"I hope you're ready for your lesson on how to be a Bigger Dog," Entei stated.

"I think so," Lycanroc replied, looking at themselves in the mirror Entei had brought along. "Some of what I can do works the same, but other things are different and awkward and stuff."

They were back on Melemele, with the field trip over, and Ash had a lesson scheduled to give in a couple of hours – but, for now, there was time for his Pokémon to train and learn from one another.

"All right, so, here's step one," Entei said. "What you need to do is to smile slightly."

"Smile slightly," Lycanroc repeated.

"Stick your tongue out."

"Stick mf tnge out," Lycanroc mumbled.

"Look straight ahead," Entei concluded. "There we go. That's the blep… no, you need to look a bit more vacant than that. Tongue out a little further… that's more like it."

"Is this really an effective move?" Lycanroc said.

"Depends what you want to do," Entei shrugged. "Personally I find it very effective in getting extra food… now, something you will have to work on is that you've got more inertia. And longer legs, I think. Fortunately, there's a help there… I think you can fly?"

"That's right!" Lycanroc agreed, lifting themselves slightly off the ground with Stealth Rock. "It's harder than before, though."

"That's okay, I'm thinking about using it to corner faster," Entei explained. "If you're having trouble turning a corner, you can use your petrokinesis to…"

"Oh, right!" Lycanroc realized. "I can use it to turn corners faster, I see what you mean!"

They tilted their head. "Did you not say that so I would work it out myself and learn better?"

"No, I'm just distracted wondering if it's petrokinesis," Entei explained, sitting back on his haunches with a thump and patting his chin with a paw. "Maybe it's a word like television… Mm. We might need to ask a geologist."

"Oh, like Gigalith?" Lycanroc checked.

"Lith, that's it," Entei decided. "Lithokinesis. Litholifting. Litho-something or other."

He looked deeply puzzled. "I think we were talking about going in circles, right?"

"Turning corners, yeah," Lycanroc agreed. "I'll try it out!"

They paced a little distance away, built up speed in a run along the beach, tried to make a tight turn, and went out to sea.

"Not bad, though," Entei said. "Three skips."

"My fur!" Lycanroc yelped, bursting back out of the waves with their fur plastered against their sides and their eyes glowing. "I don't know who's responsible for that but it was someone!"

"Hey, Lycanroc, calm down!" Ash asked, running over from where he'd been talking Rowlet through the difference between sniping and barraging. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not happy, if that's what you mean!" Lycanroc growled, and Ash nodded.

"Right," he said. "What do you want? If you want to get angry at whoever caused it, we can work on that. If you want it fixed, then it's probably going to mean a shower but we can do that. And if you want to pace around and growl for a bit, I'm not going to stop you."

"Don't know," Lycanroc grumbled. "I really like this fur. It's unique and it makes me feel handsome… when it's not got stuff in it."

"Then come over here and I'll help you wash it, okay?" Ash asked. "We can get Salazzle to help, too, so that the water's hot – or we can use sand instead?"

"It's a lot harder to stay angry when you're asking questions like that," Lycanroc said, shaking their head a few times. "Rrf. I should… try not to get so mad about things."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over it," Ash advised. "It's okay to feel bad about something like that happening, it's just making sure you don't take it out on anyone. Okay?"

He held out his arms, and Lycanroc padded over to settle into them.

"Thank you, Ash," the Rock-type said. "I think… I think I was the one who screwed up."

"Then we'll just have to make sure you don't screw up the same way again, okay?" Ash asked. "Come on, let's get that fur of yours back to being how it should be."

"Today's lesson is about flying!" Ash began, a couple of hours later. "Flying is… well, you all already know what flying is, but what I'm going to try to do is to point out some things that you might not have noticed yet."

Raising one hand, Ash began to tick off points on his fingers. "So, firstly, flying is a thing that helps out a lot between battles. A flying Pokémon can look ahead to see what's up next, or fetch something that's out of reach, or go and get help if you're in trouble. Bigger or stronger ones can even carry you around, and flying from place to place is really useful – like, say, flying from Melemele island to Akala island!"

"I'm a bit jealous that Kiawe can fly around on Charizard, sometimes," Lana admitted. "If I want to do that I have to sort out a hire Ride Pokémon, or borrow one somehow."

Ash nodded. "Yeah, it's really convenient, which is why I'm grateful I've got so many Pokémon that can do that. And it's important to think about those ways flying is useful outside of battle, just because flying inside battle is really useful too but it's easy to get too focused on just one of them. Anyway, in a battle, a flying Pokémon who's battling a Pokémon that can't fly has an easy way to get out of reach of close-in attacks, at least. That's almost no matter how fast the two Pokémon are otherwise, unless the one who can't fly is really good at jumping or has some other trick they can use. Then there's how a flying Pokémon can themselves attack from directions that a non-flying Pokémon really couldn't… and there's more complicated tricks we're going to do later. But I'm going to talk about the different ways a Pokémon can fly, because there's a lot and they're different."

He sent out Rowlet, who hovered in mid-air with a cheerful smile. "Rowlet's a winged Pokémon, specifically he's a bird. That means he uses his wings to fly with, and so he has to move them to take off but doesn't have to move them nearly as much to coast along or even steer. Winged Pokémon can bank around, like this-"

Rowlet demonstrated, flying from one end of the classroom to the other and then banking back around in a sharp turn. "Ta-dah!"

"And banking around is a way of changing direction more quickly than Rowlet could do otherwise, and without slowing down nearly as much," Ash went on. "Without banking, Rowlet could still go from going this way to going that way, but he'd have to brake to a halt in the middle and it'd take longer."

"I think I get it," Lillie said. "Slowing down makes Rowlet vulnerable, right?"

"Right!" Ash confirmed. "Which matters in a battle, plus, getting back up to speed after stopping is more tiring. If you've ever been on a bike, it's like that."

"Ash, how often have you been on a bike?" Pikachu asked.

Ash shrugged. "Most winged Pokémon can also take off straight up, but some of them need a run up, and that's unusual," he finished. "The next kind of Pokémon who can fly are the ones who ride something – like Pikachu!"

Pikachu used Surf, and thus Fly.

"You've probably seen an Alolan Raichu too, they've got the same kind of thing going on in a way," Ash said, waving his hand a bit. "These categories are a bit fuzzy! But with a Pokémon who rides something, they're controlling the thing they're riding on. That means they can swing it around and bank a lot like a winged Pokémon, and even fly it if they're paralyzed better than a winged Pokémon could, but it also means that if they lose concentration or get hit then they can lose what they were riding on. That can be bad if they can't get it again – if a Pokémon's using Stone Edge to ride on a rock, and they lose the rock, they can have a lot of trouble getting the rock back again."

He nodded at Pikachu. "Pikachu can make his waterboard again nice and quickly, so he can even use it as a shield! And Pokémon who ride things can also go as fast as they can make their riding board move… so long as they can stay on, at least."

"Yeah, that can be awkward," Pikachu agreed.

"Then the third kind of big category is the Pokémon who can levitate, or something like that," Ash resumed, sending out Lycanroc.

The Rock-type's fur was immaculate again, shimmering vibrantly after some careful work by Ash that morning, and they floated into the air before snagging onto Ash's outstretched hand and sitting on it.

"It's a really responsive way of flying, even if it can also be more awkward to do things like change direction," Ash said. "It's also the one which usually means you have the most control over what you do, because you don't need to worry about the aerodynamics of a board or your wings – so long as you can push yourself in a direction, you can move that way. Thanks, Lycanroc!"

Lycanroc showed off what they'd learned that morning, and did a blep.

"Then there's at least two more types," Ash said, putting Lycanroc down. "Can anyone think of what one is?"

Mallow's hand went up.

"There's recoil, isn't there?" she said. "Like Turtonator used at Wela Volcano, but to fly."

"Exactly!" Ash agreed. "That's the fourth big type of flying, which is where you have a move that lifts you up and you do it over and over again or continuously to fly. It usually means you have the least control over where you go, because you need to aim an attack in the opposite direction and it can be really awkward. And the fifth one is one we've already seen thanks to Clefairy and Palkia, which is where what you're actually doing is falling but in a direction you pick."

He clapped his hands. "Who can think of any special cases that don't fit those?"

"Thanks for that, Lycanroc!" Ash said, as they reached Kukui's house again after the lesson. "You were a great example – all of you were!"

"It was a hoot!" Rowlet announced.

Lycanroc gave Rowlet a suspicious look.

"What?" Rowlet asked. "Was it something I said?"

"Now, I was thinking about this, and I've got a few ideas," Ash told Lycanroc. "It's about your fur… I have a few ideas about what would work. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah," Lycanroc agreed. "I don't… ah, I don't know what to say, Ash. Sorry about how angry I got."

"You being angry is something we need to deal with, but the way you feel is important," Ash told the Rock-type. "And the first thing is to do with how angry you got."

He sat down, patting the sand next to him, and Lycanroc sat down as well.

"What I'd like you to try and remember, Lycanroc, is that if something's wrong with your fur we can fix it," Ash said. "I know it's not easy to remember something like that, in the moment, but it's true. If you can just take a moment when it gets messed up to remember that, well, I think it'd help. Right?"

"I'll try," Lycanroc promised. "I don't… we should probably test it, even though I don't like the idea."

"I was actually going to ask about something else related to that," Ash went on. "See, just telling you to be calmer about it is one thing, but it's much better if we can mix that with helping you, and I said I had a few ideas. Okay?"

Lycanroc nodded.

Ash patted their neck spikes. "So, the first move I thought of was – Rock Polish! You're a Rock-type, and polish helps protect things from getting dirty or cleans them up when they are, so using it should make sure your fur is all nice and neat… how does that sound?"

"I'd like to try that," Lycanroc agreed.

"Great!" Ash said. "So that way, if we do test how you react when your fur gets wet, we're testing two things at once."

Bonus omake: The Arceus Arceus Agender Agenda

"So," Arceus said, His golden ring shining in the void. "Agender?"

"The term will suffice," Arceus allowed. "I did not wish to limit myself."

Xey made an expansive shrugging motion. "Of course, that is what I felt at the time. You may have felt differently; our worlds are different; we are thus different. I will not judge."

"Of course," Arceus agreed.

He considered. "Would it help if I went Shiny to differentiate us?"

"It would not," Arceus replied, tapping xer hoof on thin air. "Mew already made one. They are Ash's phone now."

"You have an Ash as well, of course," Arceus realized, then brightened. "Excuse Me. I will be a moment."

There was a faint change to reality.

"That should be better," Arceus decided. "I hope this adds clarity."

"It does," Arceus agreed. "And yes, of course I have an Ash. My world still exists, does it not?"

"Good point," Arceus admitted. "So, how did your Ash do with the Galactic incident?"

Arceus blinked. "The what?"

"The Galactic Incident," Arceus repeated. "The attempt by Team Galactic to remake the universe in the Spear Pillar. I had to reset the whole of reality to get Ash in the right position to sort it out."

"I do not know what to tell you," Arceus said, furrowing xer brow. "I do not remember a Team Galactic."

"Cyrus?" Arceus asked. "The Red Chain? Is this not ringing a bell?"

"Is that who left the duplicate Red Chain and computer equipment in the Spear Pillar?" Arceus wondered.

As Arceus looked increasingly ineffable, Arceus came to a decision.

"Yes," xey said. "It must be. Ash left a note when he closed the Spear Pillar, but I did not know where the Red Chains there had come from."

"If that is what happens from including the Fairy-type right from the start, then I clearly missed a trick," Arceus mumbled to Himself.

AN:

Flying lesson! And defusing your Lycanroc.

Also, bonus omake featuring Arceus, He of the Capitalized Pronouns (from Ashes of the Past) and the local Arceus.