I have no idea how many other countries celebrate advent besides my home country of Britain, but I'm writing this anyway whether you like it or not. Sorry if it's all cliché setting-wise, it's meant to be about the Christmas feel not the originality. JUST READ, GODDAMIT.

"Advent starts today! Free chocolate!" Roy threw his arms wide and embraced the atmosphere. Red, one of his roommates, smiled as he woke up.

"Master Hand sure is nice at this time of year. One chocolate coin a day, for every single person in the mansion,"

"Why are we up so early? Stop talking," there was a muffled and annoyed voice from the thick duvet of the top bunk.

"Dude, it's the first day of advent!" Roy stood on the edge of the bottom bunk, his bed, and hung onto the edge of the top bunk. "Wake up!"

"I already am. You won't let me go back to sleep!" Roy sighed, grabbed the duvet with one hand and leapt off. Pit yelped as the warmth was taken away and the cold seeped in. "Hey!"

"That's better," Pit scowled at him but slid out of bed anyway. He stretched, his wing joints clicking as he did so. Then he rubbed his eyes and yawned. Then he was awake.

"So what's this advent thing?" he asked. Red and Roy stared at him.

"Are you joking or…what?" Red gave him an odd look.

"No. Why should I be?"

"Well. I guess you are a foreigner. Should we tell him now or later?" he looked to Roy.

"Tell me now,"

"It's almost the whole month of December in the run-up to Christmas. There'll be a big advent calendar in the main hall and everything!"

"So it's some kind of Ground World festival? OK. I get it," Pit pulled on his undershirt and started to wrap his toga around his body too. It provided a lot more warmth than it looked like it would at first glance. It was freezing in here. "And we get free chocolate? Huh. I'll go along with it then,"

"Are you going to say you don't know what Christmas is either?" Red asked.

"Yeah. Is it another festival thing?"

"Only the biggest holiday of the year!" Roy said. "I can't believe you've never heard of it, weirdo or not!" there was a whumf as a pillow made contact with his face.

"I'm not a weirdo. I thought you were all weird because you'd never heard of Allgods Week,"

"Yes, but there are more people here from this world than there are from Skyworld," Red donned the final piece of his outfit – the infamous hat.

"It's all that clutural stuff," Roy shrugged in a meh kind of way. Red didn't bother to correct him. Even if he had tried to, he would've been cut off by a loud shriek from the outside corridor, a shriek which could only be described as 'Toon Link'. And also a shriek which reminded them that if they didn't get to breakfast pronto, then that would probably be a bad start to advent. So they pulled on the last accessories and flew out the door (quite literally, in one case).

X

As soon as Roy had mentioned that Pit didn't know what Christmas was, everyone on the table started telling him what it was about. Marth said it was about buying cool gifts for everyone, Peach said it was a time to bring everyone together, Toon Link said it snowed a lot round this time of year, Red said it was for giving presents to people you liked, Ike said it was for a massive Christmas tree, Link said … and all Kirby had to say was 'pie!', which just about summarised everything. Pit munched thoughtfully on his breakfast.

"I think I get it. Sounds like fun,"

"It is!" Peach nodded. "Very fun,"

"But expensive. I don't have enough money to buy people stuff,"

"The other Kid Smashers like to make stuff," Red said, before taking a bite of his toast (and somehow ending up with butter on his nose). "You could try that,"

"Do I look like that kind of person?"

"Hard to tell,"

"Hmph,"

"I'll tell you what, Pit," Marth drew attention back to his end of the table. "I'll give you a Coin Match this afternoon,"

"You'd do that? Thanks!"

"Well, it is Christmas,"

"Can I come too?" said Toon. "Please?"

"It wouldn't do any harm. Come at 3 to the Brawl Arena,"

"Yes!" both Toon Link and Pit punched the sky.

"Master Hand's here!" Ike stood up to get a better look as the giant glove appeared. Behind him, on the wall, was the Advent calendar. An excited babble rose up, but Master Hand shushed them with a finger.

"You can get your chocolate later. But, since we're doing this in age order, Kirby can open the first box," he declared. The Christmassy aroma even made him more cheerful than his usual bossy self. It made Ganondorf more cheerful (though the change was barely noticeable). A time for holly, and jolly, and other things ending in 'olly'…

X

Pit wandered out into the Brawl Arena and shivered. It was cold out here. Neither Marth nor Toon Link had turned up yet, so he did a few warm-up flight laps around, before the clunk of the door opening brought him back down. It was only Zelda.

"Hullo Zelda," he said. She wasn't wearing her usual dress, since she was a smart lady and was instead wearing a coat, gloves and some furry boots.

"You must be freezing, Pit. Haven't the others turned up yet?" she asked, taking a seat in the stands.

"Not yet. Why are you here?"

"To spectate, of course. Peach and Samus said that they would come too," so there was going to be an audience, was there? Hm. That could be both good at bad. Good in the sense that if he won he had more praise and more to boast about, and bad in the sense that if he lost the others had more to boast about and more to hold above him. Then again, this wasn't a match to win, this was a match to make as much cash as possible. In a way, he couldn't fail, since it meant that if he won he could buy all his friends neat stuff, and if they won then they could buy him something near with their cash. But it was nice to win. The door clunked again and in came Marth, Samus, the Ice Climbers (who looked quite happy to be in this sort of weather) and Lucas. Marth walked onto the pitch and the other four went and sat down, their breaths making little clouds in the air.

"So now we just need Toon Link. Why am I not surprised," Marth tutted. He didn't usually 'associate' with the Kid Smashers, and normally avoided them and their noise and mess at all costs, though he did quite like Pit, who was partially a Kid Smasher and partially his own group with Roy and Red. Shortly Luigi and Kirby also walked in and sat down. And finally, a green bundle of hyperactivity.

"SorryI'mlate!" he panted. "I was…like…yeah. Can we start now?"

"Would anyone care to be the umpire?" Marth turned to the stands. Samus' armour chinked as she stood up.

"I will," she volunteered. "Get to your corners,"

X

And the match started. Toon Link plucked out a bomb and chucked it at Marth, who leapt over it and dealt a few blows to the stocky swordsman, who was about to attack with some sword swipes of his own before a blue arrow hit him in the back. When he whipped around there were a few feathers falling to a ground, and a faint yelp as Pit stabbed a blade into Marth, collecting the coins as they appeared before fluttering up onto one of the platforms as Toon took his chance and fired an arrow at the prince before leaping with a spin attack up to Pit, who unfortunately found himself in the middle of it. Kaching. Toon was knocked aside by Marth, who nabbed the coins for himself before receiving an Angel Ring to the face and having them all deducted again. Samus leant back as Marth swung Falchion over in a Dancing Blade. Umpires in Brawls never did much, since there were hardly any rules. But they were in charge of one thing. She decided to wait and watch them beating the gold out of each other for a while, since it was quite funny seeing them scramble around, before taking something out of a box behind her. She chucked it into the air. The (granted, small) crowd gasped and oohed. It was a Smash Ball. Marth was the first to get to it but his Dolphin Slash just missed it, leaving him open for a footstool jump from Pit, who hacked at it a couple of times before Toon Link whirled up in another Spin Attack. As the orb cracked, the power whooshed into him, making him glow. His eyes shone eerily while the other two scrambled to get out of the way. Toon chased after Pit, who wisely grabbed Marth and flung him in front of him, just as Toon unleashed his Triforce Slash. Pit stood happily at the edge of the spinning Triforce grabbing all the coins that spewed out. Samus checked the timer.

"Ten seconds!" she shouted as the teleporter brought Marth back to the arena. He leapt down and went into a short barrage of sword slashes at Toon, no doubt as revenge, but within the last few seconds Pit Angel Ringed them both, gaining yet more coins. "Stop!" Samus shouted. The crowd cheered.

"Excellent fight!"

"That was cool!"

"Encore!" they shouted. There was no chance of an encore, but the three fighters rushed over to Samus to see who won.

"With 233 Coins, Marth is in last place. 2nd is Toon with 310, and Pit in 1st with, somehow, 406,"

"Yes!" Pit whooped, flapping his wings in a victory taunt. "That was a pretty cool Brawl though, guys,"

"Are we on your Christmas card list?" Toon grinned as he took his bag of coins.

"What? There are cards too?"

I don't know/think any of the other chapters will be as long as this one. I'm making this up as I go along. Next chapter should be seven days today! See you then. Enjoy your advent chocolate.