"I've got two quick questions," Articuno said, picking up one end of a long string of bunting.
"Go ahead," replied the Dragonite with a clipboard who was organizing everything.
"Firstly, how much bunting is enough bunting?" she asked, taking off without bothering to flap her wings. "Secondly, how much bunting is too much bunting?"
"Well, I'm not really sure, but I think the point where you have too much bunting is the point where it's interfering with the amount of light, and-or stopping people from moving around easily," Dragonite replied. "So there's a lot of wiggle room. Let's just go for as much bunting as we have, to be safe."
"Good enough for me," Articuno agreed, tying off the latest bit. "Okay, that's another of the black-and-yellow ones… do we have any more of that one with the black-tipped white and orange-tipped yellow?"
"I think there's another string of it, somewhere," Dragonite told her.
Next to them, Heracross carried in an arch woven with begonias, and put it down before hovering up into the air.
He contemplated the arch, then gave it a punch, seating it firmly into the earth.
"Good," Dragonite said, ticking off another entry on her list. "What move was that?"
"Brick Break," Heracross replied. "Since it's not a brick, it seemed a good way to avoid breaking it."
"Checks out," Dragonite agreed. "Hmm… how is the dais doing?"
"This is nothing like how we did it back in my day," Aten declared. "In my day, supplicants came to me to beg to be permitted to hold a ceremony, and I said no."
"That's not very polite," Silver said, half his attention on the water feature he was carrying. "I can't remember, did they decide to have the fountain or not?"
"Sorry, not on the list," Dragonite said. "Probably best if you leave it outside."
"I wasn't heartless," Aten huffed. "Just easily irritable. If two subjects wanted to get married, why were they bothering me about it? I was the King, not a local village priest."
"Just so I can check, are you planning on actually helping, or just grouching?" Articuno asked, floating up the next bit of bunting. "I'm not sure why I asked that question. I know you."
"Excuse me, is this the right place?" Astrid asked, looking down at her invitation and then back up at the surroundings. "I got this card a few hours ago, and… well, I'm not sure I followed the directions right."
She looked back. "There was this weird glowing ring, and I'm pretty sure the time of day just changed."
"Oh, yeah, you're Astrid, right?" Ash said, waving. "Yeah, you're here as a guest! It's so Absol has someone to represent her side of the family."
"Your Absol's related to mine?" Astrid asked. "Wow. I didn't know that."
"No, she's not my Absol," Ash replied. "She's wild, technically, or Lokoko's depending on how you count it but I don't think that applies until later today. And I don't think they're close relatives, they're just… relatives in general, because they're both Absol so they must be related somewhere if you go back far enough."
He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, it's just that your Absol is the first one who hasn't started screaming or panicking at the sight of me. We've actually got it planned out so that I meet her outside the ceremony with Noivern doing sound damping, just so it doesn't interrupt the big moment."
"I'm not sure how to feel," Lokoko admitted.
She looked at herself in the mirror, inspecting the dress, then sighed.
"Hundreds of years old, plentiful experience, and yet I feel like I've got no idea what to expect and my nerves are jangling. Does that seem like it makes any kind of sense?"
"I think it makes a lot of sense," Suicune told her. "This is something new."
"Hmm," Sandile said, flicking through some paper. "Let's see…"
He shook his head. "Nope. Nothing in here."
"I don't really understand why you keep consulting that," Suicune said.
"Well, sometimes it's helpful, but not this time," Sandile replied. "I've already gone over the times you and Absol appear, and neither of you have been in it for several seasons now, so I'm going to have to fall back on basic stereotypes."
He got out a different set of notes. "So. Which one of you is the bride and which one is the groom?"
"Is there a difference?" Lokoko asked.
"Stereotypically, yes," Sandile said. "The normal situation is that the bride is radiant and the groom is nervous."
He inspected the notes again, then turned them over.
"Ah!" he decided. "That might help. If you're nervous, is it nervous in a sort of don't-know-what's-next kind of way, or in an I-might-screw-up kind of way?"
"I suppose it's a bit of both," Lokoko judged. "Though it's hard to tell from the inside."
"Then I'm all out of ideas," Sandile said, screwing up the notes and throwing them down a hole. "Really, if you'd all just fit to basic tropes this would be a lot easier."
"Honestly, I think that did help," Lokoko decided. "I'd ask Absol if she feels the same, but there's that tradition about not seeing one another before the ceremony… I'm not sure if it applies to two female Pokémon but we may as well go along with it."
"I'm glad to be old, new, borrowed and blue for you," Suicune said, holding up a paw to her muzzle. "For tradition's sake, of course."
In Lumiose Arena, meanwhile, Alain checked his watch.
Then looked over at his Charizard, sitting patiently with his Mega Stone still ready for use.
"He's not coming back, is he?" he asked.
Charizard held out a paw, waving it, then shrugged and shook his head.
"Sounds about right," Alain agreed. "Mind carrying a note for Diantha? I want to ask if this means we win by default, because doing an Elite Four challenge would be nice…"
"How does my outfit look?" Shiny Xerneas asked.
"Hmm," Swellow said, fluttering back a few paces, then shook her head. "Yeah, no, ask someone who understands clothes. I don't know."
"Mostly I want it not to look ridiculous, while still signalling that I'm the one who's officiating," Xerneas clarified.
"Yeah, about that," Swellow said. "Why is it you're officiating, again?"
"I won several coin flips in succession," Xerneas explained. "Everyone who wanted to officiate was involved in a big coin flip bracket, and I came out on top. It sort of makes sense anyway, because Life, but not everyone was convinced. Until I won the coin flip."
"Fair," Swellow allowed. "Okay, so, thinking about it that way…"
She fluttered into the air. "Maybe lose the giant hat?"
"It had to be that big to fit over my antlers, but if you insist," Xerneas decided.
"Ready, everyone?" Serena asked. "Three, and two, and one…"
She flicked one of Braixen's wands, and multicoloured firework-alikes ascended into the sky with a series of whoosh and pop sounds.
"Do we do the big one yet?" Sylveon asked. "I know we wouldn't do it right now, I just want to know if I should be charging it up."
"That's for later," Litleo told her, then sent up a nine-tailed spike of fire. "This is the opening sequence."
"Got it!" Sylveon agreed.
"I'm still not sure why I'm not allowed to help with the fireworks," Clemont said, folding his arms. "I even had a plan for a Firework Gear for the occasion."
"I think that's why you're not," Serena replied, tracing a curl of Mystical Fire through the air.
"Yeah!" Bonnie said. "They didn't want the explosions to be on the ground!"
Clemont grumbled something.
"May you have long life, together, in whatever you do," Xerneas concluded. "And if anyone wishes to say that these two are not married, bring it up with the Legendaries."
"Isn't that bit normally supposed to come before the pronouncement?" Misty asked, leaning towards Brock as she joined in the applause. "You know, the speak-now or forever hold your peace bit."
"I don't think Xerneas bothered with that bit," Brock said. "Or maybe they did weddings differently in the past? They're only getting to the rings bit now."
Bonnie and Tyrunt brought up the cushion with the rings, and Lokoko smiled her thanks before picking up the first large ring.
"They're enchanted to shrink down once the right word's said," she explained, then frowned. "Hold on. There's three of them here-"
A golden ring flicked across, and both Lokoko and Absol vanished in a flash of light.
"What just happened?" Lucy asked.
"Hoopa just happened!" Hoopa declared brightly, from a few rows behind them, as the one remaining ring floated back to Hoopa's horn. "Hoopa wanted to skip to the bit where they go on a honeymoon, and honestly Hoopa is impressed with Hoopaself that Hoopa did not do something earlier!"
Hoopa folded Hoopa's arms. "Hoopa accepts payment in cake!"
"Well, that was unexpected," Lokoko said, at about the same time. "Where do you think we are?"
"Hmm," Absol replied. "Well, it's a different time of day… and there's a landmark there…"
She considered. "I think we're in… Mesagoza, that's right."
Lokoko and Absol exchanged glances.
Then Lokoko slipped the ring she was holding onto Absol's paw, Absol did the same for Lokoko, and with a whispered command word the rings shrank down to fit snugly onto their ankles.
"I've always wanted to visit Paldea," Lokoko said. "At least since ten seconds ago. Shall we, love?"
"Any time, anywhere," Absol told her.
One of Lokoko's tails curled around Absol's tailblade, and they set off together.
Back in Pallet Town, there was a wedding reception going on.
Ash had quickly realized that the only ways what had just happened could possibly have happened were if Absol saw it coming but was okay with it, or if she didn't see it coming because it wasn't a disaster in the first place, and either way they'd made all this food so why waste a good party?
"Ash, there you are," said Professor Samson Oak, as Ash was contemplating a Pikachu Fruit Flan. "Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Sure!" Ash agreed. "What's up?"
"Well, I know you've more-or-less finished with Kalos," Samson explained. "What I thought was, maybe you'd be interested in coming to the school I run in Alola?"
"Huh, a school…" Ash said, thinking about it. "I guess there's a lot I don't know about Pokémon!"
Samson laughed. "No, no, you misunderstand," he said. "I don't want you to attend the school, Ash, I want you to help teach. Professor Kukui's also working on significant research at the same time as teaching, and that on top of his other commitments means that he doesn't have as much time to prepare the curriculum as I'd like."
He nodded. "So, what I was wondering was if you'd like to come and teach the practical side of being a Pokémon trainer? You'd definitely have the chance to explore Alola while you were doing it."
"I think there's something else you've got planned, right?" Pikachu asked.
"Huh?" Ash said. "Why do you think there's something else, Pikachu?"
"Well, he is right," Samson Oak said. "I also want this to be a bit of a prank on the rest of the school. Possibly including Kukui. And, on top of that, it'd be an advancement for all of science if we discovered how Z-moves work… and the best way I can think of to make that happen is to put you in Alola and see what happens."
"That sounds like a lot of fun!" Ash decided. "I could get some of my Pokémon to help with the lessons! Oh, wait, does it have to be about Pokémon? Because I bet Pokémon like Zapdos could do great lessons about the weather too…"
AN:
And that's it for Kalos!
Alola will be starting in a few days.