The Good and Bad

Chapter 5 - Take It All Back!

It was an autumn afternoon in the Mushroom Kingdom. The air was crisp, but still had a certain warmness to it. The scenery was beginning to change, as leafs were turning beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and even red. This was the time of year many long awaited. With the holidays just around the corner, there was so much to be excited for.

The Mario Brothers seemed to be making preparations a bit early in the month compared to most. Halloween was still quite far away, but that didn't seem to stop them.

In the courtyard, Luigi hung numerous decorations along the outside of the Princess's castle. The color scheme seemed to consist of dark colors, giving the castle a completely different look.

While the outside of the castle was finished, the inside has yet to be done. Luigi let out a sigh thinking of all the work he and his brother would be doing. But, Peach loved Halloween, therefore Mario decided to decorate the whole castle while she was away handling her royal duties in town.

Luigi somehow managed to get dragged into the festiveness, but he didn't mind too much. Seeing the Princess's reaction would be fulfilling after all the hard work.

The green plumber climbed down from the tall ladder once he finished hanging some of the more elaborate decorations higher up.
He had a proud look on his face as he admired his work.

Just as Luigi was about to head back inside the castle, a black snow flake landed on the very tip of his nose. Luigi wiped it away, now stopping in his tracks completely.

Confused, Luigi turned around to take a good look at the courtyard, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

The breeze began to pick up, almost blowing Luigi's hat off of his head. He kept one gloved hand over his cap to prevent it from going anywhere.

The sun gradually became covered with dark clouds, as the winds become very frigid and strong. The decorations began to fall, and some even soaring off along with the wind.

Suddenly, more black snowflakes began to fall slowly. Luigi curiously reached a hand out, as the snowflakes began to fall in his palm. They melted once making contact with his hands, leaving black stains on his gloves.

The storm picked up, making the snow fall from the sky much more vigorously.
It became too much, Luigi had to take cover from the storm inside the castle.

Rushing through the large double doors, Luigi slammed and locked them once inside the castle. The strong winds seemed to be making the doors shake.

The slamming doors caught Mario's attention from the other room, he quickly rushed to the entry way to see what the commotion was about.

There he saw his brother. Luigi's clothes were slightly wet from the snow. "Luigi, what happened?" Mario asked, resting a hand on his brother's shoulder.

Once Luigi caught his breath, he spoke. "It started snowing outside...! But the snow, it wasn't normal! It was black!" He exclaimed, still a bit short on breath.

Mario had a look of slight disbelief on his face, but his brother seemed really shaken. Mario pushed aside the curtains to look out the window. Luigi was indeed right! Black snow was beginning to cover the ground. The sky was dark, giving off a very ominous feeling...

"We have to figure out what's causing this..." Mario said, Luigi grew wide-eyed. "You mean... we have to go out there...?" He asked, his tone filled with worry.

*:ﾟ*｡⋆ฺ*:ﾟ*｡*:ﾟ*｡⋆ฺ

Almost half way across the Mushroom Kingdom, was Bowser's castle. The snow storm seemed to be affecting this area as well...