Peach looked up at the newly constructed elevator to the cloud world. It wasn't attached to any particular building, so it looked a bit odd. It looked like a huge metal rectangular box at the bottom of a set of metal poles that reached upward into the sky. A cord was attached to the top of the box, but what it was attached to was too high up to be seen from the ground.
Peach stepped inside the elevator. The interior was painted brown and fairly simplistically designed. Once inside, Peach turned around and looked at the buttons. Instead of floor numbers, the buttons corresponded to how high up the elevator should go, with some of the buttons being 10 to 20 meters, one being 100 meters, one being 1000 meters, and one simply saying "outer space". Peach pressed the one for 1000 meters. Though it was a few meters higher up than the cloud world was, Peach figured the ten meter drop wouldn't be that unpleasant.
Right before the doors closed, another person entered the elevator. Princess Daisy, wearing her sports outfit, with a big fat unlit orange cigar resting on her lips. Daisy waved to Peach as the elevator doors closed behind them.
"How's it going, Peach?" said Daisy.
"Fine." said Peach.
Daisy asked "Would you happen to have a light?" as she gestured to the large orange cigar in her mouth.
Peach reached into a pocket of her dress and pulled out a fire flower. She held it out and a small fireball shot out of it and landed on the tip of Daisy's cigar, lighting it.
As the elevator began to fill with smoke that smelled like pumpkins and falling leaves, Peach grinned slightly. Daisy's cigars always seemed to smell pleasant, and they seemed to smell different every time.
Daisy said "Thanks."
Peach sniffed and said "New cigar? What's the occasion?"
Daisy said "Thought I'd celebrate Autumn starting." as she puffed on her cigar and leaned on one of the elevator's walls.
Peach smirked. "Is there anything you don't celebrate with a cigar?"
"What can I say?" said Daisy, twirling a finger through her long orange hair. "I just like celebrating.
"Like the time you celebrated my birthday by firing me out of a cannon?" said Peach.
"Or the time I celebrate Toadette's birthday by getting her a piranha plant." said Daisy, taking a drag on her cigar.
"It ended up eating her, you know." said Peach.
"It spat her out later." said Daisy. "Besides, I've been eaten by countless piranha plants. Plus yoshis, whales, large cheep cheeps, an eel or two, the list goes on"
As Daisy talked, she blew smoky shapes from her cigar in the shapes of the creatures she was describing.
"Sometimes I can get out myself, other times I just wait a few hours or days for somebody to rescue me. If I have a few books on me it's not so boring You'd be surprised how well my cigar works as a reading light."
Peach scoffed slightly and said "You know, most princesses would try to avoid being swallowed whole when they can."
The elevator door opened, releasing some of the smoke into the sky. Daisy took this opportunity to ash her cigar out the door and into the air.
After the door closed and the elevator continued moving, Daisy said "That's probably why you don't get along with Petey as well as I do."
"Petey? As in Petey Piranha?" asked Peach. "You're friends with him?
Daisy nodded "I guess it's just a result of how in touch with flowers I am. Petey eating you is just to show that he likes you." Daisy took a drag on her cigar before saying "Of course, he also does it to show that he hates you, so I guess it's kind of confusing."
Peach said "So, anyway, what brings you onto this elevator?"
Daisy said "Well, it actually has to do with Petey. See, I just got this new hammer and I had him help me test it. So I loaded him into my cannon, took a ready stance with the hammer, and lit the fuse. He got fired out like a cannonball right towards me and I swung with all my might. Guess it was either a powerful hammer or I don't know my own strength, because as soon as I hit him he soared into the sky like a comet. Vanished into a cute little twinkle and every thing."
"Like the kind that appears whenever you smack Bowser into the sky?" asked Peach.
"Right, or the kind that appears whenever I fire you out of a cannon. So I figured that if I'm the one who launched the plant into space, I should be the one to get him back. What brings you onto this elevator?" asked Daisy.
"I'm taking a visit to the cloud world as sort of a sight seeing trip." said Peach. "I've heard the view there is lovely."
"Views from that high up are usually pretty good." said Daisy. "Remember the time we were holding that fireworks show and you accidentally got onto the huge firework just before it went off?"
"Yes, and I remember you intentionally got onto it just before it went off." said Peach.
"Yeah, it was a pretty good finale for the show, wasn't it?" asked Daisy, taking a drag on her cigar and blow a smoke star.
"For the people on the ground and maybe you, sure." said Peach. "Not really so much for me."
The elevator opened again, showing a view 100 meters above the ground. It close and the elevator continued moving.
"So how was your week?" asked Daisy.
"Not much happened." said Peach. "I didn't get kidnapped, so that's a plus. How was yours?"
"Pretty eventful." said Daisy. "Just the other day a bunch of koopas kidnapped me and threw me into their airship. Unluckily for them, the room they tossed me in was the explosives room. A princess with a cigar plus a room full of high explosives equals a failed kidnapping."
Daisy smiled as Peach said "I'd imagine you weren't exactly unscathed in the ensuing explosion?"
"Well, no, but I don't mind. It happens all the time to me, really. Another thing that happened last week was that I visited Rosalina." said Daisy.
"By elevator?" asked Peach.
"No, I was juggling lit bob-ombs and I slipped on a puddle." said Daisy.
"Ah." said Peach. "Have you considered a career as a human cannonball?"
"Funny you should ask. That's how most events held in my kingdom start and end." said Daisy.
"Only a few events held in my kingdom start or end that way." said Peach. "Maybe I should change that."
"It couldn't hurt. Well, it couldn't hurt that much." said Daisy, puffing on her cigar.
"So, why do you like explosives so much?" asked Peach.
"I guess I just like the excitement of them." said Daisy. She took a drag on her cigar and blew out the smokey shape of a flower. "For example, when I was a kid I was friends with this one kid who's parents owned a bob-omb factory. I used to visit there every now and then and just blow some stuff up. Of course, one time I accidentally blew up the whole factory, but those things happen."
Daisy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bob-omb with a colourful pattern. "This may be my favorite type of bob-omb. Just for how pretty the explosion is."
Daisy held the bob-omb close to her cigar.
"Hey, wait don-" said Peach, but it was too late, the bob-omb's fuse had been lit by the tip of the cigar. Daisy grinned as the fuse burned down and Peach just sighed.
BOOM!
A rainbow-coloured explosion filled the elevator,covering the walls and both princesses in soot. Daisy smiled gleefully and Peach just rolled her eyes.
"So, how did you meet Petey?" asked Peach.
"It's kind of a long story." said Daisy. It started when I was tending my garden and I noticed a piranha plant that seemed to be able to walk around. I walked up to him and greeted him, and not surprisingly he swallowed me whole. I was in his stomach, or whatever it is , for a few days, mostly just reading some books I had on me at the time. I was rescued of course, but I found Petey sort of a fascinating plant. I started visiting him some times, even though he'd sometimes eat me and I'd sometimes launch him into the sky, and eventually we became friends."
"Interesting." said Peach. "In my experience, people who try to eat me aren't usually as eager to make friends with me."
"Maybe I have a magnetic personalty." said Daisy.
Peach drummed her fingers on the elevator's wall for a bit.
"I think it's almost my stop." said Peach.
Daisy said "Okay. I'll be on here for a bit longer. Space is pretty far away, obviously. By the way, what day is it?"
"The twentieth, I think." said Peach.
"Then that means it's been half a year since your last birthday! This calls for a celebration!"
Daisy took a big pink and gold cigar out of her pocket and popped it into Peach's mouth, lighting it with her own cigar. "Happy half-birthday, Peach!"
"Uh, thanks." said Peach, a little confused but thankful for the gesture anyway. Peach couldn't think of a single time she smoked something that hadn't been popped into her mouth by Daisy to celebrate something or other.
The elevator opened to a wide cloud in the sky. "Looks like this is my stop." said Peach, stepping out. "Hmm, the elevator was closer to the clouds than usual this time.
"See you later." said Daisy, waving as the doors closed and the elevator shot upward into the night sky, vanishing with a twinkle in the cosmos.
Peach grinned at the twinkling stars before setting off through the clouds. Daisy may be a strange friend, but she was certainly an interesting one.