Surprise, Bro!

Peach smoothed her dress as she made her way to the podium. All sorts of memories ran in her mind, but she soon focused on the funniest. She remembered it as if it were yesterday.

"The story I'm about to tell will probably sound familiar to Melee fans out there," began Peach, "and it requires good timing to see it themselves. I'm talking of course, about a specific moment in Adventure Mode…"

2001

"Mario, get ready!" called Peach. "Our opponent's almost here!"

"Coming, Princess!" Mario called back. "I just want to make sure I have everything."

"That's usually my issue," Peach said softly, and then stretched, readying herself to take on the Smasher attempting Adventure Mode.

Below, she could hear Mario half-humming the Super Mario Bros. theme as he attended to whatever it was that needed attending. Maybe he was fixing his hair or his cap, or making a fuss out of which uniform he wanted to wear. Master Hand stated that all opponents were to wear their regular uniforms unless given permission to do otherwise. Peach herself was clad in a bright pink gown, with a yellow design on the skirt. Her blond hair was styled in the usual way. She kept a nice-looking parasol close by, and not just to protect herself from the rain or excess sunlight. One of her Toads had come with her to serve as her B move. Her other accessories included a golf club, a tennis racket and a frying pan.

After hearing nothing but praise and pleasant memories of the first tournament from the Mario Bros., Peach had decided to give this Smash Bros thing a shot. She was immediately glad she did. The Hands and other Smashers were welcoming, and she saw the opportunity to form alliances with other kingdoms, mainly Hyrule. As an added bonus, she could finally release the stress from her royal duties (as well as being kidnapped all the time) and take her anger and foul scorn out on the overgrown turtle responsible for said kidnapping.

But that would come later. Right now, she and Mario had an adventurer to take on.

Shielding her eyes, Peach saw the adventurer reach the course checkpoint for their stage. It was one of her new friends, Prince Marth.

"Success!" Dean, the new announcer, called.

"Okay, Mario! We've got company!" announced Peach.

"Okeydokey!"

Peach made her way to the other end of the roof and looked down. She saw Mario, in his usual red and blue, make a flying leap toward the roof. When that didn't quite make it, he used his Super Jump Punch. Peach could tell that he was excited to be in this Adventure Mode. He was going to make his Princess proud…

…or maybe not.

Because halfway to the top, someone jumped onto his head, using him as a footstool. The force from the intruder's jump sent Mario plummeting back to Earth. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooh!" screamed the plumber as he fell.

Peach craned her neck to look at this intruder. A huge grin broke out on her face.

It was Luigi!

2013

"Bet he didn't see that coming," snickered Peach.

"Not at all," said Mario. "Bro, next time you're going to footstool me, will you let me know in advance?"

"Maybe," said Luigi, trying not to laugh.

"I was pretty proud of myself," said Marth. "I was the one who unlocked Luigi. It was pretty big."

"But I didn't make it easy for you, did I?" asked Luigi.

"Of course not. I set the controls to Very Hard," eyerolled Marth. "I cleared with no continues, by the way."

"Well, good for you," said Mario.

"L, you never fail to surprise all of us. Melee is living proof," beamed Peach. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks, Princess."

Daintily, Peach returned to her seat. "I take it Koopa wants to go next," she said flatly.

The giant reptile in question laughed. "Princess, you read my mind!"