HA! Double update! WHAT NOW?! (starts dancing and does the moonwalk)

(stops) Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. Your music and dancing will never be forgotten. (tips hat and moonwalks out)

(pops head back in) I'm doing the disclaimer myself this time! I own nothing related to this story, sans the plot itself. Don't Stop Believin' belongs to Journey, who I would like to thank personally for such an awesome song.

Well? Why are you still reading the author's notes? It's the last chapter! Read, my lovelies!

Peach was soaking wet, the three guys she most definitely did not want to talk to were trying to talk to her, and her hair was on fire. How much better could this ball get?

Mario, Bowser, and Ganondorf seemed completely oblivious to Peach's discomfort, and continued to babble on to her and amongst themselves. She couldn't catch what they were saying. She was too busy thinking up ways to completely destroy them. The smell of smoke got stronger. Turning, Peach saw that the tips of her hair, which had previously just been smoking, had burst into legitimate flames. And she did what any girl would do.

Freaked out.

Before Peach was two seconds into her panic attack, however, Bowser had taken the fire extinguisher and covered her head in foam. Panic turned to rage. "Bowser," she growled, "what did you mean to accomplish by that?"

Bowser shrank away from her. "Well, your hair's not on fire anymore, is it?" he whimpered. He had a point. But it didn't mean that she couldn't be upset that, on top of everything, her hair was now a foamy mess instead of a flaming one. Afraid that he was going to get pounded with a frying pan again, Bowser quickly handed her a towel, and she wiped off the foam. Great. Now, instead of there being an adjective in front of it, her hair was just a mess.

"Look, Peach," said Ganondorf. "What we've been trying to say is that we're sorry."

"For the flaming explosion or the sprinklers that came afterwards?" she asked cynically.

"Hey, that was Crazy Hand's fault!" Mario shouted.

Bowser pushed the plumber out of the way, muttering, "Shut up." He turned to the princess. "We're sorry," he said, "for making complete fools of ourselves and putting you in an extremely awkward situation. Right, guys?" Mario and Ganondorf nodded, if grudgingly. It was easy to see that both of them wanted to be the one to make the official apology. Peach sighed. Those three were so competitive…She was impressed by the fact that they had cooperated with each other in order to give her a proper apology. It was actually kinda sweet of them.

"…It's alright," she muttered at last. "Just don't do it again." The three nodded eagerly. "Ever." They kept nodding. "Or I'll kill you." The nodding turned into cowering.

…Well, a few awkward seconds had gone by, and the guys were still looking at her, as if they were expecting something. She raised an eyebrow. And they kept staring. "What?" she asked. "What more could you possibly want from me?"

The guys glanced among each other nervously. Then Mario spoke out. "We were thinking, maybe, that you were going to…choose…one of us?"

Mario was whacked over the head with a frying pan.

"Yow-wow-wow-wow-wow!" he shouted, grabbing his head in pain. Bowser and Ganondorf, eyes wide, jumped back in fear of the frying pan.

Peach glared at all of them. "I told you not to do it again!" she fumed.

Ganondorf shook his hands. "Ignore the idiot plumber," he said nervously. "I definitely did not have that idea in mind. No, ma'am."

Ganondorf was whacked over the head with a frying pan.

He let out shouts of pain similar to Mario's, with a few curse words thrown in to boot. "What was that for?!" he shouted, one of the few sentences not containing profanities.

"For being a suck-up," said Peach, rubbing her frying pan with the towel. Geez, was that blood on there? She hoped not. Violence was fun, but not when it landed you in jail. She saw Bowser, chuckling madly.

Bowser was whacked over the head with a frying pan.

"Geez!" he muttered, rubbing his head. "I didn't even say anything!"

"Well, I had to make it three," Peach reasoned. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair." Mario and Ganondorf smirked. Peach held up the frying pan again, and the smirks disappeared.

But did they seriously want her to choose? What kind of idiotic buffoons were they?! Wasn't that exactly what she had screamed at them for half an hour ago? Peach scanned the three suitors. Well, there was Mario, who was finally paying more attention to her than food. She had to admit, she did have a small crush on him. But who in the Mushroom Kingdom didn't? And now that he was giving her the proper attention…

Then there was Bowser. He was her date. It would look really bad if she decided to choose one of the other two. But looking bad wasn't the only reason she considered him. He was sweet, and funny, and had finally given up on the kidnapping business. Maybe…

Then came Ganondorf. No history, no back story, no nothing. It seemed like he was the least likely pick. But Peach had to admit, he was kinda cute. In an awkward, bumbling King of Evil kind of way. And he had asked her to come with him, asked her to dance…

God above, why was this so hard for her?! She was Princess Peach Toadstool, matchmaker extraordinaire! And she couldn't even decide which guy she liked best? Was she losing her touch? Peach let out a sigh. "Shoot me now," she muttered, glancing up to the sky and hoping that whoever was up there would hear her prayers and smite her before things got worse. Seeing as she was still here, the Big Boss Upstairs presumably was taking no pity on her and leaving her to deal with this mess herself. Loverly.

"I…I can't do this, guys," she said. "Really. You're all really nice and everything, but…I just can't choose. Not right now. You've got to give me some time, okay?" This caused a few jaw drops. Peach, admitting she couldn't do something? Unheard of! And she knew it.

But putting it off didn't make it go away. She was still going to have to decide. Four choices: Mario, Bowser, Ganon, or none of them. Option four would leave everyone unhappy, including her, but any of options one, two, and three would leave two angry and ready-to-blow suitors. This was not looking so good…

Then the clock chimed twelve times. Peach's head shot up. She knew what that meant. The ball was supposed to end at midnight. Crazy Hand's voice overtook the crowd. "Alright, all you lovely couples out there. This last dance is just for you!" He pressed a few buttons, and Peach heard the beginning of the one song that she had requested(cough)demanded be played at least once during the ball. Her favorite song in the entire world, but she never expected it to be played last. As Don't Stop Believin' began, Peach was sure that, if he had eyes, Crazy Hand would have winked at her.

It wasn't a slow song. It was barely a dancing song at all. But Peach knew it was her song. And she was prepared to dance to it. Unfortunately, she had three guys willing to dance with her. She had to choose fast, before it was too late. Peach glanced at them. All three were hopeful…but…

"I think…" she started. "I think that I really should have the last dance…with my date, you know?"

Bowser's grin widened. Mario's and Ganon's faces sank, but they couldn't argue with that logic. Regretfully, the two of them stepped onto the sidelines, grumbling. Peach took Bowser's outstretched claw, and he led her out onto the dance floor. He grinned at her, and she gave a small smile back. "Peach?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"…I really don't care who you pick," he said. "Thanks for this. For coming with me. Thanks, Peach." And then he started dancing, spinning a startled Peach around. She wanted to ask him to repeat that, please. Did he really…? But when she looked to ask him, she saw that he was singing along. "Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard…" he sang. Well. That was the end of it. She began to sing, too.

"…Their shadows searching in the night," she sang with him. "Streetlights, people, living just to find emotion, hiding somewhere in the night…"

Don't stop believin'.

Peach continued to sing, the choice becoming clearer with every word. This was her time. Her choice. Her moment. Her song. And she realized that everything, every last thing, had gone perfectly.

One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven…twelve.

The clock announced that it was midnight. Crazy Hand shouted above the crowd, "Alright, all you lovely couples out there. This last dance is just for you!" And Wolf had barely drunk the last of his (not spiked) punch when Samus pulled him onto the dance floor.

"I love Journey!" she said, starting to hum along with the lyrics to Don't Stop Believin'. Wolf nodded, trying to figure out how exactly he was supposed to dance to this. At first, Samus let him slow dance to the…well, not slower, but less intense beginning. She quietly sang the words, eyes drifting all over the place. Suddenly, her eyes fixed on one place, and she stopped singing. "Wolf, Wolf, look at Marth and Zelda!" she said excitedly. He squinted, looking for the two of them.

"…Wait, are we supposed to be staring at them making out?!" he said, taken aback. Samus laughed.

"Duh. Isn't that great, though?"

Wolf looked at her and knew she had a bit too much sugar tonight. "You hate romance," he said to her. She shook her head.

"I never said that," she argued, though she most definitely did say that all of two days ago. Sighing, Wolf decided it was in his best interest not to argue and just keep dancing. The music gained intensity, and Samus started singing louder. Wolf looked at her again, her dazzling blonde hair flowing with the music, and he gulped. This whole night had really been spent with Samus dragging him around (and spiking his punch, apparently?) while he basically stared at her and let her do whatever she wanted. Back when he was commanding Star Wolf, before he came to Smash Mansion, he had trained himself to not feel emotion. Well, that training had kinda jumped out the window, leaving Wolf confused and hopeless and wondering how he really felt about the gorgeous bounty hunter. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. He liked her; well, more than that. And he wanted to tell her, but he wasn't sure how.

Should he just say it? Or should he kiss her, as Marth had done with Zelda? He was at a complete loss for what to do. "Hey, hey, Wolf, Earth to Wolf," said Samus, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Can you hear me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I can hear you," he muttered. Samus glanced at him disbelievingly.

"Then what did I say?"

Wolf shrugged. "I came in at 'Earth to Wolf'," he said.

Samus let out a small hmph. "I asked you to spin me!"

"What?"

Then she laughed. "You know, dance! Do the spin move!" she said.

"Like the weird pirouette thing?" he asked, spinning her around his claw. She laughed, clearly enjoying it, but shook her head.

"No, like when I'm legit in the air!" she said. "The thing they do in movies!"

"Samus, we're in a crowded ballroom," said Wolf cynically. "You sure that's a good idea?" Her chants of "Do it, do it, do it, do it!" clearly told him that she thought it was an excellent idea. He sighed. "If we break someone's neck, I'm blaming you," he said. He began to swing her around, gently, of course. She giggled like a little schoolgirl, having the time of her life. Then, Wolf felt his heels shift uneasily. Oh, crud. He was going to fall, lose his footing. And that would probably be horrific. He teetered back and forth, praying that he wouldn't fall. I've got one shot at this, he thought to himself. Wolf began to fall forward, but he quickly stopped Samus, catching her and stopping both of them from toppling over in a famous dance pose.

Unfortunately, or perhaps not so unfortunately, this left his face inches from hers. Wolf went fifty-two and a half shades of red. Aw, crap, aw, crap, crap, crap! Samus, however, knew exactly what to do in a situation like this. "Wow, Wolf," she said, looking him right in the eyes, "you're a great dancer." And then she leaned forward and kissed him.

…Geez, maybe she was on a sugar high or something…

Wolf's initial reaction was complete shock. He didn't realize what exactly was going on until it was over, and Samus pulled herself up, brushing herself off as if nothing had ended. The song drew to a close, and a mass cheer rose up from the Smashers and their dates. Samus clapped along with them, but Wolf continued to simply stare at her. He could never figure that girl out.

And he realized, with a grin, that he never would.

"Alright, all you lovely couples out there!" Crazy Hand shouted. "This last dance is just for you!" There was a mass migration of any and every couple in the gymnasium to the dance floor, forming a strange amoeba of dancers and leaving the rest of the gym barren.

Well, almost barren.

Seeing as Mario and Ganondorf had retreated to the other side of the room, sneaking into the shadows when they saw that Peach was not going to dance with them, and Lucario had gone off to take pictures, Pit and Dedede sat alone at the buffet table, the last remaining members of the dateless group (Kirby, whom they understood was also dateless, had gone out onto the dance floor anyway, at was presently having a dance-off with Crazy Hand.). Don't Stop Believin' started playing, and the crowd let out a roar of approval. Pit turned to Dedede. "Strange choice of song," he said, trying to make conversation. Dedede let out a grumble in return, cutting it off before it could even start. "Okay, geez," muttered the angel. "If you didn't want to talk to me, you could have said so." Dedede grumbled inaudibly again. The two sat for a few moments, until a loud voice from behind them caused them to whiz around.

"Dedede! Pit! Get over here now!" The two of them saw the previously MIA Lucario, waving and motioning for them to follow him. Pit looked to the penguin king and shrugged, then got up and went after the blue Pokémon. Still grumbling, Dedede followed, if only to not look like a loser, sitting alone at the last dance. Lucario hurried them through a door on the side of the gym. This was the weight room, and the place where all the things previously in the gymnasium had been moved. So it was, needless to say, rather cramped. Every other step there was a piece of sports equipment. But Lucario nimbly navigated through, heading for the back. Pit gracefully flew in the air, avoiding the equipment covered floor. Dedede, however, didn't travel as gracefully, kicking and pushing anything that was in his way out of it. In the end, he succeeded in breaking two tennis racquets, deflating three basketballs, and dismantling a pile of dumbbells (the last one which also caused serious damage to his foot as well). A stream of curses followed.

Finally, Lucario stopped in front of a laptop. "Here it is!" he said proudly. He motioned to his camera, which was plugged into the laptop. "Come look at these shots. This is photography gold!" The Pokémon clicked a few things, and then a page full of pictures shot up.

"You couldn't have just taken the laptop out to us?" muttered Dedede grumpily, but he and Pit approached the laptop screen and began browsing through the pictures. The first ones were multiple shots of Peach and Ganondorf dancing, from different angles, too. They were all rather nice shots, especially the one where Ganon stepped on Peach's foot and Peach slapped him. Then came some candid shots that Lucario had taken while just fooling around with the camera. They were nothing special, though every now and then there was an amazing capture. Like Ness picking his nose, thinking no one could see. Or Samus pouring a weird bottle into the punch bowl. After that were posed pictures. Lucario got some fairly nice photos of some of the couples; there was a cute shot of Link and Midna, a couple photos of Luigi and Rosalina, one of Wario proposing to Mona, and many others. Basically, if you had a date, Lucario had gotten a picture of you. Pit and Dedede continued scrolling down; there was one of Lucas being chased by one of the Aura Sphere lights; Master Hand chowing down on an entire roast turkey (though they had no idea how he was eating it—no mouth?); and…was that Kirby? Doing a flip? Finally through with all the Kodak moments, Pit nodded.

"These are really good," he said. "I like the one of Bowser spraying Peach with the fire extinguisher the best."

"No. The one of Ganondorf. When he had no idea that there was a photo being taken and made that really awkward face. That was the best," said Dedede.

"Or Blaze whacking Sonic over the head," said the angel.

"Or Game & Watch pounding R.O.B. with a snapping turtle," the penguin added in.

"My personal favorite," said Lucario, "is the one where Blue, Candy, and Dixie all got soaked. That was Falco and Katt's doing. It took a lot of water coolers, let me tell you." He chuckled, remembering the look on the Meta Knight Freaks Me Out club's faces when the torrents of ice cold water came down. Then he realized something. "Hey, I don't have any pictures of you guys," he said. In one sweeping motion, he grabbed the camera, clicked the button, and a blinding flash illuminated the room. Pit and Dedede blinked spots out of their eyes, and Lucario checked on his picture. "Hey, this is pretty good," he said, showing it to them. Pit, who had anticipated what was going to happen, had been able to get a quick smile on his face, so he looked halfway decent. But Dedede still had the same "I-hate-the-world" face on that he usually did. He eyed the picture carefully.

"You're right," he said. "That's an excellent shot."

There was a sudden eruption of cheers from the gym. "I'm assuming that means that the dance…ball is over," said Pit.

"Oh, they may be cheering now," said Lucario, his voice taking on an evil tone they had never heard before, "but wait until tomorrow, when this pictures are uploaded to the Internet!" He let out a mad laugh, his shoulders shaking. He looked like a villain straight out of a movie. Dedede and Pit glanced at each other, more than a little freaked out.

"Uh…Lucario? Are you okay?" asked Dedede.

Instantly, the Aura Pokémon snapped out of it. "Hmm? What? Why wouldn't I be okay?" Pit and Dedede said nothing, instead backing away very slowly.

Out on the pavilion, Meta Knight and Jigglypuff sat, still wrapped in each other's arms. They had looked at the stars for a while, just talking. Jiggly hadn't ever felt so…wonderful before. He loved her. It was the best feeling in the world, knowing that you were loved. She had never thought it would feel this good, being loved, and loving someone back. She snuggled into Meta's arms. Wonderful. That's exactly what it was. What this whole night was. Just wonderful.

The clock chimed once, twice…twelve times. Suddenly, Jigglypuff was hit with realization. "Oh! The ball's over!" she said. "We…We missed the last dance!" Now that was disheartening. No, it was plain distressing. Missing the last dance? After all they'd been through tonight? What was that? Huh?

Meta looked towards the lights of the gym. There was the faint sound of music…Journey? "We haven't yet," he said, getting up off the bench. He offered Jiggly his hand. "Jigglypuff," he said, "may I have this dance?"

"Since when have you needed to ask?" she replied, taking his hand and coming off the bench. Immediately she found herself in his arms again. Just like Meta. Making sure that everything was exactly to her liking. She wanted a last dance? A last dance was what she got, and more. Slowly, but still in time to the distant music, the two of them rocked back and forth, never taking their eyes off of each other. The last dance. But it was different. Now she knew that Meta Knight loved her, and she wasn't afraid to lean forward and whisper, "Thanks, Meta," brushing her lips against his cheek in a soft kiss. In response, he turned and kissed her on the lips again, and Jigglypuff returned to heaven. And they danced, underneath the starry sky, which in Jiggly's opinion was the best ceiling. She wanted to say so much. I love you, Meta Knight. I love you more than anything, and I care about you, and always will, and nothing will ever change that. That's what she wanted to say, but she knew she didn't need to. He knew. And even if she wanted to try to say it, Meta's soft lips were still pressed against hers, making speech rather impossible. Ah well. It wasn't like she was complaining.

Finally, from the gymnasium came a massive cheer. The two broke away, knowing the dance was drawing to a close. "Well," said Meta Knight, "I guess we should head back, then."

"Yeah. I guess." Meta grabbed his mask, starting to fix it back on, but not before he kissed Jigglypuff again. They walked together, hands entwined, back to the gym…ballroom, really. Meta Knight opened the door for her, and they walked in to be instantly greeted by Wolf and Samus.

"Hey! Where were you guys?" asked Samus. "You missed it! Falco and Katt dumped ice water on Blue, Dixie Kong, and Candy Kong!" Jiggly swore she heard Meta snicker. "And then, Crazy Hand started playing Journey at full blast, and Wolf and I did the spin move, and it was the best, man. The best." She laughed, starting to pull Wolf along to go talk to someone else.

"She kissed me!" Wolf mouthed to them, pointing a claw at the female bounty hunter. Jigglypuff gave him a thumbs up, and Meta nodded to him.

Next to pass them were Peach and Bowser. Peach saw them and waved, then, seeing their intertwined hands, seemed to get a satisfied smirk on her face. Then she turned to Bowser and kissed him on the cheek, turning the Koopa's face beet red. Behind them trailed a rather angry Ganondorf and Mario. The other couples began to leave the gym; Blaze and Sonic, Krystal and Fox, and Falco and Katt all waved to them. "Hey," Meta called to the last two, "thanks." They all glanced over to Blue, Candy, and Dixie, who were all soaked to the bone and clinging to their dates, shivering.

"Aw, no problem, buddy," said Falco. "I'm the only one allowed to call you creepy around here." And then they left.

Most of the couples had also left. Then Jigglypuff spotted Marth and Zelda. The two of them were making out in the corner, completely oblivious to the fact that basically everyone was gone. Meta Knight leaned in. "Should we get them?" he asked.

Jiggly shook her head. "They're going to have to come up for air eventually," she said. Meta let out a soft chuckle. "Well, the ball's over. Regretting that you gave in and came?" she asked.

"Far from it," said the Star Warrior. He lifted his mask a bit and kissed her again. "Thanks, Jigglypuff," he whispered.

"For what?"

"For saying yes," he said. And then the two of them walked out of the room.

The ball was over. It had come and gone so fast, it seemed. And it left behind new romances, new discoveries, and, most importantly, new friendships, and old friendships renewed and made stronger. What had started out as a dreaded, despised thing had become a life changer. And all the Smashers had silently agreed: that night wasn't going to be topped for quite a while. An often retold story, a favorite memory.

And so it ended. But, really, didn't that just mean that everything else began?

...Wow. So that's it, then. The end. ...I think I need a tissue.

Meta Knight: (sighs and hands her one)

Me: (blows nose) It's over...It's really the end... (blows nose)

Meta Knight: ...You're insane.

Me: But WAIT! (throws tissue away) There's MORE! (stops, tips hat) Billy Mays. Never forgotten. (gets back on topic) There will be an epilogue! Coming soon! Thank you guys for sticking with me through all of this. Without you, my reviewers, this would probably still be stuck at chapter two. Thanks so much! (throws cookies into the air) You're the best!!

...Well, it's almost two o'clock in the morning. I really should be getting to bed, shouldn't I? Ciao!

-Umbreon Mastah