After a nice voyage on the S.S. St. Flower, with only a little bit of an interruption when someone tried using disguises to steal the Ribbon Cup and fundamentally failed to understand why that was a bad idea around a Zorua, the friends reached Slateport and the site of the Grand Festival.

Drew was there as well, saying he had no idea what May was going to pull out this time but that it was probably going to surprise him, while Harley noticed May from a distance and turned ostentatiously away.

Also, May's mother was there.

"Your father would have come as well, but he's got the gym," she said. "The good news is, I brought all the Pokémon, so they can be in the audience."

"That's great!" May smiled. "I'll do my best to make sure you didn't waste the trip."

"It wouldn't be a waste anyway, dear," Caroline assured her. "It's lovely to see you… and I hear you've got another Normal type now!"

She chuckled. "Your father was so proud when he told me that."

"Knowing Ash and May, that Munchlax isn't remaining normal for long," Max chuckled.

May waved her hand at her brother. "Well, I know he knows Metronome! I'm going to be careful with it, though… Ash's Clefairy has already told me a few stories about Metronomes going badly wrong."

She frowned. "At least, I think that's what the stories were about. She did draw diagrams, which helped."

There were over two hundred people taking part in the Hoenn Grand Festival, and they first had to pass two Appeal rounds – the first to cut them down to sixty-four entrants and the second to reduce them to thirty-two – before getting on to the Battle rounds, which would be Double Battles for an extra level of spectacle.

And difficulty.

Harley gave May some advice, telling her that he'd turned over a new leaf and that she should find something that worked and stick to it, but May told him with a smile that that wouldn't really be fair on her other Pokémon so she'd switch them around like Ash did.

She was still wondering about that advice when her first Appeal round came around, and she sent out Marill.

"Ah, and Miss Maple sends out her Marill – last seen as an Azurill, I believe," the announcer said. "Or just-evolved, at least… let's see what she's got."

"Bubble!" May ordered.

Marill blew out a cloud of bubbles, which hung floating in the air, each one a different size. She bounced around, blowing a whole cloud in a spiral, and May watched for a long moment before deciding it was enough.

"Now, Bounce high!" she called. "And Ice Beam!"

"Right!" Marill agreed, her tail-ball going boiing as she kicked off from the ground, and did a complete forward roll before touching her lips and activating Ice Beam.

Bubbles froze as she fired it down in little bursts – not freezing all the bubbles, just specific ones – and the ones she hadn't hit began to pop and disperse as she came right back down again.

"And… Rollout!" May said, giving her final order as Marill touched down.

The Water-type curled into a ball and began rolling, heading for the first frozen bubble. It was much more thickly encrusted with ice than it looked, and shattered with an audible chime as Marill bounced off towards the next… which burst with another chime, a little higher in pitch.

The remaining six bubbles burst on impact in succession, playing a musical scale that went mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, and Marill unballed before striking a pose.

"I wondered why she'd had Marill make so many bubbles and then only freeze so few of them," Mr. Contesta said. "Interesting!"

He marked down some points. "She must have needed that many just to be sure there would be the right set of sized bubbles, but it's impressive enough to train at spotting them like that."

After the first Appeals round came the second, and – true to her plan – May switched to Bulbasaur.

"Are you sure this is going to be okay?" Bulbasaur asked, a bit nervously, then blushed. "Oh, right… no Vulpix…"

May frowned slightly, then patted Bulbasaur on the head. "You'll do fine," she said. "Don't worry. Think of it like this – you've had plenty of time to practice, right?"

Bulbasaur nodded.

"There you go, then!" she told the Grass-type. "And I'll make sure to remind you, okay?"

She recalled her Pokémon, and walked out onto the grass.

"I think this is going to be Bulbasaur's Contest debut," Brock said. "Let's see how it goes… she's got a different style from my Bulbasaur."

"Well, not that different, since he taught her some of his moves," Vulpix pointed out. "But yes, their aesthetic is a bit different."

"Petal Blizzard!" May called, as she threw the Pokéball, and Bulbasaur emerged already using Petal Blizzard. A whirl of pink petals flashed out, forming a flat disc before spreading into a globe in less than a second, and the globe followed Bulbasaur down.

"And splash!" May added, and the petal swarm splashed like a giant droplet as it hit the ground. Bulbasaur was revealed again inside as the 'droplets' of petals rained down around her, and May pointed in front of them. "Petal promise!"

The petals swapped directions as Bulbasaur turned her swirl from clockwise to anticlockwise, mounting up like a waterspout and whirling off towards the other side of the grass before curling up to form a heart – using the same sort of technique Dragonite had for his precisely controlled Twister. Then the whirlwind unravelled, spreading out into a less well defined shape, and a small curl of still-controlled petals returned to Bulbasaur.

"Finish with flair!" May said.

Bulbasaur blew out a flicker of flame, which lit the petals on fire, and poured more in to nourish the fire as it grew in intensity. Then, all of a sudden, it became a Fire Pledge – which combined with the Grass Pledge – and the combination move detonated with a whoosh that set a quarter of the arena on fire and carried the scent of rose petals to the entire audience.

"Well?" Kirlia asked. "What's going on now?"

"Max doesn't tell me everything, sis," Ralts protested. "If he really really concentrates, I can see a picture, but it's kind of hard… he's only doing it for May's rounds, not the whole competition. She's made it to the battle round now but, uh, Max doesn't know what she's using."

"You're doing very well, dear," Gardevoir told him, with a smile.

"Thanks!" Ralts smiled. "Oh, um, it looks like this is going to be May's turn now. She's sending out her Munchlax, that's the new Pokémon, and…"

Ralts started giggling.

"What is it?" Kirlia said."What's funny?"

"Okay, Swalot, remember the special move we've got ready!" Anthony called. "And keep an eye on those Pokémon, they might have something special planned too!"

"Metronome!" May ordered. "And Copycat!"

"Sludge Bomb!" Anthony said.

Swalot fired out a Sludge Bomb, which burst with a bloosh shortly before reaching May's Pokémon. The wave of poisonous goop spread out, aiming for them, but Munchlax did a twirl with shimmering wings appearing around his shoulder for a moment – his Metronome giving him Steel Wing, letting him deflect the attack in style.

Then May's Skitty sprouted enormous wings of fire, which she beat once to charge past Swalot and catch him a flaming blow.

"Um… Spit Up!" Anthony ordered, and Swalot launched Pinsir at Munchlax. The sudden appearance of the Bug-type drew gasps from the crowd, and he pointed. "Fury Cutter!"

"Metronome!" May called out. "Skitty, Copycat that or Sludge Bomb!"

"Bullet Seed instead!" Anthony ordered in reply.

Swalot began firing Bullet Seed at where Munchlax was retreating and using Metronome, hitting Munchlax harder than Pinsir, but when Munchlax's Metronome triggered it was a Dazzling Gleam.

That, in itself, wasn't a big problem for Pinsir – he more or less ignored it. But what was a much bigger surprise was when Skitty came charging in, did something that Anthony couldn't remotely follow, and hit Pinsir with a bright flash of rock.

It was like the flash of light turned into a slamming impact of rock where it intersected with Pinsir, or… something?

"Munchlax, Mega Punch!" May said, then.

Munchlax crossed his arms. A spectral Snorlax appeared behind him, slid forwards, and punched Pinsir into the air with an uppercut that Pinsir tried to block – it turned out to be hard to block a fist when it could pass through solid rock – while Skitty yowled something and a Delcatty made of sand pounced out from behind her to knock Swalot sliding backwards.

"Sludge Bomb!" Anthony tried.

This time, Skitty copied Swalot's attack… before he'd even used it. A Me-Firsted Sludge Bomb turned into an electrical explosive hit Swalot in the moustache, and he went thump backwards.

"Battle Off!" the referee called. "May Maple is the winner!"

Between rounds, Ash went out to the lawn outside the Contest Arena for a talk.

"Snorunt, I wanted to talk about something," he began. "See… you're – I think – the first Pokémon I've had who has a branching evolution. And the first one who might lose the chance to be something because you accidentally ended up something else."

He rummaged in his bag.

"Phanpy found this earlier today," he said. "It's a Dawn Stone. You could use it to evolve into a Froslass any time… or I could get you an Everstone, and you could delay your decision. Or you could take neither, if what you want to be is a Glalie."

Snorunt tilted her head (which meant her entire body), thinking about it.

"What changes if I become a Froslass?" she asked. "I've only ever met Glalie, I think… I know Glalie can float."

"A Froslass is a Ghost type, as well as an Ice type," Ash said, getting Ibid out.

The unusual Pokédex recognized what he was after, and transformed into a miniature Froslass. "The Snow Land Pokémon. Legends in snowy regions say that a woman who was lost on an icy mountain was reborn as Froslass."

"I haven't heard that one before," Zorua said. "Think Ho-Oh did it?"

Ho-Oh came out of his Timer Ball.

"Before you ask me formally…" he began. "No. I did not. If anything I'd go for a Fire type."

"That's assuming a lot about how much control you have over the process!" Zorua laughed, then ducked out of the way as Ho-Oh flapped a wing at him irritably.

"So… pass through objects, and various other ghostly powers," Snorunt decided. "Versus flying. Hmm. Can I have an Everstone? I'd like to think about it a bit."

"I'm pretty sure that Froslass can fly as well," Pikachu said. "Or float, at least, like Glalie can."

"Oh, well, in that case…" Snorunt mused. "Wait. Can Froslass Mega-Evolve? I know Glalie can."

"Honestly, give Phanpy a week," Zorua told her. "She's taking requests now – look!"

He extracted a night-black stone with a red-and-aqua fleck from his tail fluff. "She's about fifty percent sure this is Zoroarkite. Maybe fifty-five… but that's pretty good odds!"

"Right, everyone ready for the test?" Bayleef asked. "Clefairy?"

"Oui," Clefairy declared, giving a thumbs-up.

"Croconaw? Quilava?"

Two more confirmations.

"Okay, then, Shaymintwo, take it away!" Bayleef said.

Shaymintwo reached into his fuzz and took out a Dragon Gem.

"I hope this one works!" Phanpy said, brightly. "I've only found six of those since yesterday!"

"I hope I end up not needing this crutch," Shaymintwo replied, "Tch."

The gem lit up, and he focused.

"Roar of Time!" he announced.

Energy pulsed outwards, and Shaymintwo blurred into motion.

He bounced between Quilava and Croconaw in an instant, then approached the frozen Clefairy – and she shook her head, once, before beaning him with a Moonblast.

Shaymintwo went flying backwards past Bayleef, though she caught him with her vines.

"I take it it didn't work properly?" she asked.

"Non, c'est une impulsion externe," Clefairy replied.

Bayleef nodded. "So you're slowing down the local timestream, not speeding up your own, which means Clefairy isn't affected much if at all… and it fell apart when you were hit by the Moonblast, I assume?"

"Hmph," Shaymintwo said, annoyed.

"Entei, any insights?" Bayleef added, as Entei padded over.

"Blep," Entei replied, sticking his tongue out.

Quilava sniggered.

"Obviously you need to turn it inside out," Entei added, bouncing on his paws a little. "But next time you try that, I'd like to try doing the catching. Someone shout fetch first!"

In Alola, Kukui stared at his TV.

"...how am I supposed to be an expert in Pokémon attacks when they keep changing the rules like that?" he asked. "Dang… this could Transform our understanding of what moves are, assuming we could work out what the heck that Skitty is even doing."

"So, was I right?" Burnet asked. "This was worth watching."

"I can Confide in you that you were right," Kukui nodded. "I won't Minimize it."

Burnet tried not to laugh.

And, in Goldenrod City, Whitney sat down with one of her newest Pokémon.

"So!" she said. "Don't hesitate to ask questions. We want to get this right. So, you know the Type chart?"

Chatot nodded. "Easy Peasy!"

"Well, when you come across someone with just one or two Badges, that's the main thing you need to check," she told him. "They need to know their Type chart, but not be too reliant on it – I use Miltank for that sometimes because of Scrappy, but obviously you'll need to use other options."

"Example?" Chatot said.

"Well…" Whitney began, pursing her lips into a moue, then snapped her fingers. "Right! So if someone uses a Fighting type to beat a Normal type, obviously that shows good use of type advantage. But then you might want to test them with a Flying type or a Psychic type, like Pidgeotto or Girafarig… and don't forget to put bows on Girafarig's horns and tail, or they'll feel like one head's getting the attention!"

She shrugged. "Or you could use Rapidash! He's a really good counter to Fighting types, and he's still cute after all!"

AN:

Whitney may need to re-grade her difficulty examples slightly.