"So, what do you actually do in a specific Showcase?" Litleo asked. "I'm trying to keep up but you're always talking about the second round."

"That's because the first round is actually the one you get surprised by," Serena explained. "Or, almost. You get a bit of advance notice about the theme, so you dress right backstage, but the actual challenge – the Theme Performance itself – is meant to be a surprise and test your adaptability."

She waved her hand vaguely back in the direction they'd come from. "So one of the Showcases we did a while ago involved making Poképuffs, and that was about knowing who had the skills for it. Fortunately that's something I'd already taught my Pokémon to do, because I find it relaxing, but they're not always that convenient."

"So, really, the best we can do is try to be alert and adaptive," Braixen said. "According to our witchy tutor that's actually something a lot of magic users have to do anyway, because spell casting is… sort of involved, a lot of the time."

"I'm making a list," Ponyta added, flourishing it. "I'm trying to work out which spells we should prepare, which is like almost but not quite finishing casting the spell. Then when you're actually ready to use it you just connect up the last little bit and it happens. The problem is, the more you have the harder it gets to manage, so we really need to prioritize."

"That's right," Serena said. "Speaking of which, what does that list look like at the moment?"

"Um… Pokémon comprehensibility spell, underlined four times," Ponyta said. "It's just so useful even if you are getting the hang of understanding your whole team. Then a flight spell, and after that it's just question marks."

"I'm not going to argue with science," Serena decided. "So that's the first round, but then the second round is doing a routine… and, if we get there, there's a special trick we're going to try."

"Mysterious," Litleo decided.

The entry into the Showcase venue was a bit delayed, partly because of the fuss being made about a local Performer called Amelia, but eventually the friends were able to make it to their seats.

"Well, let's find out what Serena's got to do this time," Clemont said, sitting down and opening the pamphlet.

Then he stifled a laugh.

"Translation," the Translation Gear began. "Chapeau."

"Ssh!" someone hissed, in the row behind him.

"Calm down, the Showcase hasn't started yet," her friend retorted.

Clemont turned off the Translation Gear. "Either there's a Rotom in there or there should be," he muttered.

"It's improving faster than you'd think," Lokoko pointed out. "Remember, it has to rely on knowing entire languages, and understanding all the strange things people do with them… and it doesn't have the shortcut that Pokémon do."

"That's true, but still," Clemont said. "I really feel like I should have finished it by now."

"What about if you make it translate anything into one Pokémon language, and then translate from that into whatever language you're targeting?" Ash asked. "Like, oh, going through Muk? That's only got one syllable, after all."

"I…" Clemont began. "That's… I can't tell if that would make it much easier, or much harder."

He looked at Lokoko. "Would that make it much easier or much harder?"

Lokoko shrugged. "I'm not a computer science expert."

Then the Showcase began, and the lights went down.

"That's right, Performers!" Pierre said. "The winner of the Theme Performance will be the one who attracts the most Rhyhorn!"

He waved his hand with a flourish, only to notice the Rhyhorn had gone.

"Where are…?" he began, and saw they'd all gathered around Serena. "That's… not what I was expecting?"

"I've heard about you before!" one of the Rhyhorn said, nodding at Serena. "Aren't you the daughter of his trainer? He's Rhyhorn, the one with the web design business."

"That's me," Serena agreed, patting the Rhyhorn on the back of her horn, as Pancham adjusted a straw hat and a long grass-stem in his mouth to give him a fine rancher appearance. "I think Fletchling is the one who does a lot of the typing, but it was always interesting to see Rhyhorn making sure that the margins were aligned just right."

"Wow, you weren't kidding," another Rhyhorn admitted. "She really can understand us."

"How is she doing that?" said a third.

"Actually, it's magic," Serena explained. "My Ponyta said it'd be the most useful spell for today, and she was right – just like you'd expect. But I've got something else prepared as well, just in case – actually, it'd probably give a better performance to the audience, this has ended up being a bit weird."

"Oh, good point," the Rhyhorn said. "We were supposed to be indifferent, weren't we?"

"That's not the same as deliberately facing away from someone just because we've heard of her," Rhyhorn pointed out. "After all, she does have experience taking care of Rhyhorn, and other Rhyhorn as well, I hear."

"I don't know…" Rhyhorn wondered.

"What about if I give you all a nice little show?" Pancham asked. "That way you're coming over to see what I'm doing?"

"That would work," Rhyhorn agreed.

"Fine by me," Rhyhorn confirmed.

Serena flicked her fingers, and Pancham tensed before spinning himself into a balletic twirl. He went en pointe, then kept going, rising into the air in exactly the way that a spinning top would do were it not for tiresome considerations like gravity, and purple light streamed out from his fists as he finessed a Dark Pulse.

"Ooooh," Rhyhorn, Rhyhorn and the other Rhyhorn said, watching as Pancham performed.

"She's not bad," said one of the locals. "Not as good as Amelia, though."

"But Amelia hasn't performed yet," Bonnie frowned. "And if this is a Showcase she's doing here, she hasn't performed here before either, has she? Unless she lost."

"She's just better," the local insisted.

"Okay, here we go," Serena said.

She glanced down at Eevee. "Don't forget, it's still up to you."

"I know," Eevee said. "And… I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, because I am. But I've made my choice."

She flicked her tail aggressively. "I want to do this."

"Thank you, Eevee," Serena told her, patting her, then straightened up and followed her Pokémon out onto the stage for the Freestyle Performance.

It wasn't her going first, in fact the local performer Amelia went first, and she had an Espeon and a shiny Dragonair who combined to produce a sparkling dance replete with hearts and snowflakes.

It got a lot of cheers, and Serena tried not to shake her head as she did her best to dismiss her worries.

This wasn't really about qualifying. It'd be nice, but that wasn't what she was here for.

It was about someone else.

When Serena's turn came, she, Braixen and Ponyta all stepped back, leaving just Eevee in the middle of the spotlight, and the Normal-type closed her eyes before springing to her paws and doing a twirl.

Eevee danced for a long moment on her own, without anyone else present, then worked rapid-fire through all the powerful moves she'd picked up. A Fire Blast flicked up, to hit a Surf, which was then blown apart in a cloud of sparkles by an Electroball. The Electroball was followed by a Petal Dance, that was impacted by a Psyshock and neutralized by Foul Play, before a Glacial Lance powderized the petals and a Sparkly Swirl whipped them up into a whirlwind.

The whole sequence took only a few seconds, and while the shower of sparks was still flicking around Eevee it was time for Serena and Braixen to get involved. Wielding matching wands, two from Braixen's set, they touched them together and lit a Mystical Fire on the tips before drawing a curlicued, symmetrical heart-shape in the air.

The shape flashed brilliantly for a moment with multicoloured fire, then as it faded Ponyta stepped through – with her friend and trainer behind her, stepping through the same heart-shaped outline – and knelt down to touch her horn to Eevee's forehead.

Eevee gasped, rising gently into the air as Ponyta stepped back, and Braixen used Mystical Fire again. This time it was in the form of glowing ribbons of flame, which made a big heart shape in half-a-dozen different colours before swooping down towards Eevee in pairs.

The clink of an Everstone hitting the ground was lost in the sound of Ponyta's belled harness, and Eevee began to glow. She danced again as well, this time on thin air, and Serena and Braixen directed the ribbons with their wands so that they poured themselves onto the dancing form before dissolving in sparkles of light.

Ears. Tail. Feet, one paw at a time. Then four at once, forming a bow-shape on the forehead, and the same at her neck, and when the last of the flaming ribbons was gone the light had faded and Sylveon was stood there – gently floating, with a Fairy Wind coiling and recoiling around her, until she touched the ground again and it went whoosh outwards to fill the whole hall with blue-and-white-and-pink sparks.

"Look at you," Serena said, crouching down to her Pokémon. "You're beautiful."

"That was… amazing," Sylveon told her, suddenly jumping up to give Serena a hug, all four ribbons wrapping around her. "Thank you so much, I didn't – it didn't feel real while it was happening, it felt too right for that, it was like a dream-"

"It's all right," Serena reassured her. "It's real, sweetie."

"Hmm," Palermo said, up in her box observing the Showcase. "Interesting… do you know what strikes me about that one?"

"Not really," her assistant admitted. "Sorry, ma'am."

"It's actually simple if you think about it," Palermo replied. "You see, while rehearsals are critical to any performance, because you simply can't do well without putting the hard work in, there's simply no way that could possibly have been fully rehearsed. Evolution doesn't work like that. And what that means is that there were certain parts of that which were being done for the first time on stage – in front of hundreds of people."

She considered, then nodded. "Yes, I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on Serena. Whether or not she makes the Master Class."

"I'm not sure I understand," her assistant admitted. "Don't you always say that most Performers don't put in enough rehearsal time?"

"Oh, that much is definitely true," Palermo agreed. "But you need that drive to succeed and a passion for what you do – if you're to be Kalos Queen, you need both, because there's plenty of people with one or the other. You need to work hard enough to get rid of any flaws, but your performance simply cannot become rote, because if it does then the passion is gone. And people notice."

She waved down at the floor. "Can't you see? Amelia's performance was just as technically skilled, and it was less risky because she could practice every last bit of it to perfection. If this was a Contest then there'd be almost nothing between them. But this is a Showcase, and it's Amelia's home town… and yet Serena's just won the voting. Because people notice passion."

"It sounds like you've made a decision on whether to act as producer for Amelia?" the assistant asked.

"Of course," Palermo replied. "I'm not going to. Not for Serena, either, not right now, but it'll be interesting to see if she makes it far enough to face Aria…"

"Hmm," Aten said, giving Sylveon careful consideration.

Then looked over at Pikachu.

"Are you sure this is technically possible?" he asked. "An actual Eeveelution, instead of just an indecisivEevee? It seems fundamentally off somehow."

"I know what you're getting at, but don't forget that Virgil guy from Unova," Pikachu pointed out. "He had a whole collection of Eeveelutions, if not a complete one."

He flicked his ears. "Oh, and Sylveon, it suits you."

"Thanks!" Sylveon replied, still smiling. "It felt great to evolve like that, I'm so glad we decided to do it!"

Then Arc told them when the Master Class was, and where, and everyone collectively checked the map before deciding they'd better either hurry or plan to teleport.

AN:

Of course she became Sylveon.