One thing I wanted to explain a little more is the Smasher's relationship with Assist Trophies. I might do a few chapters going into that a bit more. Doubly so for the Smashers like Little Mac who was an Assist Trophy at one point.

Shovel Knight rarely ate his meals with anyone, preferring to spend most of his time by himself. Today though, Luigi had invited him to breakfast at the cafeteria since it was waffle day. It was actually a pretty welcome shake up to his routine of dining alone. The sat apart from everyone at a small table in the back

"Congratulations, my friend. That match of yours yesterday was incredible. Ike never knew what hit him." The treasure hunter praises his friend. The green man blushed shyly, poking at his waffle with a fork.

"It felt good to win. Our sparring has helped me feel a lot more confident in my fights."

"I'm glad to hear that!" The two ate in a comfortable silence. Shovel Knight was proud of his friend. Luigi had been in the tournament since it had begun and had been scorned the entire time for being afraid. He had said that besides Mario and the others from the Mushroom Kingdom, he hadn't made a lot of friends due to him being shy or others looking down on him.

The little knight could relate, all his life either his stature or his choice of weapon had landed him at the but end of many jokes.

In the middle of this conversation there was a heavy thud as someone sat down at the table. Luigi nearly screamed, but Shovel Knight raised an invisible eyebrow at the hulking dragon that sat next to them.

"Hello Ridley."

Ridley grunted in greeting his eyes studying the little blue knight with surprisingly none of the malice he seemed to direct at everyone.

Instead there was curiosity.

"H-hello R-R-Ridley."

The dragon acted like Luigi didn't exist as he continued to appraise Shovel Knight. Spearing a waffle with his claw idly.

"You helped… me."

Shovel Knight nodded as he cut into his own waffle. "I did."

"...why?"

Luigi nearly fainted as he got up. "I-I'll s-s-see you around Sh-Sh-Shovel Knight." He sped off to his brother, who checked Luigi up and down to make sure he didn't get hurt. In fact it seemed that the entire cafeteria was staring at the pair. Shovel Knight shivered a bit as he felt a certain bounty hunter's gaze pierce his soul.

"Why not?"

"...am… monster…" Ridley grinned threateningly, "...could bite… you in half…"

The treasure hunter took a bit of his waffle. "I already told you that if you did that then you would be my next set of armor." In spite of his better judgement, the knight reached over and knocked a knuckle against the strange and alien scales. "It appears that it would be pretty high quality armor."

Ridley started. Shovel Knight took a drink of his orange juice.

"You have… big balls." The cunning reptile tilted his head as he scraped his waffle off his claw with his serrated teeth. "I like… you, Hatchling."

"Hatchling?"

Ridley cocked his head to the side. "You are… child… yes?" Gently putting a claw on the knight's head not unlike he was ruffling the hair on some small kid. "You are… so small."

Now if Shovel Knight would have been less bewildered by the act of affection a supposedly heartless monster was giving him, he might have thought about how it looked to everyone else.

Luigi screamed as the clawed fingers wrapped around the shoveler's head. Samus readied her arm cannon with a Super Missile. Captain Falcon flinched. Gannon laughed.

"...not that short… 'm 25…"

The treasure hunter mumbled at the comment, pushing the offending limb off his helmet with little effort. Ridley made a noise. The entire mansion clasped their hands over their ears at the horrid sound.

Ridley grabbed his plate. The dragon winked at Shovel Knight before picking up his plate and hobbling away.

All in all Shovel Knight didn't know what to think about the exchange.

Shovel Knight sipped his coffee, humming Strike the Earth! To himself as he enjoyed his room to himself. Today was another day off and he was thinking of going out treasure hunting again. He was starting to get low on creamer and much to his displeasure he would probably need to buy more sooner than later.

Tying his shovel to his back, the little knight finished his coffee. Taking the time to wash out the cup, dry it, and replace it in the cupboard. Now whistling instead, he jumped up to open his door, holding on to the knob until it swung open. The treasure hunter dropped to the ground and shut his door and locked it.

His armor didn't even clank as he walked, the red carpet of the mansion to plush. His and Corrin's shared apartment was on the 3rd floor of the mansion on the east wing. While there was a strange contraption Luigi had called an 'elevator', Shovel Knight had elected to ignore the strange machine, the one time he had ridden it the elevator had made some suspicious grinding noises before opening up slower than it had closed.

So the stairs it was.

The ground floor was a bit bigger than the higher ones. It was easy to see, or rather hear that there was much more wear on the carpet. His boots dug deep enough to make that familiar clink.

"You there."

The blue burrower turned as he was addressed by who he had recognized as Princess Peach. The blonde woman was someone Luigi had described as incredibly kind and benevolent. He had seen a bit of it through the interaction she had with other fighters in the cafeteria.

"Clean this up for me."

Shovel Knight raised an unseen eyebrow at the demand. The woman was frowning and pointing at a fallen flower pot, the soil spread messily in the carpet. She turned to face him, her frown deepening. "You are the help. So it should fall to you to clean this up."

Shovel Knight stared at her, it wasn't the first time someone had tried to command him to do some mundane chore or task since he had arrived and it likely would not be the last. So naturally he did what he always did in these situations…

Her eyes snapped away from the fallen flowers to him, her brow furrowing. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

… and walked right past her without a single word, careful not to step in the dirt as he didn't want to make the job harder for whoever did wind up having to clean up after the princess. The clinking of his steps did little to mask the sound of the princess stamping her foot. Shovel Knight started to whistle again as he walked farther away.

"This place has the worst servants I swear. Toads would never show that kind of insubordination."

The disappointing thing is that Shovel Knight was led to believe by Luigi that she was different then the rest. That she was kind and benevolent like he said.

Maybe she was to other fighters, but clearly not with assist trophies. Oh well, the shoveler thought, it would be better to plan out today's expedition in the ruins.