedly no longer The Normals' table. Maybe it'll become an average table from then on. Or maybe some of the Smashers will form a rock band and make that table their base of operations. Yes. Falco left his seat and slowly walked away from the future rocker table. "I think I'll go take on multi-man brawl today..."

"Not going to have lunch?" Lucario questioned.

"...No." he shuffled away rather quickly.

"...Is.. he actually sad for once?"

"He likely is." Meta Knight said, as he watched King Dedede leave the cafeteria with several plates of food. Even the knight felt rather bummed about this. "So... what are you going to do later?"

"Uh... I guess I'll eat with the other Pokémon for once." the other remaining Normal answered. "It's been awhile since I ate at that table. I forgot why I stopped though - maybe Pikachu was having one of his tantrums..."

'Maybe. He's not really somebody to associate with, as adorable as people find him." Meta Knight said.

"Yeah... what will you be doing?"

"I'm not sure... I don't have any matches today, so I'll train a bit.

"I heard that Luigi's Mansion has no matches there, so maybe I'll practice my sword fighting there."

"Good luck with that." Lucario said, giving a sad nod before getting up to get his breakfast. Meta Knight watched him as he got his food and sat at the Pokémon table.

"..." Meta Knight sat alone, at the former table of The Normals.

Oh cheer up, Meta Knight!

"Hm?"

I just have a feeling that you'll make some new friends soon~.

THE END

Author's Note: Aha, it's finally over. I bet most of you didn't expect the epilogue to be... depressing. I also bet that most of you didn't expect this story to be a prequel to my other stories (ie. The Trapped Series).

I really didn't expect this story to take off as it did. I originally intended it to be something to write on the side while I'm writing Attack of Giygas, but surprisingly, this ended up becoming more popular. Nevertheless, I'm happy that a lot of people read this story. I'm grateful for all the reviews, and that some of you took the time to submit votes to my polls. You guys really are the best.

However, I'm sorry to say that there won't be a sequel. After all, The Normals just broke up. I'll still be writing stories for the Super Smash Brothers fandom, however; especially with Meta Knight. By the way, if you're a big fan of Lucario, read AuraChannelerChris' stories. He's a rather big fan of Lucario himself. Also, if you're a fan of crack fanfiction, TheGreatChickenMiasma writes the best stories. Let them fill the voids in your arteries.

I actually have no other recommendations to make. The thing is, I rarely read fanfiction anymore; so, I have one final request for you guys: can you recommend stories for me? I want to read some nice stories: humor, horror, adventure, I don't care as long as it's a Super Smash Brothers story. Please leave me suggestions, it'd be much appreciated!

While I don't plan on working on anything else until I finish the almost done Diary of a Psychopath, the War Against Giygas will still be around for an unforeseen amount of time; The Trapped Series will also continue soon. If you have the time and the patience for my stupidity, read those two stories, please.

Once again, I want to thank you all for reading The Normals. It's been fun, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

- Hyper