"Oh, wow!" Dawn said. "I didn't realize it was getting to that time of year – the Pokémon Dress-Up Contest is happening tomorrow, and it's filmed close enough we can enter!"

"The Pokémon Dress-Up Contest?" Ash repeated, as Noctowl swooped overhead and began circling. "What's that?"

"I saw it once when it was rerun," Whitney said. "So, you probably know more about it because it's a Sinnoh program, but… the idea is that the Pokémon who enter have to do a dress-up of other Pokémon! It's pretty fun!"

She frowned, considering. "Hmm… actually, I don't know what they think of illusions but it's probably not okay as otherwise a Stantler would win every year. But there's still plenty of options."

"That's right," Dawn nodded. "I think it's… right, so the ability Illusion is banned, and illusions of other types are banned. The Pokémon has to actually look like what they're pretending to be, and the better the performance the better the score."

"Can more than one Pokémon enter per person?" Ash asked. "I think a lot of my Pokémon would like to take part."

"It can't hurt to ask, right?" Pikachu said, twitching his ears. "I'm not quite calling dibs, but I know I'd like to take part!"

"Welcome, everyone!" Rhonda announced, waving to the camera. "Welcome to the Pokémon Dress-Up Contest!"

The studio audience cheered.

"Now, we've got several competitors today, including an oddity – there's a few Pokémon who have entered by themselves," Rhonda went on. "We have checked the rule books and that is allowed, so long as it doesn't cause problems with conversations between the Pokémon and the organizers… something which the Johto Gym Leader Whitney's Rapidash has kindly helped with. Firstly, though, let's meet our judges!"

Mr. Sukizo was around, as he always seemed to be, but instead of Raoul Contesta the second slot on the judging panel was filled by a local Officer Jenny. The third slot was the local Joy, as usual, and afterwards Rhonda gestured to the stage.

"Let's meet our first contestant!"

Some of the entrants were impressively talented, not just at creating the illusion of being a specific Pokémon but also in staying entirely in character. There was one Mightyena who portrayed quite a respectable Suicune, and a Chatot who sang exactly like a Jigglypuff in every respect except for not actually putting the audience (and half of Sinnoh) to sleep.

Then there were the ones which caused the audience a bit more of a headache.

Dawn had entered her Piplup as a Rowlet, and he flapped his flippers before taking off with a swirl of Whirlwind.

"I… actually don't know how to score that?" Officer Jenny admitted. "Is that a move that Rowlet can learn?"

"No, it's not," Joy replied. "It's also not a move that Piplup can learn, though, so apparently I don't necessarily know what moves Pokémon can learn."

"Well, for that remarkable performance, we should at least consider Piplup for the finals," Mr. Sukizo suggested. "That's what I think, at least."

Next up was Latias, who'd entered as Latios.

"Okay, what about this one?" Joy said. "It's an extremely good imitation, but on the other hand that's because it's literally just a coat of blue paint."

"Wow," Jenny admitted. "I'm already finding judging this much harder than I should. And that Latias is probably copying her own brother, so can you say you know better about his mannerisms than she does?"

"Well, we have both got an entire family with the same style," Joy chuckled. "So there's that?"

Ash's Pikachu had a whole different style of imitation. He didn't have any costume, but the little Electric-type displayed what Mr. Sukizo called a remarkable ability to look a lot like just about any Pokémon with a little bit of ear-twitching and a funny face.

Over the course of about a minute, he did Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, Torchic, Popplio, Sharpedo, Loudred, Buneary, Azumarill and finished up with an Absol.

That got him straight through to the final.

Then came Ho-Oh, who pretended to be Moltres, and who was doing all right but had to be disqualified on technical grounds before the sprinklers went off.

"We'll be awarding a consolation trophy to Ho-Oh," Rhonda said, as Ash's final Pokémon came out.

"Well, my word!" Mr. Sukizo gasped. "Now that is an impressive portrayal of a Grovyle by that Charizard!"

The flaming-tail had been discreetly wrapped up in leaves, the horns formed a basis for the long head-tail down the back, and the colouring was almost perfect. They could see a few spots where the orange and cream of Charizard's coat were peeking through, but the appearance was almost perfect and showed an excellent attention to detail.

"I think that one's going through too," Mr. Sukizo decided. "It'd be difficult to say otherwise!"

There was a bit of an altercation that took place when two of the entrants, a Reshiram and a Zekrom, each began criticizing the job that the other had done on repainting themselves.

Ash's Croagunk helpfully resolved the situation with Wide Block, dodging the two Dragon types away from the contest hall, which was followed up by another disqualification as someone noticed that the wonderfully-done Victini on the end of a fishing rod being carried by someone in a trenchcoat was actually a Victini and that the one in the trenchcoat was a Darkrai.

Then Whitney's Chatot – repainted as a Pikipek – showed off not just knowing the right move but also having the right call, which all combined to make it a terribly hard choice for the judges as they winnowed down the competitors to four.

"I don't think I've ever seen two Chatot in the final four," Dawn said, after patting Piplup and assuring him that she thought his Rowlet had been excellent. "And the fact that both the other Pokémon are technically Ash's… it's kind of weird."

"We'd like each Pokémon to use another move, now!" Rhonda requested.

Charizard's wings half-flared, then he visibly controlled himself and used Slash instead. His claws glowed, then he swiped his arm across and left a white trail.

"Not a great start, but a good choice," Mr. Sukizo said.

Pikachu went next, and briefly Mudkipped himself before using Surf.

"Oh!" Joy gasped. "That was very good as well. This is going to be difficult…"

The first Chatot went next, using Sing as a Lapras this time, and Whitney's Pikipek-ified Chatot finished the round by showing off a Hyper Voice that was at the same time a call of 'Pikipek!', and tightly controlled enough it didn't do any damage to the area, and yet was still clearly a Hyper Voice.

That led to several minutes of deliberation, and Mr. Sukizo eventually passed a slip of paper with the results to Rhonda.

"Thank you, Mr. Sukizo," she said. "First out is Charizard, for having almost forgotten himself and used his wings."

"I think that means he wins!" Ash replied.

Rhonda blinked. "What?"

She glanced down at the slip. "No, Charizard's been… I actually had to double check, but yes, they said Charizard is out."

In reply, Charizard pulled off his wings and tail to reveal that he was actually Grovyle. The wings were folded constructs of wood and fabric which flexed realistically when Grovyle tugged on a little string, and the tail had a little oil torch which had been burning the whole time.

He finished by wiping at the places where his paint job had apparently been less than complete, and showed that it had actually been the Charizard colours that had been painted on.

Mr. Sukizo stared.

Then laughed.

"Absolutely remarkable!" he said, enthusiastically. "I didn't even think of that one!"

Then Regigigas came through the wall, wearing a gigantic hat bigger than its entire body.

"I might need to ask Zacian about that one…" Ash mused. "I think she might have mentioned a Pokémon like that?"

"So… who is actually getting whichever Pokémon hatches out of that egg?" Dawn asked. "Is it Grovyle? Is that a thing that can happen?"

"There's laws and stuff about Pokémon trainers who are also Pokémon," Ash told her. "I've used them when I'm an Absol, actually… otherwise I wouldn't count as my own Pokémon. But I guess it depends first on what Grovyle thinks?"

"I think it depends on whatever the Pokémon in the egg thinks," Grovyle said. "I could do with a cute student, but if they're a cute student then they'd fit with Whitney. Or Ash. Or Dawn! Or maybe someone else."

He flipped open a book. "Really, it's up to whatever hatches from that egg."

"What are you reading, anyway?" Dawn asked, jogging forwards a step to have a look.

"Brock gave me a copy," Grovyle explained, showing it to them.

Ash read the title. "The idiot's guide to cooking?"

"I'm not sure if it was a joke or not."

"I hope the newborn is cute," Whitney said. "Then again, most Pokémon are cute if you think about it the right way! So it's likely."

Ash laughed. "That's a good point," he agreed.

Phanpy came running back. "I found something again!" she said. "Look!"

She held out a Mega Stone, and Ash took it.

"Hmm…" he said. "Blue and green and yellow… I know! Hey, Chatot, catch! Whitney, catch!"

Both Pokémon and trainer did so, confused, then there was a bright flash of light and when it faded Chatot looked like he was wearing music-note over-ear headphones.

"Thought so!" Ash grinned. "I'm getting better at working these out."

"Oh, I get it!" Whitney realized. "This is your Mega Ring! Thanks! Now I need to get hold of a Key Stone myself…"

"Analyzing," Ibid said, turning into a mini Mega Chatot. "Mega Chatot. Ability: Amplifier. Strengthens Sound moves."

"We're going to have to try that out, some time!" Ash said.

Not far outside Eterna City, they ran into Zoey again.

She said that there was a rumour of a strong Buizel around, which was interesting enough that they decided to go and check it out, and led to Ash thinking hard.

"So we need to do some fishing, to meet this Buizel," he said. "And fishing is basically about getting Pokémon out of a river, right?"

"Or a lake, or pond, or even the sea," Pikachu pointed out.

"Or those, right," Ash agreed. "So… I had this idea…"

"So how does Unown handle spaces, anyway?" Whitney asked, as Unown slowly spelled out E-R-S-P. "I know they spell out attack names, but…"

"I'm actually not really sure," Ash admitted. "They seem to do it okay, though, so it's not like it really matters."

"True!" Whitney agreed.

A Hyperspace Hole appeared overhead, and a glitter of golden light briefly illuminated the river. Then a waterfall came crashing out of the upper Hyperspace Hole, along with several badly startled Finneon and Goldeen and one Bibarel that went thump onto the ground before shaking her fist at them.

The Buizel they were after also fell through the hole, but then his tails whirred around in a blur and he swam right back up the waterfall and through the hole.

"Sorry," Unown said, after several more seconds of the waterfall had gone past, and cancelled the hole.

"Don't be, that was great work!" Ash replied. "I've got another idea, though!"

Idea number two was Silver, who dove into the river before letting out a snatch of ethereal song and using Twister. Just like his father had shown him, he whirled the water around him up into a waterspout, and most of the Pokémon in the river came along with him.

Buizel jumped out of the swirling water and went right back into the river with a splash.

"Nice," Pikachu admitted, as Silver cancelled his Twister and used Extrasensory to put the rest of the Water-types back. "Your first time in a Twister can be really disorientating."

"Time for plan C!" Ash said. "Clefairy!"

Clefairy's fingers flicked back and forth.

"Faisons cela," she said. "A propos d'ici?"

"A bit to the left," Ash replied, one eye closed so he could use Aura Sight. "And… now!"

"Après moi, le déluge!" Clefairy said, and used Gravity.

The whole section of river abruptly rose into the air, a shimmering clear ribbon of water, and Zoey took an involuntary step back.

"I'm sort of glad Ash doesn't do Contests," she admitted. "Because that looks beautiful."

"There's Buizel!" Ash added, then the water got all churned up as Buizel's tails spun like a propeller and he lost sight of the Water-type. "Wait – uh, I'll use Aura Sight-"

Buizel used Flip Turn, bouncing off one of the Finneon, and plunged back into the riverbed. His tails whirred to keep him down, and he darted across back into the section Clefairy hadn't influenced.

"Bon sang," Clefairy muttered.

"Are you going to let the river down now?" the Bibarel demanded, arms crossed. "Some of us were swimming!"

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that," Ash admitted. "I really thought that one would work and we'd stop bothering you…"

"This fishing thing is harder than I expected," Ash said, a few minutes later.

"I think usually you have some kind of bait?" Zoey suggested. "That's how I'd do it, at least."

Phanpy trotted over. "You were looking for that Buizel, right?"

She held him up. "Here you go!"

"Wow!" Ash said. "I guess you used Pick Up, right?"

"Yep!" Phanpy agreed.

"Okay, that was honestly impressive," Buizel declared. "You're my trainer now."

"That isn't even close to how it works," Zoey protested.

"Isn't it?" Ash frowned. "Huh. It's usually like this for me."

AN:

Ack dangit I skipped uploading this one at first!

Sorry if it seemed weird to anyone.

Well. More than usual.