"Well," Raoul Contesta said. "This is a bit of a puzzler, isn't it?"

"And no mistake," Joy agreed. "It was definitely a move, but at the same time…"

"We don't just grade based on moves," Mr. Sukizo reminded them. "It's about the appearance and the flair of the move… and I think we saw when the move itself happened. Do either of you agree that we saw it?"

"I think we did," Joy replied. "It was that tail flick, after the swish. That was just before all the points went over to one side – after Mismagius had done the Will-o-Wisp burst, but while Nickit was still in the air."

Mr. Contesta frowned. "Hmm…"

He drummed his fingers on the desk. "I don't know if the fact a move happened at the same time necessarily means that we should say that it has to have been the move."

"I see what you mean," Mr. Sukizo admitted. "Someone who was messing with the scoring system could time it right and make it look like they'd done it, when they'd actually just been relying on that coordination. That's a tricky one."

He stroked his chin. "I wonder…"

"What is it?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Well, there's two questions, aren't there?" he said. "One of them is whether that was a legal move in this Battle Round, and another is whether it's something we want to allow in future."

"Oh, I see!" Joy realized. "So we could say that that was a legitimate move, but that in future it'll be disallowed. That sounds like the best option to me, really."

"I did think it was a good idea," Mr. Sukizo said, smiling. "Raoul?"

Raoul nodded. "It addresses my concerns," he said. "Though I'm wondering if we should give some sort of special award, as well?"

"Already handled," Mr. Sukizo said.

"Sorry about that," Dawn said. "Nickit and I had discussed what she might be able to steal with Spectral Thief before, but I didn't realize she took the suggestion seriously."

"It's okay, really," Zoey told her. "It's something that your Pokémon can do, and if any of mine could do something that was such refined absurdity I'd probably have the same sort of enthusiasm."

"Kiiiit," Nickit sighed, flicking her tail. "Nickit ni kitkit."

"I think Rapidash is too far away, so I didn't catch that," Dawn informed her.

Nickit made a symbol with her paws.

"Go ahead," Dawn said, and shut her mouth.

The Fox Pokémon's tail flicked out at Dawn, then she cleared her throat.

"At least we got a special honorary ribbon," Nickit said. "The one that doesn't count for the Grand Festival, but which says 'well done for making us change the rules' on it."

She flirted her tail again. "Kiit."

"That's okay," Dawn smiled. "And yeah, plus it means we got an actual Ribbon from here. Four down and just the one to go!"

"I think most of Sinnoh is worried about you, now," Zoey chuckled. "They probably should have been already, but it's not often that someone causes a rule change like that…"

Not far down the road from Sandalstraw, the friends reached Shelter Town.

"This is right before we get into the really cold part of Sinnoh," Dawn told them, and Zygarde stuck their head out of Ash's bag.

"What," they said. "We are not in the really cold bit yet?"

That said, they went back in, where Chimchar said that he was sure that it was going to be okay.

"Well, as it happens… I did have this idea about that," Dawn confided. "I asked my Mom for winter clothes for us, and something for Zygarde as well… anyway, she said it'd arrive some time in the next couple of days, so we might need to wait here until it gets here."

"That sounds like a worth-while wait!" Whitney agreed. "I could just spend the whole time as a Snom and I wouldn't feel the cold, but I couldn't ride in Ash's backpack because you'd have the problem of keeping something warm and cold at the same time and it might be asking a bit much of people I talk to to accept that a Snom is a Pokémon trainer."

"Enough people were confused when I was a talking Plusle," Dawn admitted. "But, yeah, I'm not sure what there is to do in Shelter Town but we can spend time doing something, right?"

She sent out Shinx. "And we can always work on training-"

"Oh, my goodness!" someone gasped, running over, and picked up Shinx to give her a hug.

"I object to this treatment," Shinx said. "Ask first please!"

"And she talks!" the woman said. "She really talks! I didn't know that was possible!"

"That's my work," Lokoko said. "Rapidash is on holiday at the moment."

"Ahem," Shinx coughed, and the woman finally let Shinx down.

"Sorry," she said, then shook her head. "But your Shinx is just so adorable!"

"That's what I've been saying!" Whitney enthused.

"Right?" the woman replied. "She meets all three of my criteria for being a cute Pokémon – less than two feet tall, not evolved, and absolutely adorable!"

Whitney looked significantly less animated.

"It has to be all three?" she asked. "Not just one?"

"No, it's all three, of course!" the woman said. "They're Marilyn's Three Criteria for a Cute Pokémon, it wouldn't make sense if you could just have a short Pokémon that wasn't adorable and it'd still be a cute Pokémon, does it?"

"But what about a tall Pokémon?" Whitney protested. "Or an evolved Pokémon?"

She sent out her Deerling, currently swapped out for Rapidash and in Winter Form. "Last time I checked, Deerling was two feet high, so…"

Deerling's ears flicked cutely.

"Oh, well, two feet is just about enough," Marilyn said. "But any more than that, and it's not allowed!"

"Then you're calling a lot of Pokémon not cute who actually are cute, right?" Ash checked. "Lopunny is too tall, and Sylveon has evolved – they've both evolved – but they have the ability Cute Charm, so they seem like obvious examples of cute Pokémon. Right?"

"I disagree," Marilyn insisted. "It's only an unevolved Pokémon which is cute enough in my eyes!"

Rayquaza peeked out of Ash's jacket and raised an arm.

"Excuse me?" she said. "Does that include Pokémon who can't evolve at all? Are they unevolved by definition?"

Marilyn blinked a few times, then frowned.

"Oh, I see what's going on," she said. "This is one of those dreams where you have to rethink your life choices, isn't it? Because there's no way that someone could have a tiny talking Legendary Pokémon in their jacket."

"Why not?" Rayquaza asked. "It's much warmer in here than it is outside, and if I try turning into Groudon then it does get warmer but it's a bit disruptive."

"You know what?" Whitney decided. "I think we can solve this with science! Ash, can I borrow a Pokémon who knows Transform or Illusion?"

"Sure, I-" Ash began, but Whitney snapped her fingers.

"No, wait!" she overrode herself. "I've got an even better idea for a test!"

She took out her phone, and dialled a number. It rang, and she waited for a few seconds before speaking. "Yeah, hi, how are things going… oh, that's great, Rapidash wanted a Gym battle for a change! Listen, can you send over both of the Gym Marill? We're in the Shelter Town Pokémon Centre…"

She hummed to herself, then nodded. "Thanks! I'll be sending them both back in a bit, this is for science."

After getting the two Pokéballs from Nurse Joy, Whitney sent them both out.

"Hi, guys!" she said. "Don't worry, it's just some science."

She indicated the two Water-types. "One of these Pokémon hatched as an Azurill, the other as a Marill. Little known thing that sometimes happens with Marill! So, one of these Pokémon has evolved and the other hasn't. Can you tell which is which?"

Marilyn blinked a few times.

"I… actually can't?" she admitted. "They both look adorable."

"There you go!" Whitney cheered. "I'm a world-class expert on cute Pokémon, and I can tell you that there is no rule about what Pokémon is cute and what isn't… except that almost all Pokémon are cute if you look at them the right way, of course!"

The next morning – after a session where the friends helped Marilyn reconcile with her Shellder and understand how cute Shellder really was – their winter clothing arrived.

It was fairly normal for Ash, Whitney and Dawn, except that it was correctly sized which Whitney pointed out was very impressive given how long it had been since Dawn's mom had seen them, but Zygarde's was a little different.

"I think it's made of Growlithe fur?" Dawn said. "Maybe not, though, I could be remembering it wrong. The point is, though, it's a very powerful insulator, which means it keeps heat in and out. It's the same kind of thing that they have for when an Ice type has to go through a hot jungle or desert and it might strain them to keep up the cool temperature all the time."

"I understand," Zygarde said, inspecting the little boots on their paws through the snow-goggles that formed part of the outfit. "So this covers me all over, and therefore there is no way that I can lose heat too rapidly."

"Right," Dawn confirmed. "And if you do need to be heated up a bit, then a temperature recharge should last for a lot longer than it takes to do. You should be all set!"

"This seems like a good solution," Zygarde told Dawn. "Thank you. And I will thank your mother as well."

"Oh, right, next time we see her?" Ash said.

"Sooner than that," Zygarde replied.

"So, who are you going to use for the Snowpoint Gym Battle?" Pikachu checked.

"I could use you, if that's what you mean," Ash replied. "But I thought that if you wanted any Gym here in Sinnoh it would be the Electric-type gym in Sunyshore."

"That would make more sense," Pikachu admitted. "I was thinking more in terms of which member of the team, though. I'm well aware that I usually don't get involved in Gym battles."

"Well…" Ash frowned, trudging through the snow. "I could give Dragonite a go, they haven't had one since they evolved. And Suicune might be good too, her brother and sister have both battled since Hoenn but she hasn't."

He shrugged. "Swellow is another obvious one for Sunyshore… though I should probably check with her about that, just in case she considers battling the Electric gym with her ability to ignore electricity to be boring."

"I'd make a comment about assumptions, but that does sound like her," Pikachu conceded. "What about Groyvle?"

"Yeah, that is a good point," Ash agreed.

He looked around. "Dawn, do you know how much further it is to Snowpoint?"

"Hey, I haven't actually been there," Dawn protested, with a laugh. "Whitney's got the map, too."

"Good point," Ash conceded. "Whtney, do you know how much further it is to Snowpoint?"

"It shouldn't be much further," Whitney replied, shuffling the map around. "We were in Shelter Town yesterday, and we usually… yeah, we should reach it some time not long after lunch."

Something went bing.

"Oh!" Whitney gasped, and folded the map up again before getting her bag down. "I think that egg we got is hatching!"

Both Dawn and Ash crowded around, as did Pikachu, Rapidash, Zygarde, Happiny and Pachirisu, as Whitney removed the egg from its case and the egg lit up with a soft, white glow.

When the glow faded, there was a Riolu standing there instead.

"Good morning," he said. "It is morning, right?"

"That's right," Dawn agreed.

"Good, I thought that was what lunch was," Riolu said, nodding to himself. "So what happens next? I remember you talked about it but that was ages ago."

"It was only a few weeks, right?" Dawn asked.

"And I'm aged about one minute," Riolu pointed out. "So. Ages."

"He's got you there," Whitney giggled.

Zygarde raised their paw. "Is it likely we will be here for a while?"

"Well, probably a bit of time, yeah," Ash said. "I'm going to take notes on what Riolu is like just after he hatched, because Zorua likes keeping track of that."

"Good," Zygarde declared. "I may not contribute to this conversation. My attention will partly be elsewhere."

In Twinleaf Town, there was a sort of scratching sound on the door.

"Coming!" Johanna called, getting up from her chair, and made her way to the front door. Glameow jumped down from the top of a cupboard to follow her, tail twitching in an interested sort of way, and sat down to watch as Johanna opened the door.

There was a black and green canine Pokémon sitting on the doorstep, with a large wooden sign in its front paws.

Johanna leaned forwards slightly. "Thank… yoo… for the… outift?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, I'm glad you appreciate it… though I'm not sure how you're here."

Near Snowpoint, Zygarde sighed.

"What's up?" Ash asked. "Something wrong?"

"Apparently I cannot spell," Zygarde explained.

AN:

That brings Dawn up to four Ribbons (plus the "well done don't do it again" honorary ribbon).