"What's a contest anyway?" Pippi asked curiously. "Ruby looked up from her magazine, which depicted Wallace's niece Lisia.

"It's kinda like a showcase, but with more battling involved." Pippi blinked.

"Do you do contests?"

"In my spare time." She checked the time on her Ark-Dex. "Speaking of contests, the one for the tournament begins in an hour, I need to go get ready." She got up to leave.

"Are you entering the contest?"

"Nope, not entering." Ruby, walking out, leaving Pippi confused. After a moment, the blue Pokémon started fumbling with the nearby TV remote, somehow managing to switch to the channel showcasing the contest.

Ruby walked toward the contest hall, where she was going to be prepped. Mawile and Froslass trailing behind her. She turned suddenly, feeling as though there was someone else there. She saw nobody. After a moment of looking, she turned and continued walking, just shrugging it off...

From behind a building a strange looking Pokémon emerged. It appeared to be a black humanoid inside of a pink two piece shell. The Pokémon stared at the walking albino curiously, then to the Froslass alongside her.

"Lele." The Pokémon chirped quietly, continuing to follow the girl unnoticed.

"...I see." Meyer stated as Bonnie finished her story. "Well, I can't say that I condone Clemont's actions... But..."

"But what?" Bonnie questioned.

"He's still your brother Bonnie. That's something you can't change." Bonnie frowned.

"Let me know when you've come up with a better argument then that." She stated.

"Bonnie... What happened to you?"

"Pardon?"

"What happened to the little girl who would try to find her brother a wife and look constantly for the cutest Pokémon?"

"...She grew up."

"Grew up, came to the Glacies Region, fell off a cliff in a snowstorm, got saved at the last minute by Ash-Greninja-HEY!" Squishy started, having returned to core form and situated himself in Bonnie's pocket, only for said blonde to snap the pocket shut.

"...Ignore that." Meyer shook his head, turning. "Where are you going?"

"I need to have a word with your brother, and then with you about what Squishy just said."

Ruby looked in the mirror, taking in her appearance. She wore a silver dress with purple accents, and a heart shaped locket in full view, instead of hidden as it normally was. She turned and walked out of the dressing room, Mawile and Froslass following. As she walked toward where she was supposed to be, she became aware of another presence. Looking down, she noticed a small Rockruff was sniffing her curiously.

"Uhh... Excuse me?" The Rockruff jumped, looking up apologetically.

"Sorry, you just smell kinda like a friend of mine." He looked down sadly. "I miss her a lot." Ruby bent down towards the small Pokémon.

"Did she die or something?"

"I hope not." The Rockruff responded, shaking his head. "My trainer abandoned her on the streets. You kinda smell like my friend. Very Popplio like."

"Popplio?"

"Yeah, my friend was a Popplio. She was very nice, and the others loved her, except our trainer." Ruby blinked.

"This... Popplio, her name wouldn't happen to be Pippi would it?" As Ruby said that, the Rockruff's ears perked up.

"Y-yeah! Do you know Pippi!? Is she alright!?"

"Calm down, she's okay. She's at the Pokémon center right now." The Rockruff's tail wagged.

"I'm glad Pippi's OK, we were all really worried. My name's Rocky."

"Hi Rocky. So you and Pippi had the same trainer, right?"

"Yeah. But our trainer's a major bitch." He looked to be in thought. "She actually got a Budew from her grandma once when she was visiting, then she released it three months later when she realized it was part Poison Type. Then she released Pippi because she acted more like a contest Pokemon, now she's going into contests! Fucking Hypocrite!"

"Where's your trainer?" Rocky blinked.

"Oh, she's the really loud and obnoxious girl over there showing off Lurantis." He answered, pointing. Ruby nodded, seeing the girl Rocky was talking about. She turned back to the Rock Type, seeing him trying to toss a random paper cup in the recycling bin. Ruby sighed, walked over over threw the cup in.

"Thanks!" Rocky yipped.

"...You're kinda strange you know."

"Yeah, everyone says that. Just cause I think everyone should really recycle more."

"There's nothing wrong with that if you don't go overboard." Rocky's ears dropped.

"Is that why everyone gets annoyed by me?" He said, taking a step back, only to knock down a random passing Oshawott by accident. The Oshawott got up, looked at the apologetic Rock Type, and blasted it with Hydro Pump before walking away. "GAHH! WATER! I HATE WATER!" Rocky screamed, running in circles in a state of panic, trying to get the water out of his fur.

"He should be in a cartoon or something." Mawile spoke, watching the scene.

Alain watched in disbelief as Mairin scarfed down her food. Honestly, if he didn't know any better, he would have thought she would be Ash's sister by the amount of food she eats.

"This food is awesome!" She cheered, downing another massive bite.

"I'm glad you like it." Lysandre said, barely managing to hide his own disbelief at the fact that this was Mairin's third plate, which, by the way, had food stacked at least a foot tall on it. "If you have room for anything else, then might I suggest the chocolate vanilla cream cake? Princess Ruby really favors it you know."

"One please!" Mairin cheered, having their waiter take the order.

"...Speaking of the Princess, I hear that she's one of the judges of the contest." Lysandre continued.

"Ruby?" Alain asked. "I never took her for a Coordinator"

"Oh yes, she seems to see it more as a hobby though. I've seen some of her appeals. She makes Wallace look like a novice, and she's only thirteen." He looked over at the TV. "Ah, speak of the devil." The TV was showing the beginning of the contest at that moment, also showing a green haired reporter covering the events. Alain's eyes widened as he recognized the reporter.

"Is that...Sawyer!?"

"Ah yes, he's the main reporter for the Glacies News Network. He's also competing in the tournament." Lysandre answered as Mairin had received her cake, and Alain received the bill. His eyes widened. Even with fifty percent off everything, Mairin had racked up quite a bill.

"Don't worry Alain!" Said girl said, her mouth full of cake. "I'm paying the bill."

"You sure about that?"

"Of course!" Alain shrugged, and handed her the bill. She took a quick glance, did a double take, remained silent for a moment... Then fainted.

"I was going to say something..." Lysandre began. "But she had already ordered her next two plates."

"Princess Ruby, I never took you for a Coordinated." Wallace said in surprise.

"Everyone says that." She responded. She could faintly hear Rocky freaking out backstage.

"Ah well." The former Hoenn Champ began. "May I introduce you to my niece Lisia? She's a judge as well. I think they also asked Fantina to judge, but she declined for some reason."

"Yeah, I was surprised by that too." While this went on, nobody noticed the pink Pokemon, hidden in the shadows, watching Ruby with great interest. The pink Pokemon also noticed that she wasn't the only one watching Ruby.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" May snarled as she saw Ruby appear at the judges table with Wallace and Lisia.

"Don't worry." Dawn said, wincing at the pain in her face. "She won't change anything in this contest."

"Yeah right! She's obviously going to give us low scores even though we're going to give the best performances!"

"I don't know, Zoey will be a challenge." Dawn said with a chuckle, then a wince. "Just calm down. We just get out there, win the appeals, then you can help me find proof that that basterd Ash has my Buneary- OOWW!" She yelped as a random book landed on her head. She looked toward an upper platform. "What the hell Paul!? How did you even get back here!?" Paul just walked away, Feeling no need to tell them that Ruby had asked him to do that. Dawn rubbed her head, then noticed May getting up. "Where are you going?"

"To punch that little albino bitch in the face!"

"Don't! You'll get disqualified and possibly arrested!"

"This is personal!" May snapped, taking a step forward, only for her leg to be grabbed by a psychic hold. She ended up flat on her face. She passed herself up, her nose bleeding. "Who that hell did that!?" She snapped. No one noticed the Pokemon in the shadows.

"Lele." The Pokemon giggled, turning her attention back to Ruby.